Brianna & Xander
Very Active Member
Previous post: 9/28/25
Don't have any particularly good news to share.
The liquid meds are just... not possible. He's too afraid and resists too hard. Most of it doesn't make it in, whether that's because it slides out of his toothless mouth or because he refuses to swallow it. Last night it reached the point where it seemed like he might start to attack us for trying (and he is very much not a fight back type of cat). It's traumatic for all of us. It seems even worse than replacing his Libre (which I'm sure will be extra fun to try to do this weekend). We were actually crying with how much he suffered from it last night. I called the emergency vet back to ask if we could either stick them in his food or switch to tablets so we wouldn't have to do this again in the morning. Since we didn't have the urine culture back yet and weren't sure if he actually needed the antibiotics (and they were starting to cause GI upset, as expected) she told us to just ditch the Clavamox, and that I could put the buprenorphine in his food.
This morning we tried that. Unfortunately, it's the buprenorphine that lets him eat, so of course, he didn't eat it. I tried for a couple of hours before giving up and going back to bed, and when I got up he still hadn't finished it. We also didn't get to give him any gaba, so he was of course anxious. I tried to give him his PS snack and lido, and he ran and hid. He is terrified of getting oral meds and has learned even over 2 days that that happens in the morning. For the same reason, I obviously also couldn't give insulin. Since clearly this plan wasn't going to work either, we called our regular vet and were able to get in this morning.
Our normal new vet (third since diagnosis, all at the same practice) is on vacation, so we saw the fill-in vet that we had been seeing before this one again. She examined his mouth and said that it seems to be healing well, doesn't see any sign of dry socket or infection or anything. The urinary culture was negative for growth. She thinks his very high WBC is because of all of the inflammation rather than an infection. She basically said what we said, that he's caught in his catch 22 of won't eat because he doesn't have painkillers and anxiety meds, and can't get those because he won't eat. That plus the stress of all the vet visits and being forced into boxes and given so many oral meds etc and he's just extremely wound up. She thinks there's a big hump to get over but that it's possible to get him back.
I requested transdermal gaba and buprenorphine since we can't give it to him either other way, and a compounding pharmacy is supposed to be calling us to figure out how soon they can get us some and the price, etc. No idea what to expect there, but hopefully not so much that we can't do it. We're heading that direction at this point. Haven't heard from them yet. She gave him injections of Onsior and buprenorphine, subcutaneous fluids and a gaba capsule for now, and an extra dose of injectible bupe to give him later today. She mentioned that one of the staff may be able to stop by and give him some injections (pain) and fluids over the next days so that we're not the bad guys anymore, but not sure if that's possible yet. She also said to give him a place to hide that we can get to him without having to chase him, leave him some food and then just leave him alone. I did that, but he's Xander and bupe makes him even more affectionate, so he's been hanging out with me anyway. No desire to hide until I try to administer anything. He's grazing on his food.
Once he has the meds he's mostly okay, it's just effing impossible to give them to him. Aaaaaagh. I wish anyone who thinks "all cats get used to ____" could see him today. Even the vet struggled with him. I wish we could all have it as easy as many apparently do, but unfortunately we don't.
She did also reiterate a few times the whole "it's okay if it's too much now and you need to stop" and to evaluate our own quality of life too, etc. I get it, but at the same time if I stop it will be because we're out of money or because his quality of life is bad. Mine has sucked since diagnosis, but that's not a good enough reason for me. But like I said, we're heading the direction of "can't afford this anymore," so I may not have a choice. I don't know.
Everything was going so well for a short time up until his teeth seemed to get worse. Then we thought everything would be so much better after extraction and so far they're just... infinitely worse.
Every time we go out the door to the vet I wonder if it's the last time he'll ever be home.
Don't have any particularly good news to share.
The liquid meds are just... not possible. He's too afraid and resists too hard. Most of it doesn't make it in, whether that's because it slides out of his toothless mouth or because he refuses to swallow it. Last night it reached the point where it seemed like he might start to attack us for trying (and he is very much not a fight back type of cat). It's traumatic for all of us. It seems even worse than replacing his Libre (which I'm sure will be extra fun to try to do this weekend). We were actually crying with how much he suffered from it last night. I called the emergency vet back to ask if we could either stick them in his food or switch to tablets so we wouldn't have to do this again in the morning. Since we didn't have the urine culture back yet and weren't sure if he actually needed the antibiotics (and they were starting to cause GI upset, as expected) she told us to just ditch the Clavamox, and that I could put the buprenorphine in his food.
This morning we tried that. Unfortunately, it's the buprenorphine that lets him eat, so of course, he didn't eat it. I tried for a couple of hours before giving up and going back to bed, and when I got up he still hadn't finished it. We also didn't get to give him any gaba, so he was of course anxious. I tried to give him his PS snack and lido, and he ran and hid. He is terrified of getting oral meds and has learned even over 2 days that that happens in the morning. For the same reason, I obviously also couldn't give insulin. Since clearly this plan wasn't going to work either, we called our regular vet and were able to get in this morning.
Our normal new vet (third since diagnosis, all at the same practice) is on vacation, so we saw the fill-in vet that we had been seeing before this one again. She examined his mouth and said that it seems to be healing well, doesn't see any sign of dry socket or infection or anything. The urinary culture was negative for growth. She thinks his very high WBC is because of all of the inflammation rather than an infection. She basically said what we said, that he's caught in his catch 22 of won't eat because he doesn't have painkillers and anxiety meds, and can't get those because he won't eat. That plus the stress of all the vet visits and being forced into boxes and given so many oral meds etc and he's just extremely wound up. She thinks there's a big hump to get over but that it's possible to get him back.
I requested transdermal gaba and buprenorphine since we can't give it to him either other way, and a compounding pharmacy is supposed to be calling us to figure out how soon they can get us some and the price, etc. No idea what to expect there, but hopefully not so much that we can't do it. We're heading that direction at this point.
Haven't heard from them yet. She gave him injections of Onsior and buprenorphine, subcutaneous fluids and a gaba capsule for now, and an extra dose of injectible bupe to give him later today. She mentioned that one of the staff may be able to stop by and give him some injections (pain) and fluids over the next days so that we're not the bad guys anymore, but not sure if that's possible yet. She also said to give him a place to hide that we can get to him without having to chase him, leave him some food and then just leave him alone. I did that, but he's Xander and bupe makes him even more affectionate, so he's been hanging out with me anyway. No desire to hide until I try to administer anything. He's grazing on his food.Once he has the meds he's mostly okay, it's just effing impossible to give them to him. Aaaaaagh. I wish anyone who thinks "all cats get used to ____" could see him today. Even the vet struggled with him. I wish we could all have it as easy as many apparently do, but unfortunately we don't.
She did also reiterate a few times the whole "it's okay if it's too much now and you need to stop" and to evaluate our own quality of life too, etc. I get it, but at the same time if I stop it will be because we're out of money or because his quality of life is bad. Mine has sucked since diagnosis, but that's not a good enough reason for me. But like I said, we're heading the direction of "can't afford this anymore," so I may not have a choice. I don't know.
Everything was going so well for a short time up until his teeth seemed to get worse. Then we thought everything would be so much better after extraction and so far they're just... infinitely worse.
Every time we go out the door to the vet I wonder if it's the last time he'll ever be home.
Not even sure what we're doing for tonight.
He learns so quickly about patterns and what’s coming when he doesn’t like it and it seems he did the same with all the oral meds. Glad you were able to get some injectable pain meds in him and that it seemed to help, if only temporary. Costs can get so astronomical, I hope whatever the vet/pharmacy comes back with is doable for you and your partner. If it’s not though, please don’t feel guilty. We all have our limits and I know I certainly have had to grapple with this - when Sadie had her stroke they said she might need a $6k (way more than my threshold even) MRI. You can trust your gut, it’s proven helpful a lot in the past and now for you.