Snag!

We've hit a snag.

The Old Man wants nothing to do with his kitty treats.

It was literally night and day, in a manner of speaking: Saturday night he was on his hind legs, stretching a paw out for the treats in my hand; Sunday morning he sniffed at them apathetically, half~heartedly chewed on one & then spat it out whole.

I had to pill him the "normal" way, and found out that the pill disintegrates quite promtly when wetted by kitty saliva ~ there was more pill on my hands than down his gullet.

Sunday night he was still indifferent, so I tried to bribe him to take the pill in catnip. Normally he is wild for the stuff; but instead he was listless, partaking of it only when it was placed right under his nose. He had already spat the pill out once, so I was able to squish the dampened pill into the nip.

This morning he didn't even want the nip: I'm almost tempted to say he took what little he did eat out of politeness. I had to pill the poor dear again; fortunately for sake of us both, my cat~pilling chops have started to come back. I was once actually quite proficient at pilling cats. Haven't needed that skill in a while...

He had been slightly off his feed over the weekend; this morning he wouldn't eat his mature~formula food at all, though he did eventually eat some of the diet food which the other cats had left behind {apparently they're off their feed as well; I suspect in their case it might be due to the new litter, which falls criminally short of its advertised claims in the odour~control department}. So I can't even crush the pill up into his food...

To top it all off, someone has been vomiting around the apartment; and I don't think it's one of the humans... We'd hoped it might be one of the other cats, but this morning I found cat vomit with undigested catnip in it ~ which leaves only one culprit... {cue forboding music: Danh. Danh. Dannnnh!}

They say that, if the side effects of the methimazole are to show up at all, they will show up within the first three weeks of commencement; and here we are. Vomiting, anorexia, lethargy... he's even scratching at his face...

Am supposed to make an app't with the vet for the end of this week, so he can monitor The Old Man's progress; wonder if I can get one earlier...

Posted by edgar at November 24, 2003 08:49 AM