Well his fresh forage was helping him do better, poos are almost normal size and less full of hair/fibers…but last night he didn’t eat his dry hay. (Can’t blame him it is really nasty stuff…this is what happens when you don’t buy from our site store…BEWARE! lolz…) When I brought his fresh food this morning he tore into it but seemed to be chewing strangely. I watched him carefully…he is trying to move his food around his mouth as he chews, so I have a concern that perhaps that cut in his mouth didn’t heal all the way, or the area or a tooth may have become infected somehow. When he tooth purrs, he suddenly stops and shakes his head like he’s in pain. When he chews hard foods like his timmy treats, same thing. Most times he takes a piece of hay in his mouth, gives it a few chews, then stops and won’t finish it. He doesn’t drop it, he just lets it sit there. I’ve tried a few different hays, but he’s not really interested in them.
There’s also a bit of scratching and head shaking going on with anything that causes his teeth to come in contact with one another.
Something relatively new…while he is grooming or stretching…or even if while he is falling asleep sitting up… he suddenly (I think) falls over. (He’s also still doing that strange ‘chin up on the litter pan’ type of sleeping.) This isn’t a startle or a roll, it’s a full tip and a scramble to get up. It’s been off an on for about a week or so. Not sure if he’s unsteady due to the hips and arthritis or if it’s something else more sinister. This particular symptom doesn’t happen if he is laying down that I have noticed. But once in awhile in the middle of the night I’ll hear this struggling that he is doing and it gets me up in a fright because it reminds me of the sound he made when his shelf and ramp were still in there and he would come crashing down it and into the litter pan. By the time I have the light on he is sitting up looking a bit dazed and then angry at me for blinding him. >.< Then he hops, or rather…SLUNKS, off.
Not really knowing what is wrong I decided to make an appointment for him to see his beloved Dr. H. (Thursday, surprisingly!) About time he had another follow-up as he needs more metacam anyway. I’ll take Pip too so she (and he) can have a nail trim (I CAN NOT do it anymore, between my crummy eyesight and the vertigo, it’s quite impossible!) and maybe we can finally take a look at her bum properly and see if there’s something going on in the urinary department. Each are still peeing incorrectly (i.e. outside the box) and I want a clear diagnosis.
Of course I realize these other problems he’s exhibiting could mean nothing…or that he has something like EC and it is progressing. I really hope not and am trying my best not to think about it. Also, the way he sits up (which he does most of the day instead of reclining like he used to) makes it look like he has a hump on his back like Quasimodo… not sure how to interpret that…all this time I’ve been thinking it was his stomach making him hunch up…but that’s better now so…?
Since I am eager to continue the bonding attempts, I do want to be sure that the stress from that is not contributing to his problems as well. They did have a LONG first day (from about noon to 10 or 11 that night) and the second they’d been in for about 4 hours before the fur pulling started. I took the day off yesterday (Mimz was out in the xpen by himself the day before) and may try to bring them together for a few hours this evening again. I do think they miss one another and it’s unlikely that Pip doesn’t have whatever Mimzy has anyway, barring the arthritis. Although I have considered this a possibility for her too, but she moves much better than he, so I doubt it.
Anyway…to sum up…he is having more like normal poos. Now if we can just get him to eat decently again.