Tripod ~ Just an Update ~ Dec 16, 2008

[Traci]

He looks pale, Tambrey, if the camera isn't playing tricks and if he is as pale as the pictures indicate, you need to call the vet and tell him. Both his nose and his ears are too pale.

As for the water, use only dishsoap (like Dawn), and rinse well a few times in hot water. Try a more shallow water dish, he could be having a little difficulty balancing enough with a tall dish, just leave the dish full for him, and if you don't see him drinking or that the water level has changed, call the vet. Again, call him anyway if he is as pale as the pics are showing him to be.

[Tambrey]

I did go back and look at the other pics...and you are right....he looks pale compared to them....but when I look at him "in person"...he looks fine...so it could be the camera and light....

He will be going in this week to get the stitches checked and possibly out anyways and I am going to ask then about the fluids/water....I am just concerned that I never see him drinking or much of a change in the water level in the dish....I thought maybe a taler dish to hold MORE water closer to him would be easier, but maybe I am wrong...I will try a shallower one and see how he does...

I know BEFORE the amputation, he was like Gump and Majik....one to paw the dish all over the bathroom...but since the surgery, he seems to be pickier...could it be because he cannot paw it it....to see the water?!

[Traci]

No, he's old enough to know what it is and where it is. Just use a shallow dish and watch if he drinks or the water level in the dish.

If he's normally healthy, his nose, inside of his ears and gums should be a healthy pink, NOT pale or appear like pallor.

[E's]

Tambrey said:

I know BEFORE the amputation, he was like Gump and Majik....one to paw the dish all over the bathroom...but since the surgery, he seems to be pickier...could it be because he cannot paw at it....to see the water?!

Yes, I observe my junior cat is definitely a "lefty"... but be this as it may, I suspect a reason for pawing at the water is that they are guided by seeing their reflections... What color and material is the bathroom water dish? You might try using dark ceramic, blue, green or black; or perhaps put smooth rocks/stones at the bottom (as I did successfully with course gravel in getting birds to use the shiny new birdbath.) I have observed for years that an old opaque plastic salad bowl, dark blue-green in color, is the favorite watering hole for my pets - in New Orleans it was upstairs in my study... both cats and the German shepherd would bypass regular water feeders and bowls to get to that one. Here in the Austin apartment it seems the same is true - maybe Q has passed on his preference to the younger cat, but as I say, I begin to think it may have something to do with how water in that bowl looks to them.

I've been glad Tripod did not have to have the e collar: here again, I suspect one of the reasons he has seemed so happy is because he has been relieved of carrying around that painful, useless burden the damaged leg had become. I do so hope he checks out okay with the vet.

[Tambrey]

I am at work today, but noticed lastnight, when I gave him a different (Fancy Feast) canned food that had alot more liquid, he was lapping the liquid, so I added water, he kept lapping and lapping at the liquid on this, so I kept adding water to that....I think he liked the flavour of the water/liquid....

so again, before coming to work this morning, I added TWO cans of the fancy feast into his kibble and topped it off with water and left him happily lapping it up...

Sooo....is there a healthy broth that I can make to encourage him to drink until he feels that he wants to drink the plain water in the dish? Or is adding water to the canned food okay to do and just keep watering it down further and further each day?

[Tambrey]

same thing tonight.....he will drink the "broth" from canned food, watered down, but will not touch regular water, no matter what dish it is served up in....

He is urinating...he is VERY mobile....VERY vocal....he is even becoming a BIT playful with me....

he goes in tomorrow (Wednesday) to get his stitches removed and I will ask the vet then what he thinks about his hydration levels, etc and what I can do to encourage him to drink WATER....

[E's]

All I can think of at this point is to boil a small portion of very lean, skinless chicken - no salt of course - to make a light, clear broth: serve cooled in small amounts with as much plain water as you can get away with adding ...that way the cat would get the hydration without so many extra calories...

[Traci]

If he's urinating sufficiently, that's evidence he's drinking. Maybe you're just not noticing how much?

[Tambrey]

I try to note the amount of water I put into the dish and check it each time O go in with him.....

We will be going in after lunch so we'll see what they say.....

I can hardly even go into the bathroom to GO bathroom any more without him coming to rub against my legs, weave in and out....want to play with my fingers.....

And he had a major milestone lastnight, my first time seeing it anyways....we have a section by the tub where we took tile off (pipe broke and needed replaced,now tile needs put back up) and he was using that rough patch of wood as a scratching post for his one front leg I need to devise something VERY sturdy for him to use to stretch and scratch against....something that will not wobble or move in any way....

And when I was wiggling my finger on the ledge above the bathtub wall, he sat there....tail swishing....eyes darting....then would jump up and grab my finger with his front paw!!!!

I will just keep adding extra water to the canned food for now....hopefully as we introduce the others more this next week, now that he is mostly fully healed, I want to start getting him used to them and eventually down here....then he will find the water fountain and hopefully all will be good....

And we do NOT have alot of "hiding places" as far as where he could get into and we could not find him.....our living room, dining room, kitchen are all fairly open areas...ohhhh....the ONLY place he might get is where a couple like to go....BEHIND a cabinet in the kitchen.....they can jump down behind it and then back up again....it is adjacent to the fridge so warm back there and they like it....I have yet to find a way to block it that they cannot move it...and still keep air flow for the fridge....
gotta work on that one as I do NOT want him back there....and really do not care for the others back there....

[E's]

I know I know - I'm being just too Helpful Heloise today, but this works for me: here in the apartment I blocked the narrow space between back wall of washer-dryer alcove and the appliances with plastic poultry netting from Home Depot (or Lowe's)... It is light and pliable and inexpensive. Unroll as much of the roll as necessary and mold it to lightly fill the space. If a cat should get into the space and be unable to get out, the stuff could become a rescue net (no pun intended) but in the nearly 3 years since I filled the danger area this way, neither of my adventurous cats has gone anywhere near the netting - it looks like giant spider web and maybe they think it IS a "Shelob's" den... LOL. But it isn't visible from the front of the alcove unless a person leans over and looks for it.

I can't bear to think of Tripod getting trapped behind the cabinet after all he's been through, and as you indicate, that is exactly the kind of hidey hole space a new cat would try to explore.