My 8/9 month old kitten Sylvester is currently on a drip at the vets suffering from what I am told is cellulitis I was wondering if anyone has come across this before that can give me some reassurance that things will improve as he has been ill now for over a week and he only seems to be getting worse not better. Apologies in advance for the long post.
Sylvester came home unusually quite late just over a week ago and the following morning seemed very stiff & uncomfortable walking around & unable to jump up on to things so I took him straight down to the Saturday emergency surgery where the vet examined him and we all thought he had jumped off somewhere & hurt his right hip as it was quite tender when the vet touched it. There were some rose thorns in his tail fur and in his bed so this seemed reasonable. Sylvester gave the vet a few hisses but was really well behaved with the vet and she gave him an anti-inflammatory injection which seemed to do the trick as by late on Saturday he was chasing our other kitten and getting into mischief again and his movement did not seem restricted.
The vet had asked to see him again on Monday for a checkup but the receptionist had muddled the appointments so we ended up seeing the vet on the Tuesday morning by which time Sylvester had now become much more restricted with his movement and struggling to jump up on the furniture, the vet admitted him to x-ray him to check out for any tiny fractures. The receptionist ended up doing me a favour as he was fine all day Monday, just stiffer in the evening.
The x-rays didn't show any damage so he had another anti-inflammatory injection and I picked him up after lunch and took him home with some metacam to give him with his food, once a day starting from Wednesday. I was at work on Wednesday but by the time I got home mid afternoon I was really shocked to see how much he had deteriorated – sat in a corner facing the wall refusing to eat so I took him back to the vets where they admitted him after I kept insisting that he is normally an active kitten full of mischief not the practically lifeless cat I had brought in.
As soon as I got home the vet rang me straight away and told me that the reason Sylvester felt so poorly was because his temperature was 40. She also told me that they had found 2 small puncture wounds and thought that he had been bitten by another cat rather than fallen as we had thought. The vet said there was no pus from these puncture wounds so believed this was cellulitis. Sylvester was given some antibiotics and some morphine for the pain and when the vet rang first thing on Thursday morning Sylvester’s temperature was normal and he had eaten and used his litter tray. The vet kept him in until early evening so they could give him his antibiotics and metacam. When we got him home, if I am being totally honest I was a bit surprised they had let him go home as he couldn’t climb out of the carrier and unable to jump on anything. He only nibbled on a couple of biscuits and refused to eat anything. We tried not to worry too much, just relieved to have him home. In the morning he had still not eaten but did seem a bit better in himself, but I took the precaution of ringing the vet again and making other appointment at the end of evening surgery in case he still was refusing to eat when I came to give him his antibiotics and metacam at 5pm as instructed.
Amazingly Sylvester had a couple of mouthfuls of some steamed white fish and had his metacam by syringe. Completely refused anything else including the antibiotic capsule powder in some yummy primula cheese. So back to the vets where unsurprisingly she agreed that he was now showing signs of dehydration and his temperature was back up to 40 again.
He was re admitted again and is still there, I spoke to the on duty vet nurse late on Friday evening and the vet had found an area of inflammation under his hip, almost on his stomach, so they had sedated him and put a needle in but no pus. He was given more antibiotics, pain relief and put on a drip. Spoke again to vet nurse Saturday morning, temperature still up but seemed purrier. Rang again after lunch – had sort of hoped a vet might call but hadn’t, and Sylvester had eaten some fish and some whiskas - nurse said to call back after 5pm as he would be reassessed by then. Thankfully when I did the nurse said his temperature had come down. I made, what I hoped was, a tactful point that a vet hadn’t spoken to me since he was admitted on Friday evening and the nurse promised to get Sunday’s vet to call me as we still don’t know what the cause of all this is.
The vet duly rang me just after 9 this morning and told me how grumpy Sylvester was and has been, that he had been sick this morning and his temperature was back up to 40 again! As he doesn’t eat whiskas at home only JWB and hi-life I took some of that down to him in case the food was making him vomit and found him cuddling an ice pack to cool him down. I was able to stroke him and give his ears a good scratch which he enjoyed. Wouldn’t eat the food on his own – but I put some on my finger which he sucked off but wouldn’t eat on his own. He is still on a drip with a pink (!!!) bandage and I got chance to chat with the on duty vet. He showed me Sylvester’s stomach which is still red and inflamed and said that he still thinks it is cellulitis but has changed the antibiotics from convenia to penicillin and is hoping that this will improve him.
I have telephoned the nurse again tonight and Sylvester’s temperature has come down which is good news and he has eaten some of the RC sensitivity food that I had also taken down this morning but still has the area of inflammation. As I said at the beginning, apologies for the length of this, but I would be grateful for any information / reassurance anyone can give me. Sylvester is insured and neutered - we adopted him from a rescue back in October last year. I was told then he is largely an outdoor cat but he has been a perfect gentleman playing mainly indoors with my slightly younger female kitten and leading her into such mischief and encouraging her to change from a “wuss” kitten into a confident kitten with attitude. Everyone who posts here seems to have so much experience and after having a really bad year last year having 2 cats PTS with heart failure and lung cancer, I feel Sylvester has been ill for so long now and I need to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
