JJ the Bengal cat's journey from 4 to 3

Yes it’s 4am here but I am so excited and had to tell you all. JJ got out of bed, first to use his litter tray, then he promptly just lay down in it. This is where I have been helping him out, he cried for me so I just opened his crate and lay beside him for moral support. I have set off a couple of his weird ‘episodes’ where he falls onto his back and cries in what looks like excruciating pain so I’ve decided to step back and let him figure stuff out whilst being there for support.

What happened next made having no sleep totally worth it. JJ stood up in his tray and then just hopped out, past his bed (which I’d moved close by to try to get him out of the litter he was laying in)….and out of the crate and went to the door and cried for me to let his little pal Pixel in. He hopped about a bit more (really moved so well) and then decided he wanted to lay out on his big bed. I can’t explain how good it felt to see him do this. I am bursting with pride and also super relieved. Well done JJ!! You are my brave boy! You can do it!!

So after the little victory I wrote this post as JJ rested on the bed. Shortly after finishing writing JJ decided it was time to go back to the safety of his crate. This is where the high becomes a low. As he stood up, he toppled over and this set off one of these attacks.  Following this JJ does not want to move an inch. I moved his bed to try to encourage him to get back in so I can get him to his crate where he feels safe without having to touch him. He got in but then wanted to jump over the side of it, it happened again. All joy of the previous 30 minutes lost in a sea of pain seeing him like that. I eventually got him back into his bed and carried it to his crate where he is now. Poor little guy.

It’s still another 3 hours until his pain killers are due so I don’t think pain is the reason, even though it does look like it’s pain mixed with frustration. I’m going to call the vet tomorrow (not my vet whom we saw yesterday but the hospital where he had his op) and see if it’s worth trying gabepentin or if they can suggest something else which might help. My vet seemed convinced it wasn’t pain related and that it was a bit of craziness related to the drugs. My gut says different. My gut says it looks like some kind of nerve pain. I’m not a vet but this seems like a sudden sharp pain which is gone as quickly as it started. That’s the kind of pain my partner gets from his nerve pain.

 

Well I’m now feeling much better.. not sure JJ is as he hates the vets but we tried to keep him calm and he behaved very well. So proud of him.

Thank you all so much for your support and advice. It helps so much to know we are not alone and reassuring that it is all normal at this stage.

The vet checked his wound and says it’s healing perfectly. He’s not concerned in any way and said as long as he moves to eat, drink and use the toilet this is fine. I asked about the weird swelling – he says this is normal and just a collection of fluid which will be reabsorbed. So that is one thing off my mind.

I told him about the episodes as I warned him to be careful getting him out. He said with some strong confidence this isn’t phantom limb as it would develop later (not sure I trust that) and it’s unlikely to be pain. He said its more likely to be a reaction to the drugs making him a bit crazy. Only time will tell. I didn’t ask about gabepentin …. can’t spell it. But will next time or if it continues to seem like and issue in the next day or so. I know it is used for nerve pain as my partner takes it for his nerve damage after a failed spinal fusion. He was very happy with JJ and has booked him in for next Thursday to have his stitches out.

So in response to some comments rather than replying I thought I’d put the updates here.

Eating – he’s getting up to eat after some encouragement which is great to see.

Drinking – he wasn’t drinking, so I switched out his water bowl for his fountain as this is what he usually drink from. He hasn’t been drinking from it. This is a worry so I’ve switched out his preferred food (biscuits) for wet food to make sure he doesn’t get dehydrated. I’ve also used a syringe to give him some water.. he seemed to like this! He has me wrapped around his little finger.

Bathroom….

JJ is using the litter tray but he isn’t doing too well with it.

Number 1’s … he usually stands up on the side of the litter tray but can’t do this in the one he has as it’s low sided. I did originally have his usual one for him but he was struggling to get in and out so I’ve swapped it for a low sided cardboard box. I felt like s genius as I recycled an old jigsaw box lid! What happens now though is he stands and just sits in it. Ends up covered in cat litter and I have to clean him up. Any tips on best cat litter for recovery? I started with Sillica because that’s what he usually has and it’s soft but he fell face first into it and I didn’t want him ingesting any so I swapped. All I had was clay clumping kind but it’s not much better, he ends up caked in clay because he sits in it. I though maybe a newspaper one would be better.

No.2s – he has managed these but only three tiny ones and it’s as though they pop out without him knowing. First was on the way home from vets day after surgery, and once each day. Only one made it into litter box. They are tiny and like rock’s. Sorry.. I can’t believe I’m talking about his toilet habits to the whole world. I’m sorry JJ.. its a good job he cant read! Anyway he is very obviously constipated. I know this will be his pain meds so not over concerned.

Pain Meds

He’s on Buprecare which I believe is Buprenorphine – a 0.4ml dosage every 8 hours. This works well as it means he’s covered all day and night.

He’s also on Metacam which is an anti inflammatory. He has this once per day and it must be taken with food. It’s a 0.5ml dose … it was 0.6 before the op so I assume he has lost weight… obviously his leg! He weighed 6kg before surgery as he is a very large cat, not fat, just muscular.

I am however mindful we need to watch his weight going forwards so it doesn’t put strain on his remaining 3 legs. I’ve even thought of a cat wheel, but no idea if he would ever be able to do this. It’s a long way off anyway.

I think that was all the questions. We are home now. He’s sleeping. Let’s hope for a peaceful, pain free night.

 

 

Another night of no sleep, spent snuggled up with JJ. He seemed extremely miserable and I was worried so we got him out of his create and onto his enourmous cat bed so that I could lay with him and comfort him. He quickly moved closer to me and snuggled up with his head resting on my arm. This equalled – no sleep for me on the hard floor but a happy JJ so it was totally worth it. I’ve had to take some extra days off work as clearly he’s not handling this as well as we had hoped.

This morning JJ is acting like he has given up on the world. He has retreated to his bed inside the cage and is just sleeping. He has eaten but only because I put the food right up to his bed so he didn’t need to move. I am getting super worried. I keep telling myself that it’s all the pain meds but he just seems to have gone backwards. Some of me thinks that he has scared himself because a couple of times when he has moved he seems to have had the episodes of phantom limb pain and this might have knocked his confidence. Or maybe he’s hitting depression stage.

Clearly something is making him this way and it has me worried sick. We are booked into the vets this afternoon so hopefully I will get some reassurance and JJ will get a full check. I just keep thinking, what if something has gone wrong, have I don’t something wrong, what can I do to help him, is he going to be like this forever? The guilt is killing me, maybe I shouldn’t have put him through this, maybe I should have let him live with his growth and just given him palatine care. I was trying to save his life, and now I feel like I’ve just made it worse. I’m so sorry JJ.

So after yesterday, we witnessed JJ have multiple episodes of what the vet had thought might be caused by his pain meds. Upon leaving the hospital they suggested to stop the opoid pain med and just keep him on metacam and observe how if these episodes stopped, if they didn’t to start up the pain mess again as it wasn’t what was causing it.

They didn’t stop, if anything they were worse, it happened about 7 times on his first day home. From observing these episodes, I think they are more of a panic attack or phantom limb pain. He screams in pain and roles over onto his back. They last just a couple of seconds and then he quickly retreats to his bed. It is turkey terrifying for both him and us. I think he was being too active, because we had stopped the strong pain killer and kind of over doing it.

So today we are back on with the strong pain mess and he had just two very minor episodes. The downside of this is that he has become very withdrawn and just wants to sleep. It’s a shock as yesterday he was all about wanting chin tickles and attention and happily hoping about in his cage for food and toilet. Today started the same, he had a little wander around outside his cage and was doing great, as the day has gone on (and I suppose as his doeses of pain mess have built up) it is a different story, he doesn’t want to move at all. He has retreated to his bed and only moves to eat and use the litter try but once there doesn’t want to move back to his bed. It is very concerning, but I figure he needs to rest and if the pain killers are making him do that, it’s a good thing.

We have a check up at the vets booked in for tomorrow so hopefully they can reassure us that all is well. If he wasn’t eating and using the litter tray I’d have been calling the vet and going in early but for now we will wait until tomorrow.

Well we picked up JJ from the vets at 5pm. We thought we had prepared mentally, we were all set up at home and just eager to get him home. I can honestly say all of that went out of the window! On top of yesterday being our first day getting JJ back we had been to a funeral for my partners Nan so emotionally we were not in a great place. The timing of the amputation couldn’t have been worse but we didn’t want to delay it.

So we collected him, the car journey home was nervous but uneventful. JJ slept the whole way home.

We walked in through the door and were greeted by one very excited Pixel (as he always does when we come home). This was the first mistake! They saw each other JJ freaked out and did a flip and howl inside the carrier, I screamed because it made me jump out of my skin and Pixel just hit the roof and started hissing. I quickly took JJ upstairs with Pixel hot on my heels. If I was to do this again, I’d have sent my partner into the house to shut Pixel in the lounge and just carried JJ up the stair without him realising.

I had a crate all set up, big enough for food bowls, littler and his bed. So he got in and got settled. Pixel sat outside the bedroom door crying to get in and investigate. So eventually we let him in. He wasn’t happy about not being able to get to JJ, and he was very concerned. This seemed to make JJ nervous so we took Pixel back out. We seemed to have been doing this all night long, there is no good way to do it. If he’s in the room he’s making JJ nervous by sticking his paw inside the cage, if he’s outside the room he’s crying continuously to get in and as any Bengal owners will know, they are loud, and never give up! He was also jumping at the handle as he knows he can open them!

Jj in his dog crate getting as close as possible to me for a chin tickle!

JJ and Pixel before his operation. They are best friends and inseparable!

Update

The vets said they had put a cone in for JJ to wear but that he wasn’t bothered by his stitches. Upon arriving home we found… they had forgotten to give it to us. We managed without it for a while as he wasn’t bothered. Then it came to around 8pm aka usual bath time licking routine and he was trying to get at them. So I called the vets and arranged to make the 30 mile round trip to go and pick up the collar. Whilst I was there I also bought some feliway spray as I thought JJ’s episodes might have been partly due to the anxiety of everything.

I got home out on the collar and JJ was not impressed! He was struggling to eat from his bowls and looked truely miserable. I remembered reading about using a baby grow instead so I went to dig out one of my daughters baby ones that I’d saved. This worked a treat. JJ looked so much more comfortable and wasn’t trying to get at his stitches anymore.

The feliway spread seemed to help too. It calmed him down and also calmed Pixel down too. It was still a sleepless night as I lay on the floor next to his crate watching him sleep.