...Tippy update...1.2

Tippy came home late Monday afternoon...
the prognosis was not encouraging...

on Saturday, they told me that she wasn't eating...
and that they had opened a new draining place
for the sinus abscess [under her left eye]
and that the abscess was pretty much empty now...
though she was still on antibiotics
and I would need to clean the drain place...

my vet is a very kind man...
and the look of sadness on his face
on Monday... spoke volumes...
as he told me that she still wasn't eating...
but he hoped that at home, she would "bounce back"...

she had been on IV therapy for several days,
which had flushed her system...
and the antibiotics had, indeed,
finally routed the infection from her sinus...

but now, days without real food had left her very thin...
she had a bath before leaving "chez vet"...
which they said she didn't "appreciate"...
I took that as a somewhat positive sign...

on the way home, there was not a sound...
a furtive movement now and again...
but no cries or complaints...
[not good...]
however, there was also no wheezing or coughing...
[very good...]

when I had left her a few days before with a bad cough,
my vet had told me that coughing up hairballs...
is the only good cough for a cat... otherwise, it's bad news...
and she was almost choking on the crud rattling in her chest...

so now, no wheezing or choking was at least a hopeful sign...
as I opened the carrier and saw her for the first time in days...
I was stunned...she didn't look like the same cat at all !
her eyes were clear...the swelling was gone...
and, of course, she'd had that unappreciated bath...
she actually looked and smelled good...

then I picked her up...
felt how thin she'd gotten...
and felt how weak she was...
but she wanted down...
[always a good sign for her]

so I put her on the dresser where she hunkered down,
treating me to a couple of nasty, but productive, coughs...
I gave her a couple of droppers full of water...
and she coughed up stuff...but no wheezing...

I put the food dish in front of her...
plopped on a can of her favorite...
and...she sniffed it... no interest...
sniffed it again...nothing...

so I opened another can of a very smelly [yummy] fishy concoction
and put it next to her favorite...she smelled it... smelled it again...
then returned to her favorite and took a bite !
she "grazed" for a while, nibbling between the two...
and eventually ate about a couple of large spoon fulls...

since she had eaten nothing to speak of for days...
she really needed a drink at this point...
after "encouraging" her with water from a dropper..
she started to drink from the bowl on her own...
about 10-15 minutes of intermittent drinking ensued ...
but no further eating... she seemed to be tired...
I gave her her medicine and put her into her nest....

at 4 AM, when it was again, medicine time...
this same scene repeated itself...
[a bit of food and lots of water]...
accompanied by the return of the nasty, rattling cough...
which, after producing the desired effect, ceased...

I had carried her to the water...
but she managed to make it back to her bed on her own...

both times that I heard the nasty cough, it was productive...
and after gackking up what was rattling...she seemed fine...
no wheezing at all after the coughing...
which was a definite improvement over a few days ago...

so around 5-ish, we all settled back to sleep...
about 9...I must have moved, activating the "Piglet motion sensor"...
[she had been snoring near my left shoulder...]
since it was 'way past "outside time"...
she started her "act"...

calling me names...walking on my face...
finally, pouncing on my stomach...
so, giving in to the inevitable, I got up....
and opened the window...
freeing the pitifully mistreated Piglet
into the morning garden...

as I raised the window to "free" the captive Piglet...
Tippy started to meow from her nest...
she jumped out, moved quickly across my bed, hopped on to the dresser
and was headed towards the window when I caught her...
she turned around, went right back to the food dish...
AND STARTED EATING....

this was the first time in over a week she'd voluntarily eaten anything !
and after scarfing the remains of the food on the plate...
she tore into a newly opened can...eating nearly the whole thing...
[FF cans are small]
then she drank some water...
[without any encouragement or nasty coughing...]
and went back to her nest on her own when she was done !

if this continues, she'll be her old self again soon...
the whole key was getting her to want to eat again...
I guess there's "no place like home"...
oops... medicine time again...