Conjunctivitis, that is. Poor Milk. Yesterday, I noticed that he had a big blop of clear water on the left side of his nose. I wiped it off. And a little while later, there was another one. Last night, there was a drop on the right side. Okay, I'm a little slow on the uptake, but it was clear that there was something going on. To say nothing of the sad look on his tiny little face....
Tonight, we went to the vet. Herpes-caused conjunctivitis. The rims of his eyes are a little pinker than usual, but nothing like they were when I first brought him home and black gunk was pouring out of both eyes. So now he's got eye drops added to the routine of stuff he really doesn't want me to do to him.
While we were there, I had them take blood for another phenobarb level test, too. I am hoping that it says that the levels are SO minimal that there's really no reason to even give him the stuff any more. (And then I want the report to include a guarantee that there will be NO seizures if I stop giving it to him. NONE.)
The last two days, he has actually eaten a bite or two when I put his bowl down. He does seem to like the Nature's Variety Frozen Raw. I was thinking that I should order some Feline Pride for him - it was so yummy looking; I bet he'd like it. If only it wasn't so incredibly expensive.... Anyway, the really bad news of the vet trip was that he's lost - according to the vet's scale, which I noticed still said "35" on it even when there was no cat sitting there - a half pound since the last time he was there - maybe a month or so ago. Down to 9 pounds, 2 ounces. I was feeling pretty good about his weight until tonight. He's certainly not anywhere near the sleek, wholesome cat he was before phenobarbital, but he seemed to have lost some of the "pile of bones in a fur bag" aspect. Maybe not. When I give him his last pills tonight, I'm gonna weigh him here. He's been pretty consistently 9 pounds, 13 ounces on my nice scale.
The other accomplishment, which seems to be working out VERY well - is that I did some fiddling around with his medication times, and now, suddenly, I feel like I'm starting to have a life again. He was getting Keppra at 10AM, 6 PM, and 2AM, and phenobarbital at 12PM and 12 AM. Five ordeals, plus two or three bottlefeedings every single day. I was trying to cram everything I needed/wanted to do into the hours between noon and 6:00. I was afraid about making the change, but so far, so good. And just not having to chase him around that extra two times a day has done wonders for my psyche, and hopefully for his, too. So now, we do Keppra and phenobarb at 10AM, Keppra at 6PM, and Keppra/phenobarb as close to 1AM as possible. (That's the time that he's still most likely to be uncooperative, for some reason.)
Now, if only the Spring Crazies would stop, we'd be doing pretty well. Damned Busy has taken to gnawing on Milk's neck the minute I head for the bathroom, and now Milk's doing - or trying to do the same thing to Burble. Only Burb's got a good four pounds on Milkshake - if he chooses not to be chewed on, Milk gets the worst of it. Males. Geez.
** 4/9/08 Phenobarb level - 27.2 Which is an improvement. Unfortunately, because I never manage to change only one thing at a time, I don't know if it's due to the reduction of the total amount of phenobarb daily, the addition of the Marin (which he hasn't had for about a week), or a combination of the two. I was really hoping that it'd be way way down and I could maybe cut the dosage in half again. It would be so nice if he'd eat on his own, and gain back some of the weight he's lost. And his right eye is still a sore-looking, squinty mess.
