When he was neutered, he was just over 3 pounds and his growth rate was averaging a quarter of a pound a month.
When the vet technician brought him out and talked with me about how to take care of him and what to expect in the future since his body chemistry was now permanently altered, she told me that he wasn't going to grow anymore and that he needed to go off of kitten food so he wouldn't become highly overweight.
I, of course, did not do the diet change. I had spent so many months just getting him to eat and get to his current fat (but really pathetically skinny) weight, that weight gain would be welcome. There was no way I was going to tamper with Forest's slow upward climb away from constant uncertainty of his staying alive. And since Forest has always confounded doctors and people who have raised an extraordinary number of cats, sometimes it is best to just go with your gut.
So what happened? The plain and simple answer is, Forest started growing. Today, at a year and 2 weeks old, Forest now weighs 7.3 pounds.
And after much trial and error, I've found an adult cat food that agrees with him. Purina Indoor Cat is one that he'll eat and where I can definitely see an improvement in his mental and physical health. Interestingly, when I first started bringing home lots of bags of cat food, I let him smell the bags and would open the one that he paid attention to the most. In the end, the bag that he ultimately showed the most interest in, was Purina Indoor Cat. It makes me wonder how many bags I would have gone through if I had simply bought them all at once and kept only the one he showed the most interest in.
Before I move away from talking about food, I'd like to mention that Forest continues to go crazy over potato bread and he still occasionally gets home cooked food like turkey bits and juice, and cooked salmon.
Several other things changed after Forest went under his little snip-snip procedure. Forest stopped meowing and learned how to bite. And when I say he learned how to bite, I mean BITE with capital letters, because he would bite so hard that he'd end up drawing blood. My hands, arms, and feet are covered in healed, or still healing battle wounds. Why did this start? I was given doses of painkillers to give Forest at set time intervals and the biting always increased the closer time would tick towards his next dose. I am sure he was in pain and wanted to tell me that so that I'd fix it.
After he healed, the biting didn't go away, my family and I tried so many techniques, but nothing worked. It basically became one of those things you learn to live with. It was something I was sure would go away over time, perhaps after I got my own place and could get a little friend for Forest.
Anyway, I took him to the vet on Saturday because his ears were red, hot, and had black stuff in them. I had been trying to resolve it by cleaning his ears often. But since my efforts had no lasting effect, after two weeks, I decided that he needed a trained professional's assistance. Two weeks was way long enough. The vet, diagnosed him with ear infections. His ears were deeply cleaned, and so very gently- I was impressed. I left with a special solution to clean his ears with, medicine drops to put in them, and an oral antibiotic. The result has been nearly instantaneous. His ears are no longer pink, they are clean, and he seems so much happier.
The most amazing change has been the fact that since his vet visit, he has not bitten me or anyone else. Normally, every day, I'd get roughly 170 bites. Waking up to a purring cat is much much better. The vet visit and drugs cost me close to $300, but it was worth it. This just makes me wonder if he's had these ear infections for much longer than I was aware of a problem with his ears. I try hard to listen and pay attention to Forest, but there are some days that I wish that he was really able to communicate.
Speaking of communication, Forest may not meow any longer, but he has learned how to get my attention and tell me what he wants when he wants something. When he wants bread, and I've got a kitchen drawer open, he'll jump up on it and walk around and around the edge of the drawer. Or if he wants to be held, he'll stand up on his hind legs and stretch his paws up my leg and kneed until I pick him up. He now even brings me some of his toys so that I'll use them to play with him.
My mom says that there was a reason Forest came into my life, I needed to be needed, and to have a challenge, and Forest needed massive amounts of TLC fine tuned just for him.
I'll be posting photos of this very fine boy, very soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment