Abby still isn't eating

Abby still won't eat. By now, it's been about 24hours. As I brought her in for 8am, I know for a fact she was eating athome, especially as I had to give her raisins to get into the carrier.(She knew something was up.)

Well, she's still not eating. We are tempting her with EVERYTHING, andshe pushes it away. She was drinking a tiny bit this morning, but not alot, as the level of the water bottle hasn't gone down much. We thinkshe maybe at a tiny amount of hay last night, but not a lot.

Dave and I are both getting pretty worried here. The vet told us thatif she doesn't eat, we need to bring her back in. How long should wewait? Should we try to force feed her, so she doesn't go through thestress of another car ride back to the vet? I'm starting to think ofgrinding up some pellets with banana in my morter and pestle, thenfeeding it to her with a syringe. We looked at her incision and itlooks good, she's not licking it very much, and when she does wedistract her. I was up past midnight keeping an eye on her, up again atsix, then eight. Yes, a bit much, I know, but I'm worried for somereason.

Could she just be "hung over"? I know how awful I felt after my surgury and how I could hardly eat, is it somehow the same?

Try tempting her with one of her "favorite"foods! Also, does she appear to be in a lot ofpain? All huddled up, keeping to herself? Both ofmy girls were like that the day after they were spayed and wouldn'ttouch any food. My vet suggested giving them one baby aspirinfor the pain and that seemed to help (crushed in a dab of jelly ordissolved in water to use in syringe). After they were morecomfortable I was able to get them to eat a bit of their favoritegreens and that was a huge step in the right direction. Theywon't try to eat if they are in a lot of pain! If in doubt,call your vet and see what he suggests! Almost forgot, Icuddled them quite a bit and the heat from my body seemed to help someagainst the incision, they both settled right in and chattered, so Iknow that felt good to them! Good Luck!

I forgot to specify "baby aspirin", not Tylenol!!

Auntie Nae is right. It's likely she's just inpain and doesn't feel like eating. I know Peanut refused food for atleast the first 24 hours.

I figured she was in pain, I know I would be!She's not so much huddled into herself, she keeps on stretching out,both on her side, and literally when she gets up to move around. Partof me thinks she's a bit restless at being cooped up, as she reallywanted to move around when we checked her incision this morning. Whatwe did was put the cage on the kitchen table and took the wire off (itlifts up), so we wouldn't have to pick her up and pull her through thedoor. She wanted down from the table big time.

Well, we'll continue to keep an eye on her then. If she's not eating bytonight, maybe we'll force feed her. We've been trying to get her toeat all of her favorites, from raisins to carrots, and she'll have noneof it. I am spending a lot of time petting her, which she really likes,so that's good.

Hi Stephanie,

Auntie Nae definitely has a point. I'd take her advice as it can't hurt Abby, but can only help her if she is uncomfortable.

As to her not eating, if you have NutriCal, I'd give her an inch worth.

If she hasn't eaten in a couple of hours, I'd make a 'pellet slurry'.Soak some of her pellets in water and syringe feed it to her.

Keep us posted.

-Carolyn

That's what I thought. Ok, going to head out tobuy some NutriCal and a syringe, along with some baby asprine. It can'thurt and she must be terribly uncomfortable.

I'll post later and update everyone. My poor girl! Talk about feeling guilty.

Oh, Stephanie, don't feel too guilty. You've given her an ultimately longer and healthier life. She'll get through this

Oh, I know m.e. I'm just a weirdo I guess.

So we gave her a baby asprine, and two syringes of a pellet slur. Wefeel better, as now she has pain relief and got a good amount of waterand some food in her belly. We know this will make her feel better.

I think she new we were helping her too. We swaddled her in a towel andshe just lay there docile, which is very unlike her normally, as shehates being held and doesn't even like being pet unless it's on herterms. With the first syringe, she wasn't exactly crazy about it, butthe pellet slur she drank right down with almost no problem. Nostruggling at all either.

Now we're off to run our errands, which includes the pet store forNutriCal. The pharmacy was close to home and we wanted to get her somepain relief before we were gone for another hour or so.

Can you tell I have no life people?? LOL

Stephanie, how's Abby doing? It's good she atefrom the syringe, and the painlkiller will help her over the worst ofit. Don't feel guilty, you really have done the best for her in thelong run. I'm sure she will soon be up to her old tricks- Jan

Well, it's now 3:20 and she still won't eat. We even got her her favorite treat, popcorn sticks. She pushes them away. *sigh*

I'm now making an oatmeal mush to go with the pellet slew. We're justgoing to force feed her now, until she starts eating on her own. Thatway she'll get water too, we're both starting to worry aboutdehydration. I'm hoping the oatmeal will help replace the hay she's notgetting for fiber.

If she's not eating on her own tomorrow, we'll have to bring her in tothe vet. It's only been about 24 hours since her surgury, so I'm goingto give her some more time to see how she does. I may be overreacting,but I'm not going to take chances.

We gave her the pain med earlier today. Should we give her some more tonight before bed?

Oh yeah, NutriCal isn't available in Canada anymore.

Stephanie,

I agree, I'd force feed her too. Actually, if you're looking for fiber,the canned pumpkin is preferred before oats, but it's okay. Certainlythe oats won't do any harm.

I do think you should continue with the pellet slurry for now. She'llneed her strength from the nutrients. You're right to be concernedabout dehydration and if you have some Pedialyte, it will go a long wayin keeping her electrolytes up and her hydrated.

As to the asprin, let's just hold off on that and see what tonightbrings. Give it a chance. It may be helping her. We don't know yet.Continue to offer her things she'll be enticed to eat. Organic babyspinach is great for them as it has water in it and lots of goodvitamins. Always wash it before giving to them as I know you do.

I would keep her hydrated with at least one 3 ccs. of liquid every fourhours. She should have an ounce of liquid for every pound she weighswithin a 24 hour period.

I agree, I'd take her to the vet tomorrow if she doesn't improve.

How does the area look? Is it a healthy color? Does it seem swollen?

-Carolyn

P.S.

You can purchase NutriCal online if you can't get it near you.

OK...Im a bit behind at this forum, did you haveAbby spayed and ever since she came back she hasnt beeneating? If yes then no worries...when I had Harvey neuteredhe didnt eat for about2 days afterwards! I was getting soworried, and I asked the vet and they just said that it will take him awhile for him to get his appitite back, and he did - suddenly onthe3rd day I noticed him eating some hay, and for the nextfew days he only wanted to eat hay, so I gave him loads ond loads ofit, and after another few days...yay...he had eaten all the food fromhis dish and a whole leaf of cabbage so pleasetry not to worry too much, I know how hard it is but I can assure youshe will start eating eventually. For now keep up with theseringe feeding and give her some nice fresh hay and see if thatworks. I wish you and Abby all the best of luck.Let me know how she gets on.

Phew, so far we've been doing the right thing.Well, I meant to buy canned pumpkin at the grocery store and guess whatI forgot! Guess I got distracted with the brownie mix...

So far today she's had 25 ml of everything, that's 5 ml of a water/babyasprin mixture, and 20 of the pellet/oatmeal/water mixture. We wereplanning on feeding her again later on this evening, probably around 7or 8.

Her incision looks pretty good. She leaves it alone for the most part,thank goodness. When she does lick at it, we make sure to distract her.It is a tiny bit swollen, but nothing that looks major, and it's dry(no discharge). We were told it would be a bit swollen, so we're notworried about that. I think I'd be able to tell if it got worse, aswe've been keeping an eye on it. There is one spot that looks a bitredder than the rest and I'm going to keep a close eye on that.

Nothing we give her entices her to eat. Nothing, and we've been shovingeverything in her face. Thankfully she is taking the force feedingwell, I really thought she'd be struggling more with it.

Should we be feeding her/giving her water through the night? I am veryworried about this obviously, especially as she normally has a HUGEappetite, especially with her hay intake. Also, she normally drinks alot of water. I did see some pee in her litter box, which was good, butnot that many poops I'm afraid.

Update, she just ate a small amount of freshparsley. Not a lot, but it's a start. I had to keep on putting it inher face and finally she ate some.

You're doing a Great Job, Nurse Stephanie. This will bond you, David, and Abby so much.

Keep in mind that there's nothing you have to feel guilty about.Everything you have done is to better her health and prolong her life.

Personally, I would continue as you are with the fluids, without thebaby aspirin, throughout the night. Just an opinion based on a hunch.

Her eating the parsley is a great sign. Continue to offer her what she'll eat. If you have an apple or banana, try that.

I'm thrilled to hear that she's pooped and urinated. It won't be muchbecause she doesn't have much in her now, but it's certainly a sign ofgood things.



Keep us updated, and kiss my baby girl for me.

-Carolyn

I've got the same hunch too, so am going with it. My Woman's Intuition hasn't let me down yet, I'm not going to ignore it now!

We're off to get some canned pumpkin and some Pedialyte for our patient.

You guys ROCK!

Love,
All of us in Tucker Town




P.S. Looking back, I always regretted it when I didn't follow my intuition.

Well, no Pedialyte at the grocery store and thepharmacy was closed, so we're going to make due with what we have. Wedid get some canned pumpkin and will add that in the mix.

The saga continues...