Mack is still alive

Mack is keeping down about 2/3 of what we're giving him. I was really discouraged yesterday, because it seemed that whenever I gave him a feeding with the meds (antibiotic, appetite stimulant, anti-emetic) THAT was what he barfed up. So I went back to just mixing the meds in with a larger batch of food ... that way, he doesn't get the all-at-once dosage the vet was hoping for, but at least he gets SOMEthing!

His coat looks a lot better than it did last week ... it was looking and feeling just like fake fur, but with a BAD case of dander. Already on Friday, that was looking better. He's still not doing anything to clean himself, but that's probably good, because if he cared, he might try to remove the feeding tube. And that would not be a good thing.

He is obviously not feeling well, though. He's retreated, for the most part, to the basement again. He keeps trying to find new places to hide, but I keep finding him. I try not to move him to feed him, as it invariably results in his not keeping the food down anyway. He has an aversion to being held, and seems not to want to be petted, either, which is understandable, but sad.

The plan was to feed him 10cc's at a time each hour for 2-3 days, then graduate to 20cc's every 2 hours for another few days. I've decided I'm thrilled with anything I can get into him without him gagging and erping it up again ... so sometimes it's 9cc, sometimes it's 15cc ... I haven't gone over 15, because there's still the water that needs to be pushed through the tube to flush it, and I don't want to cause an overflow.

Yesterday, I was pretty down ... I could hear every breath he took, in and out, as if he was on oxygen. We tortured him a bit to clear the crusted discharge from his nostrils (using vitamin E oil with calendula) and now he's much better. His poor nose is probably sore, and he hasn't used his mouth to do anything but vomit for so long ... he must have a horrible case of dry mouth.

But he is ALIVE! We are so glad we didn't keep that appointment on Tuesday. I hope, some day in the not-too-distant future, he will be too.