My poor, old, Rugrat.....

[gothams3rdrobin]

Sym's really not himself lately... *sigh* Over the weekend he started whining mournfully when presented with his bowl of IAMs and, when he deigned to eat some in my presence, continued to grumble as he ate. So I thought maybe he's gone off it, or it's hurting his jaws or something. I did try adding some water to it once or twice, as the packet says you can do that, but he still only ate about a third of the bowl, if that.

Picked up some tins of really soft food in gravy, gently working it into meals since he'd been on IAMs; while he initially attacks it with gusto, after a few minutes he stops and just sits by the bowl like he wants to guard it. He's also kinda vocal if I come near him while he's eating - not in a threatening sense, but worried. He's not really eating this food either, mostly just licking up the gravy, which was why I put him on IAMs in the first place and he's been fine up till now.

Watching him sit down on the floor is kinda worrying too, 'cause it takes him a couple of minutes to settle all his limbs comfortably :-(

His vocalisations have been different as well; he sounds somewhat unhappy, even when getting attention. His purrs have become overlayed with a grumble, even when we're having a cwtch.

And to top all that off? I invited him to come join me on the sofa a little while ago, and when he tried to haul himself up his backlegs didn't have any power in them. First time I've seen that happen to him - he's been getting himself up on the window ledge and my desk chair in stages for some time, but my sofa's quite low.

I'm keeping an eye on him at the moment. I have a week off work coming up soon, right after payday, and I can arrange to take him down the PDSA for a checkup. It's kinda heartbreaking watching him, as he's definitely feeling his age now; I don't recall Tammie getting like this, but then again he died when Rowan was thirteen months old so perhaps my attention was somewhat diverted back then.

Comments

[fair-witness.livejournal.com]

Poor old fella. :(

Every kitty's different. With Theo, it was practically overnight. With Tribble, it was a long, slow decline until finally one night he looked up at Phaed and said, "Okay, I'm ready. It's time."

[gothams3rdrobin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I got home from work one night and Mam said "You want to take a look at Tammie, I don't think he's got much left in him." I picked him up as he tried to get past me, and that was it. He had a quick spasm in my arms and was gone.

I've seen Symba's decline coming for a while, but always thought he probably had a couple more years in him to grow old un-gracefully. Not so sure right now though.

[phoebesmum.livejournal.com]

Poor kitteh. I hope the vet can make him feel better.

Can't say much more as my bizarre grief issues (for which there is no good reason) have kicked in and I started crying in yoga last night!!

[gothams3rdrobin.livejournal.com]

Me too!

I wonder why that was :-/ Though I'm sure we all need a good crying jag once in a while.

[moonanstars.livejournal.com]

with the discomfort of the limbs I know we had my kitty on a half of a st joseph's aspirin once a week and that seemed to help immensely

[gothams3rdrobin.livejournal.com]

It did occur to me that maybe some baby painkiller would help - I know Rach has given that to her kitties from time to time.

[moonanstars.livejournal.com]

it helped his appetite too since the pain seemed to keep his appetite down but it was a challenge getting him to take it!! lol

[gothams3rdrobin.livejournal.com]

Hee - oh I just bet! Sym's not good at taking medicine either! :-)

[moonanstars.livejournal.com]

Ninja was terrible about it. And he was the cat that climbed a tile wall and stuck there when I tried to give him a bath lol. He was a little hard on you when you had to pin him down and give him meds lol

[gothams3rdrobin.livejournal.com]

*grins* I think my other cat Tammie passed on the trick of how to not swallow medicine. Thankfully Rach also told me about wrapping them up in a towel-poncho to subdue them - it doesn't work perfectly with Symba, but it does make life easier!

[aprilmay430.livejournal.com]

Poor Symba. :-( I think that's got to be the hardest part about having a pet - watching them get old. I hope the vet can make him more comfortable.

[gothams3rdrobin.livejournal.com]

I hope so too. Hate seeing him unhappy.