I adapted a 10 month old female cat at a shelter on May 2nd. I wanted to take her home that day but the shelter help said they needed to spay her first. Their policy is to spay or neuter before releasing the pet. I challenged that policy and told them I will have my vet spay her, they refused. Long story short, my cat, who only arrived at the shelter April 30th, had to stay four more days until a vet can be available to spay her. I didn't want that to happen fearing she would attract an upper respiratory infection the longer she stays there. I was irate that it took four days to have this done. I demanded to speak to a supervisor. That person tells me that I could have taken her home May 2nd and let my vet spay her. He blamed the front desk personnel for misleading me. The spaying took place on May 5th. I picked her up May 6th. She was a totally different cat. When I left her on May 2nd, she was vibrant and alert. Since taking her home she's been somewhat lethargic, refusing to eat. She drinks water, though. I took her to my vet on May 9th. She had a 102.5 fever, a little dehydrated, had an upper respiratory infection, some swelling around her stitches and she hasn't eaten yet on her own. My vet administered a vitamin and an antibiotic shot. He hydrated her also. He gave me perscriptiuon AD food and amoxicillin for the infection. I have to feed her three times a day through a syringe give her the amoxicillin twice a day and also a vitamin paste. On May 12th, I went back to my vet to do blood work on her. My vet also gave me a stronger antibiotic because her fever jumped to 104.4 degrees. The results of the blood work came back negative except for a slightly high white bllod cell count, which would explain her infection. Well, today May 15th, I am still orally feeding her through the syringe because she still doesn't eat on her own. She's still a little conjested, discharge still coming from her eyes and snots from her nose. A little less then earlier but still an issue. She seems to move better and is now fighting me more when I feed her. She now only drinks water from a pot I have in the kitchen sink and the faucet must be on. I think she likes the bubbles in the water. She seems to drink more when the faucet is running in the pot. I'm waiting for a fecal result we took on May 12th. I haven't heard anything so it means that there are not worms. They would have called if they found something in the stool. Oh yeh, my cat finally made a stool on May 12th. A small one but that's encouraging
I hope. My question is how much longer do you think it will take for my cat, Sandy, to start eating on her own? I Also haven't seen her clean herself yet. That's strange isn't it? Even though, I'm feeding her with a syringe, shouldn;t she at least do a little self cleaning? It's been 10 days now since she was spayed. How much longer do you think it will take for Sandy to become a normal self sufficient cat again? I'm worried she will get used to me feeding her and she will forget how to eat on her own. One more thing, I did try to give her regular cat food that had some little chunks of meat that I finger fed her. She started coughing after swallowing it. What can that mean? Thanks, Pete