friday zippo update

In my last post, I told you about Zippo being so ill. The day after he saw the emergency vet, I followed up with our regular vet who agreed that Zippo most likely had an upper respiratory infection. Even though the antibiotic that he's on won't help a virus (just like in humans), hopefully it will ward off a secondary bacterial infection. He also got a vitamin B12 shot and a Chinese herbal powder to sprinkle on his food to stop the nose bleed.

Interjection: we woke up to this nasty white stuff already this morning. And it is cold this evening. We're down to 13 degrees with the wind chill. It's way too early for this nasty winter-like weather.

Back to Zippo. I haven't seen much improvement. Every night I've been going to bed thinking I was going to wake up and find him dead. He's so congested and his nose keeps bleeding. I can't tell you how many towels and blankets I've washed, as well as having to wash Zippo's front legs and paws from the blood dripping. I read online that you can steam a cat's sinuses just like a human, where you boil a pot of water and then hold the kitty carefully over the steam with a towel over both your heads. I did that twice today and even though he got a little antsy after a few minutes, I think it did help. I'm also putting coconut oil on his raw nose to help it heal.

It's hard for Zippo to eat because he can't breathe when he eats. I heat up his food so he can smell it (cats won't eat food that they can't smell - it's a survival skill to avoid spoiled food or food that's been tampered with) and then I sit next to him with his bowl of food right underneath his nose and coax him to eat. I learned that when cats are sick and not eating enough of their food, you can give them turkey or chicken baby food. So I went to the store today and got a jar of each. I've been mixing some of it into his cat food. Believe it or not, Zippo even loves pureed canned pumpkin, so I've been giving him a spoon of that every day, too. And he's drinking water.

But. He's not out of the woods. Far from it. At his age (19-1/2), he could easily succumb to this URI. Or, if he gets worse, of course we will bring him in to the vet to have him put to sleep. I won't let him suffer.

Tim is moving out tomorrow (into his own apartment - sharing with a buddy), and I'm afraid that is really going to affect Zippo, too. Tim and Zippo are very close. Zippo sleeps on his bed every day. Now there will be no bed in Tim's room for Zippo to sleep on. I'm thinking maybe Tim can leave his comforter behind and take another one from our stash of extra blankets stored away in the basement.

Thank you all so much for your well wishes and prayers for my fur baby. I know a lot of you understand how much pets are a part of the family and how my heart is hurting. Blessings to all of you. Have a good weekend.