Monday, December 10, 2018

Tucker's Latest Victory

Tucker’s break-through came Friday evening. Since his surgery, he has been sustained by small amounts of soft-food. He had never been a big eater of tinned nutrition and, during the period of his teeth’s decreasing health, consumed less and less of it. Since his operation, he has wanted to eat hard-food.

He had eaten some. The diabetic hard-food that neither he nor Parker liked very much had an initial appeal to the roly poly one. Then, when that palled, he was willing to try some Z/D. His desire for that too failed after a few days. He kept going to where the Orijen hard-food bowl is placed, and I would set the bowl down. He would want to eat but could not bring himself to do so. He had attempted it too soon after his surgery, and had hurt his mouth.

Then, Friday, I put the bowl in its place and Tucker ate a few kernels. This was his test. Would they cause him pain as before? They did not. He ate more. Since then, he has been eating the Orijen hard-food, as well as his usual small portions of soft-food. He doesn’t eat many kernels at once, but when I am home, and can watch who eats from it, I keep the bowl on the floor, and Tucker nibbles from it on a continual basis. Now, I hope he will stop losing weight.


His recovery is manifesting itself in other ways. When we play with a string-toy, and he catches the end of it, he brings it to his mouth. He used to hold it there, but no longer does. Even so, his mouth has healed enough for him to use it in play. As well, we have a little game whereby my hand will attack him. He grabs a finger in his paws and brings it to his mouth. Previously, he would pretend to bite me, though he wouldn’t even close his jaws on my digit. Now, he does something similar but my finger just touches his gums. Again, he feels comfortable enough to use his mouth for playing.

This is a victory for my little sausage-cat. It is all his. It has nothing to do with the veterinarian, or the drugs given him, and certainly nothing to do with me. Tucker summoned his courage and kept trying with the hard-food. Eventually, he found that the pain had dulled, and then vanished. He isn’t as sure when eating food as he was, but he will learn new techniques. A veterinary technician told me that Tucker would never eat hard-food again. I know of other toothless cats who do, and was confident that Tucker would. He just needed time to fight his way through his fear.

He has a ways to go yet, but the enemy is retreating; Tucker has won his latest battle.

16 comments:

  1. That really is wonderful, hooray Tucker!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is great news! I've been wondering how he and Raleigh are doing, so do give him a scritch and cuddle from me. If the kibble pieces are small enough, they'll just swallow them whole. That's all Derry does, since most of his chewing teeth are gone (along with many others). I know this, because when he eats too quickly and it comes back up, it's still in fully formed pieces.

    So good for Tucker; his healing (mostly psychological now, I think) continues!

    ReplyDelete
  3. stopping bye with a hi de hoe
    copy N paste said letz give it a go
    wanna say HI & leeve a good werd
    de food gurlz werkz a big bass terd
    we hope this findz ewe doin swell
    santaz comin ring de Christmas bell
    sorree we haz ta uze copee N paste
    we gotta sneekz a round with out haste
    happee week if we due knot get bak
    N joy two day N eatz a snak ♥♥☺☺☺


    catfather; de blessings oh st francis two ewe and raleigh; we see ya both haz been havin a ruff time...N we R sorree, N we R sorree we haz knot been heer bee for now ~~~~~~~

    sad face :(♥♥

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, guys. Things are looking up now, I think. Raleigh goes for his next check-up Thursday; fingers and paws crossed!

      Delete
  4. Yay, Raleigh! I too have heard of toothless cats eating up their kibble, so that vet tech was dead wrong. The tough stuff is now in the past, Raleigh!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh Tucker we are so happy to hear about these new developments!

    ReplyDelete
  6. pee ezz...trout soop dood...trout soop ~~~~~ ♥♥♥

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm so glad to hear Tucker is feeling better! That's great news! The healing process took time, but he's finally starting to get back to his "old self". As for the vet tech who said he would never eat hard food again - perhaps we should introduce her to my Joey who eats hard food even though he has had all but 4 teeth removed.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well done Tucker! I am glad he is doing so much better now, and he will feel a lot happier knowing he can eat his hard food again. The vet tech is wrong. I am sure I told you about our old Mother Puss before who didn't have a tooth in her mouth but would gum every last bit of meat from a lamb leg bone, and fight the other cats off the kibble. They respected her and always let her eat first. (Well she was a tortie!)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Bless him. I know several toothless cats who eat kibble like that. Tucker is learning now. I don't pay more than polite attention if a tech offers opinion. They mean well. If they have been there a long while, mature and very experienced...that is another thing.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Good news Tucker! I am so glad he is beginning to get better. How does he eat dry food without teeth?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a good question. I figure he either pulls them up with his lips or gums or they adhere to his tongue. He lolls them about in his mouth a bit and then swallows them whole. So far, so good.

      Delete
  11. Yay for Tucker! Glad he's getting his confidence back and enjoying his kibble again!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Well done Tucker! I'm so happy the hear he is improving in so many ways.

    Eileen

    ReplyDelete