When I walked in with Loki yesterday the vet on duty was very good with him, letting Loki take his time coming out of the carrier, talking nice to him… I liked her immediately. Then after some poking and prodding she pronounced that he had no serious abdominal pain and that he looked perfectly healthy otherwise, not dehydrated, not drooling, no other obvious symptoms.  She thought he had an acute gastroenteritis, gave him a shot of something to soothe his stomach and also an antibiotic, and said that I could treat him at home with special food and a stomach protector (to be squirted into his mouth twice a day), and said if he hasn’t improved by Friday I’m to take him back for blood tests.

At first I suggested she just do the tests NOW and get it over with, to avoid another hellish trip there and back, and so we could find out for sure. I mean, Loki is 8 now. Wouldn’t a general blood test be a prudent thing to do anyhow? At this point Eva could see that I was more than a bit stressed and she even started snipping off the fur on his front leg… and then stopped again and asked “are you sure?”. So I finally agreed to do it her way, step by step.

And then imagine my surprise when she looked up Loki’s file and saw that his last visit there in 2013 WAS FOR THE EXACT SAME THING. Seriously. She showed me Begonia’s notes and they were word for word the same diagnosis and treatment. Which obviously worked last time, so that helped me relax a bit.

But after all that I’m still not sure if Loki is on the mend. Last night he immediately threw up his “easy to digest” paté right after eating it, though I thought perhaps the meds still needed a bit more time to kick in. Then things weren’t looking any better this morning. I gave him the oral med (liquid stomach protector) and then, as the vet prescribed, just 3 teaspoons of the paté, which he gave up on eating until I held out bits of it on the end of my finger for him to lick off. He was clearly hungry and finished it all off, but then 5 minutes later up it all came again – and probably the meds too, dammit. So I was beginning to despair, dreading another trip to the vet and wishing I’d insisted on her doing the blood test yesterday. But then I tried another tactic, giving Loki just a small bite of paté off the end of my finger, maybe a third of a teaspoon. He ate that about an hour ago and – so far – has kept it down. So I will continue doing that for the rest of the day, just a small bite of food every hour or so, and see how it goes.

Meanwhile, Loki is clearly looking for comfort. I built him a little “cushion fort” on the sofa yesterday, with the small duvet for him to lie on. Otherwise he is sitting on my lap when I am in my chair, getting plenty of cuddles. I really hope I have more positive news tomorrow.