Beat Down and Squinky-Eyed

Hakeem made his third visit to the vet in one week tonight, this time to address his squinky eye, lethargy and lack of appetite. I thought for sure he had contracted pink eye from one of his visits there, and he's been unable to keep the eye open for any length of time for two days straight. So, in addition to injecting him in the back fat with a syringe full of antacids, I've also been wiping his weepy eye. Turns out injecting a pudgy kitty is not that difficult, he doesn't even flinch. I flinch more than he does. But after a weekend of watching him barely move, barely eat, and barely open his right eye, it was time to go back to the doctor.

Today while I was at work, my dad stopped over to see how Hakeem was doing and reported that he still looked beat down and squinky-eyed. I stopped home during lunch and he was the same, and remained so when I got home from work. My mom came over to go with us to the vet and she noticed it first that he seemed to be a little perkier. Not a lot, but a little. And his eye, miraculously, so gummy and sad for two days, was suddenly just fine. Upon walking into the vet hospital, my little fighter came back, hissing and spitting like the kitty I know and love. The doctor could see nothing wrong with his eye, though I hope he believes me that it was bad. I, of course, felt like I was totally making it up about his eye! But the doc was ultimately concerned about the lethargy and lack of appetite so he prescribed Hakeem, if you can believe it, an appetite stimulant. I never would have believed in a thousand years that my boy would need an appetite stimulant, but apparently it's dangerous for a big kitty to suddenly eat so little, so we need to normalize his calorie intake. So tonight I gave him his last shot and now he starts with the appetite stimulant.


And I swear to you it's true, about one minute after Hakeem got home, his right eye went squinky again. I think he was faking it at the hospital so the doctor would leave him alone.