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How is Lucy today Desley? hope you both got over yesterday’s incident.

Hi Desley how's Lucy - still growling under the downer? Vivian

It doesn't seem to have affected her recovery. She is currently sat on my knee - think she's gone back to how she was at the rescue now she is confined, and appreciating the chance to sit on your knee again. Only downside is the vet wanted her walking more

Maybe it gave her a bit of a jolt going for the op so she’s appreciating what she has at home. Glad she’s ok.

Gosh, that must have been a bit of a worry for you - eek

I know she should be losing weight so treats may not be the right thing to do, but if she likes dreamies what about giving her 4 twice a day, one in each corner of the room, that way she has to walk from one to the other to get to them? Or Thrive chicken treats - maybe a bit less fattening? That would at least then get her walking a bit more?

It was Ria - we'd had a bit of a poo day anyway, so it affected me even more than usual.

I’ll give her a treat ball tonight, that should give her some exercise without her wanting to go upstairs (open plan front room unfortunately). Do wish I could get her eating back to normal, at least she is eating, even if it isn’t what she was having before – who knows if I’ve got the amounts right so she isn’t gaining weight, as now she’s had her hip removed, it’s crucial that she doesn’t gain any. Unfortunately, despite loving dreamies, it's another thing she's refused to eat since the op (typical when she got bought 7 bags for Christmas, we haven't finished one yet!!) - she is also refusing her Seraquin - I covered it in lik-e-lix last night, she licked round it!!

Lucy was such hard work last night – she enjoyed the treat ball, but then kept fussing around the stairs, so I ended up putting her on the heated bed. Little madam however tried to sneak round the curtain to get off, I caught her but she got a bit nasty. She eventually came on my knee, but after a while started fussing, so I went to pick her up to put her on the floor, and she got a bit nasty again!! Then when it was time to go back in the kitchen, she ramped it up, and there were teeth and claws involved, I nearly dropped her at one point. She also barely ate her tea, so I put her supper biscuits on top, didn’t work, she ate the dry, but there was just as much wet in the bowl this morning. I’m really hoping that the vet will say she can go upstairs next week (I’m still going to block off the bedroom so she can’t get under the bed), even if she has to stay in the kitchen during the day, I can at least give her more time out in the evening. It’s only two weeks since the op, we potentially have another 10 weeks to go.

Is she looking for run of the house or do you think she would be happy(happier) if she were confined upstairs?

When next week is the next vet check-up?

Ten weeks sound like a looong time to go in these conditions!

Confining her upstairs isn't an option - the only way I can restrict her access to the stairs is confining her to one room, if I use my bedroom she'd be jumping more, and I'd have to block under the bed which would stress her. The other room is the bathroom which the vet said no to. We are back Wed eve as we need to see the same vet. I think her problem is she feels fine, so doesn't understand being restricted

This will hopefully show the problem with letting her come in the front room without letting her up the stairs (the black cat is my neighbours- he loves Me and wants to be friends with Lucy, so he ignores her hissing!)

Depending on how long this needs to be for, could you get some plywood and block the gaps between the railings and the stairs & raise it a bit so she can't jump over? Won't look pretty but if it's for a short term only and gives her more space then maybe worth trying? If you use clamps to attach the wood to the bannister then you wouldn't have to damage it.

Not sure about the access to the stairs though - suspect she'd try jump over that?

Love black cat!

ignore the above - just looked at the photo again and realised the stairs are open as well.

sigh.... mission impossible it seems

Yeah, they are really awkward stairs - the vet suggested a baby gate, but I pointed out that if she can get on the sofa, she can go from the back to get on the stairs - she does keep eyeing the sofa up.

She was a bit better last night, although after sliding down the back of the sofa to come on my knee, she started growling, she was clearly uncomfortable, but wouldn’t let me help. Bonus is I discovered a difference between her ‘pain’ growl and her ‘annoyed’ growl. She did use claws when I had to put her back in the kitchen though. I bought her some different wet food last night, in the hope I can get some into her.

Someone has had a good evening! I've also had her playing a bit with the laser toy

Lucy looks very contented. Vivian

Aww that’s a lovely photo. Good luck with the different wet food!

She's relaxed and happy! Good, very good

Well, I tried AGAIL, she wasn't overly impressed, yesterday I bought her a different flavour of Gourmet Soup, which she has eaten the majority of. We are having a lazy morning in bed, she's happy

She had a proper hissy fit on Sun, I would have put her back in the kitchen except she was so worked up I'd have been left bleeding. I told her to calm down or she would be in the kitchen, and 5 mins later she was fine. It has made me realise that regardless of how hard its been so far, I am lucky, she's used teeth and claws most days but been really gentle, I've had worse from my neighbours cat playing with me.

Bizarrely, today I can see some of her stitches, slightly worrying as they are internal, but the wound itself looks fine and she isn't bothered by it being touched. She has been stretching it a bit today too - she's had two visitors and been lovely with them.

Hi, internal stitches can work to the surface as they dissolve - a few years back I had stomach surgery and a couple of weeks later a chunk of blue internal suture was poking out of the incision scar. Later it came out by itself in the bath. It caused no trouble at all.

Bless her, she sounds a feisty lass, all very best wishes

That's a relief to know. She doesn't seem to be walking as well this evening, so I've put her in her heated bed. We are at the vets on Wed

Noticed this morning she had a bit of dandruff looking stuff round the edge of where she was shaved, will be interesting to see what the vet thinks that is. She seems to be walking better today though

The same white dandruff was along the shaved edges on Lola's tummy in August. It developed about 10-15 days after the surgery. The vet told me it was some kind of skin reaction to disinfectants and stress and gave me some pills from herbs and natural elements and the dandruff vanished in about ten days.
I wouldn't worry about that

Thanks - my neighbour wondered if it was due to the lack of fur - stress would definitely fit!

Good luck with the vet appointment today

Lucy got to sit on my knee before I went to work as I wasn’t in the mood for listening to her yowling – she’s now getting that loud I can hear her upstairs. We had some sweet cuddles though, and I’ve asked her to stay this nice and cuddly when everything goes back to normal! She does keep holding her leg funny, I’m hoping that it’s just feeling odd because of things knitting together. I’d be going to the vet regardless this week I think!!

what time is the appointment?

Back from the vet, she is back down to 4.7kg, so need to tweak her diet. She didn't do the funny standing thing at the vet, but vet thinks it could be inflammation after going under the bed. She's snipped the stitches and isn't concerned by the dandruff. We need to get her doing more, as she is losing a bit of muscle mass, but she still needs another week in the kitchen, then next week she can have the front room, stairs and landing - vet was concerned she'd do too much jumping or running up the stairs

Glad things are going well. Maybe once she can go in the other rooms she will build some muscle back. Give her a fuss from me Desley x