I've been lurking and reading and sending silent purrs lately, but
I wanted to share poor Shamrock's Monday.  I dropped him off
yesterday for a dental because his breath has been really rank, and
when I went to brush his teeth (which I do not keep up with, bad
meowmie), his gums bled easily. I was a little worried about
anesthesia and the use of Clomicalm for the last year, so I left a
note reminding the vet that he's on it. To compensate, she gave him
less anesthesia than she normally would, and he did well throughout
the procedure, and all of his blood values were in the normal range
(tests done before procedure) including BG; I'd had his blood sugar
tested due to him being on steroid shots for most of his life.

I picked him up around 5pm yesterday and he was still really out of
it.  We got home and I had to leave him in the carrier for a couple
of hours because he couldn't walk. He'd plop down in uncomfortable-
looking positions, so I just wanted to keep him still. He wouldn't
sleep, and kept banging his head on the carrier door, so I took him
downstairs and let him out to see if he was ok to let him "walk it
off". Scarlett and Rhett were freaked out by how he acted, so I
closed them out of the downstairs family room, and it was just he
and I. I had to put the downstairs cat tree in another room so he
wouldn't climb it, and he wondered around walking in circles,
strangely silent. He was itchy from a flare-up (he had a depo shot
yesterday for that) and when he tried to lick and bite his itches,
he'd fall over.  I felt so bad for him. I had to sit on the floor
to keep him from trying to jump on the couch because he just
couldn't make it. He wouldn't let me hold him, he was just too out
of it and not interested in sitting still. After another 2 hours,
he finally meowed. Then he wouldn't shut up.  LOL  The vet said he
couldn't eat because it could make him sick, but against her
orders, I gave him licks of baby food off of a spoon because a
little sustanance can bring them around faster if it doesn't make
them sick. He kept it down, and seemed so hungry that I gave him
another spoonful over a half-hour period of time. He was finally
acting back to normal, and it was bed-time. I took him in my room,
closed out everyone else, and he slept in the crook of my arm the
entire night without moving. This morning, he was back to being my
baby Shamrock again. With better breath. :)