He's home! I got him home a little after 6:30p last night, waited an hour, then gave him a teeny bit of food spaced an hour apart (thanks, MC!) As Lola had mentioned, he was wobbly when he got home, and his 3rd eyelids were still visible. He was also very restless, wandering around the downstairs (it's an open layout) and he kept slapping his tail on the floor when he would lie down like he was cranky (not that I blame him). I felt so bad for him! You were right, MC, I should have asked for the sevoflurane gas.
Lesson learned.
As wobbly as he was, he made it down to the basement (I forgot to close the door) to go hunting. I went down when I realized he was there, and talked him into going back upstairs. I followed him up. He did ok, though he had to stop a couple of times. Once he was up, I closed the door, and between feedings, he took turns hovering by the door or by the opposite corner of the kitchen. He must have been hearing mice in the walls. But I was glad, as it kept him distracted.
I was able to get almost 1/2 of 5.5 oz can Instinct rabbit (his favorite) in him before calling it a night at around 1am. I had put a little more in the timer feeder to open an hour later, but forgot to turn it on.
This morning he was at my door when I got up, and the 3rd eyelids were down. I was able, sort of, to give him the buprenex, and have been giving him small portions of food every 40 minutes. He got his antibiotic in the pill pocket, and I continued with the small meals just to make sure he can tolerate the antibiotic. I plan to give him another small meal in a few hours with the probiotic, and have been adding in some other supplements to the other meals (e.g. the egg yolk lecithin, a couple drops of the Omega 3 to help with inflammation, etc.). As of 11:30 this morning, he's had the remaining 1/2 can.
As I was driving to the vet's to get him, I kept thinking about the bone broth and dairy, and suddenly realized
, raw milk would be an option. I remembered the Pottenger study, where the cats fed raw meat and raw milk were healthy. So in addition to the bone broth, I'm thinking raw goat's milk (it's easier to digest than cow milk) might help. And as luck would have it, the specialty store where I get his food also carries raw goat's milk. One is by Primal, the other is Vital Essentials. I'll look into those in a little while. If they added stuff (or stuff I don't like), I can go to PA to get it -- it's legal there for human consumption, so that's an option.
Edit: I just looked at the raw goat's milk. It looks like Vital Essentials didn't add anything, while Primal did:
Ingredients: Raw Goat Milk, Dried Lactobacillus lactis fermentation product, Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, Dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product, Inulin, Organic Turmeric (color), Organic Ginger, Organic Cinnamon.
Some of those ingredients are probiotics, which would be fine, but I'm not comfortable giving something with turmeric, ginger or cinnamon. I'm not sure how safe those ingredients are for cats and would prefer to "keep it simple."