Well, Ringo has made me a nervous wreck for the past hour! Thank God he seems to be acting like himself now but would like to know what you guys think about this:
We adopted Ringo in March and since then there has been @ 3 different times (not consecutively) when it has been breakfast/dinner time and he has refused his food for a little while. He always runs after his food plate and on these occasions he just lies there listlessly and refuses even when I coax him by placing parsley, etc.. right next to his mouth. Usually I freak out for a little while and then before long he is energetically chomping his food like normal….
Tonight was another one of those occasions. He refused his food and instead hopped away and flopped out on his tummy. Each time I would begin bugging him to eat he would once again hop away and flop onto his tummy. At one point he even flopped next to the wall and kept stretching his hind legs out (causing his nails to scratch the wall and make an awful noise) and this stressed me out even more! The way he was laying down was not abnormal, it was just that he chose to lay in that exact position about 4 different times in a row…..
He let me massage the sides of his tummy (he doesn’t like being picked up so we stopped trying — can’t say I blame him) ! Luckily within an hour he once again decided to finally eat and perked up. When this happened I noticed that he had not used his box from noon (when I changed them) until 5:00 when I checked them once he began acting funny. He has finally began eating and I made sure to pile on the fresh parsley to help relieve any gas…he also just hopped into his box and made @ 20 poops – mostly normal sized poops but a few of them smaller than usual but nothing real alarming looking.
Now that he has eaten/pooped I am relieved. However, I want to make sure this doesn’t progress into anything serious since he scared the daylights out of me just now.
Jason (who was also freaking out) ran out and got some Ox Bo Critical Care, Simethicone 20mg drops, a fresh papaya, and fresh pineapple. What are your suggestions to relieve any gas Ringo may be having? Should I try some papaya/pineapple first and see if that helps before moving onto the drops/critical care? Like I said, he seems much more normal now, has eaten/pooped but I don’t want to risk it since he is still acting a bit lazy….
Also, I have never had to use the drops or critical care…. any side effects/dangers to using them? How do I use them in case I ever need to in the future?
I just want to nip this in bud and make sure he doesn’t feel icky/gassy…. Thanks guys!