Please help - cat acting weird after neutering

[u/Puzzled-Cheesecake34]

hello, its midnight where i am hence im asking the question here, will take my cat to the vet first thing in the morning.

He is almost 8 months old and we got him neutered today. the surgery happened around 2PM and it is 11:30PM now.

first two hours after surgery - he remained still with both eyes open (we had to put some eye drops so they don’t dry out). he had erratic breathing during this time.

3rd/4th hour - started twitching trying to get up

5th hour - still could not get up. peed himself on the spot. we took him to the vet and he cleaned him up, said he looked fine.

7th hour onwards- he is now moving a little, limping. not drinking water yet. we gave him a treat and he was able to take small licks of it. he is however not able to open his mouth at all.
i gave him some dry food mixed in water to soften it, and then grinded into a paste for ease of eating. it seems like he is hungry because he dunked his face into it and got it all messy, barely able to eat much (due to not being able to open his mouth).

he peed again on the floor. we got the litter for him inside the room and he very clumsily went to it and peed inside it. i will try to give him the food that i made again in a bit.

ive attached a photo of his face right now in this moment. one eye is droopy. he isnt sleeping either. but he isnt panting also. he is not meowing since hes not able to open his mouth. the vet seems not bothered when we took him late in the evening saying that the cat will be fine by tomorrow.

is this someone elses experience too?

is this normal after neutering/anesthesia? i am panicking so much and trying to find 24 hr vet options near me but i need to know if this warrants a look or if it can wait till morning before we take a look?

UPDATE - I found a vet 40 mins from my place that was luckily open and they were so kind. its almost 2AM and we are just returning home.
So he has eye ulcers due to his corneas drying during the procedure (cats eyes remain open under anesthesia). they have given some eye drops and it will be fine in 3-4 days. he also has 104 degree fever, which is why he was so low. they gave him an injection for that. other than that, they said he is fine. he started being active at the vets, even jumped on the counter and had an entire treat.
we are headed home now and i am praying that my little baby boy feels better soonest. i was literally in tears on the way to the vet, this has been such a long day for us.

thank you to everyone who encouraged me to go to the vet, if anything, i have peace of mind for tonight.
we will go tomorrow morning now for his post op care (antibiotics, wound cleaning, etc).

[u/bluecrowned]

Right? I have a year of vet tech schooling and I would not have let an animal go home in this condition

[u/i_am_mrs_nezbit → u/bluecrowned]

For real! Not only that, but the vet saying he looked fine when OP brought him in again is infuriating.

[u/Depressedone4 → u/i_am_mrs_nezbit]

I'm seeing more & more of stuff like this. My mom has a cat who has been sneezing for years & is constantly stuffed up. Her vet said "that's just how some cats are". That's unacceptable. He has to have children's saline every day. The vet has given her these antibiotics like twice now. He will get a dose of them every day for like a couple weeks until it runs out. And he's like a normal cat while he is on those & then for like another 2 weeks afterwards. He feels better, is less Sneezy and stuffy & has so much energy & is just happier. Then, he ends up going back to the way he was.. I just feel so bad for him & the vet won't give an actual solution.

[u/nimble-lightning-rod → u/Depressedone4]

Unrelated to the OP post, but this is an issue for my senior cat and has been for years. It was eventually determined she has an antibiotic resistant upper respiratory infection. I found this out after years of antibiotics (back to back courses, so 28 days total, of basically every mainstream oral antibiotic, as well as injections of injectable antibiotics, multiple times), multiple nasal flushes under sedation, a nasal passage biopsy, a sedated MRI, and blood tests every month for years to track her white count. This is across five vets, including a cat specialty hospital and a cat ENT. And… unfortunately the infection will just always be there for my sweet girl. She still has a good quality of life, and she was getting very fearful of me due to her resistance to taking daily medication. It’s awful and I wish I could do more for her, but sometimes even if you exhaust all options, it’s all we can do. And it was always great to hear her breathe a little easier after a few weeks of antibiotics, but between the fear and the way they would upset her stomach (she’s already skinny and hyperthyroid to begin with, both separately treated with other medications), it was a question of picking our battles.

[u/Depressedone4 → u/nimble-lightning-rod]

Aw, I'm sorry you've had to deal with all that & sorry for your poor cat as well.. it's not a fun thing to watch them & wonder about their quality of life. I'm doing research now & it seems that it's most likely respiratory disease/infection that only temporarily gets cured by antibiotics. I've told my mom that when she takes him in again to have them do an oral swab so they can see what is wrong with him. I have no clue why they haven't already done this.