#i guess it's the power dynamic and my sympathies moving away from him and whatnot but still i don't do this to most other characters

[vickyvicarious]

I kept away from my friend for a few days, so that I might notice if there were any change.

Echoes of Dracula creeping in again here. Seward is also calling someone being held captive by him/someone over whom he is in a position of great power "my friend". He is also spending so much/such regular time with him that it is the time apart which are notable exceptions, even if he's not mentioning every visit. Of course, the nature/length of these interactions is going to be different from Dracula and Jonathan's nightly conversations, but still, it reminds me of this line:

Last night the Count left me early, and locked himself into his own room.

Jonathan knew that Dracula was up to something because he 'left early', thereby telling us that they were still spending plenty of time together as a rule. I imagine Renfield too noticed Jack's absence for several days and realized it meant the doctor had something in mind; he'd certainly pick up on the break in pattern, at least. I wonder if him introducing the bird was just the right timing for his plan regardless, or if he went for it during that gap in visits deliberately so it would be harder for Seward to stop him before he's got it established into his food chain.

Of course, in this case it's less that Seward is off doing something new so much as he is trying to be able to better notice the new things Renfield is doing. There's two ways to take this line. One is that he wants to see if Renfield is getting up to anything wild/different when he's not being directly observed/visited so often (removing Seward as a variable). The other is that Seward recognizes he himself needs distance in order to notice any changes that may be too gradual for him to observe directly when he's visiting more often. Either could certainly work, and there may be an element of both here. But the latter is kind of wild in how it points to Jack recognizing he's too close to the problem... even as he uses the very informal/familiar language of "my friend" to refer to his patient in the very same sentence.