Cat-brother and his defective bladder
Our least-discussed family member decided to take his scary turn at sickness this weekend. Dada noticed that Moses hadn't been eating much, but on Sunday morning he hissed at Dada, and he never hisses at the grown-ups in our house. He was meowing, almost screaming at times. He was licking his nonexistent kitty package. His behavior kind of threw us, but we didn't know what could be wrong. Dada noticed that he hadn't pooped or peed by lunchtime, and also noticed that he'd been munching tiny bits from our mother-in-law's tongue in the kitchen. Perhaps, we thought, his tummy was upset. We bought him some kitty Pepto Bismol. After taking it he seemed a little more comfortable for a time.
But by Sunday evening, he began to freak me out at how very, very unlike himself he was behaving. He'd thrown up at least 5 or 6 times. He was moving in peculiar way -- holding his body gingerly, stepping lightly -- or not moving around much at all. It became obvious that he was in a lot of pain. He wasn't crying much anymore. He hadn't eaten, drank, peed or pooped all day, and we watched him strain to go once in the middle of the hall, this from a cat that has never in his 7 years gone outside the litterbox.
The babies had been such a handful during the day that I hadn't had time to use Dr. Google for veterinary purposes, but I knew Moses was going through something serious. When Isaac and Jacob went to bed, I looked online about kitty constipation and came across a site suggesting that most cats who appear constipated, especially if they are male, are actually suffering from a blocked urethra. Apparently this is a pretty common issue with male cats, whose urethras are particularly long and narrow. Over time, a cat's pee can start growing crystals if the food he eats makes the pH of the pee too basic. For male cats, these crystals can plug up the urethra such that no pee can come out. Having a cat who has been completely healthy his entire life has sheltered me from a knowledge of cat-health problems, but you can probably guess that a blocked urethra is a death sentence. A "blocked" cat requires immediate medical attention; death from kidney failure can occur in as little as 48 hours from the onset of symptoms.
Of course I found all this out at 1 in the morning. We called the local VCA veterinary hospital, part of a national chain which had gotten terrible reviews online, and they basically told us that we would have to sell our children to the gypsies to get enough money for them to see Kitty Moses. Not joking -- they tout on their website that they saved a 6-month-old puppy who had eaten rat poison by giving him a blood transfusion and keeping him in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for two days. Not being veterinarians, we weren't sure that Moses was blocked, and decided it would be best for him to be seen by a real doctor first thing in the morning. Though he is just an animal, he is my animal and I am ashamed to admit that our pocketbook was also a factor at the time.
Between 8 and 9 the next morning, Moses still had not peed or pooped and was sitting as still as possible and trying to sleep. We haven't taken Moses to the vet since we moved to Delaware, so I called six different veterinarians about him. Every single one told me they weren't accepting new patients, perhaps in part because Moses had the wisdom to get sick during this awful pet food recall business. Finally Dada got us in at the vet at our local Petsmart. I piled everyone in the car and went, dropping Dada off at work along the way.
At Petsmart, the receptionist suggested that we should leave Moses and they would check on him, and I quote, "sometime" during the day. This was after she told Dada over the phone that he had a 9:00 appointment to see a vet. I basically screamed at her that he needed to be seen, like, NOW, because he could be dying. After conferring with her colleagues, she reversed her earlier position and told us that they in fact had no time to see him at all today, and that if it was really an emergency we needed to go to this particular veterinary hospital in Wilmington, insert flicking out of pamphlet here. We had been trying to avoid the overwhelming pocketbook-bleeding required by veterinary hospitals, but what was I to do? There was no room for Kitty Moses at any inn. I ushered all of my boys back into the car, where I cried for a few minutes in sheer frustration that my cat was possibly dying and no one would help me.
Meanwhile, I called the veterinary hospital in Wilmington, which was not the poorly-reviewed VCA, and the receptionist was understanding, helpful, and reassuring. It was not far, and when I showed up we were immediately ushered back into an exam room. I left Kitty Moses there to take Isaac to the bathroom, and when we got back Moses was already being felt up by Nurse Lisa. Nurse Lisa told me without hesitation that Moses was blocked as I had suspected, and we agreed he should be treated immediately. Kitty Moses was then seen by Dr. Tuffey, who confirmed this and discussed what they would have to do for him, all of which was pretty standard according the Dr. Kitty Google:
1) He would be "unblocked", AKA heavily sedated and poked repeatedly in that most tender of male areas to dislodge whatever was lodged in his urethra.
2) He would be catheterized until his pee was without blood, probably for the better part of two days.
3) They would x-ray and ultrasound him to determine why he was blocked and if there was serious damage to his bladder and/or kidneys.
4) Lots of blood tests to check how his kidneys are performing.
5) IV fluids to help him rehydrate.
We left Kitty Moses in their friendly and capable hands, but not before cutting off my right arm at the desk in prepayment. When they first worked up Moses's blood, his kidney values were off the charts. One metabolic indicator was so high it could not be read by their machines. But after 24 hours of freely peeing and IV fluids, Moses was almost completely back to normal, and he was released from the hospital Wednesday at lunchtime. I will not tell you how much this cost, except to say it was an enormous lot and yet cheaper than the VCA. For comparison, a month ago we bought a very nice new couch. Kitty Moses's hospitalization cost more than that. But it was worth it, every penny, to fix something that was fixable; something that, provided we stick to this new vet-prescribed diet food for him, may never happen again. It was important to me to do it because I knew there has a high probability that after treatment he would be back to his old self.
Well, he is not completely his old self. His bladder is understandably traumatized from the experience and he is incontinent. Poor guy pees wherever he can, even in his bed, leaving the fur on his rear constantly wet with pee. He is on meds to help with bladder spasms. He should be better in that respect soon. But he is already better in almost every other respect. Just this evening he begged for table scraps from Dada's bowl of beef stew.
I like to pretend to complain about how much I hate cat-brother, how he wakes me up at night with his batting at the bedroom lamp's chain or his screaming for his precious soft food. But he is my kitty, and it turns out I do love him and want him to be happy and healthy, especially now that my babies are old enough that I can pay attention to him again.
But by Sunday evening, he began to freak me out at how very, very unlike himself he was behaving. He'd thrown up at least 5 or 6 times. He was moving in peculiar way -- holding his body gingerly, stepping lightly -- or not moving around much at all. It became obvious that he was in a lot of pain. He wasn't crying much anymore. He hadn't eaten, drank, peed or pooped all day, and we watched him strain to go once in the middle of the hall, this from a cat that has never in his 7 years gone outside the litterbox.
The babies had been such a handful during the day that I hadn't had time to use Dr. Google for veterinary purposes, but I knew Moses was going through something serious. When Isaac and Jacob went to bed, I looked online about kitty constipation and came across a site suggesting that most cats who appear constipated, especially if they are male, are actually suffering from a blocked urethra. Apparently this is a pretty common issue with male cats, whose urethras are particularly long and narrow. Over time, a cat's pee can start growing crystals if the food he eats makes the pH of the pee too basic. For male cats, these crystals can plug up the urethra such that no pee can come out. Having a cat who has been completely healthy his entire life has sheltered me from a knowledge of cat-health problems, but you can probably guess that a blocked urethra is a death sentence. A "blocked" cat requires immediate medical attention; death from kidney failure can occur in as little as 48 hours from the onset of symptoms.
Of course I found all this out at 1 in the morning. We called the local VCA veterinary hospital, part of a national chain which had gotten terrible reviews online, and they basically told us that we would have to sell our children to the gypsies to get enough money for them to see Kitty Moses. Not joking -- they tout on their website that they saved a 6-month-old puppy who had eaten rat poison by giving him a blood transfusion and keeping him in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for two days. Not being veterinarians, we weren't sure that Moses was blocked, and decided it would be best for him to be seen by a real doctor first thing in the morning. Though he is just an animal, he is my animal and I am ashamed to admit that our pocketbook was also a factor at the time.
Between 8 and 9 the next morning, Moses still had not peed or pooped and was sitting as still as possible and trying to sleep. We haven't taken Moses to the vet since we moved to Delaware, so I called six different veterinarians about him. Every single one told me they weren't accepting new patients, perhaps in part because Moses had the wisdom to get sick during this awful pet food recall business. Finally Dada got us in at the vet at our local Petsmart. I piled everyone in the car and went, dropping Dada off at work along the way.
At Petsmart, the receptionist suggested that we should leave Moses and they would check on him, and I quote, "sometime" during the day. This was after she told Dada over the phone that he had a 9:00 appointment to see a vet. I basically screamed at her that he needed to be seen, like, NOW, because he could be dying. After conferring with her colleagues, she reversed her earlier position and told us that they in fact had no time to see him at all today, and that if it was really an emergency we needed to go to this particular veterinary hospital in Wilmington, insert flicking out of pamphlet here. We had been trying to avoid the overwhelming pocketbook-bleeding required by veterinary hospitals, but what was I to do? There was no room for Kitty Moses at any inn. I ushered all of my boys back into the car, where I cried for a few minutes in sheer frustration that my cat was possibly dying and no one would help me.
Meanwhile, I called the veterinary hospital in Wilmington, which was not the poorly-reviewed VCA, and the receptionist was understanding, helpful, and reassuring. It was not far, and when I showed up we were immediately ushered back into an exam room. I left Kitty Moses there to take Isaac to the bathroom, and when we got back Moses was already being felt up by Nurse Lisa. Nurse Lisa told me without hesitation that Moses was blocked as I had suspected, and we agreed he should be treated immediately. Kitty Moses was then seen by Dr. Tuffey, who confirmed this and discussed what they would have to do for him, all of which was pretty standard according the Dr. Kitty Google:
1) He would be "unblocked", AKA heavily sedated and poked repeatedly in that most tender of male areas to dislodge whatever was lodged in his urethra.
2) He would be catheterized until his pee was without blood, probably for the better part of two days.
3) They would x-ray and ultrasound him to determine why he was blocked and if there was serious damage to his bladder and/or kidneys.
4) Lots of blood tests to check how his kidneys are performing.
5) IV fluids to help him rehydrate.
We left Kitty Moses in their friendly and capable hands, but not before cutting off my right arm at the desk in prepayment. When they first worked up Moses's blood, his kidney values were off the charts. One metabolic indicator was so high it could not be read by their machines. But after 24 hours of freely peeing and IV fluids, Moses was almost completely back to normal, and he was released from the hospital Wednesday at lunchtime. I will not tell you how much this cost, except to say it was an enormous lot and yet cheaper than the VCA. For comparison, a month ago we bought a very nice new couch. Kitty Moses's hospitalization cost more than that. But it was worth it, every penny, to fix something that was fixable; something that, provided we stick to this new vet-prescribed diet food for him, may never happen again. It was important to me to do it because I knew there has a high probability that after treatment he would be back to his old self.
Well, he is not completely his old self. His bladder is understandably traumatized from the experience and he is incontinent. Poor guy pees wherever he can, even in his bed, leaving the fur on his rear constantly wet with pee. He is on meds to help with bladder spasms. He should be better in that respect soon. But he is already better in almost every other respect. Just this evening he begged for table scraps from Dada's bowl of beef stew.
I like to pretend to complain about how much I hate cat-brother, how he wakes me up at night with his batting at the bedroom lamp's chain or his screaming for his precious soft food. But he is my kitty, and it turns out I do love him and want him to be happy and healthy, especially now that my babies are old enough that I can pay attention to him again.
posted by Claire at 11:27 PM
5 Comments:
Poor Moses! I feel badly my dogs are so shortchanged in the attention-dept. Some day it will change again. Glad you finally got some vet service that helped both you and Moses. Hope the uncontrollable squirts stop soon too. Stinky!
Poor guy! :( That's what our black cat had for over a year on and off before we finally had to make the toughest pet choice ever. :( :( I hope you are able to keep Moses' under control. :)
Erin -- oh no! I remember reading about when you had him put to sleep, but I had forgotten why. Unfortunately, we've had that seriously unsavory talk already since Moses has been home, because I'm not sure we can really afford to do this again.
So glad he's back to normal. That's a tough situation to be in when you have to shell that kind of money out for a pet.
I'm sorry, Claire. I've had to deal with that as well. Sometimes putting food out at specific times only and making sure there's a LOT of water available can help. I hope the wee man feels better soon. Feel free to email me if you'd like more info - I don't want to give unsolicited a55vice.
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