Monday, January 11, 2010

Take it easy

You are such a lazy tomcat, Arthur. But we love you so much!

You haven't been feeling too well lately. In fact I took you to the vet Friday night. For a whole week, you have been
roaming around the house, meowing and not finding the right spot to lay down and nap.
You have declared all flowerpots as litter boxes, until you peed blood in a clear container that was sitting on the kitchen counter top. That was the signal you wanted to give us: HELP ME!

You have peed blood before. It's been a while though. It must have been in 2007. We were out for the weekend and the neighbor took care of you. We came back on a Sunday night and were happy to see you. You were meowing and doing all kinds of things you normally didn't do. Until you sat down in our newspaper basket and peed... We were not happy with you doing that and I picked you out of the basket, to scold you. And then I saw the blood... it was a puddle of blood back then. That was so scary!! I called the vet right away, but she was not on duty. She told us to find another vet, in another town. So we did. You had X-rays, ultrasound and a thorough examination. The vet thought you had kidney stones. But you didn't. While you were sedated, they could tell you were very stressed. In stress moments, you pee blood. You damage your own bladder in distress.. The vet put you on antibiotics and you temporarily had to eat special nutrition to heal your bladder. But as I said, that was some 3 years ago.

This time, our vet assumed it could be stress peeing again, but she wanted to make sure you didn't have any kidney stones. After all, it had been 3 years without any problems of that kind. So she sedated you and examined you, took some X-rays and an ultrasound. Same old problem: stress peeing. Do you need a therapist now, Arthur? What's causing your distress?

You drink (nothing but water out of the fish bowl or straight from the tap), you eat your diet nutrition and you sleep a lot. I hope you are not in pain. You stopped digging in the flowerpots. I feed you your antibiotics if you expect it the least. Because you are way too smart. Pills in minced meat or in yogurt can't fool you. You eat around it. So when you're fast asleep, I open your mouth, put the tablet in your throat and close your mouth for a few seconds. You can't do much else but swallow. I know it's no fun for you, but it's the only way to make sure you have your meds.

Hang in there buddy. You'll get better. You just have to..


No comments: