The Blog Pound

Thursday, January 29, 2009 , early afternoon

Two more days at the vet, and lots of surprises

Tuesday morning, we took off on another big veterinary clinic excursion. We took Scampi in for a dental cleaning, Eli went for her senior wellness exam (blood, urine, radiographs), and Bunny went for her cardiac ultrasound. As a bonus, I managed to snag Bing, so we took her along for the ride so she could have her vaccines updated and her mouth looked at (I was worried she also suffered from Feline Odontoclastic Resorptive Lesions). It turned out that Bing does have FORLS, although not as severely as Scampi… poor Scampi has mouth ulcers and required a steroid injection for the inflammation. The vet had time to squeeze Bing in for a dental as well, so both cats came home feeling a little sore, but their mouths are happier. Now to try to keep their mouths as clean and healthy as possible to try to prevent the FORLS from progressing, although they’ll both likely eventually lose all their teeth because of this. I just want them to be comfortable and pain free, no matter what it takes.

As part of the surgery, Scampi and Bing had pre-surgical blood work and urinalysis, and it was discovered that both of them had “raging” urinary tract infections. It’s weird, because they’re both totally asymptomatic, but I’m glad it was caught. I’m even more glad about a new antibiotic treatment for cats called “Convenia”—it’s a single injection which lasts for up to two weeks, so no more chasing your cat around with a pill and a prayer anytime it gets sick. Yay! Tonight we’re at the 36 hour post-surgery mark, and both cats seem absolutely fine. One of them peed on the bed last night but I think it was an accident from still being in a fog, and they’ve both been in good spirits. They’re now getting Prescription T/D kibble as a snack, twice a day, to help keep their teeth clean. I want to start them chewing on raw chicken necks as well, but I need to find a local supplier.

I was pretty bothered that siblings Bing and Scampi had bad UTIs, especially when there’s supposedly no real pattern to the infections… they’re quite random. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but wonder if the cats’ littermate, Tie, might also have a UTI, so today we dragged him into the clinic for a urinalysis. Turns out he has a very mild UTI, but he unfortunately has crystals in his urine, and the potential for blockage. The vet wanted to put him on Waltham Urinary S/O right away, but I asked for a two week reprieve to get Tie back eating his normal diet. I’d had trouble getting the right chicken to make my homemade food for the past week and a half, so I’ve been substituting with other canned stuff, and the vet said the crystals could form in a matter of days. If the crystals are a response to the store-bought food, two weeks should be long enough to get him back on his normal raw diet and then we’ll see if there are changes. I hope so, because I can’t afford to feed all the cats Waltham, and it would make feeding time into an even bigger circus. I can’t help but now wonder how many other cats in the house are harbouring secret UTIs, so I’ll probably start to get them checked, one by one, just in case. I’m also going to add a couple more litterboxes in case any of the cats are holding their urine too long because of box stress, and I’ll be adding a few more water dishes as well. Our house offers the cats seven extremely large litterboxes (made from Rubbermaid storage bins), and there are also six or seven water dishes (there was a fountain, too, but they chewed up the cord for it). I want to make sure there’s no territorialism going on over either litterboxes or water dishes, so adding to what we already have will help. We just need to figure out where to put all these new boxes and bowls!

I’m thrilled to say that Eli passed her physical exam with flying colours. Except for the fact her arthritis has worsened (which wasn’t a surprise to me), her blood work was all normal and her radiographs were clear. It’s so nice to hear, given that she’s going to be 13 years old in a couple of weeks. She’s dropped qutie a lot of weight, going from a high of 105 to her current weight of 82, but most of that was just muscle mass. Now that she has trouble with her back legs, she doesn’t run and jump like she used to, and she has skinny, scrawny, old person legs. I wish we had pet physical therapy around here so she could get into a pool and perhaps regain some muscle, which would in turn help take some pressure off her joints. We’ll keep her on Dasuquin with the occasional bit of Rimadyl, and just hope she stays this healthy for her 14 year checkup.

No report back yet on Bunny. The file from her cardiac ultrasound is sent to a group of specialists in California, via email. They then analyze the ultrasound and write a diagnostic report and treatment recommendation. Bunny is doing so well that I hope they find her condition hasn’t changed at all, or has perhaps even reverse somewhat (I’m told this is possible, if the enlargement was caused bya virus). I’m crossing my fingers, toes, and legs for good news about Bunny.

For now, that’s all the latest vet news that’s fit to print… at least, the news from this part of Las Vegas.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/29 at 02:24 PM
The Litterbox • (3) Comments • Permalink