Finally! It seems that everyone is either better or on their way to getting better.
Mike is pretty much better. Lauren is thoroughly enjoying her bubblegum medicine (sad girl). And then there's Tigger. Tigger is our oldest cat. He's almost 9 years old (he's technically considered an "elderly" cat).
Soon after Lauren got her bubblegum medicine, I guess Tigger got jealous and decided he needed some medicine too. He started peeing everywhere (usually a good indication something is wrong with a cat). We took him to the vet, actually, it was Mike but I like to make it sound like I was involved in the process. They told us he had a urinary tract infection. He got to go on an antibiotic too! Which means we, I mean Mike, got to shove pills down Tigger's throat. Tigger got better for a couple of days. Then, he started peeing blood. Joy! Not something you want to fool around with. So we (oh who am I kidding!), MIKE, took him back to the vet and they gave Tigger 2 shots because they believe he has an inflamed bladder. Poor kitty! And he got better...
That is until this past Friday. He started peeing blood again. So on Saturday, Mike (see, I'm giving up) took Tigger back to the vet and they did blood work. They diagnosed Tigger with Feline Idiopathic Cystitis. Huh? They don't really know what's causing this condition but they keep saying stress. STRESS???!!!! What stress? The cat gets free food, shelter, love, sleeps when he wants, eats when he wants. If that's stress, then sign me up! Anyway, here's what the papers the vet gave us say: "We know that cats that get this syndrome have a unique imbalance in the way their brain controls hormones. In other words, these cats are unusually sensitive to environmental stress and, due to a complicated cascade of metabolic events, stress manifests in the urinary tract." So we have a hormonal, stressed, elderly peeing cat. Great!
Their solution: Give him some can food (has more water in it and will help him stay hydrated) and they gave him Valium. Yes. That's right. My cat is high on Valium. He's VERY mellow (which he usually is anyway so he's just a really, really mellow ball of fur). And he's all over us! One thing about Tigger is he is an affection seeking cat. He loves people and he loves to be pet. He will find you, wherever you are in the house, and he will sit right next to you, look at you with his pretty green eyes, and say "Pet me." And if there's no room for him to sit, he'll make room. He's very persistent. And for whatever reason, Valium has made it worse. He might as well be attached to one of us. It's sad. And he's so soft, and cute, and sweet that you just have to give in and pet him. Sigh. I love my birthday kitty (He was my 25th b-day present).
So, Tigger seems to be getting better. Thank goodness that it's nothing really serious.
A note about our friend Gene:
We went to visit Gene at the hospital on Saturday. He looked great! We joked around and had a nice visit. He's even eaten a meal at the hospital's cafe. He should be going home sometime this week. Yay!
A Slow Cooker Thanksgiving
11 months ago
1 comment:
I feel your pain...we had a cocker spaniel, Pluto, that was stressed. He only got Benadryl daily to calm him, I may have liked him better on Valium!!
Pluto would have patches of no fur when he would get extra stressed. He would scratch places on his skin nonstop until they would bleed , all from stress. The stress of being loved on everyday, eating all the food he wanted, being king of the castle from 6 weeks of age until 2 years of age. We then let him move to a farm with some friends of ours to see if he could overcome his stress :)
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