Kat in hospital and Bombon's new cart

[Debbie-Spain]

Sorry I haven't been around on the board for a few days. Kat started getting what appeared to be a UTI last weekend (apparently, blood in urine when I expressed her), emergency vet visits, antibiotics, appeared to be getting better, last night blood started appearing again, so she is now in hospital and they are doing tests. Since Saturday she hadn't eaten very much and hadn't pooped either, now there appears to be some form of fecal impaction (she had one right at the beginning after I found her and we had to operate to remove it), and it seems there could be blood could be coming from the colon either instead of or together with the bladder (Kat is doubly incontinent and her sphincters are permanently "open" which makes it difficult to tell what is coming from where!)

They did an x-ray today to check out the poop situation and were doing blood and urine tests tonight, tomorrow they are going to do a scan to check up on whether it could be an infection of the neck of the uterus (she is spayed), or whether she may have some kind of tumor or cyst, and basically look at her kidney, liver etc. If they decide she needs a colonoscopy I will have to take her to a specialist. She was in better spirits today than she was at the weekend but obviously something is very wrong...I just hope it is something that we can put right. I can't believe she could get something bad so quickly, she had been so good recently...they have her on a drip because she was very slightly dehydrated (I have seen her much worse when she had her uterine infection last summer)

Bombon's wheelchair with its new adaptations arrived, it seems to be much better but with the problems with Kat, plus the fact it has rained for days, we haven't been able to use it as much as I would have liked. But when she gets going, boy does she run! And she does some great turns! I have to teach her that she cannot jump up onto the sofa in it though! She has great fun chasing the cats around the house (they join in and make her chase them, I swear they know she needs to exercise, they take it in turns to run in front of her...she never touches them, just has a good sniff and then starts chasing the next one!)

I hope to be back around in a few days, please keep Kat in your thoughts, she is such a wonderful kitty and I am missing her terribly!

Debbie

[SandyNY]

We will keep praying for her that she is home and healthy again soon. Let us know how she is when you can. Glad Bombon is doing so well.

[Bendy Kitty]

we will certainly keep Kat in our thoughts. Blood in urine still makes us go cold inside. Poor Legume had urine that looked like cranberry juice
that and impacted feces are hard for a kitty, I hope she is straightened out soon. Is she on any kind of stool softener?

please keep us updated!

hooray for Bombon! Sounds like the cart is great fun for everyone!

Bendy Kitty

[RichB]

I hope she gets well soon.

[critters]

But gslad B.'s doing so well!

[CarolC]

Hi Debbie, Your absence did not go unnoticed. I'm sorry to hear Kat isn't feeling well. I hope they'll be very gentle when they examine her and that they'll find out what's going on. I hope you can be there for part of it to give her moral support and to help set the tone in the examining room. Best wishes to both of you.

[Debbie-Spain]

But it's all a bit complicated. X-rays showed some degree of fecal impaction, not as bad as last time but if it doesn't start moving by Monday we will have to get it removed under anaesthetic, it is too high up for simple manual removal.
Her blood and urine panels showed bad infection (leucos at 27,000, normal is 18,000 though has been on amoxy since last Saturday) so she is now also on enrofloxacin.
Her sugar levels are way out of line and she currently has a typical profile for diabetes. This will be monitored, it may be temporary owing to the infection and right itself again if she overcomes the infection. If she is diabetic (she is not overweight), it is type II diabetes so no insulin injections needed but will need oral medication.

All her other values were within the normal ranges.
The scan this evening showed a large amount of crystals (struvite), it seems this is causing the bleeding. Her bladder wall is inflamed but in general her bladder is not noticeably thicker than a normal bladder.
Everything else on the scan appeared fine, all organs ok, no apparent infection elsewhere... but it still seems that the reaction is a bit exaggerated for just a problem with struvite crystals.

At least she is considerably more lively today. Vets are v. pleased with skin around her rear end, which had been a major problem with urine scald causing sores, now much healthier. Kat was visibly delighted to see me when I arrived for the scan (she surprised us all with her "greeting"!). She purred all through the scan and again as we got near home and she could hear the dogs barking!

Thanks so much for all your kind wishes and thoughts. I am aware that Kat may have a shorter life because of her problems (the UTIs mainly), but when she reached a year old I set the next target of her reaching 2 (around 1st June). I try and take each day as it comes but when she gets ill I go into panic mode...we still have some hurdles to overcome but I feel more positive today. Sometimes even if the diagnosis is not brilliant at least you know what you are trying to deal with.

Thanks again, I will be a bit scarce until we get everything under control, but will keep you updated

Debbie

[Debbie-Spain]

Carol, thanks so much for your kind wishes.

A comment about vets:
Honest vets in Spain admit they are about 10 years behind vets in the US (for example there is no such thing as a rehab clinic for pets here) but I am happy to say that I do have full confidence in how my vets care for Kat.

They always let me in on anything they are doing to her (or my other pets), even procedures under gen. anaesthetic or ops if I want to stay around. Several of them have cared for Kat in their own homes at different times (they started calling her Kat when we first found her and it stuck!) and she gets royal treatment at the clinic. She is never housed in the cages, she either gets the grooming room or one of the treatment rooms to herself! They are very fond of her and treat her like one of the family. I'm so grateful for that. They are the kind of people who say: "you look tired: want us to have Kat for a few days?".

They always look for the cheapest valid treatment option and have sent me to the pharmacy on occasions to buy a cheaper version of a drug they could sell me at a much higher price. They never charge me visits, only medications or treatment, at cost price and then they give me a discount! They pass me loads of sample products or bags of food that are about to reach the sell-by date (just yesterday they gave me 10 kilos of Hill's Feline C/D and several collars and leads for rescue dogs.)

I think it's so important to have a good relationship with your vet and that they take into account what you think. And it works two ways, there are some things I have "discovered" that have helped them: they had never heard of zithromax until I started using it with ill street kitties, and now they prescribe it, same with a couple of other drugs; I told them that my cat stopped getting asthma attacks when I changed the litter to wood pellets and now they recommend trying that litter for cats that have asthma (there is no litter made from paper here, which is the ideal one for asthma), etc. Thanks to Bendy, we also discovered 3M's Cavilon spray, and they still rave about it!

Anyway, I just wanted to pay a little tribute to them because they really are vets by vocation and it is not easy to find vets like them here...Kat's main vet had wanted a cat for his family for a long time and his wife finally agreed (they have 4 kids and 3 dogs). So they have just adopted a cat that was found on the street and is FeLV positive, with little chance of being adopted here. That convinces me that he really is a great guy!

Debbie

[Bendy Kitty]

that does sound complicated....and familiar.
We have a drug we got for Legume, tho never got to try. The urine has to have a pH of 5 to use it - it turns it to formaldehyde - thus killing even the worst of infections.

wish we coudl send it to you.
it is probably out of date now, anyway. just cant' get ourselves to get rid of things of his.

have you tried mineral oil to get her bowls moving again? just a lil often works wonders. too much and she gets the squirts!

many many purrrrs to cat.

Bendy

[Alisa G]

prayers for your special girl.