Sick Boy

When I took Leo in this morning, the vet thought his inappropriate urination was behavioral. Possibly from stress with Star, which is not like it's a new thing, or maybe that hiss fight he had with that cat through the door and window last week, or something else. But he didn't think it sounded like he had a physical issue.

I knew better.

None of Leo's stresses are new or suddenly changed, not that his relationship with Star is great, but I couldn't see him suddenly starting to pee everywhere because of it. And, ok, this is a delicate section so skip on down if you are easily offended... All the sudden in the last week or so Leo has been spending an inordinate amount of time grooming his... WhoHa (that's the technical term of course). I know boy dogs will lick their dinglberries (another technical term) just because they can, but I have never had a male cat who licked his part unless there was a problem. I was thinking about asking if anyone knew anything about that kind of behavior, but then the peeing, so it was off to the vet anyway.

What happened is Saturday Leo just got up off our bed and peed on a folded mattress cover right in front of us. That's when I figured, something is up, he would not do that if he was fine. Greg, who has a low tolerance for pee outside the box, closed off the upstairs to both kitties. Then last night in the middle of snack time, he moved into the closet (which still doesn't have it's door back up..) and started peeing. Greg saw him and said "Hey!" So he came out of the closet and peed on the carpet in a crouched down position, not the usual pee position.

Ut oh, I said, that's it, now I know he's got a problem. As Greg was scrubbing the carpet, we found two more puddles right in front of the other food station. Cats do not like to pee where they eat, more proof of problem. Right after cleaning those two puddles, there was another one and dribbles in the kitchen, meaning he was on the move as he peed. More signs of trouble.

So first thing this morning, Greg called to see if he could drop him off before work because I don't drive, don't have a car. No go, and the only appointment they had was at 10:40. So I got my nephew to take us. And like I said, the vet didn't think it was a physical problem. No fever, he couldn't feel any issues, his eyes were clear, all looked good. But he'd check his urine anyway and I could either take him home and get the sample and bring it in, or I could leave him. I left him because they said his bladder was empty and they could give him fluids and maybe lasixs to get him to go.

I should have remembered that for the entire 8 hour trip home from Chrystal's when I adopted my sweet boy, he didn't pee once.... This was going to be a long day. They said I should call around 4-4:30 if I didn't hear from them. I called at 4:30 because I didn't want to appear to be one of those crazy obsessive cat mommies... even though I was staring at the phone every five minutes all day wondering if it was broken and that's why I didn't hear anything..

The nurse said he JUST finally went! Which meant they hadn't tested it. But it didn't look normal, could I call back in 40 minutes, apparently the time it takes to run the tests. Sure, of course I could. ARRGH!!! Do you KNOW how long 40 minutes are when they already said something's wrong????

I called my nephew and asked him to be at my house in 40 minutes because that would be getting pretty close to the time they close and I didn't want him to spend the night if we didn't have to. I called at 40 minutes on the dot. Basically they just said to come get him. I'm on my way!

The vet called me into the room. No Leo. He said that Leo has both blood and crystals in his urine. As near as I can understand it, crystals are the bigger problem because if they continue, they can grow and completely block his ability to pee. I lost a cat to that once, I do not want to go through that again!

So we are home, armed with two medications. One he'll be on for three weeks, the other, I think is a week, until it runs out. I only have a weeks worth of the antibiotic in case we have trouble giving him it liquid form, then next week we can pick up more in pills or liquid, which ever is easier. I've also got a stack of papers to read. While the vet didn't say anything about it being FLUTD, some of the papers talk about it. I guess we wont know if he has that until we see if it clears up or continues?

He also told me that fish cat foods can be a cause of crystals! We never had fish dry food until we got Leo, but because that's what he was used to, that's what we continued feeding him. And Star started preferring it over her old food so that was their basic diet. In canned food, we stuck to poultry because, as any long time reader may know, Star is a chicken addict. But recently, I'd say in the last three months, we have gotten more fishy flavors and they both liked them so we got more and more fish.. I had no idea this could be a problem.

Please pardon the no pictures today. And all the pee talk. And, seriously, thank you all for the purrs and prayers. If you would, please purr and pray and send good thoughts that when he gets tested again in three weeks that it's all cleared up and wont be an on going problem! Thank you everyone!!

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go snuggle my baby boy now.