my kitten is sick :( :(
I came home late this evening, around 11:30pm. No small black cat came running to greet me, which was a little odd, but I didn't pay it much mind. Around 1:30am I went up to bed. Spooky's bowl still had food in it, which was also odd. He was sleeping on the bed and meowed at me, which he very rarely does (he is a silent little man). I went to take a closer look at him, but he jumped away, to the closet. Rather than try to flush him out, I grabbed his bag of treats and shook it. After a moment, he hopped back onto the bed. I took out a treat and gave it to him, and he just looked at it. Now I was truly worried -- normally he's practically biting my fingers off trying to get at those things.
I picked him up and held him on his back, which he let me do. I took a look at his genital area (he was neutered last week) but nothing seemed amiss. I poked at the spot on his side that he's been licking way more than normal (I had figured maybe he was overgrooming as a response to not having been able to groom when he had the cone collar on after the neutering procedure), but no response. I pressed on each of his paws, no cries of pain. But then I noticed that he was trembling slightly, continuously. Aw geez.
As I got re-dressed in preparation for taking him to the vet, he meowed at me some more. Way, way out of character.
Anyway, it turns out that he was seriously constipated. This is the sort of thing that you'd notice right away if your pet was a dog, I guess. Or if you scooped out your cat's litter box every single day, like you keep thinking you really ought to. See if I make that mistake again.
In addition to the constipation issue, the x-ray showed that one of his hip joints is not sitting correctly in its little socket. This miiiiight be why he's constipated -- if his hip was hurting, he might not have wanted to squat down to poo -- but it could be a separate problem altogether. He's always had a funny, loping run, but I never thought much of it. The vet said that in time it could develop into a more painful, problematic thing, but that a simple surgery could probably take care of it.
So, my sad, lopsided, stopped up cat is spending the night at the vet, just a week and a half after his big balls-off surgery. Yeesh.
I picked him up and held him on his back, which he let me do. I took a look at his genital area (he was neutered last week) but nothing seemed amiss. I poked at the spot on his side that he's been licking way more than normal (I had figured maybe he was overgrooming as a response to not having been able to groom when he had the cone collar on after the neutering procedure), but no response. I pressed on each of his paws, no cries of pain. But then I noticed that he was trembling slightly, continuously. Aw geez.
As I got re-dressed in preparation for taking him to the vet, he meowed at me some more. Way, way out of character.
Anyway, it turns out that he was seriously constipated. This is the sort of thing that you'd notice right away if your pet was a dog, I guess. Or if you scooped out your cat's litter box every single day, like you keep thinking you really ought to. See if I make that mistake again.
In addition to the constipation issue, the x-ray showed that one of his hip joints is not sitting correctly in its little socket. This miiiiight be why he's constipated -- if his hip was hurting, he might not have wanted to squat down to poo -- but it could be a separate problem altogether. He's always had a funny, loping run, but I never thought much of it. The vet said that in time it could develop into a more painful, problematic thing, but that a simple surgery could probably take care of it.
So, my sad, lopsided, stopped up cat is spending the night at the vet, just a week and a half after his big balls-off surgery. Yeesh.