Tucker Woes
Not sure why I decided to work from home today. Probably because I have a big due date at work tomorrow and it usually requires working long hours as I receive data. Whatever it was, it definitely happened for a reason.
Over the weekend, I noticed Tucker was having a flare-up of his inflammatory cystitis but he took his anti-inflammatory pills and I gave him some pain meds and by yesterday evening, he was back to normal. This morning I noticed he was sitting in the litter box. Ok, that's not unusual but later in the morning, he was lying on the floor, growling in reaction to some very bad pain.
I called the vet and asked Dr. W to give me a call. I couldn't stand seeing him in pain any longer and wanted to know the options. In the meantime I gave him his pain meds and that helped for about 10 minutes. After that it seemed like the pain was getting much worse. Finally Dr. W called me and she said to bring him in, leave him overnight and she'd do a couple of tests to see if maybe he had a kidney stone that wasn't showing up on films. I took him in around 3:30. Forty-five minutes later I got a call from Dr. W saying his bladder was hard as a rock (meaning it was very full) and he wasn't passing any urine. Poor guy was completely blocked, which was why he was in so much pain. She was going to unblock him and give me a call back. She called back to say that she couldn't get the catheter in and recommended taking him to the vet hospital because she wasn't sure what was causing the problem. If it was a stone or crystals, they were much better equipped to take care of the problem. She also mentioned PU surgery.
PU stands for Perineal Urethrostomy and basically (men, look away) it means the penis is removed, making a bigger opening. I spoke to a couple of friends who had the procedure done on their male cats and they highly recommend it. Both of them said their cats had no more issues. At this point, something has to be done. Tucker is miserable (not to mention if I hadn't been home today, he quite possibly could have died or suffered serious kidney damage) and it stresses me out to see him stressed out and in pain. It's a serious chunk of change for the surgery but if it improves the quality of his life, I'm all for it.
So tomorrow morning I talk to the surgeon and hopefully, they can do the surgery in the afternoon. I'd like it to be done quickly since he's already there and halfway prepped for surgery. The Dr I spoke to at the hospital (I really liked him), who also agreed it was the right decision even though I brought it up to him, said Tucker would have to stay overnight tomorrow and then I could bring him home on Wednesday. I already feel like someone was watching out for the little guy but any good thoughts you could send his way would be much appreciated.
Over the weekend, I noticed Tucker was having a flare-up of his inflammatory cystitis but he took his anti-inflammatory pills and I gave him some pain meds and by yesterday evening, he was back to normal. This morning I noticed he was sitting in the litter box. Ok, that's not unusual but later in the morning, he was lying on the floor, growling in reaction to some very bad pain.
I called the vet and asked Dr. W to give me a call. I couldn't stand seeing him in pain any longer and wanted to know the options. In the meantime I gave him his pain meds and that helped for about 10 minutes. After that it seemed like the pain was getting much worse. Finally Dr. W called me and she said to bring him in, leave him overnight and she'd do a couple of tests to see if maybe he had a kidney stone that wasn't showing up on films. I took him in around 3:30. Forty-five minutes later I got a call from Dr. W saying his bladder was hard as a rock (meaning it was very full) and he wasn't passing any urine. Poor guy was completely blocked, which was why he was in so much pain. She was going to unblock him and give me a call back. She called back to say that she couldn't get the catheter in and recommended taking him to the vet hospital because she wasn't sure what was causing the problem. If it was a stone or crystals, they were much better equipped to take care of the problem. She also mentioned PU surgery.
PU stands for Perineal Urethrostomy and basically (men, look away) it means the penis is removed, making a bigger opening. I spoke to a couple of friends who had the procedure done on their male cats and they highly recommend it. Both of them said their cats had no more issues. At this point, something has to be done. Tucker is miserable (not to mention if I hadn't been home today, he quite possibly could have died or suffered serious kidney damage) and it stresses me out to see him stressed out and in pain. It's a serious chunk of change for the surgery but if it improves the quality of his life, I'm all for it.
So tomorrow morning I talk to the surgeon and hopefully, they can do the surgery in the afternoon. I'd like it to be done quickly since he's already there and halfway prepped for surgery. The Dr I spoke to at the hospital (I really liked him), who also agreed it was the right decision even though I brought it up to him, said Tucker would have to stay overnight tomorrow and then I could bring him home on Wednesday. I already feel like someone was watching out for the little guy but any good thoughts you could send his way would be much appreciated.