A semi-concise account of Jinksy's two vet visits
TL;DR version: nothing is seriously wrong with Jinksy, but we're really glad we took him to see the vet last night.
Our poor boy wound up at the cat hospital twice in 24 hours because they needed a urine sample for testing and he was uncooperative about that at his initial appointment last night. (He's too wriggly for the "needle right into the bladder" [!!! o_o] method to be an option, the vet squeezing his bladder a little while he was over a bowl didn't work, and he refused to avail himself of a litter pan with non-absorbent beads.) We could have brought home a kit with those beads and a syringe and stuff and set him up in Ginny's room and kept checking and hoping he'd use that designated litter box and then tried to get the sample to the vet relatively quickly...but instead I got up early-for-me this morning and (via cab) took him back to the vet for the day. He did indeed provide them with a sample at last, tests were run, and we picked him up as soon as
scruloose was home from work.
One of the vet techs was like, "He was bored today, so I picked him up and carried him all over the clinic and showed him where we do everything." *g*
(I'm cheating a bit and using Dr. Julia's notes for reference.)
X-rays done last night showed no kidney (or other? Bladder?) stones, but in the tests today, "Jinksy's urine did contain both struvite and calcium oxalate crystals. The pH was high (just over 7) and it was very concentrated urine both of which predispose to crystal formation", and there was also some inflammation and signs of a probable bacterial infection.
So. In the short term, he's on painkillers (administered orally via syringe; he doesn't like the syringe, but the amount is small and absorbed through the gums, and he doesn't seem to mind the taste), an anti-spasmodic ("to help relax his urethra and aid in urination, hopefully reducing the risk of him developing a muscle spasm in his urethra and 'blocking' while the food dissolves the struvites and his body flushes out the oxalate crystals"), and antibiotics. The latter two are both pills, twice daily, and here is the part where I appreciate the hell out of the modern miracle of pill pockets, because he doesn't seem to notice the pills at all, any more than he has on previous occasions.
Longer term, we're switching to an appropriate "veterinary formula" food. Very, very fortunately, they seem to be low-carb, which we need for Claudia, so we don't foresee needing to try to feed the cats separately. Also fortunately, they both seemed happy to eat the new food at dinner tonight.
In four weeks we'll take him back to get retested.
(For my reference: "He will need to be on one of these formulas for a minimum of 4-6 weeks, but ideally, I recommend indefinitely as an individual who makes crystals is prone to do so again. If he will take the food with additional water added, all the better, to further increase his urine volume output and aid in the flushing out of the oxalate crystals that are present. IF feeding a different diet after the 4-6 weeks you should look for one that has a "S/O INDEX" stamp on the label which indicates that it is unlikely to cause crystal formation.
I emailed the representative from Royal Canin and am waiting for her to get back to me with the carbohydrate content as % fed for their canned formulas. I located the most recent (2016) guide for the PVD UR and it is either 3.2% or 3.27% carbohydrate as fed depending on if feeding the turkey or the salmon respectively.")
Originally posted at http://umadoshi.dreamwidth.org/766664.html. Comment here if you like, or comment there using OpenID. Comments at DW:
Our poor boy wound up at the cat hospital twice in 24 hours because they needed a urine sample for testing and he was uncooperative about that at his initial appointment last night. (He's too wriggly for the "needle right into the bladder" [!!! o_o] method to be an option, the vet squeezing his bladder a little while he was over a bowl didn't work, and he refused to avail himself of a litter pan with non-absorbent beads.) We could have brought home a kit with those beads and a syringe and stuff and set him up in Ginny's room and kept checking and hoping he'd use that designated litter box and then tried to get the sample to the vet relatively quickly...but instead I got up early-for-me this morning and (via cab) took him back to the vet for the day. He did indeed provide them with a sample at last, tests were run, and we picked him up as soon as
scruloose was home from work.
One of the vet techs was like, "He was bored today, so I picked him up and carried him all over the clinic and showed him where we do everything." *g*
(I'm cheating a bit and using Dr. Julia's notes for reference.)
X-rays done last night showed no kidney (or other? Bladder?) stones, but in the tests today, "Jinksy's urine did contain both struvite and calcium oxalate crystals. The pH was high (just over 7) and it was very concentrated urine both of which predispose to crystal formation", and there was also some inflammation and signs of a probable bacterial infection.
So. In the short term, he's on painkillers (administered orally via syringe; he doesn't like the syringe, but the amount is small and absorbed through the gums, and he doesn't seem to mind the taste), an anti-spasmodic ("to help relax his urethra and aid in urination, hopefully reducing the risk of him developing a muscle spasm in his urethra and 'blocking' while the food dissolves the struvites and his body flushes out the oxalate crystals"), and antibiotics. The latter two are both pills, twice daily, and here is the part where I appreciate the hell out of the modern miracle of pill pockets, because he doesn't seem to notice the pills at all, any more than he has on previous occasions.
Longer term, we're switching to an appropriate "veterinary formula" food. Very, very fortunately, they seem to be low-carb, which we need for Claudia, so we don't foresee needing to try to feed the cats separately. Also fortunately, they both seemed happy to eat the new food at dinner tonight.
In four weeks we'll take him back to get retested.
(For my reference: "He will need to be on one of these formulas for a minimum of 4-6 weeks, but ideally, I recommend indefinitely as an individual who makes crystals is prone to do so again. If he will take the food with additional water added, all the better, to further increase his urine volume output and aid in the flushing out of the oxalate crystals that are present. IF feeding a different diet after the 4-6 weeks you should look for one that has a "S/O INDEX" stamp on the label which indicates that it is unlikely to cause crystal formation.
I emailed the representative from Royal Canin and am waiting for her to get back to me with the carbohydrate content as % fed for their canned formulas. I located the most recent (2016) guide for the PVD UR and it is either 3.2% or 3.27% carbohydrate as fed depending on if feeding the turkey or the salmon respectively.")
Originally posted at http://umadoshi.dreamwidth.org/766664.html. Comment here if you like, or comment there using OpenID. Comments at DW: