The Ends Get Moved Further Apart

Boycat has been struggling with feline idiopathic cystitis since early May. We've already done two rounds of antibiotics, pain-killers each time he flared up, and a full six weeks of buspirone.

He finished the last of his meds on Tuesday. All seemed like it was going well. On Friday morning, he started peeing only tiny amounts and licking himself again. Soon he was peeing outside his box.

We had a refill available for the buspirone and started him on that again Friday evening. He was in such obvious pain this morning and wouldn't/couldn't pee, so we made a flying visit to the emergency vet hospital to get him checked out.

Three hours and $182 later, he is home for the weekend with painkillers, anti-spasmodics and Cosequin. He doesn't have a blockage, and they gave him some subcutaneous fluids that helped him have a couple excellent big peeings. He's doing better now thanks to the fluids and his meds, but we have to go back to our regular vet early next week for a more complete work-up: x-rays, possible urine culture, etc. which means $$$$.

Sigh.

There is never a good time for these things to happen, but weekends are of course the worst (though I feel lucky and grateful that we have emergency vet services available). And for this to happen while I'm employed only part-time with not a lot of spare dough is of course not ideal, either. I just got a small "summer vacation" bonus from the website I write for, and I know now it's not going to be spent on something fun like a summer vacation.

But ... Boycat is family. I wouldn't consider NOT seeking treatment for him, even if I couldn't pay for it. I am grateful to have services available and to have money to pay for them, even if it means I'll be pretty broke in July. At least we got to come home with our cat and with medicines that will help make him more comfortable while we figure out if there is something behind all this. (As frustrating as it is, I do hope it is truly "idiopathic" and not something scarier like a tumor.)

There were several other folks there that were much worse off: a young couple whose dog had been attacked by a pit bull; a young woman whose cat has something similar to Boycat but who had to be admitted to the hospital for treatment and monitoring; an older couple who left the exam room crying, and without their pet. I'll take my big vet bill vs. not being able to bring my pet home, for whatever reason.

Update 7/7/2013: Boycat went for x-rays and a more complete work-up a couple days ago and they found nothing. It is truly feline idiopathic cystitis at this point. We're finishing up the meds from the most recent incident, and we're going to keep him on buspirone for a few months. We were advised to add additional water to his wet food, and were told to consider a type of wet food made specifically for cats with urinary tract problems if he has another flare up. Right now, we're relieved to find it's nothing serious, and we'll continue meds and watchful waiting, hoping for the best. 

Cat Pee and Other Cat Concerns

Some of you know that we had a pet emergency this week. Boycat started peeing blood on Thursday and the vet (whom we had never needed to see here in Philly, at least not yet) was kind enough to rush us right in.

The official diagnosis was Feline Idiopathic Cystitis, but lab tests showed multiple bacteria present as well, so he's on an antibiotic, a painkiller and because the problem appears to have been exacerbated by the noises of the ongoing construction (building-wide window replacement) taking place, an anti-anxiety pill for humans (and cats) called Buspar (buspirone).

I filled his Buspar prescription at Walgreen's. His bottle has his first and
last name, plus "The Cat." Cute.  :-) 

The painkillers are some tasty flavored chewable pills and he begs for those when I open the package.

He ate his antibiotic wrapped in turkey the first day, but apparently he's wise to us now. I got a Buspar down him using tuna and tuna water to disguise it, but we could not get him to take his antibiotic in food yesterday and had to resort to cat-pilling. Ugh. Such unpleasant (but very necessary) business. And since he's now attuned to the possible presence of pills in tuna, turkey, etc., it looks like we'll be doing it three times a day for a couple weeks. One of several videos I found helpful is below.

I just hope he starts feeling better soon. He was still peeing a bit of blood yesterday, and peeing only tiny amounts in spite of all the wet food, tuna water and bottled water he's been consuming. I never saw him lick his whizzer even once when he was healthy, but he's doing it all the time now, apparently 'cause it's in such pain. He's also leaving little pee spritzes in assorted non-appropriate locations around the house. (He never pee'd outside his box before, which would have been a sure sign of something wrong even without the bloody pee.)

Human friends, have you ever had cystitis/bladder infection/UTI? I remember being pretty miserable with it. You want to jump out of your skin, which is probably what Boycat has been feeling the last couple of days.

That being said, we have a list of household goods and clothing casualties that continues to grow. He pee'd on two pairs of my suede boots, both of which are probably not salvageable. Even if the bloody pee stains come out, the aroma probably will not. I do not want to be the person who causes everyone to ask, "Do you smell cat pee?" when I walk by in a pair of these boots. He also pee'd on (and in) my rainboots, so they're goners, as well as a pair of Mr. 42's flip-flops. A couple shirts and an afghan also got hit and will be taking a turn through the washer in the near future. I have newspapers down at the particular spot on the carpet that he's taken to spritzing. The smell of cat pee in our small apartment is pretty unpleasant and we're probably not done with the sprayings yet.  Nature's Miracle is on its way from Amazon.com as we speak.

To avoid future recurrences, the vet recommend we transition him to an all wet-food diet, so we're going to transition both cats at the same time. They already get periodic wet food as a treat and they like it, but both are very attached to their fancy-pants grain-free dry cat food. (Which I had just bought a big bag of, too. Damn the luck.)

On a brighter note, our new window installation was completed yesterday (hooray!) so Boycat's immediate perceived threats from strange noises and strange people are greatly diminished. He and Girlcat LOVE sitting in the new windows. We love the windows, too, since the old ones were almost completely rotten and we had to put plastic up in the winter due to the drafts. Plus they open all the way up, which is helping with the cat pee smell.

Bonus shot of Girlcat, just 'cause she's so pretty and hardly ever sits still for pictures: