Thursday, September 6, 2012

Tucker in the Hospital


Tucker is in the hospital. He has a urinary blockage. When I woke on Sunday, my roly poly one was crying in an uncharacteristic manner, similar to how Tungsten cries when she’s about to throw up; Tucker rarely gives such warning. He was growly and trying to lick his private parts. I thought he may have been dirty, though that too is unusual for him. He was, in fact, adequately clean.

I was puzzled but not worried. As you may know from recent articles on this blog, Tucker has been having some litter-box issues. He was banned from the carpeted basement except under close supervision, and a litter-box brought upstairs. That put me in the position to watch him go into the box. This day, not a minute after he came out, he went back in. I thought that most strange, but I still thought there was nothing dangerous. I did believe that there may have been too much litter in the box. Tucker is a big sausage of a cat, and he may have had trouble positioning himself.

So I switched that litter-box for another and prepared to clean out the one Tucker just used, only to find that he had not used it. This was worrisome. I wrote an e-mail to a friend in the Lethbridge PAW Society, a rescue organisation with which I work. She advised me that it may be a blockage and that it can kill a cat within a day. So I called the veterinary clinic and took Tucker down there. His bladder, normally the size of a plumb was the size of a grapefruit. It was no wonder the little sausage was in so much distress.

He was sedated and a catheter put in to drain his bladder. That worked but it took a while for the blood to clear from his urine. After two nights in hospital he came home. He must have felt like he had to wet, because he made about thirty trips to the litter-box in ten minutes, though he couldn’t go. I was told this was not unusual.

I put Tucker in isolation with all the comforts he needed, and ‘soaker pads’ on the furniture, because for a while he would have no control over his bladder and would leak. He did wet a bit in the litter-box, which was encouraging. But that night, he did not go at all, though in the morning, he was energetic and interested in food. At noon, when I returned home to check on him, the situation was the same.

By 4.30 that afternoon, though, when I came back from work, he was in a bad way. He had not eaten, not used his litter-box and was lying on the floor, squeaking. He favoured one of his legs and kept trying to lick his bottom - all the same symptoms as on Sunday. He was blocked again.

He was taken to the hospital yesterday evening, and is there now. He is relaxed, I am told, and wetting through a catheter once more. What bothers me is that it seems that an adequate job was not done on him by the veterinarians the initial time. I was informed that recurrences of blockages are common; I did not receive a good explanation of why this is. If it is due to crystals forming in his bladder and urethra, I can think of only two explanations for a recurrence: the crystals grew again overnight (which seems incredible since they took eight years to form in Tucker’s bladder the first time) or they were not sufficiently flushed out the first time. Though the cost is secondary to his health, no one who has a pet can ignore the issue of money, and it seems as though the $1,000 I spent on Tucker’s first flushing was a waste. I can’t afford to subsidise the veterinary clinic to that amount every two or three days. I will demand a thorough explanation of Tucker’s condition when I visit him today.

I give all my cats what the veterinarians consider good food. I was told that in some cats, the propensity for crystals to form is simply greater than in others. Tucker has unluckily drawn a short straw in this case. I will have him on a special diet from now on. He won’t like it because one of his enjoyments in life is poaching from the other cats’ dishes when his is licked clean. But anything that will cause my roly poly to live a long and healthy life, I will do.


14 comments:

  1. poor boy..... I would certainly check to see why this wasn't corrected the first time. The good news is that our angel Butterscotch had them and with a change in diet did much better. And our vet at the time said if you can go about 5 years with no reoccurence, you should be in the clear. purrs to Tucker and you

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  2. Oh... poor Tucker! Same thing happened to my brother, Seville, a while back. He had to spend some time in the hopital, too. But the doctor fixed him all up and he's just fine now. The doctor told the peeps that sometimes, just a 'change' of food will do the trick. Sivvers refused to eat any of the kinds of food that were recommended so the peeps simply switched brands of dry and encouraged him to eat more soft and drink a lot. Hasn't had a problem since! Sivvers even wrote a poem about it entitled, "Easy Peasy."

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  3. Oh poor Tucker! Leo went through this not that long ago. My vet said that fish foods make it worse so we have banned all fishy foods from the house, for the most part... neither will eat the dry food without a touch of something with fish mixed 2to1 (part fish the 1 part) We're purring and praying that he can get past this quickly!! And that you don't have to subsidize the vet to get him healthy.. Poor fella!

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  4. PS. Leo is fine now, took about a month, but all clear! But I still watch him like a hawk! Probably creeps him out... MOL

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  5. Poor Tucker! Purrs from the boys and universal healing Light to him from me.

    If you're not familiar with www.catinfo.org, check it out. Written by a vet after one of her cats became blocked and almost died:

    http://www.catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

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  6. Oh, I almost cried when I read the tagline there. Of course, we've never met, but I feel a special affinity for the sausage. Please update when you can. And give him a kiss (or something similarly affectionate) from Lana in California.

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  7. We are purring for you & Tucker. Our Robbie (long gone now) had this issue and we had to change his foods. No more food from the supermarket, especially bad is Purina and tuna.

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  8. Oh poor boy.... that must have been painful. The frequent using of the litter box, like every five minutes is definitely a warning sign. My cat (a female) Pupa had this problem a few years ago. She just couldn't pee. I took her to the vet, she had her bladder emptied, she was given some antibiotics and Hill c/d diet. She had 2 other reocurrencies but with the Hills diet she is now doing fine. Hang in there, Tucker!

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  9. I'm sorry to hear about Tucker and hope he gets better soon! I have second Fuzzy Tale's suggestion to read the article at www.catinfo.org. There's a lot of good information there regarding cat health and nutrition. (Also a great recipe for raw food.) You can also check out http://feline-nutrition.org/health/diet-kidney-disease-and-the-urinary-tract. Another great site for feline nutrition and health. Good luck!

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  10. Poor Tucker and your poor wallet, too! I'm so sorry you have to go through this and I understand perfectly your reasoning that another blockage so soon sounds suspicious. Great suggestions for resources and we'll go there, too.

    Give Tucker a hug for us.

    Tom

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  11. Poor Tucker, we purrs he is feeling better very soon.

    Mom says she hopes the vet realizes they didn't quite do their job and give you a break!

    Sasha, Sami, & Saku (Mom Eileen)

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  12. I had a male cat who had this issue and he was kept in hospital for 5 days. It seems your "little one" was perhaps not allowed a very long recovery time. That was my initial reaction. I do hope you can all get rest. My thoughts are with you and I hope Tucker recovers quickly and thoroughly.

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  13. oh, we are glad you got your poor distended kitty some relief. our mommer's furst kitty had this problem, an' hadda take pills called d-l-methionine to keep his pee acid an' the crystals dissolved. years after he had gone to the rainbow bridge, another kitty developed the same problem (boy cats are MUCH more likely to do so, because their urethras narrow so radically). by that time, a specialty food (one of the Hills brand, if you haff that in canada) called c/d (bladder health) took care of it an' he liffed to be 19. we hopes this is the case for your li'l (!) feller. an' yes, it can be a challenge to keep him from hoovering up efurryone else's food; we had to separate ours, one to a room.

    an' thank you so much for stoppin' by our bloggie to concatulate us on our modicum of "fame"! we are excited!!

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