sigelphoenix

Poor Drannor has come down with Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease, which is a fancy way of saying that he's having trouble peeing. This is my first time dealing with cat health problems, because Kershach is young and robust and has always been spectacularly healthy. So I'm ... trying not to freak out, because I know that far more cat owners have to deal with far more serious issues, and this is relatively minor. But I've been on a constant, low-level "fret" frequency since this weekend.

We noticed on Thursday that Drannor was visiting the litterbox frequently, and not really eliminating. That seemed to resolve itself within about an hour, and due to the, ah, end result, we figured it was a bout of constipation.

He also seemed to be grooming his crotch more than usual - which, yes, means I know how often my cat grooms his crotch. You just notice that kind of stuff. Anyway, that continued for a couple of days, but without (as far as we could see) the litterbox-hopping.

On Sunday morning, he was in and out of the bathroom again. This time, he would meow after he came out of the box. Drannor meows for food and treats, and very occasionally for attention, so it seemed like he was complaining of discomfort. We also checked, and noticed that he had left very small urine deposits, way smaller than normal. This lined up with what I've read about urinary tract infections, so we called the vet.

Since it was Sunday, our regular vet was closed, so we called the emergency vet. They said he would likely be okay until Monday morning, but there was the possibility that he had, or was developing, an obstruction. Obstruction = build-up of toxins from urine = high chance of death. Even if that was a small risk, since I have no experience with this issue, I didn't trust myself to be able identify how big that risk was. So, deciding it was better to regret spending money at the emergency vet than to regret getting to the vet too late, ratzeo bundled Drannor up in the carrier and went in.

At the vet, they checked him immediately for a blockage, and could not feel one. (Phew.) After that came the long waiting process - since this was an emergency vet, and our case was not urgent, we were sort of last in line.

After a few minutes a vet tech checked Drannor's vitals, and we got the good news that his teeth look better than at his check-up visit last month (looks like the Greenies are working). He also weighed in at 12.5 pounds, which is a half-pound heavier than a month ago - but, since he's lost his swinging belly and is so active with Kershach, I'm pretty sure that's muscle and not fat gained. He also got his temperature taken (i.e. a thermometer shoved up his bum), which caused him to produce the most pitiful-sounding meows I've ever heard him make.

We got transferred to an exam room and proceeded to wait for over an hour. At that point, I wasn't sure we should be there - Drannor was bored, we were bored, Drannor wasn't getting any treatment by waiting, and there were other animals coming in with emergencies while we were taking up space. I went to the front desk to ask if we should go home and just go to the regular vet the next morning - but it turns out the doctor was on her way to our room.

(Brief, grumbly tangent: The vet tech at the front desk told me, "Well, it's your decision ... It depends on how you feel about your animal." She then went on to explain that urinary issues could swiftly go from mild discomfort to severe pain. So - okay, I'm sure that people working at an emergency vet's office are run ragged and don't have lots of resources left for customer service. It's quite possible she didn't mean to have it come out that way, but I know that being tired can cause words to come out of your mouth before you think. And she probably has seen a lot of pet owners who treat their pets poorly. But I hated being judged like that, because - hello? Brought my cat in to the emergency vet for a non-emergency condition, based on symptoms other people might not even notice? Worried about my goddamn cat and not wanting to sit alone with my anxiety in an empty exam room? I'm not mad at her, so much as I vehemently defend my own actions.)

Anyway. The vet checked Drannor's bladder again, and suggested getting a urine sample to determine the cause of his troubles. The diagnosis was Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease, but that's really a catch-all term that encompasses urethral blockage (which she had ruled out), urinary tract infections (caused by bacteria), crystals in the bladder/urethra, and pain/inflammation that has no identifiable cause. Being able to examine a urine sample (and culture it, if it was sterile) would presumably determine the cause.

Of course, we had no such luck. Poor Drannor had voided anything in his bladder that morning during his hyperactive peeing period, and he refused water for the hours we were at the vet. We were given the option of leaving him at the vet, where they would give him pain medication and hopefully relax him enough to drink water and produce urine, or we could take him home with medication. Since the medication they would give us would be pretty much the same regardless of the test results, we decided to take Drannor home where he would be more comfortable, and follow up with our regular vet later.

(It wasn't an easy decision for me to make, though - I've never had to make medical decisions for another being. I know that a lot of people my age have that experience, from making decisions for their children, partners, or parents, but this was my first time and I fretted a lot.)

They gave us two medications, a painkiller and an antibiotic. We got the option of liquid or pill form, and though neither ratzeo nor I has medicated a cat before, we figured that liquid was easier. (Though we were told that neither was easier, and "it depends on the cat" ... which seems non-intuitive to me. Does anyone have an easier time getting their cat to swallow a pill rather than liquid?)

ratzeo helped me with the first two doses, on Sunday night and Monday morning, but since then I've been on my own. It's ... not an experience I'll ever volunteer for, let me tell you. Poor Drannor is so well-behaved - he doesn't claw or bite, or even yell - but he does not like it at all. He runs away and squirms and makes the cat version of "blech" noises.

The pain meds run out tomorrow - fingers crossed that his pain runs out before then - but the antibiotics need to be given for two full weeks, every twelve hours. And go figure, the antibiotics are grosser than the pain meds - 2ml instead of 0.2ml, and thick and bubblegum-flavored instead of clear and watery. I've been giving Drannor treats before and after the medicating, but he's beginning to be leery of treats now.

The one slightly pleasant thing about all this is that the painkiller is an opiate, so Drannor kind of mellows out after it kicks in. He just ... sits. And stares with slightly dilated pupils. XD

I'm trying to direct my anxious energy towards productive things, so for me that means figuring out what needs changing in Drannor's lifestyle. Even when there is not an easily identifiable cause for FLUTD (such as the bacteria that trigger an infection), I was told that there are various contributing factors.

Stress - Drannor is a very mellow cat, but he was surrendered by his owners of 4 years at the end of February. Then he spent a week at PAWS (and that includes being examined by their vet, starting out for adoption at the Lynnwood location, and finally moving to Greenlake where I met him). Since the beginning of March, we've tried to give him a stable life, but it's also been a settling in period, and that means establishing a new routine. I've also been giving him different foods while I try to find what he likes. So even if he's not depressed or panicked, it's possible his body responded to the sudden changes in his life.

Food changes - As I said, Drannor has seen a lot of different foods. I got him on a single kibble within a couple of weeks of adopting him, but canned food has been more of a struggle (see my previous whiningentries). He's eaten everything from Friskies (shudder) to Wellness, and that can throw off a cat's system. Now that I have more or less figured out how to get him to eat gooshy food, and specifically a healthy gooshy food I'm actually comfortable feeding him, that should stabilize.

Different foods - The vet tech said that different brands of food can have different nutrient balances. In Drannor's case, the relevant nutrient is magnesium, because excessive magnesium can increase a cat's urine pH, which contributes to crystal formation. I'm not sure quite what to do about this one, because I do like to switch up brands. Kershach has always gotten a different kibble every few months, and has rotated among 3 brands of canned food (which means a different brand every couple of days). Since all the pet food recall scares, I would rather not rely one a single brand, so that if any particular one comes out with news of contamination or nutrient imbalance, there's less chance that my cats have eaten enough to be effected. Also, I don't want them to get addicted to a single food.

Of course, using 2 or 3 brands of food is much different from the every-day-a-new-can technique I've been trying with Drannor, so I will at least improve that much.

Fish - Some sources say that fish-based foods contribute to FLUTD. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to confirm why. At least one source says that fish-based foods tend to be higher in magnesium, which theoretically can be mitigated by monitoring the food's listed magnesium content. *shrug* I don't like to feed my cats a lot of fish anyway - there's lots of information out there about why relying on tuna and other fish for a cat's diet can cause problems - so I only feed a couple of varieties that include fish, and always mixed with another protein rather than purely fish. Just like rotating among different brands, I like to use a variety of flavors so my cats don't get addicted to one protein source, or develop an allergy. So, like the previous, I don't plan to eliminate fish completely yet, just keep it at a minimum.

Dry food - This is my big suspect, alongside the stress. Cats are notorious for not drinking enough water anyway, because they're used to getting it from prey and don't think to drink water separately. This is the primary reason (I've heard) for a healthy canned food trumping a healthy kibble.

Some people are lucky and have cats who beg for gooshy food, but whether that's a false stereotype or I just have weird cats, both Kershach and Drannor get way more excited for kibble than wet food. (I'm not surprised in Drannor's case, if - as I begin to suspect - he was fed kibble his whole life and doesn't recognize canned food as food. But Kershach was a stray, so you'd think he'd like the stuff that is marginally closer to the food he'd hunt for himself.)

I've been weak. I've fed my cats half kibble, half canned for the sake of convenience (and my wallet). And since they both eat less than the daily recommended amount for their weight, I cut back on their canned food instead of their kibble, so they can keep the food they like better. But that means they've been eating a diet of at least 60% kibble. I use quality kibble, as I use quality canned (with the exception of the Friskies experiment), which I thought was good enough. Apparently it's good enough for Kershach, who is healthy and glossy and trim, but it may be a problem for Drannor.

So I will be upping their gooshy food intake. Now that Drannor is eating wet food, I'm going to try to decrease the amount of their diet that is kibble and increase the amount of wet food. (As an added bonus, we would go through food quickly enough to buy the more cost-efficient large cans rather than the small cans, which will defray the cost of a wet food diet.) I don't know if I'll cut out kibble completely - I suspect this will depend on how well they take to the transition and whether Drannor's urinary issues resolve. (It is important to note that, during the period he was refusing wet food, he ate exclusively kibble for almost 4 weeks, and this might have been what caused the FLUTD, rather than kibble being entirely harmful.)

Water - As I mentioned, cats don't often drink enough water. Drannor has actually been pretty good about it, and I suspect he has also influenced Kershach. I have one water dish by their food bowls, and one at the opposite end of the apartment, and this separate "watering hole" has become a popular spot. Whether Kershach's increased drinking has been due to Drannor or this second dish (having another water source in another spot might remind him to drink water, since as a cat he doesn't remember himself), it's been good. However, they probably still don't drink an optimum amount (it's hard to say for sure ... definitely less than 1 cup each per day), and there's pretty much no way a cat can drink too much water. For FLUTD specifically, more water means more, diluted urine, which means flushing out minerals that could lead to crystal formation.

So I bought a pet fountain. This one, specifically. The idea is that cats are more attracted to drinking running water than standing water, so this will theoretically get them to drink more. I got it from Mud Bay because of their return policy - if the cats don't take to it, or it doesn't result in them drinking more water, then I'll return it and not waste $70. (Of course, if it does work, then I still have to spend the $70, plus extra for replacement filters. :P)

I'm also mixing in extra water with their canned food, which a coworker told me has worked to tempt her kibble-fiend cats. It's just a tablespoon or two extra, but since they consume it with their dinner, it's an easy way of getting more moisture in them.

This part I won't hide behind a cut because it's cute: I thought at first that Kershach was oblivious to his brother's suffering, but I may be wrong. He didn't act any different on Sunday (he didn't even get out of bed when we got home from the vet :P), but he and Drannor slept with me in bed. This isn't unusual for Drannor, but Kershach has not joined me every night like he used to (lingering jealousy issues is our hypothesis). However, ratzeo said that when he came to bed late that night, he found Drannor with his arms around Kershach. You know, like this. ♥ Except it was hard to tell for certain if it was the same position, because it was dark, so all he saw was a black blob and white legs stretched across it. XD

And then last night, they also both joined me in bed, and I woke up in the middle of the night to find them lying in overlapping curve shapes. Kershach was against my side, and Drannor was sprawled across my hips, his head resting on the bed beneath Kershach's throat - the perfect position for Kershach to groom him. (I reached my hand out to pet them, and their faces were so close they both nuzzled me at the same time. ♥) So maybe Kershach is helping out his brother. ♥

So that's the story for now. The hope is that the painkillers will last until the antibiotics kick in and/or the condition clears up, but I was told to check in with my vet if he doesn't feel better within 2-3 days. So I'll be watching him closely today and tomorrow.

Please send good kitty vibes Drannor's way. He's a sweet boy and doesn't deserve to be in pain.