Relief

I am fully convinced that relief is one of the best feelings you can have and the amazing thing is that I am feeling this right now and of course this comes with a story....


...oh, and it's about Coodie who is the namesake of the blog and our very dear 4 year old orange cat who looks like a miniature lion and we love very, very much.


About 3 or 4 weeks ago Coodie started having diarrhea (did I also mention this story contains items about his stool?) on a pretty regular basis and I noticed there was also some blood in there. We took him to the vet and they quickly diagnosed and cured his swollen anal glands by expressing the fluid out of them. We were sent home with some probiotic supplements to add to his food...but, he wouldn't eat his food if it was in there. So, his diarrhea continued and this past weekend he started throwing up and stopped eating. Monday morning, I took him to the vet. They quickly warned me that Coodie was in a bit of a danger zone...cats that don't eat for 3 days or more (Cood was on day 2.5) are in risk of getting fatty liver disease which sounds bad but the reality is VERY bad. The vet tech then put him on the scale. Wow, he had lost 2 pounds in 11 days...for a 13.5 pound cat, that is pretty significant. I choked back tears while I learned that I needed to leave Coodie at the vet for x-rays, a urinalysis and blood tests.




Coodie at the vet feeling pretty yucky.


That afternoon I worked from home and was worried sick. I called Ryan and cried on his voicemail....I then called my mom and sobbed openly (I am not proud of myself for losing control but it is what it is...). The receptionist called a few hours later and asked me to come back to the office for a "discharge appointment" at 4:30. Luckily, Ryan had come home and was able to join me.


When we arrived, they only had information on his x-rays. They informed us that poor Coodie had no food in his stomach or his intestines and the lining of both was very thick, indicating severe irritation and until they got the blood results back, we would not know exactly why. The other thing we learned - which had nothing to do with his diarrhea and nausea - was that he had a bladder stone and several kidney stones. This meant our kitty could not properly process calcium and was in danger of having ANOTHER blocked urinary tract. This issue last occurred in April of this year and cost Coodie 2 nights of hospitalization and his mama and papa quite the vet bill (well worth every penny for his health!).

The most immediate issue was his weight loss and the immediate need to get nutrients into his body. We were sent home with antibiotics in pill form to feed him every 12 hours and very high calorie food that we needed to force feed him with a syringe.

We fed him like this for 2 days when we started to see his eyes sparkle a bit and his spunk come back and finally he was eating on his own...yippee!!! Then, came the ultimate...a solid poo in the litter box. Yes! Ryan and I were high fiving and dancing around the house. Our top cat was back! Even better was that it appeared to be a stomach bug and all of his tests came back normal. We still have to keep an eye out for a blocked urinary tract but we now know what to look for if that happens (no pee in the box, a full bladder and a grouchy Cood). The food he is now on will start to dissolve these stones and soon we will be completely out of the woods.


For now, I am so happy to see the happy boy greeting me at the door at the end of the day... along with my two other guys - really, what could be better?