Well, That Was No Fun...

Last night, round about 8:30, I noticed Orion getting snarky towards Leo. It seemed a little odd, but not disturbingly so. I went back to writing.

About five minutes later, Leo hops out of the litter box, takes a few steps, and flops down heavily on the floor. He was panting, as cats do when they are distressed. Since he has a history of urine crystals, I immediately suspected a blockage. As I tried to feel his stomach (to see if I could tell if he was backed up), he leaked bright red.

I was on the phone to the emergency vet before the rest of the minute was up.

Long story short, Leo came home this morning. He had no further issues at the vet's overnight, but they realized he was in some distress. However, they found no sign of a blockage. They put him on pain meds, and something else to help if his issue was caused by spasms. (Mom and I wonder if he passed a small kidney stone, which would explain why it seemed mostly resolved by the time I got him down there.) They also took a urine sample for testing, to see if crystals were indeed to blame.

I need to swing by his regular vet today for more food; I'll mention this little incident, though I think it might be a little much to put him through a thorough exam right now. (He's only a year younger than Orion, after all.)

Orion on Prozac, Leo on pain meds... I just hope Domino doesn't get it into his head that he needs extra attention, too.

UPDATE: The emergency vet finally called with the results of the urinalysis. Good news is he has no crystals, so the special diet's doing it's job. Bad news is he does have white blood cells in his urine. They were leaning toward another hundred-dollar test to check for an infection; I deferred on the grounds that I wanted to touch bases with my regular vet first. (My vet is less prone to expensive testing for the sake of testing than the emergency clinic, for one thing. For another, this seems strangely similar to Orion's issues, save the symptom onset.) In the meantime, Leo's acting better than he was - he's even used the litter box without problems - though the pain meds are making him a little listless.

If this keeps up, I'm gonna need to land a second job just to pay for these guys.

THURSDAY UPDATE: Well, so far no more blood (that I've seen) out of Leo. But he's wised up to the pill pocket trick; he'll take the anti-spasm stuff in his soft food, but I now have to wrestle him down and force the antibiotics down his throat manually. At least that's only once a day... and I only have one more dose of pain medicine to force on him, as well. (Oh, yeah - forgot to mention that my regular vet put him on antibiotics. He also informed me that the urinalysis showed that his urine was too dilute, meaning kidney problems. Maybe it's psychological, or maybe it's the stress, or maybe it's the pain meds, but I look at that cat now, I see how dull his coat looks, and I feel his hips and backbone when I pet him, and I get a bad, sick feeling in my gut...)

Possibly due to the stress of this, I caught Orion marking just outside the litter box an hour ago - his first "accident" since he got back on Prozac. Damn and damn... (On the plus side, though, Orion still eats his "special treats" without any problems. He never was a very thorough chewer, unlike Leo...)

Oh, and my grandfather fell on Wednesday while at a senior center dance. He broke the top of his femur, right where it meets the hip. Amazingly, it sounds like they'll actually do surgery on him, even though he's 93; it's a less invasive procedure than it used to be, and he's relatively active for his age. I really hope this isn't the end of his activity - dancing and music have been huge parts of his life. (When he fell, he was upset that he didn't get to stay to listen to the rest of the music, despite being in pain.)

And I have to take a day and an hour off this month, unpaid, so I don't go over the 69-hour limit for library pages. I don't see why I must be penalized for a month having more than its usual allotment of Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays; I can see restricting overtime, but these are my normal work days. And just when I could really use the extra money, as well.

I wonder if they're still hiring paper carriers locally...

SATURDAY UPDATE: We visited Grandpa at the hospital today. He was a bit loopy on morphine, but the surgery apparently went well. Hopefully he'll be in a rehab center soon... then back on the dance floor.

And Leo continues to chug along. He's still not happy, but he's not any worse. He doesn't seem interested in dry food, but will lap up canned stuff. I'm hoping it's just the antibiotics and the heat. (None of them eat much dry food in the heat.) He's gotta get something on those bones other than skin.