Of course, “Rhody” did as he did when we had to take him to the emergency hospital that morning. When we found that we had to leave him there for the day so he could be observed, we asked to see him before we left. They brought him in and he came over to me and stood up like “Pick me up and take me home”.
“Rhody” had a FVRC-P booster under the skin and his first feline leukemia vaccine. That one was in a muscle and it hurt him. I like to be with my cats when they get shots or examines. Not only do I get to see what is done, but I get to see how they behave.
When “Taz” was having chemo, we dropped him off and of course couldn’t be with him when he was given the chemo treatment. Most were intravenous and he always had to go through the waiting, the examining, the blood tests, and then put in line for the treatment. So he was there all day. Some of the chemo had to be administered very slow and it would take several hours to finish. That meant that “Taz” had to lay still for that time.
It was amazing for us to hear how well-behaved “Taz” was when he was getting the treatments. He would never had stood for any of this nonsense from us! But, it made it easier for us to know that he was not stressed out while in the hospital. He was a favorite patient.
Paula, one of “Taz”’s technicians, got to know him so well. They can’t help but get close to their patients and I can understand that. Paula said that after “Taz”’s treatments, they would put him in the cage and then he had to be observed for awhile before we could pick him up. She said that when we came to pick him up, she’d go to get him. She opened the door and said “OK “Taz”, it’s time to go home.” She held his kennel up with the door open and he jumped in.
I didn’t mean to go off on “Taz”’s chemo, but it does come to mind when I think of how our cats behave when we’re not around.
One Sunday morning, when “Rowdy” was about seven years old, I noticed that he looked like he was trying to pee. He was in our backyard. A little later, he again tried, but nothing happened. At that time we were using a vet who had a small practice.
We liked going there because the office so small that the receptionist knew us when we walked in, unlike the other larger vet hospital that we had previously used. We liked the doctors at that hospital, but the “red tape and bureaucracy” that we faced each time we went there, became so annoying. We could have taken a pet there every hour and I don’t think the receptionists would have remembered us!
Then we discovered the smaller vet office just down the road. We tried them and liked them. The vet also seemed to be a good one. Of course, we had never gone there for an emergency. It was always for well-pet care like shots, etc.
So on Monday I made an appointment to take “Rowdy” in to see what his problem was. Upon examination, the vet said that “Rowdy” had a urinary tract blockage. He wanted me to leave “Rowdy” there because he’d have to anesthesize him to put a catheter in and unblock him.
That afternoon I went back to pick “Rowdy” up. He was unblocked, but still groggy from being anesthesized. Even after getting him home, he seemed grouchy and wanted to be left alone. But, he didn’t want to sleep. He’d go to the back patio door and just sit there and stare. He’d been anesthesized at other times, when he was neutered, etc. and he hadn’t acted like that when we got him back. I don’t know what was used to anesthesize him.
It finally wore off and “Rowdy” seemed fine. Then in a couple of days, he was blocked again. I again took him back to the vet. We went through the same thing again. This happened a couple more times. As we left “Rowdy” again with the vet, he told us there is a surgery that could help with the blockage, but that he didn’t think “Rowdy” was a good candidate and we should consider putting him down. Charlie and I were appalled. This was a six year old cat and “putting him to sleep” because he had a blockage was not EVEN an option! Especially if his problem could be corrected with surgery.
I went to pick “Rowdy” up that afternoon. The technician went back to get him and bring him to me. I waited. Finally, she came back and said “Mrs. Bell, can you come back and get “Rowdy” out of his kennel. We’re having trouble with him.” I thought that was kind of strange, but I went back to where he was. As I was coming towards the cage, (it was an upper one and at my eye level) one of the technicians reached to open the cage door. “Rowdy” lunged at her, with the wildest, meanest look in his eyes. I’d never seen our “Rowdy” like that. I didn’t recognize him.
I approached the cage. He looked at me with no recognition in his eyes. I thought that was really weird. His eyes looked wild. The pupils were big. This was not our cat. I put my hand up towards the bars. He lunged at the door. Then I started talking to him, saying “”Rowdy”, what’s the matter, baby boy”, “boy boy”, any kind of talk that might be familiar to him.
When he finally started paying attention that I was talking to him, it was like something came over him. His eyes focused and he didn’t look so scary. He heard my voice and knew me. I tried first putting my fingers in and he came to the door and rubbed against them, as I touched him. It was like night and day. That wild and crazy cat was tame and it was my “Rowdy” again. When I was sure he knew me, I opened the door and took him out and put him in his kennel.
We went home and he was fine for a few days. We were hoping that he finally was unblocked for good. But, that was not meant to be. One evening I came home and he was blocked again. I called the vet. It was after hours and I got the answering service. I asked for the vet and said it was an emergency. She said that the vet had a family emergency and was not available.
We had no choice but to take him to an emergency hospital. It just so happened that the vet hospital that we had previously used, the one we had gotten so tired of, became an emergency hospital from 6:00pm until 8:00am every night. We took “Rowdy” there. They still had his records, but I caught them up on what had been happening with his blockages, etc. They kept him overnight to unblock him.
I was going to school during the day then, so when I got out of school that afternoon, I called the hospital to see if “Rowdy” was ready to come home. He was not. They wanted to keep him until the next morning to see if he blocked again. I was told that I could stop by to visit him though.
When they brought him in the room, I couldn’t believe it. He was happy and spunky and so glad to see me. I thought “Wow, he never looked like this when the other vet got through with him.” I left that afternoon feeling better.
But, that night we received a call from the hospital. “Rowdy” had blocked again. The doctor wanted to talk to us about doing surgery. We went in to talk to them and find out what they wanted to do.
We were told that urinary blockage is almost exclusively a problem that males have. This is because the female urethra is shorter and broader, far more difficult to obstruct. When urinary blockage becomes recurrent in a male cat, it becomes time to consider surgical reconstruction of the genitalia to create a more female-like opening. This surgery is called the perineal urethrostomy or “PU” for short. Basically, the penis is removed and a new urinary opening is made.
We felt that given the many times that “Rowdy” had blocked, unblocked and blocked again, we would go with the surgery. It would be done the first thing in the morning. “Rowdy” was comfortable and had a catheter when we left him.
As we drove home, we joked that now our little “Rowdy” would have to pee sitting down.
The surgery was a success. We brought “Rowdy” home and kept him in his own little pen on the enclosed patio we had. He could look out in the yard and he seemed happy to have his own little area. We kept a close eye on him. When he went back to the vet for a check up, he was in good shape.
I’ll always be grateful that our “old” vet (we moved back to the original vet after they saved “Rowdy”) was off on an emergency that night. Otherwise, I don’t think our “boyboy” would have lived that night, much less another seven years. We never had any more problems with blockages. When he died in 2002, it was from complications of diabetes.
Rowdy, enjoying the sun in our backyard5/28/94
More later.........
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