Fast Eddie is high

[chowmama]

The house panther sometimes gets cystitis, inflammation of the urinary bladder. In the past, there's been no infections and minimal crystals (he's on urinary diet anyway, just to be sure), so if there's just one or two suspicious pees, I monitor the situation. I grope the bladder gently to make sure he's not getting blocked and as long as his abdomen remains soft and not painful, and I can't feel it in there, I just watch to see if it's a one-off. It sometimes resolves on its own. (If the abdomen is painful and the bladder palpable, it's a wild ride to the e-clinic. Now. Right now. Call them on the way.)

Last night, he was starting to have problems. By this AM, he was in and out of the box every half hour. So, off to the vet.

Problem is, he doesn't always behave particularly well there. He's no longer half feral, but when I got him, he was truly scary. So the routine for a regular vet visit is a gabapentin the night before and another before the visit. He's 14 pounds of pure muscle and there are, frankly, personnel who choose to opt out anyway. I don't mind, as he's getting easier to handle every time. But since he didn't leave me a note that he needed a vet visit, he only got his morning pill today and none last night.

He behaved. It's confirmed as cystitis again, although he'll be back there Monday to see if we can get some urine to test. But he needs to continue the gab (a smaller dose) for pain through the weekend and there's some buprenorphine added, also for pain. The kid is definitely pain-free. But there's a certain 'Wow, man, look at the lights' aspect that's not really usual for him. Now that I'm not worried, it's pretty funny.

[wnylib]

1. Hope he recovers well and meantime enjoys

a pain free high.

I've been through that with cats. I know the worry that goes with it.

[Freddie]

2. Hope he gets well soon

My Andy had urinary crystals and (so far) he’s doing great on urinary foods after he had a small procedure. But he’s like your cat, a sweet purring boy turns into a howling beast at the vet. Last time she prescribed a tranquilizer before his checkup and it didn’t help much, although he slept well at home afterwards. It’s checkup time again, ugh. Our other cat is absolutely calm at the vet.

[Karadeniz]

3. You know that litter that Martha Stewart advertises... Smart Kitty or something. It changes color

if it detects certain urinary conditions. If she's selling it, it's probably expensive. I was thinking you could fill a second box that you bring out every other week for a day or two to get a warning that the pee is developing its problem.

[rubbersole]

4. Dude...

..like wow, man..meeeooww...

[Ocelot II]

5. Have you ever looked at your paw? I mean, really looked at it?

[rubbersole]

7. Naw, man...

..but I have looked at my maw. My paw took off when I was just a kitten.

[chowmama]

8. The panther's straight again

and much better. But he's now acting more affectionate that he did before his two trips. He had to stay the whole day on Monday for them to get urine and he lost patience as the day went on, leading to a pretty high amount of tranquilizers.

The staff were somewhat startled to find that I could cuddle him, rub faces together and just generally pet, coo and snuggle. They could handle him easily enough, and we do the Fear Free program, so I wasn't concerned that they would control him roughly. But they'd never have tried to stick their faces right up to his, even tranked.

There's been a lot more cuddling at home and he's even tolerating the dog, who is lying closer to him than normal. However, the dog lying on the cat's back legs was a bridge too far, leading to an in-your face hiss and baring of teeth. The dog was unimpressed and they continued to nap together; close, but not touching. They've been in my lap together, too. It used to be a king of the mountain game with bragging rights. Being the mountain is not all that much fun.

No infection again, so no antibiotics. I'm happy about that and so is he - he's sick of being pilled.