We very suddenly and very tragically lost our boy 3 weeks ago. Philip was only 3 and we're still struggling to come to terms with it. I've never been more connected to a cat and it honestly feels like a bit of my heart has been torn out.
We noticed he was struggling to use his litterbox one night at around 2am (He had been zooming around, jumping on things etc all day, so we had no suspicions that anything was wrong) and assumed he was constipated. By the next morning, he seemed in a lot of pain, was still struggling and seemed phased out and confused. We decided to rush him to a vets an hour away as nowhere near us would see him without an appointment, but I had a gut feeling.
The vet found that he had a severe bladder blockage, made up of lots of bladder stone sediment and his bladder was on the brink of rupturing. When they took a urine sample, it continued to spray out due to the pressure. His bloods were all elevated and after a sedation and a bladder flush, we left with meds. Over the next few days he was incredibly sleepy, as was to be expected, and we found blood in his urine, which we were also told to expect after the flush. By the third day, he was incontinent, and while he did start drinking after day 2, he didn't eat. We managed to force his meds down, but he wasn't doing well.
We were due to go abroad for a notice to wed 5 days later, so took him back for a checkup the day before we left (He'd be left in my mother in laws care assuming he was improving on his meds) but after an agonising 30 minute wait, his bloods came back so elevated in creatinine that the machine could no longer read the levels, and was coming up blank.
We were given the 'choice'. To keep trying on his medication, in the small, small hope he might improve and live a reduced life on a very very strict diet and regular surgery/recurring blockages, a short lifetime of pain to keep him with us selfishly, or to have him put down. Obviously there was no choice, as hard as it was to admit.
It took ten minutes and two injections for him to pass, mostly due to the medication, and we stayed with him the entire time.
We will miss him more than anything, and Elizabeth took a while to understand, but now we will just remember what beautiful times we had with him and be happy that he's no longer in pain.
We noticed he was struggling to use his litterbox one night at around 2am (He had been zooming around, jumping on things etc all day, so we had no suspicions that anything was wrong) and assumed he was constipated. By the next morning, he seemed in a lot of pain, was still struggling and seemed phased out and confused. We decided to rush him to a vets an hour away as nowhere near us would see him without an appointment, but I had a gut feeling.
The vet found that he had a severe bladder blockage, made up of lots of bladder stone sediment and his bladder was on the brink of rupturing. When they took a urine sample, it continued to spray out due to the pressure. His bloods were all elevated and after a sedation and a bladder flush, we left with meds. Over the next few days he was incredibly sleepy, as was to be expected, and we found blood in his urine, which we were also told to expect after the flush. By the third day, he was incontinent, and while he did start drinking after day 2, he didn't eat. We managed to force his meds down, but he wasn't doing well.
We were due to go abroad for a notice to wed 5 days later, so took him back for a checkup the day before we left (He'd be left in my mother in laws care assuming he was improving on his meds) but after an agonising 30 minute wait, his bloods came back so elevated in creatinine that the machine could no longer read the levels, and was coming up blank.
We were given the 'choice'. To keep trying on his medication, in the small, small hope he might improve and live a reduced life on a very very strict diet and regular surgery/recurring blockages, a short lifetime of pain to keep him with us selfishly, or to have him put down. Obviously there was no choice, as hard as it was to admit.
It took ten minutes and two injections for him to pass, mostly due to the medication, and we stayed with him the entire time.
We will miss him more than anything, and Elizabeth took a while to understand, but now we will just remember what beautiful times we had with him and be happy that he's no longer in pain.