Keeping me on my toes

Ah, it never ends here in the Jurgens house. My animals can't stay healthy for too long - they like to have late night meetings to see who's turn it is to spice things up around here...

About 2 weeks ago, Tristan (my 10 year old, black male cat) started peeing on the dog beds. He did this about a year ago and had a ton of struvite crystals in his urine, probably causing some irritation in his bladder. We put him on antibiotics and changed his diet, and he got better. With this recent episode, he has a different kind of crystal and apparently had some stones in there. Last Thursday night I came home from work and he was straining to urinate, walking 2 steps, trying to go again, he even tried to go on my lap! He was also yowling in pain. Nothing was coming - I had a "blocked tom." This is an emergency in the boys - they can die if left untreated - and so I went back to work through the emergency people that take over after 6pm.

Both docs on duty couldn't pass a urinary catheter so they just had to draw off the urine with a needle for the night to relieve his pressure/pain. That night I was faced with a bad decision - euthanasia or surgery. If he was young and didn't fight with my other cat, and didn't have other health issues, it wouldn't have been a hard decision. But I really had to think about it, and that made me feel like a horrible person - to even think about euthanizing him. I cried a while and didn't get a lot of sleep. The next day I went to him and held him and he started "making muffins" and purring his little brain out and I knew I had to do the surgery. So, basically, not to get too graphic, he's a girl now. I can't decide if I should call him Tristina or Tristanella - just kidding...

He had a perineal urethrostomy (P.U.). He has a new "hole" that the urine comes out of, and he shouldn't ever get blocked with a stone again. Male cats have a VERY narrow urethra, so I felt this was better to go ahead and do the surgery, rather than have to go through the emergency visits more. Most cats do great after the surgery - they have a higher incidence of infections so I have to check his urine every few months but that's not a big deal.

Now the fun begins with recovery. He has a fentanyl patch on for pain relief, and he's so stoned it's funny. I brought him home yesterday morning and he started rubbing against everything, and the dogs too. He also has to wear one of those fun e-collars for 2-3 weeks. And I had to change all the litter boxes to this recycled newspaper crap that is not very absorbant, so my house will be nice and stinky until he's healed.


In other news - that foster dog found a home with a tech in dermatology. And that guy I was seeing pulled the typical "I'm not going to call you anymore" thing that I hate so much. Everything was going well, I thought, then nothing. I've moved on though. Last night I met someone else. This one is Eric, a 26 year old attorney. There went my plan of finding someone my own age... I can't help it!