Tristan's Woes

I know I sound a little pathetic in that all I write about are my animals. But right now, that's all that's interesting in my life. Otherwise it's work work work.

Tristan has been having bladder issues lately. He was using Greta's dog bed as a litter box, which is his sign that something's wrong (at least he does it where I can wash it, not on MY bed). So, we find that he has a urinary tract infection and a lot of sand in there. I got an ultrasound done and he found a lot of stuff wrong with my boy. His bladder wall was really thick and irritated, and he had some stones in there. We flushed some out, sent them out for analysis and they were a bad type. Some of them can be dissolved if you change their food, thereby changing the pH of the urine. But these can't be dissolved. Luckily he can't obstruct with them anymore since his sex change operation!

The more worrisome finding on ultrasound was his pancreas. He found lots of nodules that might be cancer, might be nothing. Hard to tell. But he is losing weight even though he's eating pretty well. In fact, he weighs less than he did when his IBD was flaring up a couple years ago.

This is always my conflict. How far do I take it? I judge people who don't do enough, like the people who wanted to euthanize Pacey for having epilepsy without even trying. But I also judge the people who go too far, like a client right now has this emaciated 16 year old cat that can't walk anymore and came in last night twitching and freaking out and just went blind yesterday. I would do anything for my animals (see Bethany!), but at the same time, I don't want to keep them around just because I'm selfish and don't want to let them go. Veterinary medicine has come a long way, and we can keep our animals around a lot longer than we used to. But is the animal happy? In pain? Still enjoying life? I know Tristan isn't in dire straits yet, but it makes me think. The boy loves to eat and he loves to be on someone's lap. I think if that ever changes, that'll be my sign.

Sorry - depressing. But it helps to write it out!

I'll leave on a happy note. The 2 kittens I'm fostering have a sister! They finally caught her and now she's reunited with my two. In keeping with the hockey theme, I've named her Josie (after Jose Theodore). She looks nothing like them except for the fluffiness. But she's darn cute too!