Thursday, December 25, 2014

The best Christmas present ever

Santa actually DID appear at our clinic on Christmas Eve, and said g'day to Tyro and Phil.
A Christmas wish was granted last night, although it may have had more to do with surgery than Santa. After a full day of watching, waiting, pretending not to watch (a watched cat never pees), and simulating digging in his litter tray so he got the idea, Hero waited until I was attending to another patient and then just quietly urinated voluntarily. It was a relief for all parties.

Hero isn't the easiest patient. When you are working with a cat that only has one forelimb, maintaining a patent intravenous catheter can be challenging, especially if that patient manages to remove the line again and again with his staggeringly compensatory hindlimbs. He's also not stupid. Anytime I wanted to pat him or show affection I was allowed. Anytime I wanted to do anything remotely vetty, he would become fiesty. He gave the nurses hell, much to my embarassment. 

A little "chillaxed" on analgesics, Hero decided the best use of the litter tray was to sleep in it.

Cat grass purchased fresh from the nursey this morning: check. Tempting wet food: check. Feliway (synthetic feline facial pheromone spray): you can't see it here but trust me, its there - check. Litter tray with fave litter: check. Multimodal analgesia: check. The conditions were right. But the urine was not forthcoming.
I’d be fibbing if I didn’t admit I wanted to do cartwheels up and down the street the moment I saw that patch in the litter tray. The phrases “rivers of gold” and “best Christmas present ever” may have passed my lips.

Not a bad patch. Its not exactly the Murray-Darling River but close enough for now.
And thus, still recovering from major surgery but with a patent urethra, Hero was discharged from hospital on Christmas Eve.

He remains on medication, he’s currently on an all-wet, urolith dissolution diet, and now that he smells like a vet hospital his sister-from-another-mister Michael is hissing and howling at him and generally acting like he’s an imposter. But we can deal with that. It’s the real imposters – those sharp little bladder stones that wreaked so much damage – that we need to remain vigilant about.


We’ll update you of course, but meantime SAT wants to wish everyone a fabulous festive season. And a healthy and functional urinary tract.