Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Silvio

...is at the emergency vet right now. We came home from work today and noticed that he was lethargic, had weird posture and was wobbly on his back legs, was hunched over the water dish, looked bloated, and seemed to be in pain. Called the after-hours vet, who recommended we bring him in right away. The vet confirmed that he has a urinary blockage, which can be life threatening, so I am glad we did. They have to sedate and catheterize him tonight, and look for the cause of the blockage. Treatment options depend on what they find. If it is bad enough, one option is surgery to turn him into a girl cat. I wish I were kidding. (This should all sound very familiar to nypinta and everyone who read her "Stanley" post last week.)

That's all I know right now. Keep your fingers crossed for the little feller.

UPDATE (9:15pm): The vet just called. He was definitely blocked and they removed it. Bloodwork shows some toxins had built up and his kidney function was affected. Looks like we got him there in time to prevent the worst stuff. We'll have a better idea tomorrow. He will remain sedated and under observation overnight. Our regular vet will take over his care tomorrow morning. We're hoping for no more updates tonight because in this case, "no news is good news." They did mention that he is pretty young to be having these problems and they are likely to recur without some kind of intervention.

17 comments:

tiff said...

crossed.

Jeni said...

We used to have this orange male cat (named George, as opposed to the female -grey -we have now, named Jorge) and at one point in time, he was acting a bit strange (lethargic, strange noises too, etc.) Being broke (nothing new in that aspect)but having told a lady I worked with then who was a TOTAL cat lover, etc., of his issues, she asked what we fed him -dry food or canned -and at that time, we fed him primarily dry food. She said frequently males, who eat mainly dry cat food, tend to develop blockages, etc. and suggested we give him canned food only to see if it helped, then to intersperse fairly equally between dry and canned food. We did that, he got well, lived a good many years after that too. Hope all goes in that same vein with poor Silvio!

fermicat said...

tiff - thanks.

jeni - I am sure they will recommend wet food. Silvio and Zima will be ecstatic. Moxy, not so much. She only likes dry kibble.

ctheokas said...

Poor guy! Fingers crossed, hoping for the best.

fermicat said...

ctheokas - thanks.

Natalie said...

Oh no!

He does seem young, but my friend's cat had the exact same thing happen at only 2 or 3 years old, and he is fine now. I'm sure they will suggest canned food along with pH balancing dry food. I am hoping he doesn't have to have surgery, it's so stressful for everyone. It looks like you caught it in time, I'm sending all sorts of good thoughts and kitty prayers your way. Keep us updated.

LL said...

Perhaps it's an adverse reaction to all the picture posting that goes on around here... ;)

Hoping for the best fermi.

Jenn said...

fingers crossed here also. Emerson was real sensitive like that. We had to give him canned cat food and science diet dry cat food. But he loved Meow Mix dry cat food so mom would buy him a boxx here and tehre and it never failed to give him problems.
Good luck with Silvio

Dianne said...

I saw your comment at magnetbabe's and got really worried!!

Glad to see Silvio is doing better. How great that you read him so well.

I am hoping for no news until there is more good news

Mi & Si send hugs

BC said...

Big hugs. I hope he gets well soon. We need more pictures of him. :D

My cat loves wet food but everytime she eats it, she leaves a tube.

Dave said...

I'm late, but I hope all is well. Damn, I need to read the comments to make sure all is well before I say what I did. OK, it's Thursday night, now word from you, all is well. Good.

Jenn said...

Any updates today (9.18.08) on Silvio? Hope all is well.

fermicat said...

magnetbabe, ll, jennylu, dianne, bc, and dave - thanks for the support. I'm just about to post an update in a separate entry.

Kathleen said...

I'm so glad you got Silvio to the vet in time. We lost our very first cat, Kitty, to FUS (feline urinary syndrome) when I was in college. LB & I should have taken him to the emergency vet that night, but we didn't know about FUS. OS and Mom took him the next morning and I got a call at work that he had died. Sucked.

Male cats are prone to it, so I always make sure I buy the food with the low ash (or something) to help prevent the crystals from forming and blocking the urinary tract. Tikal had the same problem, so I had to buy extra special food from the vet.

I hope Silvio will be okay.

Damn, it's making me cry thinking about it. Stupid cats just worm their way into your hearts w/o you realising how much they're in there, sometimes.

Kathleen said...

Wet vs dry doesn't really matter, according to my various vets. It's all about ash/magnesium content. I've only ever given the kids dry food, even after the problems with no adverse reactions.

fermicat said...

kat - hugs to you for your kind words and for your own cat memories. We had a childhood cat who died because of FUS, which is how I knew about it.

Good to know they have FUS dry food, because wet food is a pain to deal with. I usually give it occasionally as a treat. Would not want to have it be their primary diet.

Carol said...

I had a girl cat who had this kind of blockage, since she was a yout teenager cat. We had to feed her with science diet dry cat food - which sucked, because I don't live in the US and this food here is rare and soooooooooo expensive. Wish you all the luck.