It's always something ...

Well, here it is - the start of the Memorial Day weekend and as usual never a dull moment! It all started yesterday morning while I was feeding the cats before work. I noticed that Leo was acting "funny." I caught him squatting to try and urinate in front of the refrigerator. When I looked on the floor to check what he was doing, there were a couple of little wet spots. I could not tell for sure IF it was urine because it was clear with next to no odor what-so-ever. So after I returned home from work that night, I noticed he was doing the same thing in the cats room. I turned to my husband and said, "WE HAVE A BIG PROBLEM!" So, I very quickly cleaned out the catio that we normally keep Merlin in and changed the litter box with the scoopable cat litter. I put Leo in the catio for the night and he confirmed what I suspected - he was badly blocked! He has been on Science Diet Multi cat food for Urinary Care ever since he was diagnosed with F.U.S. (Feline Urological Syndrome) a couple of years ago. I know the signs - he tried to urinate outside of (as well as in) the litter box (corners,cat beds) and he kept licking himself - this is an attempt to stimulate his urethra. 

So, first thing this morning we tried to get him into our regular vet for an emergency visit, but to no avail (real nice, right?). Then my aunt recommened a really good emergency vet located in Lancaster, PA. We called them and they took him immediately! They asked us for a brief history on him, ran initial bloodwork, took x-rays to see if there were any kidney stones blocking him, and cathed him. As they had us fill out and sign the necessary paperwork (as is standard), it hit me like a ton of bricks when they asked if we wanted them to resuscitate him should he go into cardiac arrest at any time. I immediately began crying. I knew that he also had a heart murmur and that concerned me greatly, too! 

They instructed us to call them back around 12-12:30 today to check on Leo's results. When we called, we spoke to the emergency vet on duty and she informed us that Leo's bloodwork was okay other than showing a slightly low potassium level, they found no kidney stones in his x-rays, they said that his unblocking went rather well. The vet also noticed that his belly was pretty bare and asked us if he over-grooms due to anxiety. I told her that he does tend to groom his belly a lot and she asked us if we would like her to dispense some anti-anxiety meds for him and I said yes we could try them. I have no intention of keeping him on them long term because of possible weight gain (not to mention kidney damage) - after all we MUST keep his weight down due to his diabetes issue. 

More importantly, the vet told us that we did a "Good job!" catching Leo's blockage early as he most likely would have not only had kidney damage, but even worse easily could have died by the end of the weekend! They further told us that Leo's bladder was the size of a GRAPEFRUIT! They said they will call us tomorrow and barring any more problems we should be able to pick him up and bring him home - I PRAY that we can!!! We miss him and we all need him back home again - even Miss Ginger awaits ...