Zeus went to the vet a couple of hours ago. I read this morning that if cats don’t eat for 1-2 days, their liver can’t handle it and they get deathly ill, so I figured it was time to bring him to the vets (for the first time).
He meowed on the way there because he hates travelling in the truck in his carrier. He was purring nice for the vet and he weighed him. He’s 11.11 lbs (freaky number!!!!) I never thought he was over 10 lbs. Anyway, then the vet felt his stomach and he started screaming! (Zeus, not the vet). He said his stomach was really tender and his bladder was full. He said the first thing to test was his urine output – sometimes male cats get blocked up with crystals so they wanted to put a catheter in to see. They took him in the back so the vet techs could hold him while they did that. All I could hear in the waiting room was Zeus screaming and screaming. 10 minutes later the vet said that he peed all over the table when they tried to restrain him, so that wasn’t the problem, so they were going to restrain him for x-rays. I got him back and we waited 20 minutes or so for the results.
I got to go back into the exam room to see the x-rays. It looks like he has a shard of bone left in his stomach. He has a lot of feces in there waiting to pass. He has a big pocket of gas built up that wasn’t normal either. Actually now that I think about it, the bone fragment is past his stomach.
So the plan is for me to give him pepto bismol – 1 teaspoon every 4 hours. Since he has stopped puking, that is a good sign. I am supposed to try to get him to eat again tonight. The vet gave me a syringe for the pepto.
Yeah right. Squeezing pepto into Zeus’ mouth. I got him home and I got maybe a 1/4 of a teaspoon in him, but most of it came out in long frothy strings from the sides of his mouth that he was getting all over the house.
If he still doesn’t eat tomorrow and starts puking again, it could mean the bone fragment is stuck into the side of his intestine or where ever it is and that will mean exploratory surgery.
So there went another $176 to the vet’s office today. Zeus is just a cat, but I couldn’t deny him medical care. I really hope he pulls through this, he is a good cat, and I would like to spend many more years having him in my house.
OH and the vet said, has he always wobbled like that?? He noticed he was all twitchy and had a wobbly head, but I assured him he’s been like that since I got him in 2001.