Even young and robust cats need to, sometimes, go to the vet, and normally they are not very excited about it. Mainly because they don’t know the place and are fearful of the unknown, or they know it already well and they might connect with it unpleasant experiences.
Sunny at the vet – watch his behavior!
Sunny, our youngest Tomcat, is a particular creature. You can read a previous post about him here.
A few months ago I noticed pink pee. I wasn’t sure if it really was pink, meaning bloody, or if there was something else about it because normally Sunny doesn’t show where he does these things and what I found under the shower mat could also be from another cat. In the following days I tried to keep Sunny inside, separated from the other cats and without a litter box – and, yes, he left a pink liquid in an empty container which he graciously used for the toilet.
I had experience with bloody urine before with another cat, Luzzy. (Find some stories about him here and here). Luzzy showed me directly that something was wrong and after an antibiotic treatment, he normally was fine again. That’s why I tried the same thing with Sunny and it seemed to work. The pee was clear again after the treatment – but after some time the same story repeated itself. You cannot believe how difficult it was with Sunny to understand if he was all right or not. His behavior wasn’t changed; he didn’t seem to have any pain and he didn’t really show us his production. So it might have passed a week or a month until I realized that he had blood again in his urine. Again antibiotics? Well, yes. And then I had an appointment at my vet Dr.Elisabetta Scorzoni and I videotaped for you some clips of the visit.
The visit at the vet
(A 3-minute video of the procedure and the advice)
To apply the ultrasound is not painful at all but strange for sure. You need blank skin and therefore the cat’s belly needed to be shaved. Cats don’t like noises, and even less to be held down while somebody does something noisy near them. The feeling on the body probably was not unpleasant, but Sunny doesn’t like to be dominated. He is a good (although neutered) Tomcat and he wants to be in control. So he began to express his disagreement and I wouldn’t have known what else to do than holding him tighter and risking his explosion and sharp claws.
How to keep your pet calm at the vet?
A good vet knows better how to handle these creatures than we cat lovers do. So Dr. Elisabetta took over Sunny and calmed him down with sweet strokes while she used the instrument on his belly which he probably didn’t even notice. The next objections came when we needed to roll the cat on his side to examine his bladder from a different angle. Cats don’t like at all to lay on a side and be held in a certain position. It didn’t take long and so all was done with a grumbling disapproval from Sunny’s side but no serious rebellion.
Nothing was found in this examination and so we waited until I became aware again of bloody urine. This time I took him to the vet again in order to stay in the animal hospital and to reveal the problem. Dr.Scorzoni made some other research procedures and then decided to rinse the bladder – where she found quite a lot of small sand-like grains which had caused inflammation of the bladder in the previous months. The washing procedure is done under narcosis and therefore the cat doesn’t feel any pain. When he is awake again everything is alright – and the inflammation can heal well in time.
Why did I tell you the story?
Because there is a way to protect your cat against similar problems as soon as you have understood where the “weakness” is. There is special food for all sorts of problems and, really, they do their jobs! Sure, these special types of food cost much more than cat food from the supermarket. But when you think what you spend for the vet and for the medicines, then probably expensive food is the better choice, especially also because there is no major impact on your beloved pet, beginning from the transport cage to the examination at the vet, to the procedures with nasty instruments, to narcosis or surgery.
What I feed to my cats to prevent similar problems
My five cats eat 4 different kinds of food at the moment – and actually, it is not easy to separate them out. Like humans, cats like the food of the others better than their own and we spend our days by checking on who eats what. It is fun to observe how they try to enter clandestinely into the room where the food of the other is. Especially Kittie, the blind cat: she is everywhere and checks out open doors and foreign food bowls in an unbelievable speed. Don’t think that handicapped creatures are slow! As soon as they know their way around they are unstoppable!
Well, Kittie is the only cat still on regular supermarket cat food. No wonder that she wants something better! Mundl, the red cat, gets special food for encountering his tendency to diarrhea, Trixi has the opposite problem and eats Fibre Food. Luzzy and Sunny, united in their private room, eat Urinary, the special food for bladder and kidneys. Also Lucky, the dog, came up with special needs, but this will be a different story!
These are the products I feed to my beloved cats
If you want to know which types of food are very useful for my cats: here some links which lead you directly to Amazon – and consult your vet if in doubt.
Urinary Cat Food
Alternative food for bladder and kidney problems
The food to protect bladder and kidneys – I buy this 6kg sacks
The food to protect bladder and kidneys – Urinary smaller package
Alternative food to care for kidneys and bladder
Digestive Care to prevent
diarrhea
The food to prevent Diarrhea – Digestive Care
FIBRE RESPONSE for hard feces