A Visit To The Vet

We had to take Felix to the vet on Wednesday, he had an urinary tract infection (UTI). We spent the morning at the vet. They had to anesthetize Felix to examine him. Three people plus Tony tried to muzzle him with no success.

He was diagnosed with UTI and given an antibiotic shot, the shot lasts for 10 days. His bladder was small when he was examined (no urine).

We were advised that if he did not urinate by 9:00 PM to take him to the emergency. If a cat doesn’t urinate in 24 hrs it could be fatal.

He spent the afternoon lying in his litter box. He came out to eat then scurried back in to lie down in the liter box, no pee. He didn’t urinate so off we went to the emergency. He had to be anesthetized again. They shaved, cleaned the area and extracted clotted blood and sandy debris.‘Distal aspect of p***s was erythematous’. The veterinarian was able to empty the bladder, there wasn’t any blockage. There was blood in the urine. They filled pockets of under his armpits with distilled water to hydrate him. We were given `Prazosin' for spasms of the urethra, Prazosin is a drug that is used in dogs and cats to treat high blood pressure, congestive heart failure. The vet also gave us a pain killer to give him twice a day. We came home at 1:30 AM.

Felix used his litter box when we arrived, we still needed to watch for urination, if he had not urinated by 11:30 Thursday we would have to go back to the vet.

Felix is getting better, he sleeps mostly but he eats and uses his litter box regularly. Today Felix woke us up at 6:00 AM, he is on the mend.

I have finished reading two books since my last post. The first book was "End of Your Life Book Club" by Will Schwalbe.

This was one of my favorite quotes from the book:
"Reading isn't the opposite of doing; it's the opposite of dying."

"The End of Your Life Book Club" is about the final two years of Mary Ann Schwalbe, who died after battling pancreatic cancer. The End of Your Life Book Club had two members: Will and his mother. It started when Will took his mother to her chemotherapy sessions. During the treatments the two talked about books. At first, they talked about what each other had been reading. As time progressed, they began reading the same book, so that they could discuss it while Mary Ann had her treatments.

It was interesting to learn about the books they read together and their discussions because they LOVE books and have been reading/discussing books since Will was a boy. It introduced me to quite a few books that I've put on my "want to read" list.

Mary Ann didn't let cancer slow her down much. She managed to travel, both domestically and abroad. She wanted to see her grandchildren grow up. There came a point where chemotherapy no longer worked, and her tumors grew. Mary Ann never whined or complained. She made funeral arrangements and wrote letters to for her grandchildren to open when she was gone.

“That’s one of the things books do. They help us talk. But they also give us something we all can talk about when we don’t want to talk about ourselves.”

The second book I finished was "The Imposter Bride". I chose this book because the premise sounded interesting, and I enjoy historical fictions plus part of the story takes place in Montreal, but I found the storyline dragged and the ending was disappointing.