Chris, Nikki & Rhylee: My little Baboon

So my Pugslee has been a sick little cat for a while now. In October I noticed that he kept getting in and out of the cats box a lot like he couldn't go. I thought that it was a hair ball, because he had something similar a few years back and got all backed up. I was thinking he just couldn't go and was giving him hairball medicine. Well after about a month I realized that he was losing weight so I took him in to the vet and it wasn't a hairball at all.

The vet said he had an abscessed tooth, and a bladder infection. The infection from his mouth had spread into his urinary tract when he would wash himself. So he had surgery to remove one of his front fangs (I cried I love his front fangs he looks like a saber tooth tiger) and they cleaned his teeth and sent him home with antibiotics. Then his mouth heals nicely, but he just can't kick the bladder infection. He took amoxacillon for two weeks and then they had him take it for a couple more weeks cause there was still blood and cells in his urine.

Then after maybe a month i was still not clearing up, so they put him on a more broad antibiotic. This one was a pill, lets just talk about how fun that was. I felt like such a hypocrite, I can't swallow pills and I am having to shove pills down his throat. He was not making it easy on me either.. he hated me the first couple weeks... I think he has finally stopped holding a grudge cause he has been on continuous meds for like 4 months.

So the broad antibiotics don't work, he is still sick so they take him off meds for a week and do a culture to find out what is growing and what meds will kill it. They get the results back.. This poor fricken cat.. he has E-coli and a MRSA staff infection. Neither of which respond at all to medication. They had to do a pill cocktail in order to kill it. So he took that for about 4 weeks, but he still kept getting in the cats box like he had to go all the time. So I take him back in to check on his infection and that FINALLY cleared up but there was still a lot of blood in his urine. So they tell me they have to do this x-ray that involves dye, so they have to put him under to do it. He said usually it's one of three things... stones being one of them and after everything that has happened in the last few weeks I forgot the other two. Anyways, they go in and find that he has stones.. but also that there is a thick lining on the wall of his bladder and that his bladder doesn't expand past the size of a golf ball and it should get almost softball sized. On top of that when they injected the dye it backed up into his Kidneys which is NOT good at all.

So of course I am having a panic attack. They tell me that he needs to have a major surgery to get the stones out and look and see what is going on with the lining of his bladder and his kidney's. So they go in and do the surgery and remove the stones and find that he has a tumor growing on his bladder, its benign and doesn't spread but does frequently come back in the same spot. They also found nothing wrong with his kidney's, but the cord that connects them was twisted weird. He has to stay at the vets for almost 3 days... I missed him so much while he was gone. I was hoping I would get to cuddle with him again. He finally came home with a pharmacy I might add. He has to be on a special low mineral diet and take a daily supplement that is a anti-inflammatory. Plus for the next couple weeks he has to take pain meds, antibiotics, and this other med that helps him heal. UGH! This poor little guy is sure a fighter. He came home with a incision about 3 inches long and stitches, which they say he can't lick or pull... YEA RIGHT... he's a cat... first thing after he got out of the carrier... he finds the stitches.. we were just getting ready to go to the lakers game and I didn't know if I should leave him I was afraid he'd pull his stitches while we were gone.. so Chris is like "I'll cut up a shirt and just put a sleeve over him he'll leave it alone" (right). I told him he'll take it off, he is not gonna wear it, Chris is like there is no way he is going to get it off. So we come home from the game and its on the floor by the door and he is sitting on the couch glaring at us with his ears laid back... I got a good "told ya so" in.

He has to go in every two days and get this treatment where they put anti-inflammatory and other things in his bladder to flush it out and they said he'll smell like garlic afterwards... but honestly he smells like olives.. Its just wrong. I hate when he goes cause then he doesn't smell like himself he smells all wrong. So that is what I have been going through for the last few months. I am hoping he is almost done being sick. He is however healing very nicely though, other than being whiny you really can't tell that he has been through all that. Here are some pics of him. He had to have his Butt shaved cause since he was in the cats box all the time it was impossible to keep him clean and he smelled like urine. So the shaving helped me clean him easier. That is why I call him my Little Baboon.

with his Butt shaved...