Well, that didn't go quite as planned

Ha, what in life does?  :-P

 

I was off last Thursday and Friday (July 29, 30) and had a fabulous day catching up with a friend at the mall. She loves to shop, I love to shop; it was great. LOL. I actually picked up six items (clothing) at Northern Reflections and had so many points dollars (didn't know it!) that the entire cost was 54 cents. Yep, 54 cents! Whoohoo! (I must have done more online shopping in the last year than I realized. Ha.)

Friday, however, things took a turn. Derry started having acute diarrhea, which he's never had in his 14+ years, and though I picked up some plain Metamucil and some slippery elm bark powder (the latter from a natural foods store downtown), it wasn't helping much at all through Saturday and Sunday.

Then he had a massive, tightly bound hairball on Saturday morning while I was out running errands, and I thought oh, that could be it. Sadly, not.

By Monday, a holiday for much of Canada, I thought he might have a partial blockage, so off we went via cab to the emerg vet. Mercifully it was fairly early in the morning and he was there for only about half an hour, he inside and me waiting outside in the parking lot. It was a gorgeous morning, I'll give it that.

The upshot was that the vet couldn't feel any obstruction, or poop in his colon, and since there weren't any other "red flags," she diagnosed him with "colitis of undetermined cause" and sent us home with some diarrhea meds.

 

Those did the trick, and I called my own vet clinic first thing Tuesday morning. They didn't have any free appointments until Thursday morning, but our vet said that I could drop him off and they would run diagnostics in between appointments. So I dropped Derry off shortly after 9 AM on Tuesday (poor love) and waited on tenterhooks all day.

I really didn't want to call and pester them, because the vet was being kind in fitting us in, but I finally caved at 3 PM, I couldn't stand the wait.

 

The vet was just finishing up, said Derry's blood work had come back fine and his x-ray was great too, no obstructions and formed stool in the colon. Whew. No urine analysis, though, because Derry's bladder was too small.

 

Anyway, I brought him home, and while it's taking a few days for him to recover from the trauma of it, and he's not eating as much I would like him to, he's done his business normally, so that's good.(He's also gained about a pound or so from the winter!)

 

I actually took his solid stool sample to the clinic yesterday morning, for a full parasite/bacteria test, and since I've paid for it but haven't heard anything, I can only presume all is well. (Update: I emailed the vet and the test still is pending at the lab.) He made solid output again today, and I really just need to let him be, need to stop being a helicopter pet mom. He was perky last evening and enjoying himself as usual, so that was good. That he's been particularly fussy, food-wise, might be more my own fault for spoiling him this past year and half while working from home, over and above the general fussy nature of cats.

I do have a couple of thoughts as to what caused this (if the stool sample comes back negative), won't bore you with those. For now I'll just take it one day at a time and see how he does. If he develops diarrhea again I can give him the meds from the emerg vet in a pinch (he got only two doses, though it was meant for five days, but it's very bitter and so stressful for him). If he does have this again, though, I'll certainly follow up with our vet for alternatives to what was prescribed at the emerg clinic.

 

 

So the long weekend was more eventful than I anticipated, and not in welcome ways for either of us.

 

However, my oldest (in terms of years known) friend sent me a text a couple of days ago to tell me that her mum (in New Brunswick), who recently was admitted to hospital after a fall, is now in palliative care and has slipped into a coma. My thoughts and prayers are with them all; Derry's issues are small potatoes in comparison.

Take care, all; stay safe.

Peace.