An Evan Update on the Fourth Day of Christmas

Hello, friends! Thank you all for the purrs, prayers, thoughts, and overall support for Evan. It's more appreciated than I could ever explain. Evan is still hospitalized as a result of his urinary blockage on Monday morning, but the vet plans on removing his catheter this morning, and as soon as he proves he can urinate on his own, he can come home.

Yesterday I got to visit and cuddle with Evan at the vet clinic where he's being hospitalized.

I indeed snapped some photos during my visit with Evan, and though they're certainly nothing high quality, I'm happy to share them anyway. Though you can't tell in the photos, Evan was making lots of biscuits and purring a ton for me. I felt so bad leaving him again, but I keep telling myself he's where he needs to be to get better, and he'll be home with me again very soon.

The cone of shame is in the background of those last two photos because Evan has to wear it in the hospital so that he doesn't remove his urinary catheter, or his IV catheter. I did get photos of his urinary catheter and all that jazz, but in case anyone out there gets queasy, I'll refrain from sharing those.

There are a couple updates the vet gave me that I don't think I've shared yet with you wonderful friends of ours. First, though many cases of blocked cats results in elevated kidney values or other such issues, Evan's case was caught early enough that his kidneys did not suffer. Except for low potassium that resolved within 24 hours, Evan's bloodwork has looked great since he arrived at the hospital. Second, when Evan first showed up at the hospital, there was a lot of blood coming from his urethra, in what little urine he was producing at that time. His urine has cleared up immensely since then. The vet almost considered removing Evan's catheter after 24 hours, but he was still passing a few blood clots through his urinary catheter this morning, so we opted to give it another 24 hours to ensure that no clots or other complications cause him to immediately block up again. That's the last thing we want.

I will be discussing with the vet their recommendations on trying to prevent a recurrence of this in the future. I'm hoping putting Evan back on the anti-anxiety drug amitriptyline could help, since his blockage was likely caused by inflammation in his ureter, which is often caused by stress of some sort. Whether it was the holiday craziness or something else, I want to help Evan stay calm and happy, and he always did well on amitriptyline in the past. 

Thank you all again for you kind words for Evan. This community is a blessing, and you're all amazing. Evan and I will post more updates tomorrow, hopefully those updates involving him recovering at home.

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Festive Flashback Doodle of the Day

I admittedly have not had the time or mindset to top off or scan our new, neglected Christmas doodles over the past couple of days. When Evan is home with me, though, I'll be spending lots of time cuddled up with him on the couch. While I do that, I'll try to get all caught up on those new doodles so that they can be shared during our Twelve Days of Christmas celebration.

All that said, here's today's festive flashback doodle in honor of this Fourth Day of Christmas!

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Tip of the Day

We've started a series of tips on how you can assist strays and ferals during the cold winter months. Today's tip regards feeding strays and ferals, and it is to make sure you understand the pros and cons of feeding dry versus moist food during the winter months. Dry food often takes more energy than moist food to digest, and animals need to conserve as much energy as possible to stay warm in the winter. However, that being said, moist food that is not immediately eaten can freeze during the winter months due to its high moisture content. For this reason, it is typically best to ensure that dry food is offered to strays and ferals in the winter months, as it will not freeze and therefore will be readily available even after sitting out for some time. All in all, though, it is possible and often beneficial to feed both dry and moist food to outdoor strays and ferals. Tomorrow we will further discuss how to successfully feed moist food to strays and ferals in the winter.