Purrs and Prayers Request for Evan

Hello, friends. This isn't the post that was supposed to go up today, but we're here requesting purrs and prayers for Evan. He's at the emergency vet with a urinary blockage that happened very suddenly yesterday morning.

At about 8 am yesterday, Evan urinated like normal and then went on to eat, play, and overall act like his happy self. By 9 am, though, he was suddenly straining to urinate and all that was coming out was incredibly bloody urine. I rushed him to our local emergency vet since our usual vet was closed for Christmas still. At first they were not sure he was even blocked, and I was hoping it was just a UTI since he has a history of those. His bladder was the size of a golf ball, much smaller than a typical blocked cat, but he'd also just urinated a very normal amount just over an hour earlier. After further examining and testing, the vet determined that Evan was blocked, as though small, his bladder was hard and unable to be expressed.

I left Evan at the emergency vet, where he was successfully catheterized and thereby unblocked at least for now. The catheter will have to stay in place for 24 to 48 hours, and he'll be able to come home when he can urinate on his own. I miss having him at home more than I can even describe. He's my little shadow, my cat who never leaves my side, and his absence here is very, very noticed.

The vet will be calling me today once she checks his urine again at roughly the 24 hour mark. So far we know that no stones or crystals were found, and that there's no sign of infection. That means his blockage is likely due to inflammation somewhere along his ureter. This can be caused by factors like stress, and I honestly wonder if the craziness of the holiday season has gotten to Evan. He's been acting like normal, but I spent a lot of time at my parents' house this weekend, and so I wonder if that is one of the causes. I also wonder if this happened because I stopped giving him amitriptyline a few weeks ago. Evan was prescribed that years ago when he started anxiously and neurotically licking and biting himself bald on one side. A few weeks ago I was having trouble getting his amitriptyline refilled and we ran out, and when he was off of it he never went back to licking or biting himself bald, so I thought maybe he didn't need the drug anymore. Whether or not going off of that caused this, I'm going back to giving him his daily dose of amitriptyline, as it can't hurt him.

I'm feeling all shades of guilty, and all shades of worried. If you have any purrs and prayers, my boy could sure use them. Thank you all in advance for your thoughts and support. I'd be lost without this community.

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Festive Flashback Doodle of the Day

I didn't forget about our Twelve Days of Christmas celebration, so for this Third Day of Christmas, here's a festive flashback in honor of my Evan.

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Tip of the Day

Today's tip is one that can affect our indoor furbabies, and most certainly any strays and ferals you might feed outside. During the cold winter months, it can be beneficial to increase the amount of food you feed to the furbabies in your life. This is because animals typically eat more in the cold months in order to produce more energy and heat for their bodies. This is why you might see your kitty or pup heading toward the food bowl more often than usual in the winter months. Then again, eating more food to stay warm is something that far more affects outdoor animals than indoor animals, since the latter are able to maintain their body heat far more easily. And, of course, if you have any concerns about how much your furbaby is eating or should eat, any time of the year, discuss this with your veterinarian.

When it comes to outdoor strays and ferals, if you are accustomed to offering them food outside, perhaps do consider feeding them larger quantities of food, or feeding them more often, during the cold winter months. Their bodies use that extra food to stay warm. Over the next few days we'll be giving more detailed tips not only on feeding strays and ferals, but also offering them assistance in other ways.