Here is a picture of our cat Gabby. It’s not the cutest picture I’ve ever taken of her. Shit, I didn’t even take the picture, the vet doc did. As you can see, there’s a cluster of four foreign elements that shouldn’t be in that picture. These are bladder stones. Gabby has been very vocal as of late about these troublesome stones.
About a week ago, we noticed that she was crying when she went ‘pee pee’ (the vets terminology) and twice she went pee pee in a spot that wasn’t a family designated cat pee pee outpost (aka the litter box). Clearly something was up so we raced her off to the vet. Unfortunately, our normal vet doc, Dr. Sarah Silverman was on vacation. I call her Dr. Sarah Silverman because she looks similar to the real Sarah Silverman and talks exactly like her. So another doctor took blood and urine tests and said it was probably a urinary tract infection. She said she would call us in a few days with the lab results.
A few days pass, vet calls to let us know that Gabby has blood in her urine but no crystals, which she then uses to diagnose Gabby as having a virus and not a urinary tract infection. Basically not much we can do, Gabby has to ride out the virus.
More days pass and now Gabby is starting to puke all over the place several times a day. She’s very lethargic and sleeps in our bed most of the day. Things seem to have gone from bad to worse, so we call the vet back. Now the first doc is off on vacation and Dr. Silverman is back on the job. This is good news for Gabby.
Over the phone, Dr. Silverman immediately hypothesizes bladder stones. She tells us to to bring Gabby in for x-rays. We rush off to the vet again. Gabby, who normally gives a vocal fuss over going to the vet, is silent all the way there.
Gabby goes under the x-ray. The results you can see pictured above. Dr. Silverman is giddy to see her hypothesis proven true. The rest of the vet staff gives her a round of applause, as do we.
While looking at the x-rays on the big monitor, one of the vet techs asks me if I would like a CD burned with “JPEGs” of these x-rays. I wanted to say, ‘No way dude! Do I look like the kind of guy who would want JPEGs of my cats x-rays so that I can rush home and blog about them?”
Actual response: “Man, that would be so cool! Thanks.”
Ok, so bladder stones, what does that mean? Dr. Silverman explains that these stones are particularly nasty. They are each about a 1/4 inch in diameter. and are jagged and pointy, “it’s like she has glass inside her bladder”. Ouch! Solution = surgery.
So, yesterday morning I brought Gabby in to the vet to go under the knife. Got a call from the vet about midday yesterday. The surgery went well and Gabby is recovering. The stones have been sent to the Kitty CSI lab for further investigation. Should be able to pick her up tonight.