Neo's turn

First Bob, then Neo. He's better now but last week, Neo stopped eating and a couple of days later started throwing up. So we brought him to the hospital where he stayed for a couple of nights. Not really sure why he got sick and the doctor was never able to tell me what went wrong. But they put him on an IV drip to get him hydrated again and he recovered after that. The blood test showed a low white cell count which the doctor said is usually caused by stress. The only thing I can think of that was out of the ordinary was taking Neo to the vet to get his vaccination shots about three days before he started acting funny. Maybe that stressed him out. Whatever triggered it, I hope it doesn't happen again.

He is now eating again but only if we mix a bit of wet food into the dry food. Spoiled little brat!

As proof of all the needle pokes he got at the hospital, Neo has two shaved patches - one from the blood test and one from the IV. Poor guy looks pretty funny.

Poor Bob

I noticed a few nights ago that Bob was not pee-ing normally. He was visiting the litter box often and was peeing just small amounts everytime, sometimes nothing would even come out. So I took him to the vet. The vet said he needed a urine sample, gave me a vial to use, handed me some antibiotics, and sent us home.

How to get a cat to give his urine sample... I emptied a cleaned Bob’s litter box and brought it to our bedroom. Next, I kept Bob in our room the whole night. When I woke up at 8am the next morning, Bob was pacing around the room, making noises to get my attention. He’d go to the door and paw at it while looking at me with this look on his face like “please, please, let me out”. I kept tapping on the empty litter box, coaxing him to go pee in there. He jumped in a couple of times, scratched it with his paw but he couldn’t bring himself to pee without the litter.

Anyway, after about 20 minutes, I decided to take him to the washroom with me so I can shower. And the litter box came along too. He really wanted some privacy because within one minute of me closing the shower curtain, he relieved himself. I then had to stop showering, dry up, so that I can collect his urine into the vial. Poor thing. He looked so disgusted at having to pee in an empty box. I understood completely. It was exactly how I felt when Ed took me camping and there were no washroom facilities around.

So, urine sample taken care of. Next up, antibiotic pills. The first one wasn’t bad since he had no clue what I was doing to him. The next day, he struggled a bit more but I was able to force the pill into this throat. The third day, crazy Bob appeared. I now have a small gash on my middle finger where his tooth nipped me. I also have scratch marks from his nails clawing away at my hand while I’m holding his jaw open. Yes, it was a rough morning for both of us. I was so frustrated with him and he was so distressed he actually threw up when I stopped trying to feed him the pill. I felt so awful.

I gave him some breakfast but he refused to eat. I would pet him to try and soothe him but he’d just walk away and sit a few feet away from me. He’s not liking me very much right now.

With Ed’s help, we were able to get him to swallow a pill. But I think I have to find other ways for him to take his medicine. We have 11 more days to go! Given the struggles this morning, I might lose some fingers if we keep this up.