It all started a few days ago, we noticed our youngest male cat, Griffin, making five to ten minute return trips to the litter box to pee and not being able to. He didn’t seem to be in any pain, just a lot of squatting. A day went by and nothing much improved and then he started having accidents around the house, little tiny accidents. So off we went to KL Cat Hospital, our vet.

They admitted him and we discovered later on that he didn’t have a blockage, that the pH and various things you can tell from test strips were acceptable but he was pee-shy for a very long time. Once he did use the pan he accidentally got his hindquarters in it and further made a mess of himself, and ruined his progress. The vet gave him a little ether and then coaxed some samples out of him manually. The samples were spun and analyzed. There was nothing to indicate any kind of kidney stones or crystalizations, so we were looking at a bacteriological etiology. They gave him a shot of flouroquinone (sp?) antibiotic and the next day they had him (it was an overnight) they gave him 12.5mg of Zeniquin antibiotic.

I got him home, through a fusillade of yowling and general complaining, Griffin does not like car rides. I suspect that too much car ride would bring on motion sickness. Griffin smelled a lot like the vets office, as well as the gas they used to do that quick-knockout earlier so Owien gave him one sniff and then started to growl and hiss. This upset us until we did some research and confirmed what we kind of already knew, that Griffin smelled very different from what Owien remembers and that over time everything will be fine.

It’s both amazing and a little surprising to note just how easy it is for humans to note a smell change but that it doesn’t affect us nearly as much as it does with other animals. I chalk it up to sentience, our vastly bigger brains, and the fact that human olfaction is pitifully weak. Smell was never a big thing for primates because we suck at it. The two of them are getting used to each other again, it’s just going to take time.

This morning I got a bit of butter and embedded the pill in it, then popped it in Griffins mouth and held his mouth closed. Down it went. He wasn’t upset, just unwilling and a little surprised. I left him licking his chops and looking at me with guarded affection. “What else are you going to try to make me eat?” 🙂 So his daily 12.5mg of Zeniquin is down-the-hatch and doing its job.

I am glad to note that he is going pee less often, he’s producing more, and he’s eating and drinking water normally. The only things we have to work on now are the other 13 doses of Zeniquin and repairing the relationship between Griffin and Owein. There is only one real cure for that problem and that is time. I figure I could hasten things along by daily grooming with the same brush. Mingling the two cats scents together so that Me + Strange Cat = Us.