Meet Romeo, a 5 year old neutered male cat. He is the king of
his household and a very sweet boy. I have known Romeo and
his sisters for approximately 5 months. One evening while sitting
for him, I came in and Romeo was not acting himself. He did not
greet me as was normal for him and instead paced around
meowing. I looked at him and knew something was not right. I
was talking to him, asking him what was wrong and he looked up
at me with a look that said "please help me". He was meowing
forlornly, was drooling from the mouth and appeared weak. He
tried to make his way to the litter box and collapsed. I
immediately felt his abdomen and noted an extremely large
bladder - Romeo could not urinate.
I immediately rushed him to the Emergency Room and called his
owner's en route. They were over 2000 miles away and trusted
me to do my best for Romeo in their absence. At the
Emergency Room, the veterinarian was able to empty Romeo's
bladder by placing a catheter. When he took x-rays, several
small stones were seen in Romeo's bladder. One of these
stones had made it's way into Romeo's urethra and had
effectively "blocked" the urine from exiting the body. This was
an emergency situation and Romeo was immediately
hospitalized, placed on IV fluids and the necessary tests were
performed.
As you can imagine, not being able to urinate is quite painful but
what you may not know is that it is deadly. If left untreated,
toxins build-up in the blood, the kidneys start failing or shutting
down, heart arrhythmias start and death eventually follows.
Romeo's blood work revealed that his kidneys had started to
shut down and he was in a metabolic crisis. The IV fluids would
help rehydrate him, diurese or "flush" his kidneys and help
normalize his electrolyte balance. The urinary catheter would
maintain an open exit for the urine but the stones still in the
bladder needed to be removed.
Romeo did have extensive surgery and a lengthly hospital stay,
but eventually made a full recover from this crisis and returned
to his loving family. However, had he not been taken to the
veterinarian when he was, he may have not been able to be
saved. In other words, if I had only been visiting Romeo every
few days, Romeo would probably not be alive today.
This illustrates why it is so important to have your pets checked
at the minimum of once daily while you are away.
his household and a very sweet boy. I have known Romeo and
his sisters for approximately 5 months. One evening while sitting
for him, I came in and Romeo was not acting himself. He did not
greet me as was normal for him and instead paced around
meowing. I looked at him and knew something was not right. I
was talking to him, asking him what was wrong and he looked up
at me with a look that said "please help me". He was meowing
forlornly, was drooling from the mouth and appeared weak. He
tried to make his way to the litter box and collapsed. I
immediately felt his abdomen and noted an extremely large
bladder - Romeo could not urinate.
I immediately rushed him to the Emergency Room and called his
owner's en route. They were over 2000 miles away and trusted
me to do my best for Romeo in their absence. At the
Emergency Room, the veterinarian was able to empty Romeo's
bladder by placing a catheter. When he took x-rays, several
small stones were seen in Romeo's bladder. One of these
stones had made it's way into Romeo's urethra and had
effectively "blocked" the urine from exiting the body. This was
an emergency situation and Romeo was immediately
hospitalized, placed on IV fluids and the necessary tests were
performed.
As you can imagine, not being able to urinate is quite painful but
what you may not know is that it is deadly. If left untreated,
toxins build-up in the blood, the kidneys start failing or shutting
down, heart arrhythmias start and death eventually follows.
Romeo's blood work revealed that his kidneys had started to
shut down and he was in a metabolic crisis. The IV fluids would
help rehydrate him, diurese or "flush" his kidneys and help
normalize his electrolyte balance. The urinary catheter would
maintain an open exit for the urine but the stones still in the
bladder needed to be removed.
Romeo did have extensive surgery and a lengthly hospital stay,
but eventually made a full recover from this crisis and returned
to his loving family. However, had he not been taken to the
veterinarian when he was, he may have not been able to be
saved. In other words, if I had only been visiting Romeo every
few days, Romeo would probably not be alive today.
This illustrates why it is so important to have your pets checked
at the minimum of once daily while you are away.
Romeo a few days before his crisis - it's important to note
that Romeo showed no sign prior to this episode that
anything was amiss even though the veterinarians agreed,
this had been a chronic on-going situation.
that Romeo showed no sign prior to this episode that
anything was amiss even though the veterinarians agreed,
this had been a chronic on-going situation.
Romeo at the hospital waiting for surgery
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