More on Annie

There’s a little strange creature that squeaks and growls and darts around furtively.  I don’t know what the big deal is but there seems to be a big fuss in the house over it.   I’m in my golden years and expect to retire in peace.  Why, oh why, did they bring this funny-looking thing here?

Mama’s going to talk about the creature’s drama now.  Warning: When you look up the word succinct in the dictionary, you will not see Mama's picture.

I want to thank everyone for the encouraging comments and good advice about Annie.  We brought her home last Thursday.  Friday morning there was bloody urine in both bathtubs.  The previous owner told me that she did the same thing once last year when they brought home a new dog.  I called Annie’s vet.  Since she just had a check-up two days before, they asked me to bring her in but they wouldn’t charge me for the exam.

Well $135 later, we found out she has a condition called Feline Idiopathic Cystitis (FIC).  Apparently, this is diagnosed once infection, blockage, etc. are ruled out.  FIC is brought on by stress by things like moving, new cats, new home or all of the above!  This is treated with pain medication, a canned-food-only diet and time.  It supposed to clear up in about a week.  Since then, she’s been peeing blood multiple times a day, every day.  She goes to the litter box more times than I can count and does just little dribbles.  It doesn’t help that she’s not drinking much water and only wants to bury the canned food.
 
It gets worse.  When the vet took Annie's urine she also did an ultra-sound on her bladder.  There was an unidentified mass on the ultra-sound. Back to the vet she went on Wednesday for an x-ray (and another $100).  Annie has two stones.  She’s going to need surgery.  I’ve been waiting all day today for the vet to call me with an estimate for the surgery cost.  I was awake most of the night last night anticipating how much this is going to cost.

Poor Annie has been in the car four times in the last five days and to the vet three times.  We’re not supposed to exacerbate her stress, but that’s just we’re doing.

Some good news is she’s been coming out more and receiving pets from us.  She still spends long periods of time under the bed, but she has also made some brave forays into the main part of our home.  She seems to feel pretty well in spite of the stones and the bloody urine and the too-frequent trips to the litter box.  She growls at Simba and Lucy, but they tend to ignore her most of the time.  Lucy does hiss at her from time to time, but they’ve been pretty good overall.  I bought a Feliway dispenser from the vet at their suggestion (a lot of you suggested it as well).

Thanks so much for listening.  Annie is a sweet, sweet girl.  She has a waddle more than a walk and a tiny, squeaky meow.  I still can't understand why her previous owners didn't want her.