The Vet Says . . .

. . . that Bugs is a “sensitive soul.”  She’s the one who said it.  Not me.

What she found on physical exam was that his belly was distended.  What she found on the X-rays was that he is constipated.  And she says that could make him throw up.  Simple as that.  Thank Cod.  When you think of crystal in the urine, impacted colon, IBD — we’re thanking Cod that all it is is constipation.  She ran tests on him to rule all that stuff out — and Bugs passed with flying colors, I rejoice to say.

(I noticed this morning that when Bugs did pee a little, his tail was quivering.  I know the vet was thinking urinary problems and my blood ran fairly cold as she kept asking, So, you think he was straining to pee?  Well, I replied, I don’t know enough to interpret it that way — all I can do is report what I saw.  So now, knowing what we know, maybe all that was was just him being upset in there.)

And where his sensitivity comes in, the vet thinks that if this isn’t a hairball thing — and I don’t think it is, he’s never had a problem with that in the past — then he’s simply stressed.  Fang’s been in the bathroom inspecting Bugs’s litter box, from time to time — I don’t think Fang’s ever used it, he uses his own — but the vet thinks him just poking around in there might be enough to get Bugs worried enough to affect his own use.  That’s where Bugsy’s sensitivity comes in.

She said her staff can leave the office at the end of the day with all cats having clean litter boxes, and come back the next morning and, overnight, everybody’s used the facilities.  She thinks it’s that they require the activity and bustle of the office to stop, before they can produce.  They want their peace and quiet and privacy.

Just like his mama.  You might like to file this next bit under too much information — but Bean herself has similar issues using public toilets, for the same reason.

You should see those films.  The vet says she’s seen a thousand times worse — but let me tell you, those are some backed-up pipes on the boy.

Kim pointed out that in that condition, in pain and discomfort, maybe that’s why Bugs wouldn’t eat.  Why would you want to keep tamping stuff down at the front end, if it won’t come out the back?

So the vet gave him an anti-nausea injection, recommended Laxatone, suggested I bump up the fiber in his meals, and sent us home.  She will be available tomorrow to give him an enema if need be, but she said she’d prefer not to stress him with that and, rather, hope that nature will take its course.  She also recommended that I go into the bathroom with him and shut the door; hopefully that will reassure him that Fang won’t interrupt the proceedings.

So what’s happened so far is that Bugs has scarfed down the Laxatone — he loves that stuff.  He’s turned up his nose yet again at the meal I prepared with chicken-enhanced-with-tuna-oil — but I did get him to eat a smidge of yoghurt laced with slippery-elm and then, after that, some chicken baby-food and sweet potato-oatmeal base.  So far all this has stayed down, and that’s a terrific improvement.  When he was hoiking stuff up, it was pretty much immediately after he’d eaten.

And the funny chewing and head-movements?  It dawned on me, preparing the food tonight, that I had some issues with my new food-mill and there were some lumps in the base.  (I tell you, all this detection is making me tired.  CSI in the Ozarks, happening over here.)

So we’re on litterbox vigil now.

I am very very very glad to understand, now, why Bugsy’s fur may have been so ruffled yesterday when I took this snap:

No Vacancy.