Update on Bertie

[berties mum]

Aw, thanks Gillian - feeling much better now thanks, just a nasty kidney infection - notice how these urinary problems seem to run in the family?  Lol!

[Gillian Harvey]

Don't feel bad - Bertie won't starve LOL! Sorry, you've not been well, hope you feel better soon. 

[berties mum]

No, he doesn't have any fishy flavours - he doesn't like them much anyway so it's not been too much of a problem.  I'm not sure whether his sample was done just after he ate, but it did occur to me that it could have been the "alkaline flood" effect - the only way to get him to do the sample is to leave him in the kitchen all night with the plastic litter and there was some food down, so it's difficult to know when he'd last eaten.  I have to confess I didn't get another sample over the weekend as I've been poorly myself, but plan to do it tonight and this time not leave any food down so I know he won't have eaten just before the sample ... it makes me feel so cruel!!!!!

[Gillian Harvey]

You didnt do the test just after he'd eaten something did you? How is it today, any better?

[Desley (booktigger)]

Fingers crossed you can get to teh bottom of it - what food do you feed him? Do you feed him a lot of fishy flavours?

[berties mum]

The most frustrating part is that Bertie is fine in himself and always has been - he's never seemed ill or showed any symptoms apart from the night he passed blood.  He probably wonders why the hell I keep smearing fishy stuff on his paws and changing the litter to these strange little plastic balls!

[berties mum]

Hi all,
Just to give an update on the saga of Bertie's never-ending struvite crystals saga!  Methigel ordered online arrived 2 weeks ago and he took to it well - sometimes eats it from a spoon and sometimes turns his nose up, in which case I just smear it on his paws and he eats it from there.

Did a ph test at home last week after he'd been on the Methigel for seven days, and it was 6.5, compared to the 7.5 of the previous week, so he got a big congratulatory cuddle from me and I felt relieved that we finally seemed to have done something that worked!

But then this morning I did another ph test to check how he was getting on - and it was 8.5 - the highest it's ever been!!!!!  I just can't understand what's happened - I even did the test four times because I couldn't believe it was so high.  I'm hoping that perhaps there were some cleaning fluids in the litter tray or something. and am going to test him again over the weekend.

I just despair!