Heres the full story....We have a bit of a problem as there is no night care at our vets, or many of the ones in Nottingham, so he's been spending the days with our regular vets, then the evening at the emergency vets. They dont seem to agree in their approach, so the night vets seem to change his drugs every time we take him in.
He went in a week ago to the emergency vets with a blockage and they put him on a catheter and a drip and flushed out his bladder. He was then on a drip and a catheter with diazepan to relax him for a couple of days. His levels were high, but they stabalized his electrolytes and most of his blood levels except urea and creatine which were reduced, but still high. Our vet seemed to think that this was ok and they would come down in time, but the night vets seemed to think that this was a problem.
He then pulled out his catheter on the wednesday, so we tried him without it overnight, but the night vets put it back in as they said his bladder was filling and they were worried. On thursday he was put on a sedative to relax his urethra and the catheter was removed. He had a bladder infection from the catheter, so they put him on antibiotics and kept him in over night on a drip. He seemed to be passing urine ok, but the emergency vets didnt think he should have had the catheter removed and were unhappy with the sedatives. They then gave him different drugs and I think that they said our vet was old fashioned. He also said that he may have a problem with his bladder where it had stretched so much that he couldnt contract it.
Friday morning he went back to our vets who gave him a sedative that was recommended by new studies and he seemed to be passing urine fine. They also gave him an anabolic steroid on friday to try and give him some energy. In the afternoon Oliver pulled out his drip, so the vet said we should take him home, give him a quarter of a tablet of the sedative at midnight along with a drug for cystitous and keep an eye on him. He kept passing water through the night and we went to see our vet again in the morning. It was all very positive at this point and he gave us antibiotics for the infection. We gave him some more of the sedative at luch time, but shortly after he stopped passing a much water and was straining to go into the litter tray. The vet said that if this happened we should give him some more of the sedative to relax him some more, but we couldnt get him to take it. It foams up and he kept spitting it out. We were worried that he was blocked again, so took him to the night vets for their advice. They said that the sedative was fashionable and they didnt like it because it caused low blood pressure and that wouldnt help his kidneys heal. So they put him back on different drugs and said they'd watch him.
He went to the toilet a little at 8pm, but they said at midnight that his bladder was starting to get hard. They couldnt empty his bladder manually, so they said they were worried he was blocked and that he needed a catheter again. I said that we were trying to avoid the catheter if at all possible because of the damage, but they said that if it was a bladder injury, then this needed the bladder to be empty to heal. They felt that the bladder was overflowing rather than emptying.
The catheter was easily fitted and so they said that it probably wasnt a blockage, but maybe it was to do with his bladder and refered us to scarsdale surgery in derby where he could stay over night, so we would get a consistency of approach. The approach of the new place seems to be similar to the emergency vets. They're saying that he may have a bladder problem, but if we can sort out his kidney function (as his creatine and urea are high - I think it was these two) and his bladder infection then we can look at this. So he's currently in there 24hr on diazepan and another drug to relax his urethra, antibiotics for his bladder and a drip and catheter.
It's really heart breaking, as when you see him he seems ok. You asked about food, but he hasnt really eaten much at all. I think he ate a couple of days in, but since then we've been giving him everything we can think of, but he's not eating it, so he has been given a paste that contains all his vitamins and stuff. You put this into his mouth with a syringe which he's been eating fine. We also gave him water with a syringe when he was at home. He's quite chubby and they say that his blood tests show he has enough nutrients. I dont know if you can draw any conclusions from this information; appologies for it being a bit woolly and in-precise. I guess it is more of a description than a case history. Any opinions would be appreciated.
