Pet health updates

You might recall several months ago I talked about Prince William and how I found him floating in his tank. Since then, Prince William has been doing very well. Every couple of weeks, Prince William gets a few frozen peas to keep his swim bladder in check. A week or so ago I noticed that Prince Harry II was having some buoyancy issues as well, so I administered the pea treatment and I'm happy to say that he's also doing very well. I've had William and Harry for almost 5 years now and I know they're just fish, but I am quite fond of my fish boys.

Onyx spent the day with the doctor yesterday because she's been having some issues using the bathroom. Specifically, she's been squatting in random places in the house and leaving a few drops of blood-streaked urine, accompanied by a low-pitched, creepy wailing, which indicates she's in pain. It brings back awful memories of Ember's last day with us, and the realization that I'm still not over him, and I'm also harboring a bit of resentment for our vet. Not because I think she did anything wrong, but because we subjected Ember to many tests and indignities during his last few weeks with us, which yielded exactly the same outcome as if we just left him alone, plus it cost us a crap load of money. I find myself wishing I hadn't done all the testing, and just let him be. Focused on comfort.

I refuse to do this to Onyx. She's 15 years old and has had a fantastic life. I have to weigh the quality of life we can give her against trying to prolong her life with invasive tests and procedures.

It's a really tough decision because without a definitive diagnosis, we're just guessing what the problem is and hoping treatment works, but a definitive diagnosis will require an ultrasound, which I know will be traumatic for Onyx because they'll have to shave her and pin her down, and they won't sedate her because she's old and they can't guarantee she'll come out of sedation. Do I really want to put her through that?

We've opted to treat the most common cause of her symptoms, which is a UTI. This requires antibiotics twice a day. Onyx may be a small cat, but she is freakishly strong and when cornered, extremely vicious! I have to sit on her, pry her mouth open, squirt the meds in, and hold her mouth closed so she'll swallow it, all while trying not to get bit, scratched, or peed on. All of which she's done.

If she doesn't respond to the treatment, then we'll have no choice but to do an ultrasound. The two possible outcomes of that are a) we find a stone and can dissolve it with a special diet b) we'll find a tumor and because she's too old for surgery, we can just manage the pain.

It's so awful when a loved one is going through health problems, even if that loved one is a pet, it hurts your heart just the same as any other family member.