A Sympathetic Cat

Well, God bless Tate. It seems he was feeling sorry for Greg and so he decided to go and have his own back problems just so he could relate better to how Greg is feeling. It all started a few days ago when we noticed he was laying around a lot and not nearly as active as usual -- we naturally interpreted this as "he's a cat and he's getting lazy!" On Tuesday however, Tate remained sitting on the sofa in the same spot for over 12 hours. Now, while cats may be lazy at times, we thought this was a bit extreme. I put him on the floor and he slowly hobbled over to a large stuffed dog on the floor and laid down again. It was an awful sight to watch. I brought his food and a water dish over and he took a couple licks and ate a couple bites while laying down. Something was clearly wrong. We had to carry him down to the liter box and back upstairs Tuesday night and Wed. morning wasn't any better. SO...I spent an hour and a half on the phone trying to find a vet who could see him Wed. My goal was to avoid the emergency clinic since it cost $100 just to walk in the door there. We ended up going to Woodland Veterinary Clinic and the people there were wonderful! We will definitely being going back there. Upon initial inspection the vet said Tate seemed fine -- his heart rate, respiration, temperature, etc. were all normal. The vet asked several questions about his symptoms and agreed that something seemed wrong. When I mentioned how Tate was walking he asked me to put him on the floor so he could watch. Tate pathetically walked over to where his carrier was sitting on a low bench and tried to hop up. It took him almost a full minute to make the jump. The vet could now see where the apparent problem was. He ordered x-rays and blood work and I left him there for a couple of hours so the procedures could be completed. Up on returning the vet showed me the x-rays and the results of the blood work. The x-rays did not show any problems with Tate's spine or hips but it did sh0w an enlarged kidney. The blood work also indicated a possible (although slight) kidney problem which could be related to the fact that he wasn't eating or drinking much. Of more concern though were levels of his white blood cells. They decided to run a couple more blood tests to rule out cancer. They came back negative -- Tate does not have cancer. Interestingly, the kidney trouble does not seem to be related to the pain Tate is experiencing. So, the final diagnosis is: possible kidney issues (we got back in 10 days for more blood work), and an apparent back injury (of unknown cause). Tate was put on some major anti-inflammatory drugs and told not the play with the kids or jump on high things for 2-3 days. He had his first dose of medication last night and as of this morning he already seems to be perking up. He has climbed on top of the sofa and is happily sleeping there right now. He also ate and drank almost normally this morning. $450.00 later our cat seems to be headed in the right direction! Now, if we only had good insurance like Greg and Katelyn!