Fast Eddie is high [View all]

The house panther sometimes gets cystitis, inflammation of the urinary bladder. In the past, there's been no infections and minimal crystals (he's on urinary diet anyway, just to be sure), so if there's just one or two suspicious pees, I monitor the situation. I grope the bladder gently to make sure he's not getting blocked and as long as his abdomen remains soft and not painful, and I can't feel it in there, I just watch to see if it's a one-off. It sometimes resolves on its own. (If the abdomen is painful and the bladder palpable, it's a wild ride to the e-clinic. Now. Right now. Call them on the way.)

Last night, he was starting to have problems. By this AM, he was in and out of the box every half hour. So, off to the vet.

Problem is, he doesn't always behave particularly well there. He's no longer half feral, but when I got him, he was truly scary. So the routine for a regular vet visit is a gabapentin the night before and another before the visit. He's 14 pounds of pure muscle and there are, frankly, personnel who choose to opt out anyway. I don't mind, as he's getting easier to handle every time. But since he didn't leave me a note that he needed a vet visit, he only got his morning pill today and none last night.

He behaved. It's confirmed as cystitis again, although he'll be back there Monday to see if we can get some urine to test. But he needs to continue the gab (a smaller dose) for pain through the weekend and there's some buprenorphine added, also for pain. The kid is definitely pain-free. But there's a certain 'Wow, man, look at the lights' aspect that's not really usual for him. Now that I'm not worried, it's pretty funny.