Meet "Indi"

Indi is three years old. He came to stay with us for a few days at the beginning of December. He had surgery to remove stones from his bladder a few days before and was still having problems urinating. Before he came here, he had to have multiple urinary catheters placed. He wasn't urinating upon arrival so another urinary catheter had to be inserted. Once it was removed, he still wasn't urinating on his own. We were very worried and so were Indi's mom and dad. We decided to give him heavy sedatives and kept him in a warm, dark and cozy area of the clinic to let him sleep and have time to heal from the surgery and multiple catheterizations. Two days later Indi urinated on his own. He was sent home and has, slowly but surely, continued to improve. We are happy to report that currently Indi is doing great at home. He's not quite 100% yet, but he gets better every day!

Male cats naturally have a narrow urethra. That means that severe inflammation due to infection or urinary stone formation can often cause them to not be able to urinate. This is a life-threatening condition and can kill a cat in a matter of hours. If you notice your cat having problems urinating or trying to urinate but nothing coming out, they need to be seen by a veterinarian as soon as possible. If caught in a timely manner and with the right treatment, these cats can be saved and go on to live long happy lives.

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This is "Ash."

Ash had her first litter of puppies and had a lot of problems afterward. She developed eclampsia-where her blood calcium levels dropped due to the amount of milk she was producing and couldn't walk well. She also had muscle twitches, which is very common with this illness. On top of that, she had mastitis (inflammation and infection in her mammary glands) as well. Ash did not look well when we first saw her. We started her on calcium supplementation and antibiotics. A couple of days later she returned. The eclampsia had gotten better (no more muscle twitching and she was walking), but the mastitis had gotten worse, to the point where one of her mammary glands had a large amount of necrotic tissue. We switched her to a stronger antibiotic and bandaged her mammary gland. She returned a couple of days later and we had to surgically remove the infected gland. The photo above is Ash on the day of her suture removal about 2 weeks later. Everything healed up perfectly and she is happy and active and has gained some weight. She looks great!

Eclampsia and mastitis are potentially life-threatening illnesses that can arise in the post-partum period. If you have a pregnant animal, it is important to meet with your veterinarian to discuss proper care during pregnancy, birthing and the post-partum time period.