8:25 a.m. - 2003-11-06
Zesto update
Just a short entry to let you all know the Zesto update. Because you're going to get a longer entry today from my esteemed husband, or so he says.
Bruce really enjoyed updating this journal while I was gone. So much that I wasn't surprised when he announced this morning that he had "kind of a fun idea for a science entry today" if I would be interested in lending him my journal. If it keeps on like this maybe I'll spring for him to get a journal of his very own on his birthday.
Or maybe I'll just sit back and enjoy having someone else write my entries!
Anyway, the Zesto update: My charming but deaf and very addled cat has not had his sex change. Yet. Instead he spent a second day at the vet's having his innards looked at.
Dr. Lisa explained everything to me when I went to pick him up. First they had done an x ray, which she showed me. It was basically inconclusive, but did seem to show some haziness in his bladder. So they moved on to an ultrasound.
The ultrasound showed a large white spot on one side of his bladder. Yup, she showed me the stills and sure enough, there was a huge white spot. It looked like the bladder stone that ate New York. I was tempted to panic.
Dr. Lisa said that she was tempted to panic, too, but instead she called in the radiologist. His advice?
"Take the cat by his hind legs and gently shake him. Then put him back on the ultrasound."
Shake the cat? What the hey?
"It was like a snowglobe in there!" giggled Dr. Lisa. "The shaking loosened up all the stuff that had been gathered at one side of his bladder, and it went all over the place. The radiologist says there are no stones, not even formed crystals. It's all what we call 'sand', which is unformed gritty material. It usually passes through, but it can be irritating. It's probably why he's having trouble, he's still getting rid of all this debris in his bladder."
I squelched the urge to ask her if she had seen any plastic reindeer or perhaps a tiny Statue of Liberty in there. Sigh. I guess some cats just need a good shaking.
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