Tuesday, January 22, 2008

And You Think YOU Have Problems...



It's that time of year - the time for sniffles and sickness. The Sluiter family is being hit with it like everyone else. I stayed home a day last week for a plugged up face, and was sick again today with a fever and sore throat. Luckily we had a snow day, but I will have to take tomorrow off as well. And of course, now Cortney is coming down with it. But that doesn't compare with the cat's problems.


Lately, Louis has not been wanting to use his litter box to go...um...number 2. It's one thing for him to pee on things - cats do that when they are stressed or angry. But the poo thing is usually more serious. So while I fought my fever all day, Cortney took Louis to the vet.


I must warn you - for those of you with weak stomaches or an aversion to poo, you should probably just move on in your internet surfing. Seriously. Ok...don't say I didn't warn you!


It turns out that Louis was constipated. The vet felt a rather large lump in his intestine of, well, poop. So they had to do an enema. He finally came home around 3:30, and his butt fur was all wet. Cort said that after they did the procedure HE proceded to sit in his own...well...you know. So they tried to wash him off, but apparently he had had enough of people back there and was pretty uncooperative.


Look again at that picture up there. He looks pretty humiliated, doesn't he?


At least now he is "cleaned out". Now we have to give him a second litter box of different litter. Apparently when it hurts to poo, cats form an aversion to the PLACE where it hurt to poo, so the vet was afraid he still might not want to use his litter box. We also have to give him a stool softener once a day. APPARENTLY this is not all that uncommon in "older" cats (Louis is 13 1/2). Great. My old man cat has pooping problems. What's next? False teeth?


Anyway, he is home and resting. He's even forgiven Cortney for putting him through the whole ordeal. Or maybe he's just keeping his enemies close...hmmmm....

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