No Extraordinary Family: A Parent's Worst Nightmare

The worst nightmare for a parent is something bad happening to their child. Literally as well as metaphorically, there is no worse nightmare. And in this post I am referring not to the literal nightmares that my husband and I have had on account of our boys (God knows we have our fair share of those!) but the metaphorical ones.

In my last post I mentioned that my boys had a rough patch health-wise. That happened last month. It started at the end of January with Sam throwing up a few times. Then Pippin threw up all night the next day. We took them both to a vet who examined and declared that there was nothing wrong with them. Pippin continued to vomit all night that evening onwards, again. I called their old vet who had been on leave following childbirth. She had resumed her practice and was kind enough to see him after midnight. She gave him some injections to control his vomiting and also some antibiotics and some medicines to be given orally. That night Frodo threw up once.

The next day wasn’t pleasant since Pippin threw up every time we tried to give him medicines orally. By late evening he had stopped eating or drinking. I finally called our family veterinarian in Kolkata that night for advice. She suggested that we put him on drip immediately. However, it was late on Sunday night and no such facility was available. We had no choice but to wait till morning. Thankfully, Pippin did not vomit any more that night, probably because he had had nothing for quite some time.

The next day we took him to the vet recommended for giving the drip. We had consulted him earlier at one time but had changed vets of late due to the distance (his clinic is 15 kilometres) from my house. He suspected Pancreatitis or something similar and started Pippin on drips, antibiotics, vitamin B complex and other necessary medicines. We gave him 4-5 rounds of that. We also gave him medicines orally. Thankfully, he stopped vomiting soon after the drips started. But it took days for him to regain his appetite.

In the meantime, we had their blood tested. Their urea, creatinine and other parameters were all awry, so we started them on a renal diet. We also started giving all of them a medicine to bring down urea. Frodo, because he vomited once more, also had to take medicine for that. Once all that was done with, we gave all of them liver medicine for 15 days since liver profiles hadn’t turned out too sanguine either.

In the meantime, Pippin started peeing on our bed. Now, that might seem like a misdemeanour. But those who have lived with cats know that errant peeing behaviour is more likely to be a sign of health problems or stress than behavioural issues. Consequently, we got an USG done. The USG showed some mineralization in his right kidney and some possible crystals in his bladder. My husband—his ingenuity be praised—also collected urine samples for three of the boys. Merry’s could not be collected on time to submit at the lab. The tests showed crystals in two of the samples. So now they are on a special Urinary diet. This diet will continue for a while.

In addition to diet control, we also placed a plastic sheet on the bed and covered it with a newspaper sheet so that if Pippin peed on the bed, the sheets wouldn’t get soiled. Funnily enough, the plastic sheet has now become the playground for all my boys! We also started discouraging such behaviour and encouraging Pippin to pee in the right place by talking to him. Surprisingly, it worked. Even before the special diet was started, Pippin resumed correct urinary behaviour. He now pees (and poops!) on command, subject to there being anything to egest.

As I read the last paragraph, I realise that only an avid cat lover would understand and appreciate it. So, if you find that paragraph or even the whole post or that I can go on and on about such bodily functions uncomfortable, silly or downright insane, I will totally understand.

Those days have been easier to write about than to live through. Words cannot fully capture the anxiety, the pain and the stress we all went through—all six of us. They are all much better now. A second round of blood tests has shown good improvement in Pippin and we have extrapolated that result for the others as well. But their worms are acting up since we could not deworm them on time due to the above-mentioned health complications. The heat is also bothering them. Merry is getting a little depressed due to his father’s unusually busy schedule at work. Like any good parent will tell you, worrying is part of the job description and the list of things to worry never ends!

Here are a couple of pictures from those days. One is of them with their new ‘playground’ and the other is of Pippin in the car on the way to the vet’s. He was going for the USG that day.