I’ve never been so focused on poo in my life. Let me explain, Ernie has megacolon. What that means is his colon doesn’t work properly and poo just builds up in there. He DOES go poo, but it’s a long drawn out process for him. He goes to the box multiple times and tries to make product, about 75% of the time nothing comes out. Eventually he does make chocolate but it’s hard, like clay. We had him on a schedule where he was getting enema’s roughly every six months and we changed his diet. Recently however that wasn’t enough and he spent three days with our vet.
He’s on new medication that seems to be working, it’s been less than a week but it seems promising. I’m pretty sure he can’t tell the difference between a fart and a dump because he goes to the box a LOT and farts a LOT….audibly. We’re pretty excited about this new development because it means that the medication is working.
Through all his medical problems Ernie has remained a sweet boy. He never cries in the car when I take him to the vet and most of the time he’ll get in the carrier on his own. He likes to lay with us at night when we’re watching tv. He comes up right by my head and curls up next to me.
When he was really backed up he would make the ‘potty face’. I know this sounds crazy, but I can tell when he has to go. He wouldn’t go by himself because Jack & Hurley and Pippi would gather around the box and watch him, he doesn’t want an audience. So he’d sit in his cat bed looking at me with his potty face and I’d take him to the box. Now that he’s feeling better he goes all by himself, which is also huge.
Ernie is a funny little man, he was smitten with our first foster kitten Boo Boo Kitty. I’d go looking for her and I’d find them together. I think he was crushed when she left us, after she left he wasn’t interested in any other foster kittens.
I actually wish he would eat people food or drink some milk. If he would he might get rhea, which would be a huge improvement over his current situation. But he’s only interested in dry food and he prefers water with ice in it. He’s on prescription wet right now and he seems to like it, but I think the novelty might wear off.
Anyway, every time he goes to the box we gather around and wait in anticipation of a big dump. I can’t tell my non cat friends this stuff because they’d think we’re nuts.
Bob said I was a little too graphic with Ernie's medical problems. I was going to go back and edit this, but I got to thinking about it. I don't want to get all preachy but we see a LOT of animals that are brought into the shelter because they 'didn't work out'. Sometimes animals with medical problems are abandoned. It's really unfortunate and I certainly understand that these days money is tight and sometimes owners have to make the difficult choice to surrender their pet. But how often do people adopt a pet without thinking it through? My point in writing this blog is to share what it's like living with 6 cats, they bring as a lot of joy and pleasure. However, it's not without some sacrifices, animals require work and money. I don't want to mislead anyone into thinking that it's all rainbows and butterflies, you roll the dice when you adopt an animal. They might be perfectly healthy or they might end up developing medical problems, you just never know. I wouldn't trade any of our cats for anything and there's nothing I wouldn't do for them. We made a lifelong commitment when we adopted them. Anyway, I apologize if any of the above is too much information but Ernie's medical problems are part of our daily life.
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