Meow all, Lexi here with ya’ today. If you remember Dezi is off with the cat scouts having fun with a jamboree. But never fear she left the blog in my paws and I won’t steer ya’ wrong. After all, we have the same mommy. Anyways, we wanna address something very serious over the next couple of days, so that’s why the blog is being written in all human speak. We don’t want to take a chance that somebody can’t understand it and then has to go thru what we did when it could have been avoided. As Dezi has told you, I lost my brofur Lucky to a UTI. A lot of you have never dealt with this, and for that we are so grateful. But over the next couple of days we’re going to be dealing with what mommy calls “The Silent Killer”.
I loved my brofur very much!
UTI’s or Urinary Tract Infections are more common than you might think, and are completely curable. So why then did I lose my brofur Lucky you ask? That’s why mommy calls it the Silent Killer. I will be telling his story, but first I would like to give you more information on this potentially fatal illness. I do want to preface this by saying altho’ we will be referring to this as a feline disease and we will be focusing on cats, this post in it’s entirety applies to all animals; dogs, rabbits, pigs, etc..
I’ll start by giving you all the definition of a UTI. It’s a bacterial, fungal, viral or algal infection developing anywhere along the animals urinary tract. The urinary tract consists of the kidneys, ureters, bladder, urethra and/or prostate gland (applies to males only). The urethra is the tube from the bladder to the outside that urine travels through. They can also be called FLUTD (Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease), FUS (Feline Urologic Syndrome), FIC (Feline Idiopathic Cystitis), and Interstitial Cystitis. Now if those aren’t some big words…And since it covers such a large area and can go by so many names are you starting to see why mommy calls it the Silent Killer? It could be as simple as stress to stones or a complete blockage of the urethra. Altho’ UTI’s are more common in males, females are not immune. If you look at the photos, you will be able to see why males are more prone to a blockage. The urethra is longer and has a rather large bend in it whereas a females urethra is shorter and has an almost direct route to the outside.
Male Urinary Tract
Female Urinary Tract
What are the causes of this horrid disease you ask? Let me tell you what 2 different websites have to say, and you’ll really start to understand mommy’s frustration. Pet MD says UTI’s can be caused by Stones, Crystals, a urethral plug, bladder inflammation, injury, incontinence from excessive water drinking, stress, spinal cord problems or congenital abnormalities. And most of these are symptoms, not causes. But the vet section of Web MD says what most VETs say, and that is, a disease that arises spontaneously, or for which the cause is unknown. In other words, nobody is certain, or at least they can’t truly agree exactly what is the cause of this disease. Although for the most part they can at least agree on some of the causes, those being diet, stress, liquid intake, and injuries to the urethra. This horrible disease can affect any animal at any age, altho’ it is most often diagnosed/seen in males between the age of 1 and 5 years old. Now you’re starting to see why Dezi’s recent 5th birthday was such a landmark for mommy. We lost Lucky right before he turned 5 and Ransom also had this horrible disease and we lost him right before he turned 5.
Mommy calls this disease a silent killer. While some cats will show no symptoms until it’s too late or the disease has progressed to it’s final stages, it’s not uncommon for animals with a UTI to cry out while using the litter box. Or eliminate inappropriately; like in your bath tub, or on the floor or in your plants, etc.. It hurts to urinate and they associate the litter box with that pain and don’t want to go back there. Typically there is blood in the urine as well, and as the blockage increases, the cat will strain to urinate. I would like to interject here that a normal urine sample for cats is at least a tablespoon size amount at a minimum of 2 times a day. Now remember that will vary based on your cats size, age, liquid (diet) intake and other health issues.
The symptoms aren’t always immediate, and of course as with everything else, some of them could point to something entirely different. Some of those symptoms are lethargy, loss of appetite, fever, depression, and licking excessively around the penis or vaginal area especially right after urinating as this may be a sign of burning during urination. Often mild cases often go undiagnosed in cats specifically until discovered during a routine annual checkup, and may often clear up on their own.
Lucky Lucciano
We really want to do this justice, so we will continue tomorrow as we have given you a lot of information to digest today. But before we go, we want to say that if you suspect your cat or animal is having difficulty urinating or may have a UTI please go to the VET immediately!!! Don’t wait, it may mean the difference between life and death.
Lexi: Hey y’all Lexi heer hopin’ youz awl duin’ grayt. Yesfurday Dezi poezdid dat it had gawdid relee kold heer. And it did. Well when it gitz relee kold Dezi gitz in a funk of sortz. Not a down and owt kind but a relee playfull wun. Soz yesfurday she had bin duin’ her normull fing of hawllerin’ at mommy and mommy gittin’ up and chekin’ on herz and da pawdee boxiz ownlee too find nuffin’ in ‘em. Korz mommy nu dat afur herz gawdid up cuz weez had bowff awlredee gawn. But Dezi wuz skweekin’ nun da lezz and mommy duzn’t wanna miss anyfin’ jiz in kayz. Finelee mommy gawdid soz tired dat herz told Dezi she wuzn’t gittin’ up agin. She wuz gunna habz herz kup of kawffee and dat ibin Dezi wandid too tawlk too herz she kuld kumm too da libbin’ room too doo it. Soz in Deziz biggezt big girly voyz herz annownzt herz purrowtezt. Youz shulda herd it, it wuz hill-air-reeuz. Mommy and me bowff laft. Din in anudder big girl voyz, da wun dat skeerz any mommy, Dezi hawllerd owt. And of korz mommy reezpawndid bi jumpin’ strayt up and heddin’ fur da hawl. Mommy looked down da hawlway and der wuz Dezi starin’ rite at herz frum da bedroom. And din she jumped strayt up and ran away and din strayt fur mommy. See day play diz gaym of: gunna git me. Dezi sort of hidez and mommy purrtendz to nawt see herz and sez, “Where’s Dezi? Where’s my Dezi girl? Oh Dezi, where are you?” And then Dezi wigglez herz hinee and mommy startz to “run” away and sez, “You gunna get me? You gunna get me?” And Dezi chases behind her and then ends by jumpin’ on whateber herz kin find and din zoomz fru da howz and day start awl ober agin. Let me tell ya’ I’z git tired jiz watchin’ ‘em.
Check out what ow mommy did. We be so purroud of hers. As yous know mommy’s not so good wiff da tech stuffs or da foto apps and stuff so when she did this, weez did da happy kitty dance. And we wuz so excited we kuldn’t wait till Caturday awt day to show it off. So paw/click here to see ow pawsum mosaic.
Dezi:Me just luvs playin’ wiff mommy. So yesfurday weez asked ifin yous all wuld be innewested in weadin’ ‘bout UTI’s, and da answer wuz mostly yes. So those wuld be educational posties and be written in hooman so dat anypawdy and evewypawdy will be able to read ‘em. Me has a jamboree to attend wiff da Cat Scouts stawtin’ today and runnin’ fwu da week. So we fawt since sis Lexi wuz da one dat wuz here wiff hers bwofurs when this howwible illness occured and took Lucky’s life, meez gunna leave meez blog in hers capable hands. Sis Lexi wuz writin’ on Facebook long afur me stawted da blog, so hers is purrfectly capable of takin’ cawe of meez blog. Purrlease be nice to hers and weez hope to bwing sum insight into this pawful silent killer of cats known as da UTI.
By da way, mommy did get a vewy showt video of Lexi goin’ down da steps, but it’s purretty blurry, so weez’ll be postin’ all ‘bout da steps wiff videos and fotos this weekend. Dat’ll giv mommy a chance to get better videos and paws cwossed, boff of us. MOL Weez will be includin’ da where they came fwum, etc.. After all, weez vewy impurressed wiff ‘em.
OMC We wuz so exhausted still dat weez just disappeared yesfurday. First me wuld like to fank yous all again fur purrticipatin’ in ow blest Sunday postathon. We read so many heartwarmin’ posties ‘bout da blessings in yous lives. Mommy had da leaky eyes most of da day. Fur those of yous hoo still don’t weally know, meez mommy has a heart as big as Texas and she wears it on hers sleeve. Yep dat means dat hers can and does get hurt sumtimes, but it also means dat hers luvs and luvs wiff hers whole heart. We wuldn’t change her fur da world. So yes, hers had da leaky eyes while readin’ yous posties. But they wuz da good kind of leaky eyes.
This be da first full out tummy shot weez evew posted.
We also wanna say weez glad yous liked ow Grand Tour video. Mommy spent half da day recowdin’ and re-recowdin’ cuz hers kep cwyin’ and kuldn’t finish it. we awe so vewy gwatefull to yous all fur all yous luv and suppowt. And OMC hav we got a supwise fur yous today. We kuldn’t even believ it owselves. But, da bottom pawt of da steps came in da mail Munday!!! We weally did fink da twackin’ sed Tuesday or Wednesday. Now it did take mommy a while to get ‘em togedder and hers wuz still feelin’ a bit under da wedder, so weez not hav any video yet, but weez do hav a kupple fotos. Weez’ll post again wiff videos later.
Diz beez mines kool stepz. Day beez pawsum!!! (Lexi)
In udder mews, it turned way cold here today. Yesfurday it wuz nice and purretty and in da 80’s. And then last night it fell all da way down to da 20’s. And windy…OMC is it evew windy. Anyways, lots of you dat hav been followin’ us a while know dat mommy and sis Lexi lost a beluved fur baby and bwofur to a UTI. And seems here lately lots of ow furiends awe comin’ down wiff this howwible illness. Mommy calls it da silent killer and not fur da weasons yous might fink. But we wuz wunnewin’ ifin yous all wuld be innewested in us writin’ a posty ‘bout it? Needless to say when Lucky got sick and died, mommy immersed hers selff in studyin’ it so dat it wuld nevew happen again. Least not ifin hers kuld help it. We also got an email da udder day ‘bout a new litter dat kuld help identify UTI’s. Let me say dat we ordered it but Have Not yet twied it owselves, so weez not certain’ it works. But mommy sez ifin yous evew had a kitty wiff this purrawlem, no purrice is too high to pay to avoid catchin’ it. Yous can check it out here. We will be postin’ weviews after we actually twy it. As you know we just got a new pawdee box and mommy alweady put down a new littler fur us to twy. Mommy sez 1 new litter at a time. Anyways, wight now the Perfect Litter can be shipped to yous fur a small fee of $4.99 to cover da shipping. It is extwemely light weight and yous get 14 lbs. Weez not know how long this offer will last so we fawt we wuld go ahead and shawe it wiff yous.
Meowllo and welcome to a very special Blest Sunday. We have so many blessings in our lives one post just isn’t enough. But we’ll try. First me wants to say fank you all fur participating in our Blest Sunday postathon. We decided to host this event at the Tabby Cat Club, but thought it should be shared by any blogger who would like to post their many blessings. And it just so happened to fall on the same day that we were going to post after the fundraiser’s end. Things couldn’t have aligned better if we had tried. You may have also noticed this post is being written in human speak. It’s because we want everybody to be able to read every word.
As most of you know by now we’ve only been in social media for about a year now. But in that year we have met so many wonderful people from all over the world. And we have made so many friends. We are so truly blest. Guess we’ll go back to when this all started. Through no fault of our own, our apartment flooded back in July. Not once, but twice, and management kept giving us the run around about repairing and replacing the floors. During all this, mommy’s only sitting recliner broke. Our mattress which is all foam got wet. And so there mommy was sitting on the wet dirty carpet and sleeping in the wet bed. Well, back when we first got our computer we started a facebook page and belonged to a cat group where we made tons of wonderful friends. The cat group site shut down so we all migrated to facebook, and kept in touch.
While mommy was fighting with management trying to get our apartment fixed one of our awesum friends Mary Beth, who we call awnty; was rallying our facebook friends to try to raise some money so we could get mommy a new recliner. She asked for our paypal address and before we knew it our friends started putting monies in our account. And some sent food for us and for mommy, and some sent clothes, and others sent toys and/or treats. All the while they were praying for us and mommy. We can’t thank you all enough for what you did for us. Just know that you all hold a special place in our hearts.
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Just a few of the gifts we received.
Another month passed and mommy was still fighting with management trying to get our apartment fixed up, and Miss Linda sent us an email. Conversations back and forth and finally Miss Linda said it would be great if mommy could get a lift chair and we could replace the wet mattress. Mommy agreed, but didn’t see how that was possible. And Miss Linda said she would like to sponsor a fundraiser for us and add to the list steps for Lexi to help her out. So the fundraiser was started. The first of the money that came in was transferred to us and put with what we already had in our paypal account and a chair for mommy was ordered. By this time we were finally back in our apartment and the floors had been replaced and several other improvements had been attempted. (all have been completed at this time) The fundraiser ended early when all funds were raised and exceeded. The final total was $1,952.00. We can’t begin to express our gratitude to everyone who donated. You all gave from your heart and we are so honored to have been the recipients of your love and kindness. Every gift mattered and every gift was precious to us. We watched the fundraiser everyday and mommy would read the names to us and the comments that were made and she would cry tears of happiness and humility. There was a little confusion at one point over the fees, but after much research and a few phone calls we can tell you that the fees WERE NOT charged to us or Miss Linda. The best way to explain is that it’s kind of like using an out of network ATM. The person using the card is charged a fee. But that fee isn’t taken out of the amount they withdraw, it’s charged to their account. So, the final total that You Caring showed is the amount that was deposited into the pay pal account for us.
Well first of all you already know that we were able to get a chair for mommy. And we all love it. It was special made just for her. And we got a new and dry mattress for the bed. It arrived Saturday. So we’re going to be sleeping in a dry bed again. WooHoo And we got a set of steps ordered fur sis Lexi, and the top half got here yesterday. They are being specially made just for her and our bed. Of course you will be seeing lots more of them in the future.
If you can’t see the video, please click here to watch on youtube.com
There was also some of you that gave and specified something different. We were so touched by the special friends that gave us their treat money so we could hav a new toy. Mommy ordered us a nip nana cause it’s one of our favorites. And we love it!!! And mommy was given a gift card and told to buy something frivolous with it. She hasn’t yet, but now that all the stress is over and everything’s finally set right, mommy will turn her thoughts to frivolity and make a decision about what to buy. Of course we’ll let you know what she got when she gets it.
We have been so humbled by the love and support we’ve received during all of this. We never expected the depth of generosity we received, but are eternally grateful. Thank you just doesn’t seem adequate but is all we know to say. You’re all so dear to us. And we pray God’s blessings for you. Every prayer, kind and uplifting word and monetary donation are appreciated. We have been alone for such a very long time, but you all have shown us we are no longer alone. Our family has grown exponentially and we are thrilled and honored to welcome you to our family. Our Facebook friends, Blogging friends and Cat scouts all supported us and we hope that we can in some way make you all proud to know us and be a part of our extended family. We are so Blest and so very grateful to be a part of such an awesome community. From the bottom of our hearts…………THANK YOU!!!
Service Cats U.S. 