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So a couple of weeks ago one of our cats (we have 2 along with 2 dogs) started acting strange. He's around 5 years old and we've had him for about 3.5 years. He was a rescue after being turned over the humane society in a hoarding situation as one of 40 cats surrendered from a single home. He was the last one of those surrendered to be adopted. I don't know how long he had been there, but this was post pandemic when humane societies were struggling to keep any animals and we were told he had been seen by families 3 times just that day and rejected by each.
He's a large black cat (15lbs and underweight when we got him and roughly 19lbs and about a pound or so overweight now). When my wife and son went to see him he refused to come out of his carrier, growled and hissed at anyone that got close to it, and had to be kept in one of the larger enclosures by himself. We decided to take him anyway. They told us his transition would probably take a lot longer than most other cats if he ever really transitioned to living in our home at all. After getting him home, he spent the first 3 weeks living under our guest bed and only coming out at night to eat. He eventually started wandering out more and we then spent the next month with him and our other cat (same age) struggling to accept each other. That eventually settled down and we've had our 2 cats and 2 dogs with few issues. What's crazy is, despite the growling and hissing at first and his background and all that. He's not a biter or scratcher. He's literally never done either to any of us.
Once he started showing signs of something being off we called around and was told it sounds like he has a urinary blockage and we needed to get him to the ER. We found a highly rated vet ER in Tacoma and immediately took him. It's an absolutely amazing vet. We checked him in online, they called us in route asking follow up questions and wanted an ETA on him arriving so that they could be ready when he gets there. Within 30 minutes of walking in their doors we had a diagnosis (confirmed urinary blockage), a plan to unblock, and he would stay overnight. We get a call the next day confirming the procedure was done and we were asked to pick him, get him home, and watch him closely to see if he would pee since he hadn't post procedure and they wanted to see if it was anxiety from not being at home.
We got him home and a few hours later we were back in the ER and it was confirmed that he had blocked again. Apparently this is somewhat common in male cats and can be caused by a variety of factors: stress, weight, diet, etc. The first unblock cost us $3k and we were told they could do another unblock but they recommend a surgery called a PU, which basically widens the urethra (I won't go into detail because it's not fun to think about even on a cat). This surgery would cost us $8k.
At this point we didn't want to see him suffer and after everything he had been through to get to us, we want what's best for him. So we had several questions about his overall health, etc. We were told other than needing to lose about a pound he is perfectly healthy. His blood work is great, kidney functions are great, bladder is clear, he's in great health. So off he goes to surgery. We got to speak to the surgeon before the procedure, he answered all questions and said that he was a strong candidate for success and a normal life post op. They wanted to keep him for 1-2 days post op to monitor.
Around 36 hours later we got the call to come pick him up with a lot of care instructions. Paper litter for 2 weeks, cone for 2 weeks, strongly recommended to keep him in a crate for the first week, and a prescription diet for the rest of his life. It took him all of a couple of hours to figure out how to get the cone off so he's been in a pet onesie since. He was largely out of it the first week with the meds, but now that he's out of the crate he's mostly back to himself. He has to stay isolated from the other animals for another week or so, but the onesie should be coming off tomorrow.
Anyway, a total of $11k, a ton of stress for us and him, multiple trips to the ER, and a prescription diet for life later and it looks like we're in the clear. The success rate for PU surgeries is incredibly high from what I've read and he's doing great now.
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