Geez, where does the time go? It seems like forever ago, but it was just a couple of weeks.
On Thursday, September 24, Mario ended up at the vet's, in surgery. The problem? Let me start at the beginning.
Okay, we all know that he has a problem pooping. It's why we were at the emergency vet on the fourth of July. He was getting an enema. He was prescribed lactulose (two to three times a day) and subQ fluids to keep him hydrated and his stool soft, not hard and dry. And I've been pretty good at giving those meds, but getting the right recipe has been tough. Too much, the stool is too loose. Not enough, his stool is on the way too hard and dry, hard to push out with his bad back.
But, I try.
Anyway, in the days before that Thursday, I noticed that his poop was getting harder (up the lactulose) and for some reason, he was scooting when he was done, smearing feces all over the bottom of the shower (he goes in Brian's shower, which makes cleanup much easier). This went on for a couple of days and that Thursday, I cleaned his butt off with a moist cloth. And there was blood on it.
Okay. I consider what might be the cause. Did he tear himself when scooting? The bottom of the shower is rough (non skid, I suppose) and maybe a dry piece of stool scraped him? He wasn't very happy with what I was doing. Really uncomfortable. Then he got off of the bed, went into the bathroom and had a fine stool specimen. Perfect size, perfect consistency. He left the bedroom and got up on the bed. I wiped his bottom again. Blood.
I waited a few minutes and touched the area with a tissue. Blood. And more blood. And it didn't stop bleeding, there was actually more with each tissue.
I called the vet shortly after. The vet said to bring him in. She wasn't feeling well, had planned on going home, but she said to bring him in and drop him off. We did.
Shortly after we got home, the phone rang. Mario had some sort of tumor right inside of his anus. On his bowel. She could perform surgery to remove it. And did we want to send it out for testing? You know, for cancer? We said "do the surgery, don't send it out, it really won't matter at this stage of the game if he has cancer or doesn't, there's nothing we can do about it".
A few hours later, she called, the surgery was done, we could get him in an hour or so. When we picked him up and paid for the surgery, the tech brought out a baggie. She said "since we're not sending this out, the doctor thought you might like to see it."
And here's what she gave me:
It looks like a little berry. But that was blocking the stool from exiting in a painless manner. It might grow back, it might not. Not sure what it was, the vet called it a "tumor". It sure looks like a polyp when looking at pictures of polyps online. We were sent home with five days worth of pain meds and an antibiotic. He recovered nicely. A little sore at first, but he's okay now.
I'm still trying to get the meds adjusted, this week I started giving him A/D on my finger, he seems to eat it better that way. He hasn't had much of an appetite for a while now. He does like treats, but he can't survive on treats. He does seem more comfortable.
He's started getting under the covers again at night and this morning, for the first time in months, he came up to me while we were still in bed, got really close to my face and meowed. That was pretty cool. Then he got down and joined the rest of the cats, waiting for us to get out of bed and get them their morning treats.
 |
