Update on Austin's Insistitis and a request for purrs!

First of all I want to thank everyone who went to the trouble to comment, message and email after the last blog post about Austin's "little trouble".

For a nine year old in/out cat he has been very healthy, except for his stomatitis, which is thankfully under control.

Since his visit to the vet where he received antibiotic and anti-inflammatory shots, he has certainly improved and has had decent pees in his litter box, though as he mostly does his business outside, I can't supervise his every bathroom visit!

I have cut out kibble to only a few treats at night and have started to introduce gravy based wet food which is NOT FISH! He actually ate beef for the first time and chicken and liver! I have to say it's a bit of a miracle after years of turning his delicate nose up to anything non fish based....... unless it is fresh cooked organic chicken breast served on a silver salver! 

I am thinking about introducing a water fountain, but as he runs a mile from fast moving and out of control liquid I am having doubts still!

Anyway, thanks for all the purrs and advice. Austin and I appreciate it and you all very much.

We would like to ask for purrs for a very special friend, Moses the Studio Cat, who resides over at Lily Pad Quilting Blog. He is a very sick kitty and we know he and his family would really appreciate support. You can click on the link or his picture below.

I've got Insistitis!

I insist that I am let in and out and in and out and in ......

The Staff here: And it seems there was a very good reason for Austin's urgent in/out requests over the last couple of days! Many of you will know that he prefers to do his private business in the great outdoors despite having all mod-cons and an en suite inside entirely for his comfort.

However, unusual activity around the litter box made it clear that he was having trouble in the bathroom department, so I bundled him in the PTU and rushed to the vet and yes, it seems he does have cystitis. The vet gave him an antibiotic shot and anti-inflammatory shot and said he should feel better in 24 hours. He didn't say anything else!

Here's the sweet boy last evening!

I made the mistake of googling feline cystitis and found that it can be a lot more serious in male cats than female! Stuff about crystals and lower UTIs has now made me sweat a bit, so any advice would be very much appreciated! Do I need to change his diet? He is such a very picky eater and only seems to want to eat fish based soft food and I do give him posh kibble (Royal Canin) but have cut that out for a few days. As far as I can tell there is no blood in his urine.

I know many of you have dealt with this in your kitties, so I will welcome any input! And some purrs would be so much appreciated!

Austin has not been blogging or visiting his buddies for quite a while much to his disgust and of course he blames me!! Fair dos! But I have to admit to being sometimes totally overwhelmed by the sheer number of lovely cat (and dog) blogs there are now and also how involved so many are in events, promotions, giveaways, branding etc (and Blogpaws!). Also we have been blogging since March 2008, so inevitably there comes a point where new ideas for posts dry up. We do hope to be back as I know Austin misses everyone :-)