Friday Cat Blogging: Just a Squeeze'll Do Ya

Still monitoring Nosey's urine in an attempt to regulate his insulin dose.  He had a half-day of yellow vomiting the other day, similar to that which brought him to the specialist about a year or so ago, so we're back to giving him a little prednisone each day (we had stopped completely a few weeks ago, after slowly tapering off).  We're confining him each morning to get his urine to test.  Kevin gets up early enough to confine Nosey before he pees.  Nosey, that is.  Well, Kevin also gets up before he himself pees, which is quite fortunate, but we're discussing Nosey at the moment.

Dr. Slade wants consecutive days of urine tests.  So we're on day three today.  I think Nosey was up before Kevin this morning bc Nosey finally just peed.  Poor thing.  He'd been confined with about a teaspoon of litter in a box for five or six hours before he finally came up with the goods.  At one point, he was meowing and meowing and meowing and meowing...which isn't really like him; he usually fusses a bit, but not that vocally.  Finally, I went in and found: nada.  I put him in the box, gave him a little squeeze roundabout where I think his bladder is and left.  The squeeze is my very scientific method for encouraging him to pee.  Again with the meowing, meowing, meowing, then...silence.  I went in and survey says: poo.  Wrong!  Cleaned that up, put Nosey in the box again, gave him another squeeze and left.  Checked a little later and survey says: pee!  Correct!

Tested it and the color on the strip matched the 'light' color.  It's either pink for 'negative' or one of three shades of purple for 'light', 'medium' and 'dark'.  He's always tested dark until yesterday, when it was between medium and dark.  Today he tested light.  We had just increased his insulin to 3.75 units 2x/day a couple of days ago, so maybe we're closing in on the right dosage.  Thing is, he's back on prednisone for his stomach issues, and pred is an anti-insulin drug so it's kind of a balancing act.

I tried to get a picture of his sweet little face while we were kicking it in the bathroom earlier this morning, but he kept turning away and moving, so these pics were the best I could do today.  He was moving about too much, probably bc he was antsy about being confined and also bc he was so lovey!  Sweet kitty.  The doctor suggested confining the others and letting Nosey mosey about until he pees, so as to reduce the stress on Nosey.  Hmm.  We'll have to think about that. 

Edited to say that I think the squeezing works!  I've been semi-tracking how soon after a squeeze he pees and it's much faster than the time pre-squeeze that he's been doing nothing in there.  E.g., I just did it today and I heard him scratching in the box within 5-10 minutes.  So, if you need your cat to pee and he's not obliging, try a squeeze.