B-Side Community

To continue and expand on my December update, Buster my cat has continued recovering from his November kidney surgery. This time, unlike his first kidney stone surgery in January of 2008, the vet decided to keep him in urgent care to see if they could flush the stones out. Which would have been great: no stones, no surgery. Everybody wins. Unfortunately, after six days in urgent care, the stones had not moved, so they had to operate anyway. I will not mention the cost of six days of intensive care at the University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Clinic (not to mention the cost of the kidney surgery itself). I will just recommend that you avoid it if you can. His surgery was exactly two months ago today. I brought him home two days later. I took him back a couple times for checkups. No crystals in his urine, which was good; but he wasn't really gaining weight, which is not good. Until they switched him to a different kidney diet. He loves it! I bought a digital scale and started weighing him on December 16. He was 7 pounds 2 ounces that day (down from a high of 11 pounds!) He's been gaining an ounce or two every days since them. A month later, he is 8 pounds 10 and a half ounces. He's gained a full pound and a half! I'm hoping he reaches nine pounds at least. (Update - as of 2/21/2009 he's up to 9 pounds 11 ounces!!)(Another update: As of 5/23/2009 he's up to 11 pounds 10 ounces. Crazy! He's gained 4 pounds 8 ounces since he was at his sickest in December. I might have to put him on a diet.)