[isitafireorisit]

On Sunday, Dec 27, my lady Reggie had some blood on the tissue when she peed & pooped while chilling on my lap. I called a vet and was able to get her to see someone on Tuesday, Dec 29. The vet wasn't able to palpate her belly 'cause she balls up, so she gave her some gas to get my Reg to sleep so she could pull a urine sample by needle. Unfortunately Reg had stress peed & pooped in the car on the way to the vet, but she was able to get a small sample to send for uranalysis.

Reg was on antibiotics twice a day for a week, regardless of the results. I gave these to her via syringe. The morning meds were tricky because Reg was so cranky at being up in the middle of her night, but evening meds went in pretty easily - I'm sure the strawberry flavour helped!

The tests didn't show much, so this Tuesday, Jan 12, she went in for an ultrasound. This morning I learned she has a 2mm lesion on her bladder which may be fibroids/scar tissue, or a mineralized blood clot. Next steps are either managing with meds, or surgery. I'm waiting on the vet to get back to me with some questions I have before I determine next steps, but I'll probably do meds, and then I'm guessing another ultrasound to see how the bladder is doing.

So far I've spent almost $900. The initial visit cost $275, the largest portion of that being the anesthetic to put her under so they could pull the urine sample. The ultrasound cost $620, with the bulk of that amount being the ultrasound itself.

My vet is Dr. Cindy Chow at Capitol Hill Clinic in Burnaby, BC, and I am beyond impressed with her and her staff. At the end of December when I got the uranalysis results back, they didn't have an appointment available when their traveling radiologist would next be in the clinic. Dr. Chow explained that it's best to have an actual radiologist do the scan, rather than having a vet or other tech do the scan and send the pics to a radiologist to look at, because the image quality might not be good enough. I called and got an appointment at another clinic for this same week, but Capitol Hill decided to move some things around so that they could squeeze Reggie in. They've been super nice, explaining all the processes to me over the phone. I'm sad that with covid I couldn't be in the clinic with her, but the staff has been really great.

Reggie is 1.5 years old, and she doesn't seem too bothered, though she's a bit less frisky than usual. I only saw blood 3 times, and I haven't seen any blood from her since Sunday, Jan 3rd.

I wanted to make this thread because I found it so helpful to read old threads in this forum, but they are super old. Feel free to ask me any questions! I'll keep y'all posted on how things progress.

 

[FinnickHog]

Poor Reggie! I'm glad your vets have been so good to the two of you. Hopefully the meds fix it and you don't have to deal with surgery.

 

[Kalandra]

Definitely keep us updated. It is always good information to have to see how someone else's vet dealt with a situation so that we can take that information with us should anyone else encounter a similar problem.

 

[isitafireorisit]

I just injected Reggie! I've never done that before. A tech at the clinic tried to show me how to do it earlier, but Reggie wasn't cooperating, a bit to stressed being awake so early and in a weird place with a super noisy bird �� The tech was quite patient, and explained that the injection should go in the skin under the skirt of quills. The needle only needs to go 1mm in or so, and the dose is small so it only takes a split second.

I haven't seen blood from Reg since the 3rd or so, so the meds are a precaution I suppose. they're anti-inflammatory and will help manage pain. Reg's behaviour has been as usual, but you hear so much about how stoic they are, so better safe than sorry.

I'll inject cartrophen once a week for four weeks, and then once per month afterwards. They've given me 5 syringes, so in two months or so I'll call them up to ask about next steps. I also have oral meds to give her every day for 30 days, that one's called meloxicam. Together they totaled $30, and wasn't I glad it was so cheap!

My vet said that surgery could range anywhere from $800-1200, and it would be difficult to find such a small lesion. Since Reggie has been acting normally and I haven't seen blood, I'm happy to give her meds in the hope that whatever it is will resolve.

I'll post updates as they happen!

 

[isitafireorisit]

This week I gave Reg the last of her once-per-week-for-four-weeks shot of cartrophen. I read up on the drug a bit, and it's usually used to treat arthritis in dogs or horses. After the 2nd & 3rd shots, Reggie stress peed & pooped, and there was some blood in the pee. I haven't seen blood other than that, and there was no blood this week. I emailed the vet, and she said that if the blood is just intermittent, we'll keep going with the meds. Reg gets one more shot in 4 weeks, and has about a week left of the oral anti-inflammatories.

Reg seems fine. She hasn't been as active but it is also really cold here right now. I've got the heat cranked and her house stays around 23C but who knows, maybe she knows it's winter anyway! I'm pretty confident that she's going to be ok!