Jill's Journey

I almost titled this post “Rough week”, but really, when I think about it, way worse things could have happened and many people are dealing with worse than Jill and I went through this week.  Yes, I had some panicky moments, but all in all, she is still doing great, it was just rough on her little body.

Last Thursday, I woke up to find Jill asleep in a pool of her own urine.  I’m talking tons of it.  She was soaking wet.  This was extremely odd.  She has never had an accident outside of her little box and I thought maybe she was angry that I had my sister’s cat over and she was being spiteful, but I really didn’t think she would do that and, if she would, she really wouldn’t sleep in it all night.  So I emailed the oncologist, who suggested I take her to the regular vet for a urinalysis and culture as animals who are on chemo are prone to infections such as UTI’s.  I really didn’t even think of this as she’s already 6 weeks off the chemo, but her oncologist explained to me that the chemo can still cause side effects for months.

I’m going to make this long story as short as possible…..urinalysis came back positive for bacteria and white blood cells, so we put Jill on an antibiotic (clavamox) and wait for the culture to come back.  On Saturday night, I’m laying in bed when she starts to smack her lips, next thing I know, theres vomit everywhere!  Poor thing.  Knowing it must be from the clavamox, I don’t panic though, just wait to call the vet in the morning.  Vet calls me back, tells me the culture so far is coming back negative, but lets wait for the final results and for now keep her off the meds.  Final results came back yesterday (Tuesday), culture is negative.  Yes there is some blood in her urine, but the way her urine was obtained, a needle inserted in her bladder (a Cystocentesis), can cause some blood to get into the sample.  Anyway long story short, shes off the antibiotic for now and if she starts to show any signs of a UTI again, I’m to bring her in.

So.  That’s where we are now.  She goes tonight for  a blood test to see if her WBC’s are good enough to start metronomics, although now I’m a little hesitant about that.  Obviously her body reacts strongly to chemo and now she has a “maybe UTI”.  As of last night though she was feeling back to her normal self, running around like a lunatic.

The only bad news is………….THE LAST PRE-CHEMO WHISKER HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh well, I see this as a sign of a fresh, brand new start 🙂