Not the way to start a new year (edit) in Going public

Cosmo, my beloved cat boy, is sick.

Technically it started in 2023, but it persists in the new year.

On Saturday Cosmo threw up a couple times throughout the day. Around dinnertime I noticed he was licking his bottom, so I took a look, and his penis was like.. stuck out. It freaked me out as usually a cat penis is totally retracted and not even visible. After some googling I got even more freaked out at what it could mean. Of course, my normal vet was closed from Christmas to Jan 2. I called around to a couple emergency vets, and finally found a veterinary ‘urgent care’ that wasn’t too far from me. I loaded up my little dude and away we went.

The summary of that visit was that the penis issue was caused by straining from constipation. They did xrays and saw that his poop was super dense, and that he had pretty bad arthritis in his hip, which may make it painful to push out poop. They gave him an enema, pain meds, and meds to soften his stool.

I took him home and set up a quarantine zone for him in my bedroom. Because I have two cats, it was important that I keep him separate to monitor his exact intake and output.

My other cat, Josie, was SO UPSET that he was quarantined and that she was alone. She’s usually very quiet and shy and avoidant, but overnight she freaked TF out. She was wailing and meowing and practically throwing herself at the door, so it was really hard for me to sleep.

Cosmo didn’t poop on the 31st or the 1st, despite the meds.

I called my vet first thing on the 2nd, and they luckily allowed me to bring him in, and he was seen by his normal vet. They took more xrays, gave another enema, and started him on additional medication to help with arthritis and inflammation and pain. I’m told the enema was quite explosive, and I think he was quite sore down below. He’s very stinky and crusty down there right now :(

It’s now the end of the day on the 3rd and he still hasn’t pooped :( He repeatedly goes to the litter box and tries to poop, gets into the squatting position and bears down, then readjusts, tries again, and eventually gives up. I don’t know what’s happening. Is he avoiding it because of pain? Is he somehow not able to poop anymore? I sent an update email to my vet and I will make sure I am in contact with them tomorrow.

These two vet visits cost about as much as a mortgage payment. Obviously he’s worth it, but it’s not a fun thing to spend money on.

I was crying so much last night because he’s 16 years old and I can’t stop thinking.. is this the beginning of the end? Am I going to lose him? I’m not ready. When it’s his time to go, I wanted it to be peacefully in his sleep, not with all this stress on him and medical BS.

Cosmo is my favorite living thing that I’ve ever known. I feel stupid for saying that because I feel like that shouldn’t be the case. I mean, I feel like normal people should love their families more than their cat, but I don’t have a nice family to love. A normal person should have a significant other or kids to love more than their cat, but I don’t have that either. I just have Cosmo. Sure, he has his flaws, but he is perfect for me. He is my first cat, and I rescued him and have taken care of him for the past 8 years. He’s been with me through so much of my adult life. He’s the sweetest, cuddliest, and loudest purring boy you could imagine. He is my family. I’ve often thought that when he dies, I will die along with him because I can’t imagine life without him.

All of this had me so disorganized and unprepared to start work again. Monday night I was so hopeless. I felt so exhausted from the lack of sleep due to Josie freaking out each night, my house was a mess, and I had nothing prepared to start my week.

Turns out I didn’t go back to work, because I am sick. Early this week I got a sore throat, and it’s just progressed from there into a full blown respiratory thing. Coughing, sneezing, fever, runny nose, disgusting amounts of mucous everywhere. I took sick days off work the last couple days, and will probably take another one tomorrow because I am a mess.

I’m sick as hell and am caring for three cats, none of whom can be around one another, and one who needs a bunch of medication and monitoring. It’s too much.

Hopefully I can get answers from the vet tomorrow and hopefully my sweet boy will be okay. I’ve never wanted a cat to poop this badly before.

EDIT: I woke up to several inches of Cosmo poop!! Yay!!

Last updated January 04, 2024