Yet another blood test, plus X-rays
It's Valentines Day. Jazz hasn't noticed, but luckily Andy remembered, so I wasn't too upset :-)
That aside, we were back at the vet for another blood test this morning.
Afterwards, we took him through for an X-ray. This time I got to wear a dead sexy lead apron and collar. He was very good, bless him, lying nice and still on the X-ray couch while the vet and nurse arranged him and wrapped what I can only describe as lead-filled socks over his neck and legs. Then we all beat a retreat for the photo.
Unfortunately, this didn't show up anything, so I stayed with him while the pre-med took effect, and then left him there for an hour or so while they anaesthetised him, inserted a catheter, inflated the bladder and took more pictures.
When I got back, Fiona said she'd only been able to get 150ml of air into his bladder, so no wonder he's having to go out so often. There's no sign of bladder stones, and also no sign that the blood in his urine is coming from his prostate gland. However, the bladder wall is very inflamed (it's about 1/4" thick at the moment), which will be affecting its elasticity.
As there's no other apparent cause for the cystitis, it looks as though he is just very sensitive to the Cyclophosphamide after all, so we'll just have to stick with the drugs that we can give him, and wait it out. He's on antibiotics to prevent seconday infection and tri-cyclic anti-depressants which help with analgesia and calming, and the Prednisolone will keep him wanting to drink and so get fluids through him. The Prednisolone is also anti-inflamatory.
We have enough antibiotics to last until our next visit on Thursday, but will need to pick up some more tri-cyclics tomorrow evening, as they didn't have many in stock last week. Fiona wanted to hold off on the new drugs (the replacement for the Cyclophosphamide) until we get the results from today's blood test.
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