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Gomez the Man, by Mom

Remove the Vet Services Tax from the CA budget proposal

Register your opinion with Governor Schwarzenegger to remove the Veterinary Services Tax from the budget proposal. It’s simple and effective. Just call the Governor’s office at 916-445-2841. When you call, please select your language choice, then press 5 to leave your opinion on a current issue, press 1 to select the issue of extending the sales tax to veterinary services, and then press 2 to oppose this proposal.

Our Poor Moose Man

Gomey has had a pretty rough time since last December. We fought cancer with our other cat, Morticia, and lost the battle in November 2007.

In December 2007 Gomez developed FUS (urinary crystals that block the urethra - mostly in males) and had to go into the hospital for a little over a week. He had surgery to clear the crystals and clear his bladder of any stones. This was an odd incident because Gomez has been on the same food for well over three years - the entire time he has lived with us and had no prior problems. Our vet indicated that this was probably a one-time incident and sent us on our way with no special instructions. He came home and recovered good from his surgery and we thought all was fine. He was rechecked and showed no problems...

...until three weeks after returning home. He once again "blocked" with urinary crystals and, like the first time, had to go in for emergency surgery. Once they flushed him again we were advised to get him PU surgery - effectively opening his urethra wider so he wouldn't get blocked again. We had NO idea how extensive this surgery was. It was pretty much changing him from a boy's urethra to a girl's. He had an incision from his tail around to his belly about 10 inches long. It was really scary for us to see him. After a week they sent him home. Worst decision our vet has EVER made. The techs had forgotten to put a long-term pain patch on him and he was completely incontinent. After about 10 minutes home he started crying in pain worse than when he was blocked. It was awful. We called the vet and told them we were returning because he was in pain. The three people we talked to said his chart indicted he had been sent home with a pain patch and we let them know he hadn't. He immediately went back into the hospital and they made him comfortable again. He had to stay there another 10 days (yes, 17 days total) and we went to check on him a couple of times. He refused to eat anything they gave him and we had to bring him food from home. About 6 weeks after surgery he was back to the normal Gomey.

...yup, there is more. We were advised to change his diet to a prescriptive urinary diet and we did so right away. At the end of February he stated to cry when he urinated again and we rushed him back to the hospital. The vet MRI'ed and X-rayed him and found urinary stones in his bladder too large to pass. We were told after his surgery that if he developed stones they would easily pass. Well, that was not the case. He had to have surgery AGAIN to have the stones removed. That is surgery #4. Two urethra flushes, the PU and now a bladder surgery. They went in right through the middle of his belly and removed the stone. Then it had to be analyzed to see what it was made of so we could switch his diet again. We are still waiting, three weeks later, to get a recommendation. In the mean time, is he developing more stones? Will he have to have surgery again? The vet has assured us that this isn't going to happen, but then the first two vets said the same thing. I know it's not their fault - they go on experience - it's just that our cat happens to be odd.

So here we sit, hoping Gomez will stay OK. No more problems. PLEASE, no more problems.

Since the last surgery Gomez hasn't been the same old big huggable baby he was. He sleeps all the time. He seems down. He used to be the first one to the front door to greet us and meow at us until we picked him up. He would also follow us from room to room and when he wanted attention he would bat at us with his huge boxing paws to get some petting. He also always slept on my feet in bed, which he doesn't do anymore. I hope he bounces back. Maybe he's just taking longer to heal because of so many surgeries so close together.

Please, if you have a second, keep our big guy that we adore, in your thoughts and cross your fingers. I don't know if he could make it through another surgery. He has been in the hospital for 31 days in the last four months. That is one whole month of his life.

Please get well Gomez. We all love you!

Wednesday

We have a new kitty addition to the house. Her name is Wednesday - Winnie for short - and she's a year old. Like me, she came home from the local SPCA. She is a year old and has had kittens in the past. She's fixed now though - good thing! Seems like since she had kittens so young, she is still growing up and acting just like a kitten herself. She's a bit chubby in the belly, but our vet says it's because of her former pregnancy. She has a cute little white spot on her belly and long curly whiskers. Her favorite thing to do is pounce on my tail! Well, not only my tail but Pepper and Bowie's too!