I heard from the vet today about Flora. The results are that we still don’t know if there is a medical problem.

She had multiple blood tests done, and all those turned out normal. Her kidneys are functioning normal. But her urinalysis was a bit inconclusive. Cats really don’t get urinary tract infections, but they do get cystitis. I have had more experience with this than I could ever want. That is what my old kitty Amos had. He used to pee bright red urine on my bed.

Flora’s urinalysis did show a significant amount of blood. But, we aren’t sure what caused it. Earlier in the day the vet tried to get urine from her by sticking a needle into her bladder, called a cystocentesis. But they weren’t able to get enough urine to run a full test. But what they got didn’t have any blood in it. So they kept her for the day and waited for her bladder to fill up again. Later they did the cysto again under ultrasound. On the ultrasound they saw some “sludge” in her bladder and the urine was bloody.

Now the question is where the sludge and blood came from. It could be that they just didn’t get any of that “sludge” in the first urine. Or the blood may have come from the first cysto. The bladder bleeds very easily.

So, we still aren’t sure. I still want to know for sure if she has cystitis or not before we start any other treatment. We decided to wait for 2 weeks to let her bladder heal. Then we will try to get another sample by having her pee in a litter box with litter that won’t absorb. We should be able to do another urinalysis and figure out if she still has blood in her urine.

If she does, we will start her on meds for the cystitis. If not, then we will see how the behavioral changes are going. Since yesterday she has been in the laundry room. She has been using her litter box religiously in there. I feel bad that she is isolated from all of us, but I don’t feel like I have much of a choice right now.

We should have some answers in another 2 weeks.