So grateful for my job and coworkers tonight. I got home from work at 6pm, ate some dinner, and then when I went to pick up my cat he just about took my eye out and thereafter seemed painful - crying, didn't want anyone near him. With his recent diagnosis of having crystals in his urine, and his previous incidents of urinary blockages, I was a little concerned we were headed down that path again. At this point it's 6:30 and the clinic closes at 7, but I gave them a call and they told me to come back over - I just needed someone to help so that I could palpate his bladder.
So a tech and the dr. helped me out, we palpated his bladder, took an x-ray, rechecked a urine sample... long story short he's not blocked but apparently all down his spine and even his tail he has arthritis. No bladder stones and he actually has no crystals in his urine now either. So I got some pain meds and we're crossing fingers that his behavior was just him being arthritic and uncomfortable and we're now even wondering if that's why he's been urinating outside the litter box (he has a tall box he has to jump up into - I can see where that owuld be difficult for him).
Anyway I'm just really grateful that they stayed late so that I could run over and get some help. All I wanted was someone to feel his bladder, totally wasn't expecting anything else but they were like nope, let's do this. It was nice to not have to go to the emergency clinic especially since it was mostly a case of paranoid cat mom, and not really an emergency
And also yay for no crystals! That's been bothering me the past 3 weeks.