We have three cats, the oldest is a 13 yr old male. He’s been well all his life and is outgoing and affectionate. Last year he had a bout of idiopathic urinary blockage which can be fatal, and resulted in a hospital stay of a week. (Idiopathic means no obvious physical reason for it, and the blockage is because of crystals accumulating in the urine which seem to be formed through a stress reaction). He was catheterised twice under a general anaesthetic and they started talking about pts as a possibility if he didn’t « unblock » successfully again. They discharged him and the relief of being home seemed to sort it out as he had about two weeks of peeing all over the house, then regained control, and has been well ever since, with the addition of special cat food with an ingredient that prevents the crystal formation.
Here’s the thing. The week before his bladder blocked, we had taken him to the vet for his annual check up and jabs - something we’ve done all his life. He doesn’t like it but behaves well. This time the vet was a young guy who was very friendly and handled our cat a lot - picked him up, kept holding him while he was talking to us, held him in the air to look at him, kept stroking him etc. All fine with a friendly cat and he didn’t hiss or anything but he was wide eyed and clearly wriggly and uncomfortable. When he then had his problem, we wracked our brains to think of anything that could have stressed him and this was the only thing that stood out.
He’s due his check up again in February. What would you do?