Percy is a four year old American Shorthair, he relocated to the UK about a year ago from the USA.
He is a very sweet boy and first visited us as he had started to show signs of inappropriate urination, he was spending more time in-and-out of the litter box and there was some red-tinged urine present. Percy is also very special because he also has mild Cerebellar Hypoplasia (CH).
Cerebellar Hypoplasia is a congenital defect of the cerebellum. The cerebellum the back part of the brain and it is responsible for regulation and control of motor function (muscular movement). Cerebellar Hypoplasia can occur due to prenatal trauma or malnutrition but more importantly occurs secondary to Feline Panleucopaenia Virus (Feline Parvovirus) infection acquired by the mother and passed onto the foetus in the womb. CH cats are born with varying degrees of ‘wobbliness’ but over time the brain does some rewiring to cope and adjust for this meaning these wonderful cats will live normal lives but with a slightly different perspective on the world and a walk to match it!
Percy was a perfect gentleman and his examination revealed a painful bladder, very itchy, waxy ears and severe dental disease. Percy was very uncomfortable with us examining him so Dr Jeremy placed him on pain relief and he was admitted for examination under sedation where an ultrasound was performed on his bladder and kidneys to find out why he was so sore. We also took this opportunity to clean his ears. ( Bladder Stone - Photo 2 & 3 )
The ultrasound showed the cause of his soreness was a bladder stone. An x-ray was taken as an additional diagnostic aid, where in addition to the bladder stone we found something unexpected. Percy appeared to have something stuck in his stomach! Our plan was that with some luck the object in Percy’s stomach might pass on through which is often the case and no intervention would be required. We sent Percy home to be monitored with fingers and paws crossed the foreign body would pass on its own.
A couple of days later he was seen back as planned to repeat his x-ray and see if this object had made any progress….unfortunately not, it was still sitting in exactly the same place in the stomach and Dr Jeremy along with his lovely carers made the decision to go and retrieve it with endoscopy. An endoscope is a long flexible tube with a camera and light source and a channel in it through which we can enter the stomach through the mouth and oesophagus. It is very non-invasive and we were quickly able to remove a length of very festive ribbon! (endoscope - Photo 4 & 5)
It turned our Percy was pretty keen on arts and crafts but unfortunately took his hobby a little too seriously on this occasion.
Percy was soon back to normal other than the bladder stone and dental disease!
The bladder stone was treated by changing Percy over to a specific acidifying diet as a percentage of bladder stones will dissolve completely removing the need for surgical removal.
Percy came in 2 weeks ago for reassessment of the bladder stone and also his Comprehensive Oral Health Assessment and Treatment (COHAT). Dr Jeremy scanned the bladder with the ultrasound and the great news was the stone has dissolved so nothing more was required to manage this other than changes in Percy’s eating habits going forward.
With this good news we went on to his address Percy’s dental disease where after the x-rays and probing of the mouth were completed it was evident that eleven teeth would need to be removed due to a combination of tooth resorption and periodontitis. (Dental X ray - before & after photos 6-9)
Percy recovered from his COHAT really well and was eating immediately on getting home and heartily since.
We salute Percy’s wonderful owners, they were presented with quite a few issues to deal with in a very short period of time and were regular visitors to the clinic over the last few months but took it all in their stride with Percy as their focus.
We also salute the incredible Percy for being such a kind-hearted, gentle fellow and for being such a brave fellow!