Cat Fat Digestion

My cat, Yukon Cornelius, is cool. He’s pretty darn special too—worth thousands and thousands of dollars. Yukon is helping me by contributing to April’s digestion discussion. Yukon has a mass in his small intestine.

Before you all get angry at me, I usually deal with tense situations by using slightly incongruent humor. And before you all get upset, this finding is not a surprise. We knew, after a pretty expensive surgery with inconclusive results in November of 2019, that Yukon would most likely need future X-rays, that would lead to future ultrasounds, that would identify future digestive issues, that would require expensive prescription food and steroid treatments. What we didn’t count on was this—Yukon will probably never have another solid bowel movement, ever again. We really wish we would have known that before he decided his favorite potty spot was the $500 Litter Robot. Loose stools going through a Litter Robot is quite similar to any foreign liquid substance meeting the Roomba in the living room. And the smell is quite…invigorating.

The mass in Yukon’s small intestine just happens to be partially blocking an area called the bile duct. Bile is a substance produced by the liver and stored in the gall bladder. It is released into the small intestine to help digest fats into smaller particles that can be absorbed by the body. Yukon’s body is digesting SOME fats, but what cannot be digested is passing right through his digestive system and being excreted, making his stool runny, sticky, and pretty darn stinky.

The same thing happens in the human body, my friends—and it can be treated. Yukon has already had one extensive surgery, and he is 11 years old. We are waiting for a consult with the animal surgeon that performed his first surgery to understand his prognosis, but appointments are scarce, and we can’t get in for a while. Yukon is fine for now—his food is a bit more bland, I get the stink-eye when I give him his medications, and where the Litter Robot once stood, now stands the standard square litter box and scoop. So, report any greasy, foul-smelling stool to your primary care physician so you can…

Be Well! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grapes with Capes: Earning the Superfood Title

Just think of all the words out there that start with the word “super”. A super visor works over or takes charge of other people. The super natural refers to things that are above or beyond normal phenomenon. And let’s not forget the famous super hero. I LOVE Aquaman, but sorry, Jason Momoa, my husband now takes the cape . To put it simply, he is amazing! The trendy term “superfood” has been increasing in assumed credibility, but more realistically, in simple popularity. You won’t find the term “superfood” in my nutrition textbook. If you have taken on the Healthy Habits Hunt challenge, you will run right into a superfood activity that involves identifying superfoods and including them in your diet. But how does a food earn its cape? What does it take for a food to be honored as “super”? The food industry bestows the superfood label on nutrient-rich foods with a supposed ability to positively affect health. Keep in mind, there is no single food that holds the key to good health, di...
Read more

Bleeding, Clotting, & the Stocking Stuffer

I am going to share a little something about myself—not to brag, but it will KINDA help to lead into my next discussion (this next topic is a tough one!) I have always been a very conscientious student. I won eight spelling bees in my 6 th grade classroom (I was terrified to be in front of crowds and refused to participate in a school-wide spelling bee.) I was a FAST speller—my teacher would always tell me to slow down so she could make sure I was spelling the word correctly. Many years later, while I was assisting my own child with his spelling words, he was attempting to spell “refrigerator.” He was stuck on the letter “g” and began to sound it out. “Juh…juh. Mom, is it G or J?” So, I asked, “What do you see?” Kid: “HUH?” Me: “Like, in your head. What do you SEE?” Kid: “Mom, I have NO clue what you are talking about. Sometimes the G and the J make the same sound and I get confused. Which one is it?” Me: “Wait a minute. You can’t see the word “refrigerator” in your head? ...
Read more

"A" is for Eyes

Social media entertains me. I don’t post much on Facebook or Instagram, but I do like to watch (ok, stalk…) the people that DO post. It is interesting to see what petty little things might be important to others. Haha. Occasionally, Facebook is brilliant, in that it becomes this one little spot where OTHER stalkers like me can get information in the blink of an eye. This CAN be very helpful—especially when you need to reach a large group of people very quickly. A long post written by me four years ago popped up in my Facebook “memories” this week. It is pertinent to my topic today, so I will attempt to share it, in brief (Have we met? When have you ever known me to be brief?) My then 15-year-old son was on a camping trip (under duress, I might add,) when I received a call from one of his youth leaders informing me that he would be taking my son to urgent care because he had been whipped in the eye by a tree branch. (I immediately began forming images in my head of his attempts to d...
Read more