Hello all,

I wanted to follow up on my question about Mercury from two months ago. He had been suffering from recurring urinary blockages, and after several ER visits, I scheduled him for a PU surgery at The Bridge Clinic, a non-profit vet hospital in Bensalem and Philadelphia. The surgery was done on Aug 14th, and the surgeon recommended doing the PU first to see if the stones would pass naturally, which they did. The surgery cost me $1,181.

Unfortunately, the issues didn’t end there. Mercury seemed to recover for about three weeks, but then he started frequenting the litter box and peeing only small amounts, sometimes not at all. He also began peeing outside the litter box and seemed very uncomfortable, especially at night, so I took him for a follow-up on Sep 12th. An X-ray and urinalysis were negative for stones or infections, but crystals were found, leading to a diagnosis of FIC/FLUTD. They suggested Gabapentin for pain and more water fountains and litter boxes (this visit cost $191).

Despite following their advice, Mercury’s issues persisted, so I scheduled another appointment on Sep 19th. The vet confirmed FLUTD and suspected a possible infection at the surgical site, so he received a Convenia and Buprenorphine injection (visit cost: $134). Still, no improvement.

I then took him to his primary vet at Telford on Oct 3rd, where they suspected a different bacterial infection and prescribed Clavamoxin, though I declined a urine culture due to cost (this vist was $170). I also put him on a strict urinary diet (he was on dryMetabolic Urinary food and regular wet food which I diluted with water). He showed some improvement, but then, last Monday, he seemed blocked again. After giving him Amitriptyline, he was able to urinate, and Telford said their only recomendation is a urine culture, and they don’t have any time to see him that week, so I reluctantly agreed to. (Urine culture + 7 Amitriptyline + 14 Clavamoxine was $323), today the results from the culture came back clean, meaning I spent $273 for nothing.

What’s frustrating is that I haven’t spoken to the vet directly since the first visit, only through techs and nurses, and I’m running out of time and money. Mercury is still in pain and struggling to urinate, and I don’t know what else to do.

So if you have any insight or recommendations to what I should do next please let me know because I am at my wits end and have no idea what to do. (I’ve attached the visit’s summaries and the receipt from my last time at Telford to this post)