Indy at the vet's

I have been rather concerned about Indy's excessive water-drinking. I've mentioned this to the vets before, so I thought to be safe, I'll better bring him in for a check-up this morning.


Since young, Indy has developed this habit of drinking running water from the tap. We suspect it was Vixey who taught him that he must always drink fresh water. Indy was brought up by Vixey.


Excessive water-drinking in normally indicative of kidney problems (which can become a real nightmare if it becomes chronic).

Indy was all stressed out in the car. At the clinic, he faced the wall of the carrier. He was also scared.

 Indy weighs 4.75kg (he has lost 150g) from a few weeks ago when I brought him in for a wound treatment.

I was supposed to take him back for his vaccination after five days but he made that disappearing act which left me helpless for 5 hours (until I made a public blog posting that I will not send him for vaccination - then, he came back!).

The vet suggested that we do a urinalysis first before doing any bloodwork. So, Indy's urine sample was taken (drawn from the bladder by a needle).

If the urinalysis shows no abnormality, the vet suggested we let him be.

The urine was a healthy yellow colour, which was a small relief. If it had been colourless, that would definitely be indicative of kidney failure.

So, we waited for the urine results.

Unfortunately, the results weren't all that good. The specific gravity of the urine was lower than normal (1.01 - we prefer above 1.03) and there was protein in the urine. The leucocytes were normal, which indicates no presence of any infection. This suggests possible early stage kidney problems.

We proceeded with the bloodwork even though Indy had not been fasted. His urine's glucose level was normal which rules out diabetes. Kidney tests can be carried out even without fasting.  It's diabetes that needs fasting.   

 Taking blood from Indy.

I figured since the blood has already been taken, we might as well test Indy for FIV and FeLV. After all, Indy was rescued from the drain with a bad start (severe bladder infection (greenish pus in bladder), eye and Eustachian tube infections; battled for 2 weeks in a near-dying state while he was barely one month old - that was why I called him Indy Jones). Also, he has lived all his life with Cow and Tiger, who are both FIV+.  

So, we did the FIV and FeLV tests....the FIV test only needs 10 minutes....

One of the longest ten minutes of my life.... 

Ahh...negative!

The top is for FIV and the bottom for FeLV - if positive, there would be two lines.

We waited till past 20 minutes to be sure - yes, it's negative for both.

That's a relief and quite a surprise too, as I thought he would be FIV+. Well, he is not and I'm glad.

I often wonder if the whole of Cow's family (all of whom are living with me) is FIV+ since Bunny is. Very often, FIV is genetic. Cow, Bunny, Pole and Cleo come from the same family. 

So, Indy is not.  That's good. 

Now, I only have to wait for the blood tests results tomorrow and we'll decide on the next course of action. The urine sample will also be sent for a more accurate analysis at the lab.

If there is indication of kidney problems, Indy would have to be on a special renal diet and there are supplements that might help. Omega-3and Omega-6 are also supposed to help. We discussed some of these possibilities.  

I brought Indy home and he straight away went up to the shrine room. That's where everybody goes whenever they are sick. In fact, I found Indy there a few days ago.  

 Hey Indy...

 All the cats were very concerned and here's Cow coming upstairs to check on Indy.

And Bunny, too.

Finally, Indy decided to come downstairs.

It's a waiting game now...

I'm hoping for all to be well.