Good ideas, critters. I'll send those ideas along to my mother.

Here is an update on Stevie as of today from my mom's email:

Karen, I’m still not understanding what is wrong with him. The injections seemed to help but they were painful so we will try injections of Baytril. That is what he barfed before, and I was told the pills were either coated usually for cats, or chewable beef flavored for dogs. His white cell count was down but he still had high bacteria, which surprised the vet. (His ph was 6. It looks like they are trying for a neutral pH but the food is more acidic than the x/o (now it’s c/d Hills). So it looks like the problem is Stevey is holding his urine too long for whatever reason and that is causing the infection? And the blockage? Of course we have a long weekend and I will have to give these shots. He was definitely acting better this past week chasing toys than he has been for a long time. I hope he doesn’t have another emergency.

Here is another email she sent after going to the vet today:

I got Stevey back from the vet. He got a baytril shot in the muscle and tomorrow I will meet the vet for another shot and also on Monday as they don’t want me to try to give this shot. It seems he is doing good on his food and that it is ok for GreyC. I think they never saw crystals but definitely have an infection. I am willing to give those other shots if he need them. They like the dry food and the vet says to stick to it and not add anything else. I have a water fountain in their room. I hope this is helping. The idea is to get more water into him as they think that is the problem.

Poor mom. It's so frustrating trying to figure out what exactly is wrong with Stevie. If he didn't have crystals, then all of this blockage and infection was something else? He's a young cat, I just hope he can overcome whatever this is. I know my mom was at her wit's end about a week ago and kept asking me if she should put him to sleep! I said no, he's young and the vets are doing everything they can. It's just a matter of figuring out what is wrong, and then fixing it.

*sigh*