The O.J. Huie Page

11/16/2025

It is with a heavy heart we had to consider OJ's comfort and lay him down to rest last March (2025). Thanks to all who cared about him and helped with his medical issues. He had a long life and was loved.

10/26/2020

Our resident problem kitty has a new diagnosis: diabetes

07/30/2018

07/29/2018

It's been several months, and OJ is living the happy, healthy, normal cat life. No blockage, no UTIs, life is good

01/01/2018

07/19/2017

Watching the birds outside, wondering if I'm going to try to shove more medicine down his throat.

07/19/2017

07/19/2017

Ahh, dear OJ... this poor guy has been through it. He continues to get urinary tract infections, due to his enlarged urethra from the PU surgery. This time, it's a particularly stubborn enterococcus that requires antibiotics TID; the sweet, pink Amoxicillin we were given as kids. There are several problems with this type of treatment. 1) I work. It's not possible to give him that 2nd dosing in the early afternoon.
2) OJ hates it.
3) The dosage course is 3 weeks.
This guy is extremely difficult to pill, almost impossible. We generally end up giving him a long-lasting injection. We can't with this bacteria.
The pink liquid is even harder to give, although I had success the first night, putting it in wet food. The next day, however, he decided it was the devil and ran and hid from it...then me. I have to chase him down, wrap him in a towel, hold him like a baby and sq**rt it into the back of his throat. This worked approximately 4 days.
Now he knows it's coming as soon as I start to shake the bottle. I gave up.
Then we tried tablets in pill pockets. Once again, success on the 1st try, but then he vomited within 20 mins. He now despises the pockets, even with nothing in them. My other cats jump at the chance for him to run from the empty pockets so they can slurp them up.

Not sure what to do now....

11/16/2016

Facebook has reminded me that you haven't heard from me in awhile, so here goes:
OJ is doing well, antibiotics are still being given. I've switched the other 2 kitties to a urinary formula cat food (readily available in stores and NOT $70 a bag), so when OJ scarfs his food and goes to the other food, hopefully it won't do any harm. Scooping the litter box more, making sure he has access to lots and lots of water and love, and .... we hope for the best

10/27/2016

OJ's labs came back. The bacteria he has is some super bacteria. The meds he's already received won't even matter. Getting some super fishy tasting stuff tomorrow. Then more in 2 weeks. I really hope this will keep it away for more than 10 months this time. (Why do I not have a 'fingers crossed' emoji??)

10/25/2016

UPDATE: the doc was able to remove the blockage on OJ. There were no stones, but a lot of sandy sludge. She said it looked like a snow globe when she took the x-ray. She was able to flush it all out. He had a catheter, but was able to urinate around it, so it was taken out. He'll stay the night, get a s**t ton of fluids to really keep everything running clear, and he'll come home tomorrow. We've determined that since having the PU surgery (I dare you to youtube it), he's getting UTIs because of the shorter and dilated urethra. I'll have to try to make more adjustments to his daily life, though I don't know what more I can do besides switch from his prescription dry food to the wet. It sucks because he lives a healthy, happym life in between these acute attacks. It's heartbreaking. He was fine yesterday afternoon.