I discovered that Bertie had huge hard mats on his haunches and some on his tummy, so I am giving him a lioncut, one area at a time. He hates sitting still in the best of times -- he's feline ADHD -- and with clippers going, he especially doesn't want to sit still. Apparently, I had only been combing above the mats...
But that's not the worst of it.
For some time, I've noticed he drinks a lot and pees a lot. His coat is oily. And today, while he was complaining about being shaved, I noticed he had a small mouth ulcer. I've wondered and the ulcer basically confirms it -- I'm fairly sure he has PKD. PKD is polycystic kidney disease. Cysts grow in the kidneys and eventually damage the kidneys so much that they stop functioning and the cat dies of kidney failure. Basically it is the same as chronic kidney failure (CRF), but mechanical in nature and not old age. It's associated with Persians, but not always. Bertie probably has some British shorthair in him and that breed has Persian stock in it, so PKD isn't a surprise.
The bad part is Bertie isn't old. He's only about 4 or 5 years old. For him to show symptoms at this age probably means the cysts are already good sized. And there's nothing I can do to stop them growing.
Poor baby.... He's a beautiful cat, although a bit strange. He's like I said, feline ADHD and is always on the move. He wants to be petted twice and then walks off. He squeaks instead of meows. He loves to eat paper. And he has a mildly deformed backbone so he has a hump.
Unfortunately, he doesn't get along with James so we have to keep them separated most of the time. And that's why I feel especially bad about this turn of events. I've been working on getting him more integrated with the others so he can be loved on more...
Just not something I wanted to deal with....
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