Bears and Foxes and Lions, Oh My!

This first part was previously posted on my writer's blog.

When I first started visiting Green Bay Animal Hospital, the two veterinarians who staffed the clinic were Dr. Bear and Dr. Fox. Several years later Dr. Fox went on to open his own clinic and I followed with Hoover and Mariah, our cats. Today I took Mariah in for some bladder infection problems. Dr. Fox was not in and to my surprise, the doctor on duty was Dr. Lions. I love telling people that a bear, a fox, and now a lion take care of our pets.

I am reposting it here because the story takes an interesting turn. I explained to Dr. Lions that Mariah (our cat) has become "cranky" recently and that I have been keeping an eye on this looking at possible bladder infection, or developing arthritis in her hind legs which would also explain her change in toiling habits, namely peeing on the floor around the box and most recently on the bathroom rug.

Dr. Lions explained that this loud crying and "crankiness" could be part of what vets call "Old Age Complaining." Cats with aches and pains, confusion, cognitive changes will just complain. I commented, "Funny. Just what I need is more cognitive changes. About eight years ago, my life partner was diagnosed with young onset Alzheimer's Disease."

She explained that there actually has been some research done on aging cats that shows that there is an Alzheimer's like pathology that can develop.

Bring on the Aricept and Namenda ... or maybe just the antibiotics.