O.P. = Sick

I am sad to report, that my 4 year old baby, is not feeling all that well. Seems he has bladder stones which have been making him pee blood, and will require surgery for removal. In a female cat they can try and remedy the problem via diet, but in a male the crystals can create blockages which could potentially lead to death...So surgery it is. Under normal circumstances he would be getting an operation immediately, but since the stones are not life threatening and are not his major problem, surgery will have to wait.

Even more concerning is that my poor little OP has a heart rate of 246-248, and the ideal range is 120-160 with the max acceptable heart rate of about 180 in cats. So as you can imagine the poor guys heart is working overtime. They think it is likely myopathy which is a thickening of the heart muscles: since the heart chamber can no longer hold as much blood as normal, the heart starts working harder to pump more blood and thus elevates the heart rate.

The vet has given me some blood pressure pills for him to help thin the blood and hopefully bring the heart rate down, but they can't be sure what the problem is until he has an ultrasound. After the ultrasound they will hopefully be able to accurately determine what is wrong and medicate him. When his heart rate becomes more normal then it will be much safer to anethetize him for the bladder stone surgery.

Luckily, the vet classed OP as priority and I am taking him for the ultrasound tomorrow afternoon.