cat update

[rm]

Photo by sykii Note kibble strewn all over the floor behind GIANT FUCKING CAT.

Okay, the x-rays came back and her liver looks enlarged, but there don't seem to be any growths or tumors or anything. Additionally her teeth look fine, and the growth on her face remains something non-intrusive and not worth worrying about. They now think it's cystic instead of a slow-growing cancer. This is good. They suspect that the liver problems are secondary fatty liver caused by whatever it causing her not to eat enough. We'll know more tomorrow when the blood work comes back. Right now she is being started on antibiotics and various vitamins to support liver function. Her blood sugar is all wacked out, which sometimes happens from stress, but she might have become diabetic, which I've been worrying about for a while. We may decide to do an ultrasound soon to see what else is going in internally with her (gall stones are a possibility). The hope is that she comes home tomorrow with symptoms we can manage either in the short term until a diagnosis is more clear (i.e., if we need to do the ultrasound) or in the long term (i.e., if we know it's diabetes). Originally they were going to let her come home with me tonight, which I thought seemed odd, so while I'm worried they want to keep her over, it is also what I expected. The vet doesn't seem more concerned than she should be considering the cat's age and obesity, but she is old enough a cat that this could be a final illness thing, although the vet isn't talking about that yet as anything other than we talk about that in cats this age. Yeah. So, I'm a little stressed out. Little is an evil monster who I love very much. I'm just grateful I have the $$ for the vet bill, which isn't going to be pretty (I paid $450 earlier, then we added x-rays ($300) and with the boarding and shots and drugs we're probably in the $800 - $1000 total range right now, and she may need an ultrasound as a soonish later date which is SCADS of $$). Ah well. She sorta does this like once a year, and whatever it is, I'll be glad to sort it before the cruise and we'll board her for that if we have to if she's going to need constant observation or lots of shots or something. Poor kitty.

Comments

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

It might be diabetes, which would not be much of a problem. My folks' cat Bruce was diabetic the last three years of his life.

And giving a cat a shot is *muuuuch* easier than giving him pills or nose drops. Just put in the scruff of the neck- where the mama cat would carry him- and it's no problem

Bruce used the same insulin humans use (think my roommate Eppie uses the same stuff) and one bottle of it will last 6 months. And cost only about $25 when I was getting it, about 6, 7 years ago.

Mom even got Bruce to come when it was time for his shot. And when I had to take over when Mom got sick, he would wait for me to come over to Dad's to give it to him, morning and night.

[abnormal-apathy.livejournal.com]

This.

My mother and her cat share their insulin, but thankfully, she hasn't started sharing the needles. My mom is a little Like That...