if only they could talk
Aug. 4th, 2004 08:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioErik (one of my cats) has had high calcium levels in his blood for at least 3.5 years. (That's when we discovered the problem as a side-effect of something else.) So he now gets regular blood work as part of his exams, just to check on things. We've pretty much eliminated all external causes of high calcium (cancer, hyperthyroid, etc), leaving "idiopathic" -- some cats are like that.
However, high calcium combined with another measure that I'm currently blanking on can indicate kidney problems. There's a magic number (the product of the two), and for three years he was staying slightly below that magic number.
He's now getting twice-annual checkups (at the vet's suggestion), and at his latest one last week that number rose above the threshhold.
It could be a fluke, so that's the first thing to try. Specifically, he had an anomolous reading on something else (a liver enzyme) that happened once before and was knocked down with antibiotics, so the plan is to finish the current round of drugs and then test again (with a delay for a vacation, but that's life). Maybe the number will be normal again and we'll just add one more mystery to his medical record.
But if it's not, there's the question of whether we are looking at the very early stages of a kidney problem -- which is treatable in those early stages, at least, but still. The treatment apparently involves a lifetime supply of prednizone, which does not bring me joy. (The conversation went something like this: "So what do we do if that number is still high?" "Prednizone." "How does an acute course of drugs help a chronic condition?" "You are making a faulty assumption." "Oh.")
Erik seems perfectly healthy in all other ways -- in particular, his weight has been stable for the last year and a half, and last week's urine test showed no problems. I do not believe my vet is scamming me (if I did, I'd have bolted). Perhaps she's over-cautious, perhaps she's seeing problems that aren't really there -- or, perhaps, I have been blessed with a very early warning of something that can be dealt with now. I just wish I knew which.
No decisions for a few weeks, so maybe in and around Pennsic I can learn more about this.
It's a pity that Erik can't just tell me how he's feeling. :-)
However, high calcium combined with another measure that I'm currently blanking on can indicate kidney problems. There's a magic number (the product of the two), and for three years he was staying slightly below that magic number.
He's now getting twice-annual checkups (at the vet's suggestion), and at his latest one last week that number rose above the threshhold.
It could be a fluke, so that's the first thing to try. Specifically, he had an anomolous reading on something else (a liver enzyme) that happened once before and was knocked down with antibiotics, so the plan is to finish the current round of drugs and then test again (with a delay for a vacation, but that's life). Maybe the number will be normal again and we'll just add one more mystery to his medical record.
But if it's not, there's the question of whether we are looking at the very early stages of a kidney problem -- which is treatable in those early stages, at least, but still. The treatment apparently involves a lifetime supply of prednizone, which does not bring me joy. (The conversation went something like this: "So what do we do if that number is still high?" "Prednizone." "How does an acute course of drugs help a chronic condition?" "You are making a faulty assumption." "Oh.")
Erik seems perfectly healthy in all other ways -- in particular, his weight has been stable for the last year and a half, and last week's urine test showed no problems. I do not believe my vet is scamming me (if I did, I'd have bolted). Perhaps she's over-cautious, perhaps she's seeing problems that aren't really there -- or, perhaps, I have been blessed with a very early warning of something that can be dealt with now. I just wish I knew which.
No decisions for a few weeks, so maybe in and around Pennsic I can learn more about this.
It's a pity that Erik can't just tell me how he's feeling. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-04 06:52 pm (UTC)Allow me to explain the problem more clearly. :-)
But yeah, if a pill a day is what it takes to keep him healthy, a pill a day is what it will be. And so far, grinding up the antibiotics and mixing them in with canned cat food seems to be working. I have not yet found anything I can wrap a (whole) pill in that he can't just eat the good parts from.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-05 12:31 pm (UTC)Neither Ripper nor Minerva would eat a whole pill in food. I always ended up having to put it in the mouth. Once I got the hang of it, it wasn't too bad. Minerva gave me a painful puncture wound once when she got the tip of my finger with the end of her claw. Aside from that incident, I was usually able to even give pills to "don't touch me" Minerva. When she was small I did try sticking her head in the arm of a lab coat and wrapping the rest of the coat around her to keep her from scratching. She usually managed to work a paw loose and was really mad, so I gave up on that. The between-the-knees worked for me.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-09 08:22 am (UTC)-- Dagonell
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-09 02:22 pm (UTC)