call from vet (Erik)

[cellio]

I just got a message from my vet with results from Erik's latest tests. (Alas, I was in a meeting at the time, so we have not yet interacted.) I'm not sure what this means.

Two weeks ago his white-blood-cell count was high and his thyroid number was (for the first time ever) high. He just finished a course of antibiotics, and he was not quite a week into taking Methimizole (for the thyroid condition) on Monday when she drew the blood.

Results: WBC is even higher (antibiotics did squat), liver enzymes (SALT and, err, AST?) are higher than usual... and thyroid is absolutely, perfectly normal. She thinks the thyroid drugs couldn't have caused the liver results in that little time, though she was silent on whether they could lower the thyroid number in the same amount of time. She speculated that we should switch to a different antibiotic, and suggested that there might be an ultrasound in the near future to see what's going on with the liver. (Meanwhile, I should stop the thyroid medicine until we talk.)

Sigh. Happy 14th birthday, Erik.

Comments

[schulman.livejournal.com]

Arrgh. Sorry to hear you're playing drug roulette; at least an ultrasound is non-invasive. (Although Erik might not agree.) Is he eating?

[cellio]

His appetite has been down for the last week or so, but he is eating. (There was one day he wouldn't, so I gave him fluids. He was drinking, so that might have been unnecessary, but my vet says it never hurts and I've seen it sometimes help with the appetite.) Today he seems to be eating normal quantities of food, finally.