my little over-achiever

[cellio]

At her checkup last week, Embla -- who's always been perfectly normal, medically speaking (I won't comment on personality) -- had lost weight and had an elevated heart rate. The vet who saw her did some routine blood tests, including the test for hyperthyroidism, which he suspected. (With hyperthyroidism, basically, the engine is constantly revving -- so appetite is normal but the cat loses weight, heart rate is high, and probably other stuff too.)

The relevant test here is something called T4. Normal is about 4 (I don't know 4 what). When Erik was diagnosed recently it was with a reading of 8.

Embla's was 70. My vet said she didn't know they went that high.

So, my instructions are to take the medicine we got for Erik (which is currently suspended for other reasons), and start giving it to Embla instead. She's only 11, so she's a good candidate for a permanent solution (radiation or surgery), but we have to do drugs first to make sure treatment doesn't cause other problems.

Edit: the test measures concentration of something (some enzyme, I think); the units are micrograms per deciliter. Not one I would have guessed. :-)

Comments

[murphstein.livejournal.com]

I hope little miss energy be well!

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

Poor Embla! I hope this is easily fixed for her!

[ealdthryth.livejournal.com]

Good grief! Are they sure it was a valid reading?

Good luck in getting her motor slowed down.

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

The relevant test here is something called T4. Normal is about 4 (I don't know 4 what)

Micrograms of levothyroxine per deciliter of serum. Human normal is 4.6 to 12.

Most lab tests are still expressed in milligrams (or fractions such as micrograms) per deciliter; it used to be called "milligrams percent". The modern way, according to Systeme Internationale metric standards, is in moles per liter, but I don't know that many institutions are actually using that.