not how I planned to spend the afternoon

[cellio]

Erik has been increasingly lethargic and decreasingly interested in food since Friday. I gave him fluids both Friday and Saturday nights (that usually fixes it), but he was still droopy this morning. When he wouldn't eat, I pushed in some tuna juice via syringe in hopes of at least getting some nutrients in (and maybe getting him interested in eating more). Nope. I couldn't reach my vet (not surprising on a Sunday), so I figured we'd now be seeing her tomorrow.

That's when I noticed that his pink nose wasn't pink -- it was the same color as the rest of him. Jaundice, anyone? So off to the animal hospital we raced.

There was a lot of waiting around while they did tests, and in the end they admitted him. They are giving him IV fluids and injectable antibiotics and trying to get him to eat. I asked about appetite stimulants or IV nutrients and they said not yet (ask again tomorrow). They also said that while he (and his blood) looked a little jaundiced, the bilirubin level was normal. Weird. (His nose was also pinker by the end of the exam than it had been, though not normal.)

Coincidentally, he had an ultrasound earlier this week (looking for the cause of elevated WBC count, and it had been 15 months since the last one). My vet hasn't seen the report yet, but based on what was read to her over the phone, there were some issues there but nothing really urgent. The folks at the hospital probably would have wanted an ultrasound, so we'll just send them that one.

Interesting numbers from today's blood test:
ALT 1076 (1150 in May, 1200 in January or February)
AST 248
ALKP 419
GGT 13
WBC 20,800 (17,000 in May)

I don't know what some of those mean. (Never heard of GGT before, but normal is 1, not 13.) The first four are liver-related; the last is the white-blood-cell count (the high reading that prompted the ultrasound).

Also: pulse 228 (high), temperature 101.7 (normalish), weight 3.2kg (= 7 pounds).

I left a message for my vet when I got home, and she called me back. (Hey, I didn't know that was her home number. I've always gotten a machine, so assumed it was office voicemail.) She will talk with the vet at the hospital tomorrow (or tonight if they want). She also had new information about the ultrasound: the message she had gotten from a staff member said two small "stones" but didn't say where (kidney stones? bladder stones? ?); she said she would have to see the report/images. But yesterday she happened to be talking with the doctor who did the ultrasound, and he said gallstones. Gall, liver... sounds related to me! So I called the hospital to relay that information.

I don't have a favorite hospital (among those available night/weekends). I first called my vet hoping for an emergency number; their message listed names and phone numbers of three emergency clinics. One is the place where Erik had his surgery in 2005, but I serendipitiously learned this week that the doctors who were there at the time are no longer there, so there's no reason to choose them. So it boiled down to: one is known to be hard to drive to if there's traffic (anticipating a trip in evening rush hour tomorrow); one is in a town I've heard of but not been to; one I know how to find and there was a positive article about them in the paper six months ago. So on the strength of that alone, I went to AVETS in Monroeville. If my vet thinks that was a mistake, we can fix it tomorrow.

Now, I guess we wait. Poor Erik! If the problem turns out to be a gallstone lodged in an unfortunate place, I wonder what the least-invasive way to treat it is.

Edited to add: relevant article from VIN.

Comments

[mortuus.livejournal.com]

Good wishes for you and Erik.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

Hugs & scritches to Eric (and you too)! It's hard to feel so helpless when our small kindred are hurting and can't tell us what's wrong. I'll be holding you both in good thought.

Last week, Vir had a bad reaction to his annual shots plus a steroid shot for his asthma. He didn't want to be held and wandered the house meowing pitifully, going to each of his comfort items and places only to find they didn't help. He also barfed repeatedly.

The vet said to bring him in if he got any worse, but the reaction was over by later that night. He was quiet and clingy for a couple days afterwards, though. He's back to his old self now.

Hoping Eric has the same outcome...

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Cuddles and skritches for Erik, along with good thoughts and healing vibes. **hugs** for you.

[sue-n-julia.livejournal.com]

Cuddles from us too. Hope Eric starts to turn the corner (in the right direction) soon. Gallstones aren't pleasant -- I don't know what options are for kitties, but humans often get the gallbladder removed. Who knows, that might help all the liver problems.

S

[alienor.livejournal.com]

Poor baby! I hope it's easy to figure out what's wrong and fix him. *hugs* and *scritches*

[steven.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear this. Fingers crossed for quick treatment and recovery!

[cecerose.livejournal.com]

Sending warmest thoughts to your furbaby and you...

[schulman.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor thing. (Both of you.) I hope he improves rapidly.

Which is the vet hospital in a town you've heard of but not been to?

[cellio]

The one in Castle Shannon. (I was jotting down phone numbers from the vet's answering machine and didn't focus so much on names, figuring those would become obvious soon enough.)

I've seen Castle Shannon on a map, but all of Pittsburgh's southern reaches are a bit of a mystery to me. I've had bad experiences on routes 51 and 88 down there (and maybe others). Not their fault, I'm sure, and if that were known to be the best option I would have gone there. But given that I was rolling dice anyway, I opted for the place that was easy to get to. :-)

[ealdthryth.livejournal.com]

Poor kitty! Hope the problem can be fixed easily.

[kyleri]

Prayers heading your and Erik's way!

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

Oh no! I hope he is "all better" very quickly. *hug*

We had Duke at AVets when he had his problems, and thought they did a superb job. They are the hospital recommended by our vet, so I believe he is in good hands...though not as good as being at home, I know.

Thinking of you.

[dragonazure.livejournal.com]

Get better soon, Erik!

[cellio]

Thanks for the information about AVets. Good to know!

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*sends Erik healing vibes and you big hugs*

[schulman.livejournal.com]

Gah, no; I used to know the South Hills reasonably well, and you simply can't get anywhere fast. Or easily.

I hope Erik's doing better today.

[mg4h.livejournal.com]

I followed here because Sue mentioned Erik wasn't well, and I wanted to offer sympathy. Poor critter.

And I can second (third) AVETS - that's where we take our cats when they fall down (oy, do they fall down). They're good, and they're sympathetic, and they also let us visit them when they were in for more than a day or two. It helped out a lot when Hex was sick last year, he was catatonic (no pun intended) but when we came by he perked up a lot, and we even got him to eat. They were very impressed with his reaction to us, it was more than they were expecting.

[cellio]

Thanks for sharing your AVETS experience. One thing that definitely seemed a point in their favor is that they're really available 24hrs/day; they said I could visit any time. He was only there for one day so that didn't come up much, but when I was dealing with the surgeons up in Shaler (I hear they've moved now), I had to get there early enough for evening rush-hour traffic to be a factor, and that was a pain.