Monica

I talked to the vet Monday about Erik's calcium problem (if in fact he has one). The urine analysis came back basically normal, though calcium levels were slightly elevated there too, meaning there could be a kidney problem. ("Some crystalization" is how she described it -- but not as much as she expected, she said.) The next thing to check, she says, involves another blood test, to look specifically for (consults notes) "calcium oxylate". If that comes back abnormal, then he probably has a hyper-parathyroid condition and that's treatable with drugs. If that comes back normal, then there's a possible kidney problem and a different (more expensive) test to investigate.

I asked if we could just jump to the more expensive, conclusive test and be done, but that wouldn't tell us if there's a parathyroid problem and it wouldn't be good to ignore that if he does have a problem. Oh well.

The vet is also suspicious that it might turn out that Erik just has high calcium levels and nothing's really wrong. She bases this suspicion on the fact that two years ago (first data we have) his blood-calcium level was 12.8 (something) and this time it was 13.1 -- a slight rise, but not a big one and he hasn't been sick in the meantime. (Except, I pointed out, he's been losing weight. And the cats I know who have had kidney failure have also lost significant weight. But she's not convinced that's relevant here.) Normal blood-calcium level is 8.2 to 10.8, she said.

I feel confident that the vet is doing her best to try to explain things to me, and that she's showing more concern than I'm used to from vets, but I still feel like I'm not completely getting this. I think I need to spend more time with Veterinary Partner, but I also need to ask her to write down the names of the tests she's doing and the measures she's looking for.

I have an appointment for Monday evening for her to draw more blood. (I asked if she could draw enough for both tests and set some of it aside, rather than making me come in again if we don't like the results of the first test, but she doesn't know if blood can be held that long.)

Baldur: 18.0 lb (a slight drop from last year)
Embla: 10.1 lb
Erik: 8.125 lb (lost a pound)

I think this is the first time in his life that Baldur has lost weight from one checkup to the next. This is cause for celebration, though the drop was only about three-quarters of a pound. I'll take what I can get. The vet was unwilling to estimate what his weight should be, however.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Erik has lost weight; last year he lost most of a pound from the previous year, and this year he lost a pound from last year. He's not a large cat to begin with. I had actually thought he was gaining a little weight this past year, but I was wrong. (I actually asked that they weigh a 10-pound bag of food, to make sure the scale wasn't off. It wasn't.)

The vet took a blood sample from Erik and they're going to run the standard suite of tests. I should hear back in several days (maybe by the end of the week). His only other blood test was two years ago, when he showed elevated levels of calcium -- enough to call for a dietary change, but not enough to worry about cancer, they said at the time. (Tonight's vet concurred with that.) So we'll see what the level is this time. The physical exam was just fine -- nothing suspicious there, the vet said. (Apparently the other thing that sometimes causes high calcium is a thyroid problem, but she said his thyroid felt normal.)

He's only ten years old; he's not supposed to be wasting away yet. I hope the test results suggest a useful course of action.

The vet was a little puzzled by the choice of special diet; it's something for renal failure, rather than a low-calcium food. She's not the one who prescribed it, and when I asked her if she recommended changing it she thought about it for a minute and said no. One effect of high calcium would be kidney problems, and even if he's not showing those problems now, the food could help hold them off. And she didn't have any better suggestions for what to feed him.

Once again I have had an ambiguous experience with VCA. I was prepared to ask for a copy of our medical records on the way out, so I could take them to a different vet in the future. I might still do that before next year. This particular vet was very good -- it was the most thorough exam I can remember them having, and she seemed perfectly willing to take all the time we needed to do everything right. She handled them gently but firmly, and she showed genuine concern. She carefully read each cat's medical history before doing the exam and asked me relevant questions. That's the first time that's happened. And, like my own doctor, she didn't talk down to me but assumed I had a brain. (This was probably aided by some of the questions I asked her.)

However, she's been there for four weeks; VCA will probably beat it all out of her in time. And judging by past experience, she'll probably be there next year and not the year after. My big complaint against VCA is the revolving-door vets; I want a regular vet. They have some good people, but they don't keep them for long.

Maybe the thing to do is for me to tell her that, rather than talking to VCA. If she's going to leave VCA for some other place in the city, for example, I'd have no problems with following her. (She might have a contractual problem with that, but I don't know if I don't ask.)