Putting His Kid Through School

I love my vet, I really do. Duncan likes him, Reyna adores him, and Belle tolerates him. It just doesn’t get much better than that. I’ve only ever had one problem with him, and that was when he didn’t believe me about Reyna’s hips. Granted, every time he saw her, she was bouncing and jumping like nothing was wrong, but that certainly wasn’t her everyday behavior. But still, one problem in nearly four years is pretty darn good. Lately, though, we’re seeing him way too much.

Reyna’s tail finally cleared up, so she’s off the puppy prozac. Until she chews up her tail again, anyway. Because of the cold weather, she started having a lot of trouble with her hips, and the aspirin just wasn’t touching the pain. It was bad enough that if Duncan bumped into her, she would scream. She wouldn’t even snap at him, because she was too busy shaking off the sudden pain and trying to get to me for comfort. It was really pitiful. The vet put her on Rimadyl twice a day, which has helped a lot. As the weather gets warmer, I’m hoping to cut her dose in half on the days I work, since she’s not as active those days. She has to have blood work done every six months or so, just to make sure there’s no damage to her kidneys or liver. She had her first check-up just before I went to AZ. She’d only been on the Rimadyl two weeks, but the vet said that if a dog is going to have an adverse reaction, it’ll happen that quick. The tests came back fine, so she was cleared to keep taking the meds.

And speaking of blood work... I took Belle, Loki, and Mikey in for their yearlies January 27. Mikey was the one I was actually concerned about, and he came out as the healthiest of the three. Go figure. The vet wanted to do blood work on Belle, since she’ll be 10 in April. That would give him a baseline for her, in case he has to run it as a diagnostic sometime in the future. Of course, she had to be difficult. Her white cell count was very low, which indicated the possibility of one of the four big viruses. She’d not been in contact with a strange cat in years, but these viruses can sit in their systems for 9 years without any indications. So, we had to run another series of tests, which meant I had to wait another few days for those results. I had the option of doing nothing, but I think we all know that was a ridiculous suggestion. Thankfully, her second set of tests came back okay. I took her back up this Saturday for a re-test. If the white cell count is still low, he’ll just note that as her normal level. If its back in what they consider normal, then he’ll just toss out the first test as a fluke. Either way is fine, as long as she’s not harboring some disease that’ll kill off all the cats.

Loki also caused some trouble this time around. I told the vet about his projectile vomiting skills, and the fact that he is demonstrating those with increasing frequency these days. He ended up having to have an ultrasound done, to check for IBS or pancreatic issues. He’s slowly growing the hair back on his bald belly, although I’m sure he was a bit chilled for a few days. The vet said that the ultrasound showed a cyst next to Loki’s pancreas, but he doesn’t think its anything serious. He said there was also some damage to the pancreas, indicating that Loki had probably had minor bouts of pancreatitis at some point. He said that the way things looked, he’d just let it go, and see if dosing Loki with laxatives would help the vomiting. I had the option of letting him do exploratory surgery, but neither the vet nor I really thought that was the best way to go. So, Loki gets his Laxaire every day, and we’ll just keep watching. The frequency seems to have eased up, but the distance is still rather impressive.