I've been weighing everyone I can get my hands on for the last couple months - particularly Busy and Milk, who are the most at risk. Fortunately, they're the most cooperative, too. Once in a while, you luck out.
Took Milk to the vet today for bloodwork to check his phenobarb level, and to have his other bloodwork done for the first time in quite a while. I had wanted the vet to do it the last time we were at the office - months ago - but he didn't take enough blood, or didn't remember, or whatever. Anyway, today he got plenty. I don't have a copy of the actual report from his Idexx machine in the office. I always wonder/worry about calibrations, but..... Anyway, he called after we got home and said that the only value that was out of order was - as usual - the ALT. 110. Very close to the upper limit of normal, which is unusual. Milk's weight was down, according to the vet's records, a half pound. He weighed 9.25 pounds on the office scale, another of the places I always wonder about calibration. And I have this wonderful scale at home that Hope gave me a couple of years ago - I have more faith in it. Just a couple minutes ago, I weighed him here in the dining room, before he ate dinner, and he was 9 lbs, 1 oz. Pretty much what he's been fairly consistently since I stopped giving him the cyproheptadine.
Dr. G. was concerned about Milk's weight. He's afraid, if he does end up with some death-dealing illness (which seems to be happening with sickening regularity to my cats) that he won't have any reserves to fall back on; he's a very tall, long cat, with next to no body fat. Not all that much muscle, either, to be truthful. I hadn't told Dr. G. that I had discontinued the cyproheptadine back in June or whenever because of the increasingly bizarre behavior. Today, when I mentioned that, he seemed to feel that, regardless of the behavior, he needed the weight, and therefore the appetite stimulant. I forgot to mention the B12 injections, which are continuing on a weekly basis, and I did think they seemed to be making Milk a little more enthusiastic about eating. The recommendations for cats and B12 injections is to give them weekly for six weeks, and then to continue them either weekly or bi-weekly. Much as I hate giving both Milk and Busy the shots (God only knows why it didn't make me a wreck in four years of shooting Scruffy, probably because he could have cared less, I guess.) I think it's worth it to continue the injections for both cats. So, we came home and I dug out the bottle of cypro, and gave him the first 1/4 tablet tonight. He'll probably be up all night making me crazy while he looks for food.
Milk has a chewed area on his neck that is the largest he's ever had. Apparently Busy's illness has made him even more aggressive than before. (He waits until I go to the bathroom, and then he starts chewing on Milkshake or Pinky or OneBun. Quite the little planner, he is.) And Milk has continued to be aggressive with Oney, especially. OneBun never bothers anyone. I don't know why they're both picking on him. Anyway........ The other area of concern was this black lump that showed up on Milk's lower gum a week or two ago. He didn't want me to mess around with it. I don't want to see ANY black spots on a pink and white cat. It was quite alarming. Dr. G. looked at it and began discussing melanin, and meandered onto melanoma, while I was standing there dripping with sweat (IT WAS HOT!) and with this horrible aching in my stomach. He noticed, though, when he looked more closely that there was a hair sticking out of the black lump. (I should have taken a picture of it. Rats.) That made him think that it was most likely just a little chunk of acne-like stuff, and eventually he just picked it off Milk's gum. A relief. I had already told him that if there was something deadly in Milk's bloodwork, he was NOT allowed to mention it. Too much trauma and disease already.
He should call about the phenobarb levels tomorrow. I just realized I forgot to tell him how many hours post pill it was. Rats. I'm not sure what to expect this time - the last couple times, the phenobarb level has dropped from the 30's to the low 20's, as his weight has also dropped, which seems paradoxical.
Another $200+ for bloodwork. Hemopet (where I'm sending Busy's blood now) makes Antech look like they're really overcharging for their services, especially since Homepet farms out all of the non-thyroid bloodwork to their local ANTECH! They must get quite the discount.
Took Milk to the vet today for bloodwork to check his phenobarb level, and to have his other bloodwork done for the first time in quite a while. I had wanted the vet to do it the last time we were at the office - months ago - but he didn't take enough blood, or didn't remember, or whatever. Anyway, today he got plenty. I don't have a copy of the actual report from his Idexx machine in the office. I always wonder/worry about calibrations, but..... Anyway, he called after we got home and said that the only value that was out of order was - as usual - the ALT. 110. Very close to the upper limit of normal, which is unusual. Milk's weight was down, according to the vet's records, a half pound. He weighed 9.25 pounds on the office scale, another of the places I always wonder about calibration. And I have this wonderful scale at home that Hope gave me a couple of years ago - I have more faith in it. Just a couple minutes ago, I weighed him here in the dining room, before he ate dinner, and he was 9 lbs, 1 oz. Pretty much what he's been fairly consistently since I stopped giving him the cyproheptadine.
Dr. G. was concerned about Milk's weight. He's afraid, if he does end up with some death-dealing illness (which seems to be happening with sickening regularity to my cats) that he won't have any reserves to fall back on; he's a very tall, long cat, with next to no body fat. Not all that much muscle, either, to be truthful. I hadn't told Dr. G. that I had discontinued the cyproheptadine back in June or whenever because of the increasingly bizarre behavior. Today, when I mentioned that, he seemed to feel that, regardless of the behavior, he needed the weight, and therefore the appetite stimulant. I forgot to mention the B12 injections, which are continuing on a weekly basis, and I did think they seemed to be making Milk a little more enthusiastic about eating. The recommendations for cats and B12 injections is to give them weekly for six weeks, and then to continue them either weekly or bi-weekly. Much as I hate giving both Milk and Busy the shots (God only knows why it didn't make me a wreck in four years of shooting Scruffy, probably because he could have cared less, I guess.) I think it's worth it to continue the injections for both cats. So, we came home and I dug out the bottle of cypro, and gave him the first 1/4 tablet tonight. He'll probably be up all night making me crazy while he looks for food.
Milk has a chewed area on his neck that is the largest he's ever had. Apparently Busy's illness has made him even more aggressive than before. (He waits until I go to the bathroom, and then he starts chewing on Milkshake or Pinky or OneBun. Quite the little planner, he is.) And Milk has continued to be aggressive with Oney, especially. OneBun never bothers anyone. I don't know why they're both picking on him. Anyway........ The other area of concern was this black lump that showed up on Milk's lower gum a week or two ago. He didn't want me to mess around with it. I don't want to see ANY black spots on a pink and white cat. It was quite alarming. Dr. G. looked at it and began discussing melanin, and meandered onto melanoma, while I was standing there dripping with sweat (IT WAS HOT!) and with this horrible aching in my stomach. He noticed, though, when he looked more closely that there was a hair sticking out of the black lump. (I should have taken a picture of it. Rats.) That made him think that it was most likely just a little chunk of acne-like stuff, and eventually he just picked it off Milk's gum. A relief. I had already told him that if there was something deadly in Milk's bloodwork, he was NOT allowed to mention it. Too much trauma and disease already.
He should call about the phenobarb levels tomorrow. I just realized I forgot to tell him how many hours post pill it was. Rats. I'm not sure what to expect this time - the last couple times, the phenobarb level has dropped from the 30's to the low 20's, as his weight has also dropped, which seems paradoxical.
Another $200+ for bloodwork. Hemopet (where I'm sending Busy's blood now) makes Antech look like they're really overcharging for their services, especially since Homepet farms out all of the non-thyroid bloodwork to their local ANTECH! They must get quite the discount.
