In Sickness and in Health

Hi Everyone: wave Just a quick update. Buddy is on the mend I think. Buddy2014 005a copy   I was amazed at the number of people who reached out to me about Buddy. He’s certainly been going through his health challenges. At his annual physical the Vet detected a fairly prominent heart murmur so we ran a series of blood tests to see if the problem could be isolated. The last test was a cardiac series and we wanted to avoid that if possible as it was expensive. The first panels showed an elevated thyroid so we started Bud-man on .3 ML of  methimazole with monthly follow ups. IMG_20150808_122205 It seemed that each month we got closer but not close enough so up went the dosage. By the time I took him in Thursday for his follow up we were at .7 ML but this time the result was different. The heart murmur was gone and his thyroid numbers were in the low normal range. That bought us a reprieve of sorts. Instead of following up in 30 days we could wait for 60! Buddy 004a     That’s when Buddy decided to upset the plan. By Saturday he was throwing up clear fluid every 30 minutes. The poor thing was shaking. I know cats throw up everything from hairballs to half digested food from eating too fast but this was nothing like I’d ever seen. Of course this all took place after my Vet closed at noon. I considered taking him to an emergency vet but then he seemed to get  a bit better. He ate some chicken broth and kept it down and even went to sleep. more cats 001a Sunday morning he ate his breakfast and I thought we’d gotten over the worse but then in the afternoon it all started again. My pet sitter recommended  Pepcid AC but I hated to try to “pill him”. I tried hairball remedy and more broth but he had no interest. I was really getting concerned but Monday morning he was up bright and early and teasing for breakfast. Kats 004 copy   Again things seemed good until Monday evening. Right after dinner Buddy delivered his half digested food right back up. Tuesday morning Buddy seemed fine but he only picked at breakfast. He didn’t gobble it down like he usually did. I had to go to work so I crossed my fingers and left some dry food out for him to nibble on and lots of fresh water. On my way home I stopped at the Vet’s office and picked up some pill pockets. As soon as I came in both Rocky and Buddy met me at the door. I slipped 1/4 tab of pepcid AC into a pill pocket and offered it to Buddy. Gone in 2 seconds flat! Success! And so far it’s worked.

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He ate his dinner with some of his old appetite and so far it has stayed inside , not outside his little cat body. I’m really hoping we’ve turned the corner!

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