This time it was for Richie.
For the past few years, Richie's run a little hot. I mean physically hot. You touch his ears and it's like they're on fire. He spends more time outside when it's cool than he does indoors when the heat is on. He's as skinny as a rail. And his breathing is fast.
The past few weeks, he's gotten worse. Last week, he had three bloody noses. The first one I wasn't sure of, I just found the blood on the floor, didn't know if it had been him or Katie. Then I saw his nose bleeding on two different occasions. This past weekend, he wasn't eating, even tuna, and he was throwing up at night. Lots of foamy puke. And he was playing in the waterbowl, splashing water all over and licking it from his paws.
This morning, I was pretty concerned and I called the vet after they'd opened for the day. I was able to get an eleven o'clock appointment. When the vet came in he asked questions, I answered as well as asking him a few. Like maybe Richie has high blood pressure (I remember my mother and her nosebleeds). He checked him over and said that it was most likely his thyroid. And hyperthyroid could be the cause of all of the things that have been off with Richie. He took Richie's blood pressure and it was sky high, really not good. The vet said if it's thyroid, taking care of that should take care of the blood pressure. And Richie was taken into the back for a blood draw.
The vet called, the regular results (you know, kidney, etc) were good, all within normal range, but his thyroid test was too high to measure. So, Richie is on meds now, the same thing as DaNiece. I'm to bring him in for a recheck in three weeks.
We'll be there.