A week ago today, I didn't like the way Sammy's eye was looking. Puffier than it had been. So, I called the vet and the earliest appointment they had was yesterday afternoon at 4:45. Or, I could do a drop off. Since Potter, we don't like drop offs. He spent his last day in a cage with all these other animals and strange people, only to be diagnosed with kidney failure. Like I said, we won't do that again. His last twenty-four hours were terrifying for him.
Well, I started Sammy back on his meds, both the antibiotic and the herpes med. I faithfully cleaned the gunk from his eyelid every couple of hours, using a warm, damp washcloth.
And it worked. Last Friday, a scab opened and I was able to gently squeeze it and got a lot of pus out. I did this several times over the weekend and by Monday, it was much better. The meds and the draining helped him a lot. I called the vet's office to see if we could switch out Sammy for one of the other cats and also bring Lorelei in for a thyroid recheck, as well as having her kidney values done. We'll not forget what happened with Sagwa, how the thyroid problems masked kidney problems that just got worse over time. If we'd have known sooner, we could have treated and saved him.
The other kitty we brought in was Ross. His first visit since his neuter, back in 2004. He's been losing weight and I was pretty sure his teeth were in bad shape.
Lorelei's values were awesome, she's doing nicely. No kidney problems and her thyroid values are perfect.
But poor little Ross. His teeth are a mess, but the vet didn't want to advise surgery just yet. He's on a course of clindamycin. Which is really nasty. He was also anemic and the vet wasn't sure why, the other blood values didn't show problems like kidneys (those values were good). He had a higher than normal white blood cell count, but the teeth problem could be the cause of that. But the anemia.....
So, he's on short course of prednisolone to see if that helps. If it doesn't (recheck in two weeks), the vet will look deeper for the cause, cancer could be the answer. He also has some pretty bad ear infections and he's getting medicated for those as well.
And he was really dehydrated, so he got fluids while at the vet's. I had to do all the other stuff, now I'm a bad guy.
I discussed some of the Sammy stuff with the vet, told her I'd restarted him on the herpes med. I recounted how after the two weeks was up and I quit giving them, he started sneezing again and the bloody nose came back. She said it's most likely he'll have to stay on them. Just to make his life better. He's eighteen now and quality of life is what matters.
And that was our yesterday. Hoping for good news in two weeks.
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