Kitty Doings
Cats have been much on my mind in recent times. I lost my Molly back in June ( http://www.cncbooks.com/blog/2010/06/20/the-loss-of-an-old-friend/ ) and have been bonding more with my other two furry friends, Sugar and Spice, who had, I’m ashamed to admit, taken something of a backseat to Molly. Then, there was the relocating of Annie’s two kitties, Sassy and Trixie, to St. Augustine and the hilarity of Trixie’s initial pathological distrust—DOOM! DESPAIR!—of the porch.
Lucky, one of my brother’s two feline children, started losing weight and it was rather dramatic. When you only weigh about 6 pounds, losing more than one is really noticeable. We’ve found that her thyroid is out of whack and, after a month’s worth of medication, we got the report this week that she has regained a half pound. Yay, Lucky!
Now our beloved store cat, Hamilton, is sick and we don’t know what’s going on. Periodically, he starts to cry, as if in pain, and drags his back legs, apparently having some sort of paralysis. Two vets are working on him and their initial thought was that he might be throwing a clot. That doesn’t really fit the scenario of being “normal” for several days after each episode but they suggested putting him on an aspirin regimen to see if the attacks continue.
(Note: aspirin can be deadly for a cat so DON’T do this without a vet’s direction.
Don’t think Tylenol is OK either as that is definitely fatal to cats.)
Several years ago, Hamilton had surgery twice for a problem with his urethra and it was widened. He’s had no evidence of that difficulty recurring. He’s diabetic but is doing so well that his insulin dose was cut in half a month ago. These new symptoms don’t appear to have any relation to his diabetes. He had lost more than a pound in 4 weeks, not normally a bad thing in an overweight cat if the weight loss happens over 6 or 12 months but definitely alarming in such a short period; the next thought was that possibly his thyroid isn’t working correctly. So, we did blood work.
Two days later, he had had another episode and the blood work came back normal for everything. Now, we’re taking the next step, X-rays to see if there is a clot or some kind of mass the vets can’t feel. Wednesday is the big day and we’re keeping our fingers crossed. Lord knows we don’t want to get really bad news but we can’t fight this when we don’t know what “this” is. Please, keep Hamilton in your prayers.
September 5, 2010
Posted in: Hamilton, Tales of a Bookseller
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