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Here is Azar sporting a rather punkish look after his visit to the vet’s last week. It took several tries on both legs to get enough blood out of him to do the tests, mi pobrecito, and a partial analysis done at the vet’s showed that his urea was a bit high and his glucose a bit low. Then this week Yolanda called me with the lab results and everything came back normal (?!), and so she recommended I bring Azar in again for another blood test as a control.
But just look at him. I thought it was too much and too soon to put him through all that again. Meanwhile, his two main remaining “symptoms” were lack of appetite and not pooping much, and Yolanda also suggested that we do an ultrasound in case he has a “tumorcita” that’s blocking him up. Yikes!
Another option was, since his temperature was also low when taken two days in a row last week, that he might have a low-grade infection going on so perhaps a few days on antibiotics would help. And so – at least for the moment – that’s the option I’ve gone with.
I don’t know if this is a direct result of the antibiotics or just coincidence, but the day after he started on the meds he really perked up, though he still wouldn’t eat much and had to be “spoon fed” (well, I use a syringe and squirt the stuff in, but spoon fed sounds nicer than force fed, and he actually seems to almost enjoy the process). Then – oh joy, oh bliss! – he had a big healthy dump on Tuesday without crying or complaining in the box, and another one yesterday. And this morning he actually ate some of his purée on his own. So if he continues to improve I may leave doing another blood test for a couple of months, which I think will give us a better idea of any changes in his general health. This really is like his “mystery illness” of last winter except this time the spoon feeding started sooner so he didn’t get quite so floppy. The cause of last year’s malaise was never discovered, so who knows what will happen this time. But for for the moment Azar appears to be on the mend and apparently doesn’t have any kidney problems. Happy.
casa azahar 
Well, that’s really good news & one less thing for you to worry about.
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I’m glad Azar is doing well. Fortunately cats are very resilient. My experience has been that vets do a really good job on the standard stuff but when a pet has more unusual symptoms, process of elimination is sometimes the best they can do. Each part of that process comes with it’s own (expensive) tests. Once we had one of our cats in to see a vet because of some strange symptoms. The vet said it could be no big deal or it could be a rare and untreatable fatal disease. She recommended we do an expensive test to find out. I suggested perhaps we treat the cat as if it’s the no big deal problem since the other problem wasn’t something we could treat anyway. She couldn’t understand why we didn’t want to do the test. Fortunately, it turned out that the symptoms disappeared and the cat bounced right back.
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I hear ya. When I heard Yolanda mention the ultrasound in case it’s a tumour I thought – oh no! Because if it was a tumour then what? I chose not to operate when my 14-year-old Lua got breast cancer because putting an old cat through all that without any guarantee it would help just didn’t seem right. I’m not sure I could be so sensible about Azar though.
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Poor old kitty. It makes me laugh when you get so happy about cat sh*t but I completely understand.
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I even did a little happy dance. 🙂
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I remember when Patty Twinkle was about three, a new vet at the cat clinic I used then got all gung-ho about giving her an echocardiogram because she MIGHT have cardiomyopathy and that would explain her irregular heartbeat at the vet’s. Five hundred bucks.
I observed that the cat was scared shitless, which would make my heart skip beats too, and took her home. When that vet took over the direction of the clinic I changed clinics. The cat lived to be 15. I can think of several other stories like that (I’ve been through four vets in twenty years).
The longer I deal with vets — and doctors — the more confident I get about vetoing diagnostic fishing expeditions. So far, I haven’t ever regretted it, and one of the things I like best about the place I use now is that they GET IT about that. He’s doin’ better, keep feeding him the good stuff and minimize the hassle and trauma. He’ll let you know if he needs more attention from Yolanda, I think.
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I’ve been to about half a dozen vets here and, besides Maria who is no longer practicing, Yolanda is the best one I’ve found. I think she is completely baffled by Azar’s symptoms, and also things like his body temp being low and the same blood sample turning out two different results, so I understand her wanting to do a second test. But not now. I’m going to keep Azar on the mix of special kidney food (dry) and “old cat” food (wet) and make sure he keeps drinking. And if he stays healthy maybe take him in for another blood test in a few months. In other words, do what I should have done for Sunny. Turned out that annual check-ups at his age, and with kidney problems, weren’t frequent enough. But I didn’t know that then.
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I am delighted to hear that Azar is on the mend!
There are some wonderful vets and I think Yolanda is one of those shining examples. You’ve been very lucky in having her.
I am always surprised at some of the people who end up being vets. I had a vet who simply had no patience for Benjamin and got very upset when he peed all over during a test they did in the back room. Like it was bad behaviour on Benjamin’s part. The vet was a “dog person” which is fine but if you are a general practice vet, you need to be able to deal and understand ALL your patients. AND, not matter how many times I corrected him, referred to Benjamin as “she”. IMAGINE!
My mother-in-law told me of a new vet at her veterinary clinic, straight out of medical school. When Melissa (the cat) seemed afraid the vet insisted on putting this Medieval-esque hood and paw-covers on her (apparently a “new technique” for dealing with “unmanageable” cats). Well, you can imagine how pleased Melissa was to be crammed into this outfit and the inevitable happened, she went nuts and pooped all over. The vet had a fit and put a note on her chart that she was “vicious” and said “next time she’ll be sedated”.
I couldn’t believe that my MIL would have allowed the vet to put her into this stupid outfit in the first place. I’d have told her to leave and made a complaint to the management of the clinic. Then I would have made a complaint to the veterinary college… That woman had no business being anywhere near animals.
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AND… How are you supposed to do a proper examination with a cat in THAT sort of get-up?
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The last vet I brought Sunny to (the one that killed him with an IV) used to use those hoods, but not the paw covers. Neither Azar or Sunny seemed to mind the hood, though I don’t think it was necessary. I think it shows an inexperienced vet, to be honest. I’m quite sure that some cats are very hard to handle – I should ask Yolanda what she does in these cases.
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I quite agree, especially when the animal has been seen before without any incident.
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Oh, man, I am so happy to hear this Az!
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That’s wonderful!
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Thanks for all your caring comments everyone. It’s really lovely that so many other people also care about Azar.
This morning I was woken up around six by the sound of Azar and Loki fighting in the livingroom. Then I heard Nog get up and separate them, so I got up and brought Azar back to my room thinking he would snuggle up again and go back to sleep. No way. He was HUNGRY!! Two minutes later he was back in the livingroom and Loki jumped on him again (I swear this is a ruse for getting one of us up to feed them) so I went in and gave them some biscuits … and wow. Azar chowed down on them like a refugee. He was even purring while he ate. This was after him mostly eating well on his own yesterday, though I had to bring the food over to him and “spoon feed” him once in the morning. But it looks like his appetite is back. And yes, also back to regular poops. I am so happy!
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Ha! If I’d had fireworks I’d have set them off too.
Off to give Azar his before bedtime antibiotics… then bedtime for me.
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Maybe it’s time for a steak? Glad to hear Azar is on the mend.
I bought Tiny Cat a huge plate of meat today. Raw chopped meat is about the only thing – apart from some dry food – he eats nowadays. But since he’s cat in the home of a vegetarian Nan has to buy the meat…
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Nope, it was time for asparagus!
Steamed some up this afternoon and you should have seen him go totally crazy over it. He’s really back to eating well again on his own (pooping well too!) but then during the night (last night) he had a couple of sneezing fits and I noticed a fair bit of mucous in his mouth this morning. Well, one thing at a time. He finished his course of antibiotics today and so now it’s a bit of wait and watch.
Great seeing him frisky again and running around being silly.
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Quick update – Azar seems really back to normal. Though he still demands his water in a glass. Both cats currently curled up sleeping on the sofa. All together now – Aaaawwww.
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