February 2nd 2010 4:59 am
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We just woke up to find out that I am Caster Cat of The Day! WOW! Imagine that! I am just your average three-legged cat from Southern Ohio! This comes at a great time and will allow us to focus on something other than my health for a day or so! I recently had a blood test at my annual exam on December 30th just because I am 10, making me a senior cat and because Dr. Andy wanted pre-dental anesthesia. Anyhow the results showed an elevated calcium level. Not terribly elevated, but elevated none-the-less. So when I went back for my dental on January 18th we repeated the test. This retest showed I definitely had elevated calcium, the initial results were not a fluke. So we did a more specific blood test which tested for ionized calcium in my blood. This also showed a definitely high calcium. So last week I went back and had more blood drawn which will test my parathyroid gland for malignancy.
You may or may not know hypercalcemia can be caused by about four things: lymphoma, parathyroid tumor, kidney failure, or it can be idiopathic, meaning without a known cause. In my case we know that it is not being caused by kidney failure because my other blood levels (BUN & Creatinine) are okay. This is good for now, but ultimately an elevated calcium will cause kidney failure, so we really kinda want to know what's causing it.
So now we wait, hopefully not for more than a few days for these latest tests, in the meantime I AM CAT OF THE DAY! What a way to take my mind off of the waiting! Thank you Catster!