Edison
You kids get- offa my lawn! | 
 | | Purred: Tue Mar 13, '12 7:13am PST |  | |  | | Hi everyone –
Having some issues with Edison, and I wanted to ask all of you kind folks for both prayers, and also what this might sound like to you.
First, Edison’s health background so you have a bigger picture. He’s 16 & ½ years old, and I’ve had him since he was 5 mos. old. Between kittenhood and age 13, he’s had no health issues whatsoever. His vet appts were all strictly annual basics – shots, check ups, dental cleaning.
At age 13, he hit “old man-hood” and everything hit at once – elevated liver, kidney and thyroid levels. He’s on Zentonil, Azodyl, Epakitin, and Methimazole. Two summers ago, the vet also found a tumor on his liver, which he thinks is benign. They could tell from the sonogram that it wasn’t aggressive, and Edison’s never shown any discomfort or issues over it, so the vet’s assumption is that it’s benign. He said there’s no real way to know without a surgical biopsy, which at his age, would probably kill him – odds are, he wouldn’t wake up from the anesthesia. The vet said because of his age, regardless of whether the tumor was benign or malignant, the best thing to do was to keep him comfortable, keep an eye on him, spoil him even more than I normally do, make sure he’s not in any pain, continue with his meds, and deal with things when the time comes. That was two years ago, and Edison’s been holding up his end of the bargain – he’s had a good appetite, he eats, he drinks, he pees, he poops, and although he loves his little old man naps, he has enough energy to dash across the apartment like a shot when he sees a bird on the windowsill. In the meantime, he has bloodwork twice a year to make sure the meds are still working, and the vet is very pleased with the liver, kidney and thyroid levels.
He’s had his little moments, as all elderly cats do. This past Christmas, I was concerned that his kidneys might be going, or that he might be diabetic because he was peeing like a racehorse. I took him into the vet on new years eve, they ran bloodwork, and said that he’s fine – he’s not diabetic, and the kidneys aren’t crashing, which was a relief – the vet said, he’s just drinking a lot, which is fine. So, he’s chugging along so far. The only real issue is that the methimazole seems to be just holding the thyroid issue at bay – he’s not gaining any weight back. He’s dropped, but I think the methimazole is keeping his weight from dropping any worse.
That brings us to this week. He seems very lethargic, and he’s not eating as much as he should. He’s eating some, but he’s not the President of The Clean Plate Club the way he normally is. You can feel every single bone in his body. Today’s Tuesday, and he really hasn’t eaten a ton since Friday. Again, he’s eating somewhat, but not enough to keep me from worrying. Last night, I got scared enough that I took his food, took him into the bathroom, closed the door, and hand fed him bits of food off the tip of my finger by smooshing little bits of it onto his tongue. He wasn’t thrilled, but with a little time and patience, I did get an entire bowl of food into his belly (his last decent size poop was the night before last, although he’s been drinking and peeing normally). He *is* a picky eater, but it’s not that – I feed him different brands and flavors every night (holistic brands only), because I know he gets bored fast.
The other thing that’s kind of making me crazy is – I keep thinking I see the underside of his jaw as swollen. He looks like he has a “Jay Leno chin”, if you know what I mean – the underside of his lower jaw looks swollen at certain angles, so I wondered if the swollen appearance and his lack of appetite are because his teeth are hurting. But if I touch the lower jaw and sides of his mouth, he doesn’t seem to be in any pain. He likes to rub his jaw and teeth against furniture and hard surfaces (he always has, even when he was a baby, so that’s nothing new), and that doesn’t seem to hurt him either. The thing that’s making me feel like I’m going crazy is that if I touch it, it doesn’t feel swollen, and when I smooth down his fur around the mouth, jaw and chin, his face looks normal again. Then I look at him at a different angle or light, and it looks swollen again. I don’t know if it’s my eyesight or if it’s his jaw.
The other issue that I noticed this morning, is that there is a little spot on the underside of his chin that looks a little worn raw – not sure if that’s something that has to do with the possible swelling, or if he just scratched himself there with his back foot (he often scratches his chin with those giant feet of his).
After the hand feeding last night, I came out of the bathroom, and called the vet to see if he might have some kind of flu-bug, a tooth problem, or if worse, if we’re at the end, which I hope to God isn’t the case. Does any of this sound familiar to any of you? I’m trying to see if I can get the vet appt. sooner, and if so, if I can call out from work to take him, but at least we have it for Saturday morning. If I have to hand feed him every night till then, I’m willing to do so, but I’m pretty worried to say the least.
Thanks for listening, I know that was long! |  |  | |  |
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