family night at the vet's
Tonight I took the gang in for scheduled maintenance.
Embla is up to 9 pounds 14 ounces, for a gain of a hair over 3 pounds since right before her hyper-thyroid treatment. She's definitely solid now under all that fur. I asked my vet if we need to worry about her gaining too much weight and she said no, she's still a pound down from her high and there's plenty of wiggle room. Her pulse was 160, same as it was in December at her three-month checkup (post-treatment). Everything looks just fine there.
Baldur weighs 13 pounds 13.5 ounces, which is down from his last visit (which in turn was up from the previous one). His pulse was 200, but my vet thinks that was because he was agitated. (He was growling and even hissing a fair bit tonight. Baldur does not like going to the vet; in December they had to sedate him to do the ultrasound and chest x-ray that determined that he's unlikely to have heart disease after all.) She heard a murmur in his heart again, but no arrhythmia. He's getting bloodwork (which had been the plan unless his weight held steady).
I brought up his problem with leaving solid deposits on one specific spot on the carpet. (The bottle of enzimatic cleaner I scrubbed it with held for about a week.) I had been pretty sure it was Baldur who was doing it; I got confirmation that at least one incident was definitely him a few days ago when the other two cats were with me and I went downstairs to find a fresh deposit. My vet, who was taking his temperature at the time, said something like "it's too bad you didn't bring a stool sample" -- at which point he provided one. The techs were remarkably quick both with getting that out of the way and cleaning up. (They earned their "waste management" fee tonight.)
Erik weighs 7 pounds 6.5 ounces, which is lighter than last time but in that range he tends to fluctuate in. His pulse was normal (160). I realized, while we were discussing his eating habits and that he'd had some trouble with vomitting a few days ago, that there might be correlation between those episodes and his medicine cycle. So I will start tracking that.
I should hear the results of the assorted tests by the end of the week. All things considered, everyone seems to be doing reasonably well.
My vet thought that Baldur looks much younger than he is, so when one of the techs came in to help with vaccines and blood draws, the vet asked her to estimate his age. The tech used to work at an animal shelter, so she said she's done this a lot. She then said "6 or 7", and was boggled when we said 15. These are my first cats so I don't really have expectations about what an old cat looks like; Erik does look older than Baldur to me, but I think that's due to being underweight and moving a little slowly.
Embla is up to 9 pounds 14 ounces, for a gain of a hair over 3 pounds since right before her hyper-thyroid treatment. She's definitely solid now under all that fur. I asked my vet if we need to worry about her gaining too much weight and she said no, she's still a pound down from her high and there's plenty of wiggle room. Her pulse was 160, same as it was in December at her three-month checkup (post-treatment). Everything looks just fine there.
Baldur weighs 13 pounds 13.5 ounces, which is down from his last visit (which in turn was up from the previous one). His pulse was 200, but my vet thinks that was because he was agitated. (He was growling and even hissing a fair bit tonight. Baldur does not like going to the vet; in December they had to sedate him to do the ultrasound and chest x-ray that determined that he's unlikely to have heart disease after all.) She heard a murmur in his heart again, but no arrhythmia. He's getting bloodwork (which had been the plan unless his weight held steady).
I brought up his problem with leaving solid deposits on one specific spot on the carpet. (The bottle of enzimatic cleaner I scrubbed it with held for about a week.) I had been pretty sure it was Baldur who was doing it; I got confirmation that at least one incident was definitely him a few days ago when the other two cats were with me and I went downstairs to find a fresh deposit. My vet, who was taking his temperature at the time, said something like "it's too bad you didn't bring a stool sample" -- at which point he provided one. The techs were remarkably quick both with getting that out of the way and cleaning up. (They earned their "waste management" fee tonight.)
Erik weighs 7 pounds 6.5 ounces, which is lighter than last time but in that range he tends to fluctuate in. His pulse was normal (160). I realized, while we were discussing his eating habits and that he'd had some trouble with vomitting a few days ago, that there might be correlation between those episodes and his medicine cycle. So I will start tracking that.
I should hear the results of the assorted tests by the end of the week. All things considered, everyone seems to be doing reasonably well.
My vet thought that Baldur looks much younger than he is, so when one of the techs came in to help with vaccines and blood draws, the vet asked her to estimate his age. The tech used to work at an animal shelter, so she said she's done this a lot. She then said "6 or 7", and was boggled when we said 15. These are my first cats so I don't really have expectations about what an old cat looks like; Erik does look older than Baldur to me, but I think that's due to being underweight and moving a little slowly.