Trip to the Internist...
Well, last night I gave Honeyboy some new food to try (some Hill's A/D and some Trader Joes tuna cat food) and he ate a little. Then he wandered into the middle of the room and laid down and wouldn't get up. He couldn't stand without stumbling and felt very limp. Fearing the worst I ran out to NW Vet Specialists where I had an appointment the next day and saw the ER doc. His vitals were good, so we took him home after sending out bloodwork to see if anything had changed in it. I gave him fluids and kept him warm for the night.
This morning we saw Dr Mack who is an internal medicine specialist. We did not opt for the ultrasound, the doc felt that xrays would tell us more after the exam he did. The bloodwork was, of course, normal. His lungs still look pretty good considering the chronic asthma and his hip is more arthritic but they didn't see any masses or anything. The good news is that he didn't think it was cancer. The bad news is that it is likely neurological. We could do a lot of different things (MRI, CT, etc) but things in the brain are difficult if not impossible to treat. We got some steroids to see if those help and some pain meds for his hip. Going to try to keep him comfortable and see if we can get him to eat.
The problem is that we're going out of town tomorrow, even though we will be back sunday. I am lucky that my coworker Roberta, who is a CVT, is willing to check on him and give him his meds and fluids while I am gone.
On one hand I am glad and relieved, on the other hand... I am coming to realize that it's basically hospice care. That makes me really sad.
This morning we saw Dr Mack who is an internal medicine specialist. We did not opt for the ultrasound, the doc felt that xrays would tell us more after the exam he did. The bloodwork was, of course, normal. His lungs still look pretty good considering the chronic asthma and his hip is more arthritic but they didn't see any masses or anything. The good news is that he didn't think it was cancer. The bad news is that it is likely neurological. We could do a lot of different things (MRI, CT, etc) but things in the brain are difficult if not impossible to treat. We got some steroids to see if those help and some pain meds for his hip. Going to try to keep him comfortable and see if we can get him to eat.
The problem is that we're going out of town tomorrow, even though we will be back sunday. I am lucky that my coworker Roberta, who is a CVT, is willing to check on him and give him his meds and fluids while I am gone.
On one hand I am glad and relieved, on the other hand... I am coming to realize that it's basically hospice care. That makes me really sad.