Princess update
Last Monday I took Princess to the vet (along with Cally for her monthly Cartophen shot, sigh) because I was getting concerned about her weight loss and some particularly nasty self-inflicted wounds.
Princess Twinkle Toes is 16 so weight loss is hardly unexpected. My first thought was hyperthyroidism, but that was quickly placed into doubt on my chat with the nurses in the waiting room. Her behaviour seemed subdued to me, rather than the frantic and hungry behaviour I was told more likely to be seen with hyperthyroidism. That left heart, kidneys, cancer... just about anything.
Dr Laura couldn't find any major lumps or bumps apart from some minor ones possibly in the thyroid area, and declared her heart to be sound. She disappeared out the back for quite some time to extract blood and urine from an unsurprisingly unco-operative cat. For good measure they also clipped her claws. The sound effects were most impressive. She also has shaved patches on both sides of her throat, and the evidence of several attempts to find a vein. On her return I was told not to be concerned about the blood stains, for she'd stepped in a puddle of blood and it had splashed "everywhere". I was most impressed that they'd also managed to squeeze about 0.5ml of urine out of her.
Got the results of $200+ worth of tests that evening - kidney function all clear, but thyroid results right at the top of normal, so budding hyperthyroidism it most likely is. But the most likely cause of her distress? Stress. My cat is an emo cutter. This pre-dates the kittens by a long way, but she's clearly not happy to be sharing myself and the house with a couple of bundles of serious energy, even though they rarely approach her and I've been careful to give her as much attention as possible. She was also unimpressed by having the house completely to herself for a week back in February, so she's a bit of a Goldilocks cat. I think her ideal arrangement would be to be the only cat in a two full-time human slave household.
So stress management it is. Again. Some more. Today I bought a Feliway diffuser and we'll give that the recommended month to see if it helps. Next month we'll repeat the bloods to see if there's any progression in the thyroid, then perhaps look at medication for that. Because she just *loves* taking pills. More pills. Daily pills.