Eel-free Groucho news

[james_davis_nicoll]

Definitely not diabetic. Very likely not kidney-related. The vet thinks he's a textbook example of hyperthyroidism. Treatable and not expensive.

Slight heart murmur but otherwise she said he is in good shape and looks much younger than 18.

Comments

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

Norman had hyperthyroidism. The heart murmur was what lead them to look for that.

We got him irradiated. I don't think we would have made that choice if he'd been Groucho's age (he was, I think, 9 or 10 at the time), unless he were as bad at taking pills as Polly is. (He wasn't. He didn't like it, but he didn't hide for 30 hours each time I gave him a pill.)

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

We treated Niobe's hyperthyroidism with drugs; irradiation sounded like an arduous and stressful procedure. I don't actually remember how old she was on first diagnosis (11 or 12?)

She did all right on the drugs for a few years, but when she was about 15, pushing 16 it finally got away from us. I don't know if irradiation would have given her a longer run.

At 18... yeah, I'd go with the drugs.

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

From what we could tell, it was not at all arduous for the cat. The stressful part, maybe -- we had to take him to a vet about 30 miles away, and then leave him there for a week. They gave him an injection of radioactive iodine, it killed off part of his thyroid, and they waited for him to be unradioactive enough to bring home. Then we kept him separated from the other cats for another week.

And that was it. Excellent doctors, in that they gave him just the right amount, and it never returned.