Jack and his health issues.

For those of you new to this blog, this is Jack. He is the first foster kitty that I ended up adopting. He came to me in my third set of fosters, and I even returned him to the shelter to go up for adoption, but I sobbed and sobbed.  Jack is special to me in a completely different way than my other special kitties..

Last year he was diagnosed as hyperthyroid. Jack has had a life long issue with urinary issues, and we couldn't figure out why after nearly ten years of being stable we couldn't get him stable again. Routine blood work found the issue and I put him on medication and things stabled out. I did a cost comparison of medicating him for the rest of his life and doing the radioactive iodine 'gold standard' treatment for this issue. The I131 treatment was going to come up as slightly more expensive but it would 'fix' the problem where medication would only mask it.

Last October he went to Angell because they were the only facility I felt comfortable with. I had three options, one picked the dose of radioactive iodine based on his weight, the other on his thyroid level and Angell would do the scan and dose based on that.

Jack did very well, and his one month blood work came back as good. He only peed inappropriately a few times. His three month blood work came back and I had a feeling it was a little low. He was originally just over 5 in a scale that went from 0.8-4.7  This three month check up was just over one. I asked if that was too low, thinking that maybe something more ideal would be in the middle of that range, but both my own vet and Angell said no, he was fine.

He was due to have more blood work at the start of the summer, but I heard of a new test that would be coming out this summer that would better test his kidney values, so I held off for a bit. He seemed okay, but he was gaining weight.  Then I noticed he seemed to be shedding a bit more than is normal for him and he was starting to get small matts.  Still I held off.  His weight continued to increase, and he now weighs over fourteen pounds.

The other week he started limping. It caused him a great deal of distress since the litter box is down stairs. Some pain meds for a couple of days and he was feeling better, but while at the vet I decided to do his blood work to see if maybe his thyroid wasn't working right. This time his blood work came back within range, so the vet said it was perfect.

It didn't 'feel' right so I contacted Angell and asked what their opinion was since he was putting on weight. Their answer was that it was right in range, so it was okay, and maybe the weight might be from his diet. Jack eats very cleanly and no more than the other cats and none of them are overweight, and it is the same diet as before the procedure so I pushed. It was suggested to do a TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) test.  I asked my vet about it because I wasn't excited at the idea of bringing him back down to Boston, and yes, my vet could do it, and he could also do a full panel which would show other thyroid levels. Both tests, just the TSH and the full panel, was going to take 7-14 days to get back from my vet. Angell said they could get it back in two days.  I made my appointment with them and went down to Boston.

Interestingly enough the results of the panel were back before I even made it home that day - driving between MA and ME on a Saturday is not for the faint of heart - and I was right. He is hypothyroid, and we need to supplement him.  I am so not happy about this, but it is what it is. I asked if this would be life long, and was told that it might not be, so I have some hope about that.  My boy is only 13..

Please, if you think that the vet isn't right in their diagnosis or that you don't have the whole picture, get a second opinion. Push for additional tests. It might be that you are wrong and you are spending money to figure that out, but it might turn out that you are right and you can improve the quality of life of your pet.

The post about Jack

What can I say about my boy. Jack came to me in a litter of four kittens in 2002, and it was the third litter I fostered. One of the four got very ill and was put down rather soon after I brought them home. I think back then they had so many kittens coming at them all at once they just took four that were of the same general age and put them all together. I don't know that, but looking back it seems very possible.

Because of the early loss, I feel in love with them rather quickly and rather deeply, but wee baby boy Jack (known then as Houdini and for good reason) quickly stole my heart, right out through my ear lobe. That boy was OBSESSED over nursing on my ear lobe. I still ache to this day that he outgrew that. I know it isn't all that acceptable, but it was so endearing.

I had made my husband a promise when I started fostering that I wouldn't keep any of the kittens I fostered (feel free to laugh at both of us) but when Jack came along I was totally distraught at the prospect of sending him back. I had two cats at the time, Em and Ollie, and we really were foolish to bring another cat into the house full time, but the heart wants what the heart wants. I was home crying that night after returning them, and my husband pretty much said if you are going to cry over him, you might as well go get him. I FLEW down to the shelter the next morning and snatched him right up.

I was unemployed at the time, and as a result where ever I went that I could bring him, I brought Jack with me. He learned to love riding in the car, and he loved his harness, because it meant spending time with me. He would often go and sit by the door and ask that we go somewhere together, and I could never resist him. Sometimes we would go to the local ice cream shop and get him an ice cream. Weren't we a spectacle, how often do you see a cat getting an ice cream?!? Once I got a job, I wasn't able to take him out as much, and he lost some of the confidence he had in new places, but he still doesn't mind riding in the car and he still overflows with confidence in the house and constantly asks anyone who shows up if they might have a smackerel or two of honey treat for a roly poly kitteh.. (he is not fat, he's fluffy, and he has a big dulap)

A few years ago I was watching a TV show about different breeds of cats, and on that program the highlighted the Nebelung. I was looking at cats that looked exactly like Jack. Every Nebelung I have seen looks amazingly similar, and they all have that wonderful outgoing friendly personalities. I have since started calling Jack a Nebelung, and part of me wonders if I will avoid adopting any others once he passes, or if I am going to form a Nebelung rescue and have 100 of them.

Jack has had way too many health scares for my liking. First was he was exposed to FeLV and ended up testing positive back when I used to let my resident cats mingle with my fosters. He tested positive twice over six weeks apart and I then started supplementing him on Vitamin C.  A year or so later he ended up testing negative.  When he was a young cat, he ended up being blocked after developing urinary crystals. I had one cat who was diabetic, and Eli had also recently blocked, and I was determined to make sure everyone else was healthy, so I bought them 'premium' dry food. It had all the right key buzz words, and it felt like I was doing the right thing for him and my other cats (the word truthiness pops to mind at this point) Well he blocked, and then he blocked again and I was told he had a very narrow urethra. After his second blockage is when I started my crusade to figure out what I could do, and when I learned how snowed over the general population is when it comes to feline nutrition. Unfortunately Jack is a wee bit (OK fine, a lot) food obsessed, and he is willing to eat just about anything he can get his paws on... and sometimes he bypasses his paws and goes right for the gobble.

Since becoming blocked as a young mancat, he has blocked a few other times, mostly when I am not careful and he gets into too many treats with plant based ingredients (which are currently banned from the house) or I don't put the dry food I bring home for the kittens away fast enough and he chews through the bag and eats till he gets sick. The most recent time he blocked was when I was visiting Amy and Lisa, and I was absolutely beside myself.

And I think we have a reason for that.

Due to my not being comfortable going back to my original vet, I have been shopping Jack around for the past few months / years with his urinary issue. I now have a list a mile long of vets I will not go to *sigh* and I had been attempting to help him myself and doing a very poor job of it. I finally broke down and tried 'one more' vet. There were a few that I was considering, most were more than 30 minutes away from my home. While Jack doesn't mind the car, most of my other cats do. A new clinic opened recently just a few hundred feet away from where my original vet (who took care of the cat I grew up with) and by a vet who used to work with a woman I used to work with who said (back then anyway) that he was very nice. So when Jack peed on the floor one too many times that week, I called them and asked to be seen. They squeezed me in - since it was a urinary issue in a male cat.  He tested normal once again - no obvious reason why he was peeing, and I suggested we do blood work to look at liver and kidney values - because I still believe and I always will that those treats I gave him harmed him - and the vet suggested we run a comprehensive panel - aka old kitty blood work.  Since cats are considered old at 8, and he is 12, I thought it a good idea.

Well his thyroid level came back at 5.4 (out of a 0.8 - 4.9 range) so we started him on thyroid medication. Originally we started him out at 2.5mg BID and in two weeks he tested at 0.8.  The 'other' vet at the clinic that called with the results said he was 'right where we wanted him to be' and I asked three different ways if I shouldn't be worried about him going too low, because we were told to test in 2-3 weeks so I assumed it hadn't fully settled yet, and each way I formed the question her answer was 'he is right in that range' and I was none too happy, especially since she completely avoided my concerns, and about ready to find a new vet, but I had scheduled an appointment with Muffin (perfect), Eli (perfect) and Fleurp (still dealing with anemia), and I decided to keep it and ended up having a nice discussion with the vet I had intended to have treat my cats anyway.

So truth be told, he should be around '2.something' not 0.8  After consulting on the yahoo thyroid board and reading more on thyroid, I took a day off of giving him the pills and lowered his dose to 1.25 BID. Since he really wasn't showing signs of being hyperthyroid other than the peeing (which oddly enough is actually a symptom - hence my 'unnecessary vet visit' post from Monday) it is very hard to tell if he is doing better with this new dose or not. The vet I intend to have as my primary vet agrees with my decision.  I am not overly pleased with this vet, but he is someone I can work with, and that is very valuable to me.

I am currently in the process of working up the courage to contact yet another vet to discuss doing the I-131 radioactive iodine treatment.  I am way too introverted and way too phone phobic to enjoy doing this, but I will get it done for my boy. Part of me, a very large part, wants to put off treatment until the end of October when I am going to be out of town at BarkWorld so I don't have to stress over him being stressed over my being gone, but we will have the discussion sooner than that and see what they think is best.

#howIwakeup is a regular feature on my instagram account

I do not know what the future will bring for my boy, but I do know that he will lay on my pillow each morning he can and lick my nose, because that is now his thing.. (I still wish it was my earlobe)