# I Must Share The Good News **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 26, 2008, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303 "2008-09-26T07:16:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/21 "2008-09-26T20:53:03Z")
Good luck to Bob! ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/22 "2008-09-26T21:05:33Z")
Thank you, everyone. Our vet just called. There is no ‘mass’, so that’s good. They have him on the IV to rehydrate him a bit, but he isn’t dehydrated TOO much, he said. Still, he does need a little bit of hydration. Then, tomorrow morning, I’m supposed to call when they open, at 8am, and they’ll let me know about the antibiotic treatment for him. Our vet wants to start him on a certain antibiotic, but they only have the dosage for larger animals, and they’re going to have to go with a human pharmacy to get the meds for his small size. It all depends on how he’s doing by morning. Still, his heart and lungs are fine, and that’s a huge plus for him. He’s just really weak, is all…and VERY skinny. Skin and bones is the proper way to put it, honestly. It was only DAYS, and he ended up like this. Sure, he was never a big cat, anyway. Always on the small, slender side. But now, OMG, it’s pathetic. He looks like a little, furry, grey & white, starving, malnourished Ethiopian, only without the swollen belly! ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/23 "2008-09-26T21:14:03Z")
Yay for no mass! Still sending good vibes! ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/24 "2008-09-26T23:29:57Z")
> [@Boscibo](#): > > What sort of treatment did your cat undergo? After much discussion with my vet, I was given three choices: > > 1. Pills (methamazole/Tapazole), the cheapest initially and most common treatment. Many cats do well on this if you can successfully give your cat a daily pill. > 2. Radioiodine, which is what I chose. It is the most expensive, but after calculating pill costs over years of time/hassle of pilling I decided it was the best for me & my cat. It is non-surgical but did involve quarantine time; the separation hurt me more than it hurt my cat, I’m sure. I hate pilling cats! One thing about radioiodine is that sometiems the hyperthyroidism is covering up other diseases, like kidney disease. My cat did show some decrease in kidney function after treatment, but it wasn’t bad enough to need to treat with sub-q’s at that point. > 3. Surgery to remove the thyroid gland. This was pretty much out for me as I didn’t want to subject my 14 year old car to anesthesia and my vet told me that after surgery it is not uncommon that the thyroid gland on the other side could go hyperthyroid. There’s also what we did with our Ichabod which was an ointment that we rubbed onto her ears. Our vet said it appeared to be easier for the cats to handle and didn’t require a pill. nonacetone, I’m thinking positive thoughts for you and your whole family of furfaces. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/25 "2008-09-27T00:11:04Z")
Your fur-family is beautiful, **nonacetone**. I’m sending good vibes. ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/26 "2008-09-27T14:01:18Z")
Good for Bob, that is good news. I hope he gets better and fatter soon. ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/27 "2008-09-27T15:01:56Z")
Thank you, everyone! I talked to our vet this morning and Bob is doing ok. They started him yesterday on the antibiotics, appetite stimulant, and he’s now hydrating quite well. He ate all his food, and is drinking water. They did find out that he’s got arthritis in his back legs. The muscles are even starting to atrophy a bit, because he doesn’t use them much…Which is probably our own fault, because we saw for awhile that he’s not been wanting to get up much, and he’s really slowed down, so when he gets up and heads off somewhere, we just scoop him up and carry him to where he’s heading, be it the food and water dishes, the bed, the window sill, the couch, the chair, the litterbox, etc. So, Doc told me that will be NO MORE of that going on when he comes home! He wants him to move around on his own from now on. He’ll be getting a shot of steroids before he comes home, to make him a bit more comfortable with the arthritis problem. He’ll have to have an injection of that ever so often for the rest of his life. I’m fine with that, just as long as he’s not in too much pain, and he still has a good quality of life. When the time comes that he’s suffering, or his quality of life is suffering, and we can’t ease it, then he’ll be put to sleep. They are going to keep him over the weekend, just to make sure he stays hydrated, and to make sure the antibiotics are ok for him. We should be able to bring him home on Monday. They’ve already called in an Rx for him to the local CVS, for one pill. It’s the appetite stimulant, and it’ll have to be cut into fourths, and I am to give him 1/4 of the pill every 3 days or so. We’re supposed to feed him only the canned Rx cat food for awhile, until he’s consistently doing better. That was some good news for us to start our day with, though. We’ve been worrying so much about him, and this is news that made us feel a bit better today. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/28 "2008-09-27T15:52:55Z")
This sounds a little like what one of our cats had, last October (over Thanksgiving weekend, the little bitch, so it cost us more than twice as much to treat!!) In her case it was a combination of a urinary/bladder infection and kidney infection (pyelonephritis), and over the course of about a day, she went from seeming fine to straining to pee, barely eating or drinking, staying curled up in a tight little ball and just generally looking like she was in pain. We managed to get her to our local vet, who (because it was a holiday weekend and actually didn’t have any other animals staying overnight and so had given everyone the weekend off) sent us to the emergency clinic in the city right away to get her rehydrated and more urine/blood tests. In the end, fluids and antibiotics were enough (though we had to give her pills twice a day for 4 weeks after… that was a LONG 4 weeks!) Cost us a fortune. She’s an evil bitch cat, but we love her to bits, and would do it all over again if we had to (and we might, as she has suffered some permanent kidney damage and needs to be tracked for that!) This is [her](http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h207/mnems/Cats%20and%20Thanksgiving/DSCN1562.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/29 "2008-09-27T20:34:21Z")
> [@nonacetone](#): > > Thank you, everyone! > > I talked to our vet this morning and Bob is doing ok. > They started him yesterday on the antibiotics, appetite stimulant, and he’s now hydrating quite well. He ate all his food, and is drinking water. They did find out that he’s got arthritis in his back legs. The muscles are even starting to atrophy a bit, because he doesn’t use them much…Which is probably our own fault, because we saw for awhile that he’s not been wanting to get up much, and he’s really slowed down, so when he gets up and heads off somewhere, we just scoop him up and carry him to where he’s heading, be it the food and water dishes, the bed, the window sill, the couch, the chair, the litterbox, etc. So, Doc told me that will be NO MORE of that going on when he comes home! He wants him to move around on his own from now on. He’ll be getting a shot of steroids before he comes home, to make him a bit more comfortable with the arthritis problem. He’ll have to have an injection of that ever so often for the rest of his life. I’m fine with that, just as long as he’s not in too much pain, and he still has a good quality of life. When the time comes that he’s suffering, or his quality of life is suffering, and we can’t ease it, then he’ll be put to sleep. > > They are going to keep him over the weekend, just to make sure he stays hydrated, and to make sure the antibiotics are ok for him. > > We should be able to bring him home on Monday. They’ve already called in an Rx for him to the local CVS, for one pill. It’s the appetite stimulant, and it’ll have to be cut into fourths, and I am to give him 1/4 of the pill every 3 days or so. We’re supposed to feed him only the canned Rx cat food for awhile, until he’s consistently doing better. > > That was some good news for us to start our day with, though. We’ve been worrying so much about him, and this is news that made us feel a bit better today. nonacetone, I’ll say now what I was going to say re post #3: That’s quite a “cat family” you have. 🆒 I’m very happy for you. This was what I was going to say in post #9, but then I caught your post #8. It no longer seemed to fit, even with the good news about no FelV. I’m glad that it now looks like you will still have Bob for some good time ahead. 🙂 - “Jack” ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/30 "2008-09-27T22:31:09Z")
Thank you, everyone. All the kind words and information has been so helpful to us. We really do love our cats _(And dogs, and ratties, and birds)_. Can you tell? 😛 I hope the report tomorrow is as good as it was today. The vet hasn’t called me back at all today, so I take it there have been no changes for the worse. ---
**Author:** ![jhinman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/779978/32.png) [@jhinman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jhinman)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/31 "2008-09-28T18:02:45Z")
> [@nonacetone](#): > > This is Bob (13 years old): > [Private Group Photo & Video Sharing](http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a186/GinaHendrixson/FurBabies/Bob1.jpg) I am more of a dog person, but hey Bob is a stargate fan, so he is OK in my books. Good to hear he is doing ok. ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/32 "2008-09-28T19:06:08Z")
Thank you, **jhinman**. Yeah, Bob is a Stargate SG-1 fan, AND a Stargate Atlantis fan. He sits with our daughter and watches every episode. He was NOT happy when they ended SG-1. That’s probably what threw him into his illness in the first place. You know…Stress and all, because of it. Seriously, he’s doing ok today, too. We’re hoping he can come home with us tomorrow. Thank you everyone, for the kind words and thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/33 "2008-09-28T20:28:30Z")
I hope your vet did a urinalysis, because what you’re describing sounds an awful lot like CRF, which is **common** in older cats and usually treatable, even though it’s not curable. Our 17 year old cat had the same symptoms, which also came on very rapidly, and it was actually the first thing my vet checked for because it’s so common. If it does turn out to be that, I’ll link you to several very helpful resources I used during Mew’s 5 years surviving this condition. Best of luck to you, your daughter, and Bob (who is squeeably adorable!). FYI, [Here’s Miss Mew](http://www.amschwartz.net/jillandthomas/missmew.html). ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/34 "2008-09-28T20:35:29Z")
I’ll check with our vet, **Shayna**. Thank you for the heads up! They did take some urine from him, to check for protein…or something like that. I don’t know if they did the urinalysis or not, though. I’m going to make it a point to ask, though. Your little Miss Mew girl is a beauty! I love it that she likes to keep up on current events by reading the paper. Very cool! ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/35 "2008-09-28T20:52:03Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > I hope your vet did a urinalysis, because what you’re describing sounds an awful lot like CRF, which is **common** in older cats and usually treatable, even though it’s not curable. Kidney values would show in bloodwork, though, in BUN and creatinine levels and maybe something else that I’m forgetting. I can’t imagine they wouldn’t have checked for that, given how incredibly common kidney problems are in cats. We’ve lost three cats to it. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/36 "2008-09-28T20:56:39Z")
> [@nonacetone](#): > > I’ll check with our vet, **Shayna**. Thank you for the heads up! They did take some urine from him, to check for protein…or something like that. Probably also specific gravity of the urine, which is a test to see how dilute the urine is. Dilute urine means the kidneys are dumping more fluid than they should be. Protein in the urine I think is more to do with diabetes, though I could be getting my diseases confused. ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/37 "2008-09-28T20:57:46Z")
Ah, good to know, **jsgoddess**. Thank you. I think I’ll still go ahead and ask, just to ease my own mind. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/38 "2008-09-28T22:38:16Z")
here’s hoping bob will be snug at home on monday. and he has an easy and quick recovery. houses seem very empty without kittycats. even with a clowder, you still see the empty place. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/39 "2008-09-28T22:56:30Z")
> [@nonacetone](#): > > I’ll check with our vet, **Shayna**. Thank you for the heads up! They did take some urine from him, to check for protein…or something like that. I don’t know if they did the urinalysis or not, though. I’m going to make it a point to ask, though. > > Your little Miss Mew girl is a beauty! I love it that she likes to keep up on current events by reading the paper. Very cool! The **Danish** newspaper, no less! LOL She loved her daddy, as you can plainly see. 🙂 > [@jsgoddess](#): > > Kidney values would show in bloodwork, though, in BUN and creatinine levels and maybe something else that I’m forgetting. > > I can’t imagine they wouldn’t have checked for that, given how incredibly common kidney problems are in cats. We’ve lost three cats to it. I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t have checked for that, either, but since **nonacetone** didn’t mention it in the list of tests the vet said he’d performed, I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t overlooked. Not all vets are the same level of thorough (not that I’m implying anything about **nonacetone’s**!!). The original vet who diagnosed Mew, just threw a bunch of standard remedies at her without real care as to how, or even if, they would really relieve her symptoms. For instance, he automatically prescribed Potassium supplementation, and got really nasty with me when I asked if it came in any other form besides the goo, which I simply couldn’t get down her throat at that point. He also immediately put her on appetite stimulants, since she’d stopped eating, which was why she wasted away so quickly. I don’t even want to describe the wailing and pacing and crying that kitty did on those stimulants. It was heartbreaking. I changed vets immediately. Turns out, her Potassium levels were within he Normal range. Low-Normal, but Normal, none-the-less. And they remained that way for the duration, all 5 years. She never did need Potassium supplementation. And the new vet took her off the appetite stimulants and put her on 1/4 Pepcid AC every day, to settle her tummy from the excess acid that builds up when the liver takes over some of the kidney’s functions. She tolerated it extremely well and ate like a pig the rest of her life. I never again had to worry about her appetite. As far as I’ve learned, you can never ask too many questions or be too informed about what the possibilities are. Even if the vet says he did check and rule out kidney failure, at least **nonacetone** will know that ‘T’ was crossed. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303/40 "2008-09-29T22:38:31Z")
Any word on Bob yet? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-share-the-good-news/465303.md?page=3)