What's Wrong With Rog
(This is not intended to be a medical reference, just an account of our cat's plight, consult your vet about any cat health concerns)
Our Roger got sick and went downhill rather suddenly. In the span of a week he began losing a lot of weight, he was obviously in pain and he pawed at the water dish a lot. A trip to the vet was the beginning of what we thought would be his end. The vet confirmed our worst fear, terminal kidney failure. We had adopted Roger as an adult from a animal rescue organization. They had estimated his age at about five. We had adopted him two years before. Though he was young for kidney failure,it is not unheard of.
The vet was not hopeful but was convinced to put Rog on an I.V. and keep him overnight for observation. We did not want to let go without a fight. We expected to be called in the next morning to be with him while he was euthanized, if he survived the night.
The next morning, when we contacted the vet, we were shocked. He said that Roger could come home in an hour. Apparently, when the vet checked on his patients that night, he found Roger alert, and HUNGRY! He fed Roger who ate voraciously. The vet checked Roger's bloodwork and noticed that while he did apparently have some kidney failure and an infection, the really shocking indicator was his thyroid count! He was 1.4 points above normal for a cat. He began I.V. medication right away and in the morning Roger was feeling so much better he tried to get off the table with the I.V. still in. Looking at Roger's history, the vet concluded that the thyroid was the culprit and though we will have to give Roger thyroid medication for life, he is alive, and doing fine for now.
According to the vet, sometimes hyperthryroidism is undetected and untreated for a long time until something happens that "shifts the balance" and causes the cat to look and act sick.
If your cat suffers like Roger did, it may not hurt to ask the vet if it could be hyperthyroidism.
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