I know I haven't posted much lately, but I have been lurking and thinking of those with sick furbabies. Now I have one of my own. Kasha is my 17 year old, solid white girl. Well, she will be 17 in January. On Monday evening she started acting lethargic, not hissing at the other cats, not eating, not beating up the dogs. She truly despises the dogs! You can imagine how much hissing and swatting that leads to around my place!(For those that don't go to the dog side, I have 24 dogs.) Last night she let Muskwa sniff her and he still has an intact nose and both eyes! Normally, she would have clawed his face off. So I gave a day to perk up, offered her every treat known to cats, she refused even babyfood and catnip! She is a nip addict normally. So this morning, I loaded her into a carrier and dropped her off at the vet clinic. One of the benefits of being a frequent client is that I don't need an appointment all the time!

So my vet , Dr. Candace, just called. I had given her permission to do whatever blood work and tests she felt were neccessary.

Kasha is very jaundiced. Her liver values are about 10 times what they should be! Her white blood cell count is also elevated. Her kidney values are perfectly normal! The t-4 test isn't done yet and they are waiting for those results before doing anything else. If the T-4 is normal, they will do an ultrasound. A couple years ago, an ultrasound wouldn't have been possible here, but the clinic has the technology now!

Right now Dr. Candace is thinking that Kasha has some kind of infection in her liver. She wants the ultrasound to rule out a tumor. If it's an infection, she will get fluids and antibiotics, likely by IV overnight and come home tomorrow. If it's a tumor, well, I don't want to think about that yet. I'm at work and I can't start crying here! At 17 and living in the boonies, the options for cancer treatment are very limited.

Beau had similar symptoms; his liver values weren't quite as elevated, but they were high and have resolved with hyperthyroid meds. I'm hoping that Kasha can get the same kind of easy fix. I know she's elderly, but I've only had the pleasure of her company for 15 months and I'm not ready for this! She's been perfectly healthy until 72 hours ago!