Sydney wobbling: Diarrhea gone, doing much better! (see #55)

[phesina]

My 15-year-old Tuxedo boy Sydney was all wobbly and falling when he tried to walk this morning.. almost like my CH boy Bob. I took him to the emergency vet, didn't want to wait a couple more hours until his regular vet opened.

Vet said he has nystagmus (not spelled right.. eyes moving a lot and not focusing).. They did blood work and a couple of x-rays. No tumors showed, and blood good except for high platelet count. Some sort of neurological disorder.. or, given his age, a brain tumor. Can only diagnose for sure with radiography, which would mean taking him to vet specialists some 30 or 40 miles away, costing some $1500.

We were sent home with some liquid steroid plus a CD with the x-rays and lab work they did for me to show the regular vet.

She told me to keep him in a small area.. Before feeding, make sure he can swallow because she also was concerned he might not be able to.. he'd been throwing up some the last few days, a lot of times just white foam. I'm to feed him wet foods, by hand if that works best (he seems to be swallowing just fine), and then give him small amounts at a time to see whether he throws up. I'm to give him the steroid dose every 12 hours, so I started at 5:45pm, next dose 5:45am. Also increase his subQ fluids from every other day to daily.

When we got home, he headed for the water bowl and drank a fair amount. Seemed to be swallowing just fine, so after he'd had a couple of hours to unwind from all this, I gave him a little yummy wet food.. which he ate happily. I've given him a little more.. and his fluids and his steroid dose.

After we got back home, I talked with his regular vet. We will see him on Thursday, and he thinks it sounds like a stroke. We shall see. Whatever it is, I gather it isn't something that can be "cured." But we will do whatever we can to keep him as happy and comfortable as possible for as long a time as we and he can.

I lit him a candle when I got home. Haven't gotten it together to post about it here until now.

Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers and good wishes. Thank you all very much.

Sydney and Pat and the rest of the gang

Here he is with his little brother Elmer:


With one of the Christmas mousies his true love Scrappy 2 sent him: