Kitty Update -- Reggie

[tenaya]

Reggie has a problem.


He's been snoring of late and last Monday it suddenly got much worse. Currently he breathes okay when awake but when asleep it's become almost impossible for him to breathe through his nose; he has to open his mouth to get in air and/or wake up. He has a few teeth left and has had bad breath for a month or so. The vet has scheduled us for a teeth cleaning (ie tooth extraction) and a rhinoscopy (where they put a fiber optic tube up his nose to see what's going on.) I asked the vet, Dr. A to call me today so I could ask a couple of questions but no call came. Dr. A was the one that we weren't too happy about last summer with Brindle and his skin condition (she wanted to put a tube up his butt and take a biospy to confirm either chronic irritable bowel or lymphoma; his diarrhea cleared on it's own after about three months.) Apparently, Dr. A is the one that mans the 'scopes and Dr. E, the one that has been managing Reg's diabetes, felt it was best to wait until Dr. A was on surgery duty, which is May 18 -- two weeks away.

He's been doing so well on his insulin. He's active, in good spirits and aside from the airway obstruction and weight loss (which could be from the diabetes) he's fine. I was hoping we'd have a few years left yet (he's 14.) I looked up his symptoms on the net and it's probably either a polyp, scar tissue from his fungal infection of four years ago, an abscess...or cancer, which according to the sites, will probably be malignant.

I'm not sure that he can wait that long and it really pisses me off that she didn't call back. I'm afraid I'm going to be on pins and needles and distracted for awhile.

Comments

[leviathanmuse.livejournal.com]

Awww, would love to see that pic!

I know what you mean about kids being damaged about animals. My youngest sister got bitten by a dog when she was 2. It was a stray and she had to have the rabies series (back when it was 14 shots in the gut). To this day she hates dogs.

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

My mom just told me that Grampa had been scared that the cats would be taken away or destroyed. I always wondered way I've puncture scars and not stitches. I think they didn't report the attack. 45 years later it all becomes clear. Huh.

I will try to get those photos online. It'll be a week or so as I've got to go to work and when I do I disappear for a half a week or so. I'll post something here on the lj when I do. I've been meaning to do that for awhile.

Were the rabies shots as bad as they say?

[leviathanmuse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we had to put down one of our pets because he bit our roommate. She didn't report it, but we had to because we weren't certain why he did so.

Yeah, really bad. Back in those days (about 1961), you had a real possibility of dying from them. My youngest sister doesn't remember the shots (she was all of 1 at the time), but the fear is still there.

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

That's sad. Was it a dog? Cats can cause a lot more mayhem than dogs an get away with it.

Scary about the shots. I was born in 57 and I remember hearing about how horrible those shots were. I was more freaked about that then getting bit by whoever.

[leviathanmuse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was a dog. I've been scratched too many times to really worry about cat scratches or bites.

Ah, you're 2 years older than me.

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

I think cats get away with it because in our hearts, we're not really convinced they are domesticated animals. We're their servants and they go along with things as long as it suites them. Thus, they can't be held responsible for their actions. They got us conned, the furry little devils.

[leviathanmuse.livejournal.com]

Yup. We're all cat furniture.

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

LOL! I'll have to tell that to Mom. She has this other cat that gets irritated if she isn't in her lazy boy for him to lie on her. Soft and heated! AND gives ear scratches. Hmmm good!

[leviathanmuse.livejournal.com]

Oolong used to sleep on my side when I was in bed. If he wasn't there, he was lying full-length against my leg sucking all the heat off.

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

He'd lay on top of you on your side? Would he ride you like a wave when you turned over or just jump off? Scooter (the heat seeking missle) tried that a few times but he'd get ticked if we moved. Silly creature.

[leviathanmuse.livejournal.com]

Sometimes he'd just jump off, then get back on as soon as I settled. Most of the time, he'd just settle behind my legs. Of course, 20 lbs. worth of cat on my side sometimes got to be a pain.