Thursday's Dinner

NOM NOM Pizza Orgasmica! And why did we have pizza last night?...Let's talk a little about Feline Hyperthyroidism.

Now, I know you've all been thinking about our family given all that's been going on. You might have even said to yourself "Gee, they sure are dealing with a lot." Okay, maybe I'm projecting but anyway, here's one more thing. You remember a while back when Roger-The-Escapee went "camping" for 3 days, came back and it looked like something had gnawed on her paw? Well, while I was up in Minden with Dad, et al., I talked to Poppy one night and sure enough, after watching Roger-The-Escapee's paw for a couple of weeks, it ended up with a raging infection. Poppy had to give Roger-The-Escapee antibiotics twice a day. No easy task either...Her hands are almost healed now.

While our little Roger-The-Escapee was at the Vet, they did some blood work. Her thyroid levels were a wee bit off, so they did a more detailed test. Sure enough, our little Million-Dollar-Roger-The-Escapee has Hyperthyroidism. Shoot me now, why dontcha!

Wouldn't you know there are a few different ways to treat this. We can give her a pill twice a day. Not a viable option for us since we need the use of all our fingers. We can put a pill in a tasty flavored pill skin and give it too her. Again, not a viable option cause she ain't stupid. We can give her tuna-flavored liquid meds. (Jean and Kathy, this is for you) I can do that! There is also the option of radiation where they blast the thyroid gland and you're done with it. Again, not $$ a $$ viable $$ option $$ for $$ us.

We decided to go the tuna liquid route. She'll get that twice a day for the rest of her little cat life. We've already done the math...okay, Poppy and Jax-The-Cheese-Connesewer already did the math and that will cost about $13 a month for the meds, plus a blood recheck every few months. The Hyperthyroidism can also mask kidney disease and you know, when I hear kidney disease, that's all she wrote for me. I refuse to go the whole medical route of keeping a kitty alive when they've got the kidney disease. It's expensive, and not very fun for the cat.

So I gave Million-Dollar-Roger-The-Escapee her first dose this morning and it went without a hitch and I still have all my fingers. Sweet!

Speaking of Hyperthyroidism...this brings me to a little story about my Seester Kathy. Some years back, oh, I think Lucas was probably 3 so it was a good 20 years ago, Seester Kathy was diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism. She'd always had the shakes pretty bad, but then she started dropping weight and her eyeballs got all buggy. They didn't give her as many choices of medication routes as Million-Dollar-Roger-The-Escapee. Her only choice was to be radiated to blast the thyroid to smithereens. The kicker with this is that she couldn't be around people or animals for a week cause she was glowing like Chernobyl. So Dad got Lucas and, lucky me, I got Ashes her evil cat.

It was really very cute. Dad would bring Kathy McDonald's for dinner. He'd have Lucas with him and they'd talk to each other through the apartment window. I on the other hand, had to endure regular blood lettings from Ashes-The-Evil.

Fun times!