Note: The prior posts were when I was fostering from Sept. 04 to Dec. 06. Rather then try to fill in the gap between now and then, I'm just going to start with a more current time.
When Simson moved in on Feb. 08 he brought along a small bit of baggage with him. He was Hyper-Thyroid. Since he was the first cat that I had with this disease I checked to see what some of the symptoms were. Three that I could see were more vocalization, increased energy and friskiness, and/or irritability. So a very active and aggressive cat that meows... a lot. Yep, I see that. After all that's part of what brought him to my door. He was stressed by having a new baby (human) in the household. I'd find that stressful too. But Simson's journey into the house was not without stress of it's own. Remember that aggressiveness trait? While I tried to slowly introduce Simson into the herd of cats in the end Simson would rather stalk the cats then befriend them. On rare occasion this stalking would be complete with the chattering.
I ended up giving Simson a transtermal ointment for his hyper-thyroid. It worked out great and there wasn't the stress of trying to get a pill into him. Over the time frame of a year and some months with the ointment Simson seemed basically balanced health wise, but there were days were he was staving, others when he had no interest in food. Big appetite with no weigh gain is another sign of hyper-thyroidism. I may have wondered how well Simson was responding to his medicine but when it came time for a yearly check up, his blood test showed he needed to increase the dose of his medicine. Clearly Simson was not going to be adopted any time soon and since increasing the amount of his medicine meant twice a day applying the ointment on his ears, which was building up, I decided to have him treated with Radioiodine Therapy. The treatment of choice for hyper-thyroidism. My dad was concerned about the expense of this adventure. I figured that for one, this treatment would make Simson more adoptable, and two, who am I kidding... Simson wouldn't get adopted and since he'll end up as one of mine.. and being one of mine I'd get him treated. Simple logic, really.
The drive to the clinic that preforms the I 131 or Radioiodine therapy is about two and a half hours away. I tried to plan the trip out as best as I could and overall I succeeded. However while I used a good sized carrier for the ride, it didn't leave room for a litterbox. Poor Simson was a mess by the time we arrived at the clinic. His doctor took it all in stride and we had a warm welcome and I was insured Simson was in good hands. Poor Simson had to stay at the clinic for about a week. His waste was radioactive and could be harmful to others so he had to be isolated.
Simson is back and I am happy to say that after four months his thyroid is normal. Yay! I must admit that I was hoping that his aggression towards other cats would lessen with his being healed. It hasn't. He is still a feisty, verbal old boy, but then I wouldn't know him any other way.
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