Basil’s Health & My Own

As many of the regulars know, this is Basil. At just over 12 years old he’s our second oldest cat; Hopper, who’ll be 13 in January, is our oldest. In the past Basil has occasionally experienced vomiting for a few days due to an upset stomach, and a short-term diet of Eukanuba Low-Residue (not one of Eukanuba’s recalled products) prescribed by the vets have always helped. We usually bring him in although he acts fine otherwise, but because more than the usual hairball pukies dehydrates him so he needs fluid therapy, and just to have him checked out. This time, though, the vomiting has been accompanied with diarrhea (in the litter box, thankfully!), which never happened before.

Because he’s now a senior cat, he had his first senior exam at the vet last June. This includes all sorts of bloodwork and other tests they don’t normally do to younger cats, and at the time his thyroid level was fine. Part of the senior exam means bringing the older cats in every six months instead of once a year in order to catch any abnormal signs early — preventative care, you know. He was supposed to have a dental, but we had to wait until July because he was sick after the exam, which sometimes happens when cats get their rabies shot. At the time of his dental, his thyroid level went up a level but was still within the normal range.

We weren’t expecting to bring him back for his second exam until December, though we received a reminder in the mail that he’s due for one this month. We thought this was an error, so in a way, it’s a good thing he got sick so his doctor could see him. She expressed concern because he lost a pound since July, but his thyroid level is normal. They took his blood pressure and gave him fluids. However, she heard a heart murmur while listening to his chest. They sent us home and told us to keep an eye on him.

The next day, we learned that Basil needs a cardiac ultrasound. Fortunately, it isn’t an emergency, and he’s scheduled to have it on November 13. When I heard this news, I totally freaked, cried, got really anxious, but managed to drive myself to hockey practice anyway.

He continued to vomit and have diarrhea, but on Saturday, he threw up right after breakfast and more than we’d ever seen in one time. Brian had just dropped off a stool sample, which came back normal — no parasites. We ended up having to bring Basil back to the vet that day even though they were booked up. We dropped him off until the first available doctor could see him, and luckily it was his own.

When we returned to pick him up, they had taken more blood to test for pancreatitis and irritable bowel disorder because his X-rays showed a slight thickening of his small intestines, though not any different from his X-rays this past summer. We won’t get the results back for over a week, and if it’s neither of those, then it could be lymphoma, which is cancer. That’s the worst case scenario and I felt absolutely sick and didn’t want to go to my game that night, but I did.

Since then, we’ve been giving him Pepcid AC and an anti-nausea medication before breakfast, and they sent us home with a bag of Lactated Ringer’s Solution, which are the fluids they give to cats when they’re dehydrated. Luckily, I used to be a vet assistant so I know how to administer this and anyway, it isn’t intravenous.

So that’s what’s been going on this week. I’ve still got two game posts to write and was hoping to have one ready to publish for Monday but I didn’t have time to write it. Monday’s an ECT day and I’ll probably spend it sleeping off the anesthesia, but hopefully I’ll be able to post something. The doctor told us to call if he isn’t better by Monday, but so far he hasn’t vomited since Saturday morning. We’ve seen him use the litter box, but haven’t been able to tell if it was #1 or #2. I just hope he continues to feel better and that none of this is serious.