Toxo-what-osmisos?
Toxoplasmosis. Let's add one more new term to my growing lexicon of medical terminologies that have recently been learned through the interaction of my cat and my veternarian.
So there I was... on vacation... on a Sunday... getting ready to board the ferry with wifey to visit Macinac Island in Michigan when the phone rings. Yes, these days I have the vet's number on the cell phone and when they call the phone plays... take a guess... "Eye Of The Tiger"
Anyway... the vet calls and once again she starts rattling off a string of doctor words... many of them sound latin, many of them don't make sense, many of them seem to be in random order. At any rate, once I ask for her to explain things to me in terms a pirate can understand, the basic gist of her message gets through. The last blood test has finally come back, and our poor Questor, on top of his other ailments, has a complicating case of toxoplasmosis to add to the long list of medical ailments. From what I can figure out... it goes something like this...
Many cats are carriers of the Toxoplasma gondii parasite... a little protozoa that they can get from eating rodents or birds. Like the FIV virus, these little buggers can sit around inside the cat, causing little to no health problems until some other circumstance allows them to come out of a dormant stage and cause problems... for the cat AND for humans alike. Apparently, this is why pregnant women are not supposed to clean litter boxes... because of these parasites.
So... at some point in Questors history, most likely when we left him on our in-laws farm for a few months while we were working a summer job, he ate a bird or a mouse or a baby rabbit and picked up this parasite (or he may have had it earlier... we'll never know for sure.) Then he got into a tussle with a FIV infected kitty, and both of these diseases just kind of sat there like a pair of time bombs, just waiting for some contributing factor to light the fuse.
We do the whole shave/teeth cleaning/boarding thing, and the cat is under just enough stress that the FIV erupts, giving the toxoplasmosis an opportunity to flare up, both of which contribute to the conjunctivitis and other potential eye problems.
Upshot of it all... now poor kitty is on yet ANOTHER med... so we're currently up to four. The atropine drops (the stuff that makes him drool and vomit) have pretty much done their work, so he only gets the pleasure of that stuff when his eye is not dialating, so that's about every other or every third day or so. He still gets the other drops three times a day, the paste twice a day, and now he gets two pills (for the toxoplasmosis) twice a day. It's two pills because 125 mils. is the reccomdended dosage, and the pills come in 75 and 50 mil dosages.
Either that, or the vet figured out a way to squeeze and extra $50 out of my pocket. I'm honestly not sure anymore. I am very seriously thinking that the next time this cat needs to see a vet, he sees a different doctor. I think it may be time for a second opinon here. Wouldn't it be something to find out that the poor guy has been mis-diagnosed the whole time?
At any rate, he's home now, and I think it will be a cold day in hell before I have him boarded again. When I went to pick him up, the nurse asked if I would come back and get him out of the cage myself. "He doesn't like me very much" she said. So I gamely went back to the isolation room, and first noticed the thing was basicly a closet. A dark, unlit closet. The nurse opens the door, and there's Questor in his cage... hissing at the girl and literally swiping at her through the bars. Have you ever met someone you disliked so much that whenever you saw them the first thing you wanted to do was claw them beyond recognition? That was this cat's reaction to the woman. I have a VERY strong suspicion that the only time my cat had human contact was when they came in, squirted goo in his eye, shoved paste down his throat, forced him to swallow pills and gave him food and water... other than that, I think they pretty much ignored him. Needless to say, he was pretty happy to see me, and for the first time ever, I had no trouble whatsoever getting him into his travel crate. I got him back to the house and determined that whatever the consequences, he was going to have a med-free day. Of course, this morning we were right back at it... but for one evening, maybe the last in his life, nobody was going to force him to do anything he didn't want to do.
So anyway... that's the update. Later tonight I think I'll add a comment to this post and list the meds he's on... see if any of my fellow animal friends out there recognize any of the drugs.
On a brighter note, the vacation was very relaxing, the anniversary was pleasant and fairly romantic, and Wifey is doing well up in Bay View. The only real down moment (other than the call from the vet) was falling out of a kayak on Lake Michigan and ruining my almost brand new cell phone. Silly pirate wasn't smart enough to leave the phone on shore... LOL. Okay... that's enough for today.
Peace!!
So there I was... on vacation... on a Sunday... getting ready to board the ferry with wifey to visit Macinac Island in Michigan when the phone rings. Yes, these days I have the vet's number on the cell phone and when they call the phone plays... take a guess... "Eye Of The Tiger"
Anyway... the vet calls and once again she starts rattling off a string of doctor words... many of them sound latin, many of them don't make sense, many of them seem to be in random order. At any rate, once I ask for her to explain things to me in terms a pirate can understand, the basic gist of her message gets through. The last blood test has finally come back, and our poor Questor, on top of his other ailments, has a complicating case of toxoplasmosis to add to the long list of medical ailments. From what I can figure out... it goes something like this...
Many cats are carriers of the Toxoplasma gondii parasite... a little protozoa that they can get from eating rodents or birds. Like the FIV virus, these little buggers can sit around inside the cat, causing little to no health problems until some other circumstance allows them to come out of a dormant stage and cause problems... for the cat AND for humans alike. Apparently, this is why pregnant women are not supposed to clean litter boxes... because of these parasites.
So... at some point in Questors history, most likely when we left him on our in-laws farm for a few months while we were working a summer job, he ate a bird or a mouse or a baby rabbit and picked up this parasite (or he may have had it earlier... we'll never know for sure.) Then he got into a tussle with a FIV infected kitty, and both of these diseases just kind of sat there like a pair of time bombs, just waiting for some contributing factor to light the fuse.
We do the whole shave/teeth cleaning/boarding thing, and the cat is under just enough stress that the FIV erupts, giving the toxoplasmosis an opportunity to flare up, both of which contribute to the conjunctivitis and other potential eye problems.
Upshot of it all... now poor kitty is on yet ANOTHER med... so we're currently up to four. The atropine drops (the stuff that makes him drool and vomit) have pretty much done their work, so he only gets the pleasure of that stuff when his eye is not dialating, so that's about every other or every third day or so. He still gets the other drops three times a day, the paste twice a day, and now he gets two pills (for the toxoplasmosis) twice a day. It's two pills because 125 mils. is the reccomdended dosage, and the pills come in 75 and 50 mil dosages.
Either that, or the vet figured out a way to squeeze and extra $50 out of my pocket. I'm honestly not sure anymore. I am very seriously thinking that the next time this cat needs to see a vet, he sees a different doctor. I think it may be time for a second opinon here. Wouldn't it be something to find out that the poor guy has been mis-diagnosed the whole time?
At any rate, he's home now, and I think it will be a cold day in hell before I have him boarded again. When I went to pick him up, the nurse asked if I would come back and get him out of the cage myself. "He doesn't like me very much" she said. So I gamely went back to the isolation room, and first noticed the thing was basicly a closet. A dark, unlit closet. The nurse opens the door, and there's Questor in his cage... hissing at the girl and literally swiping at her through the bars. Have you ever met someone you disliked so much that whenever you saw them the first thing you wanted to do was claw them beyond recognition? That was this cat's reaction to the woman. I have a VERY strong suspicion that the only time my cat had human contact was when they came in, squirted goo in his eye, shoved paste down his throat, forced him to swallow pills and gave him food and water... other than that, I think they pretty much ignored him. Needless to say, he was pretty happy to see me, and for the first time ever, I had no trouble whatsoever getting him into his travel crate. I got him back to the house and determined that whatever the consequences, he was going to have a med-free day. Of course, this morning we were right back at it... but for one evening, maybe the last in his life, nobody was going to force him to do anything he didn't want to do.
So anyway... that's the update. Later tonight I think I'll add a comment to this post and list the meds he's on... see if any of my fellow animal friends out there recognize any of the drugs.
On a brighter note, the vacation was very relaxing, the anniversary was pleasant and fairly romantic, and Wifey is doing well up in Bay View. The only real down moment (other than the call from the vet) was falling out of a kayak on Lake Michigan and ruining my almost brand new cell phone. Silly pirate wasn't smart enough to leave the phone on shore... LOL. Okay... that's enough for today.
Peace!!
posted by ESV at 11:31 AM
3 Comments:
Youd think that was the first thing that theyd teach you in pirate school!
Poor Questor!
Yes, do get a second opinion. When I took Whiskers to the vet here he had a totally different opinion on what was wrong. And yep, the bill was much higher with 4 meds. My former vet had just given drops and that worked ok. I'm trying to balance the two, keep an eye on Whiskers to see which gets rid of the symptoms faster - which is the goal - and try not to stress him more than I already am. He, like yours, stopped coming to me because of having things shoved down his throat.
Senihele: Well, Questor has started behaving more normally... he still doesn't like taking meds, but he's not holding it against me anymore, and seems to forget the ordeal a couple minutes after it's happend. I think his eye is showing some improvement as well. We'll just see how things evolve. And thanks for the sympathies!
Kria: I KNOW!! Stupid entry level pirate classes! That's it, I'm skipping ahead to the 700 level courses from now on!
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