Cats can sure be expensive at times. And she hasn’t had a turn in the blog rolls, so it’s only fair that she be brought up. She’s a darling cat and has definitely mellowed with age — she hasn’t messed with the twins yet when they invade her space, unlike some incidents with Will.
Sweetie had been sneezing a lot recently, and her breathing occasionally sounded wheezy. But it would occasionally come and go. But today, while working from home, she got a really bad cough - almost like a hairball attack (which she rarely gets), but much more violent and the breathing was really wheezy and labored.
Considering the accumulation of symptoms to this point (Kellie and I were getting a little worried), I decided it was time for a visit to the vet. Got a last minute appointment, and after a bunch of x-rays and other tests in person (plus blood drawn for further testing), we wound up dropping a few bills on her. Wow. What we can say is that there is no edema or fluid in the lungs, and no true wheezing in the lungs, but she does have a grade 3 (out of 4) heart murmur and some interesting lung patterns on the x-ray. She’s a completely indoor cat (afraid to go outside or even near an open outside door), but it appears that she might have adult heartworm. Yes, even in a cat who never gets outside.
We’ll know more on Monday. For now, she’s on antibiotics and steroids. The one bit of good news that we did get is that she’s lost over 10% of her weight in the last year (from 11.25 pounds to 10 pounds). She’s always been a bit soft and pudgy, and now she’s a little less. But I don’t think we’ll ever get her back to the thinness she had when we first adoped her (the picture to the left) back in 2003.
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