I spoke with the vet on Thursday and the good news is Hal doesn’t have hyperthyroidism and she is not diabetic.  The bad news is, the vet told me she was honestly “not sure what’s wrong with her.”  Short of doing a rather costly ultrasound, the vet didn’t offer much else.  She did say we could put Hal on a really high dose of steroids and see what happens.  This could help if she has some sort of inflammation or cancer or something else.  Seeing as this was the more cost friendly option I told her we’d try it!  Don’t get me wrong, we love Hal, A LOT, but the fact is, she’ll be 14 in August.  She’s getting up there in age and even if they found cancer or something else, we most likely wouldn’t do surgery and I’m not sure we would go for the cure-all method.  The only thing I don’t want, is for her to be in pain or discomfort if possible.

For now she’ll take steroids and in a month we’ll take her back to the vet for a weight check.  If she’s gained a little weight, she’ll remain on the steroids.  And honestly, one dose of liquid meds a day is not a problem.  In fact, she seems to like it!  Go figure!  The last couple of days I’ve been struggling to get her mouth open so I can squirt the meds in. We’ve managed to get some on her, on the floor, on me, on the bed.  Pretty much everywhere.  Well last night I went in the kitchen to get it ready and she followed me.  Matt made a comment to her that she might not want to go in the kitchen and we both laughed.  As she was standing there, I reached down and put the syringe  up to her mouth to let her smell it.  Much to my surprise, she started licking it.  We finally managed to get it all in her mouth with no struggle at all!  I felt a little silly for not trying that sooner.

In the few days she’s taken the meds, I feel like she feels a little better.  She hasn’t been sick at all and seems to have a good appetite.  I really hope this continues to work for her.  Having a sick kitty is no fun!

~k