Most recently, about Lewis

Life has been a whirlwind for me lately. To be honest, I really haven't had much time to think about Lewis! He's about the same... acts normal except he won't finish his dinner and he's still pretty thin. Ebony on the other hand has gained a ton of weight and now picking her up is like picking up a sack of bricks. I need to put her on a diet, but how does someone put one cat on a diet and encourage the other cat to eat more?? I'm sure I'll figure it out.

We did some bloodwork to test for thyroid cancer, and it came back negative. The vet also did a number of x-rays and said there were no abnormalities. His ionized calcium is still high, though, which is a sign of cancer I'm told. So we're all quite perplexed.

I got an email from the vet a few days ago, which said:

I talked with Dr. Hamilton re: Lewis and the high Calcium. Dr. Hamilton is the veterinary oncologist at Georgia Veterinary Specialists. His advice is to pursue diagnosis as long as he is showing clinical signs (decreased appetite, weight loss). He said that many cats can be "idiopathic" hypercalcemia (high calcium for no apparent reason affecting the health) but have no symptoms. Lymphoma is the most common cancer cause of the high calcium. An abdominal ultrasound would be the next step from the blood work and even endoscopy for biopsy. I do not have an ultrasound or endoscopy. I either refer these cases to the specialist, or Dr. Avgeris (internal medicine specialist) comes here with her ultrasound and endoscopy equipment. Please call me to discuss or schedule.

I'm not sure where to go from here, because in my mind "specialist" means "expensive". I'll probably write more about that later, but that's where we are now. Maybe I should look into affordable health insurance for pets... ;-)