Thank Heaven For Second Opinions!

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Lalique
(La-Lee)
~~~

La-Lee is one of those cats that purrs her way into everyone's heart. She's a talker, a lap sitter, a tag along, and a pillow warmer. As you might guess, we got her from the Humane Society.

We had been looking for a Burmese cat. None were available, but we were told that there had just arrived a beautiful Tonkinese cat that sure wouldn't be there long. We jumped in the car and she was ours about 45 minutes later. I asked why such a beautiful cat was there.

It seems a girl was getting married and her future husband had said it was "me or the cat". Personally, I would have found a different groom and kept the cat.

Lucky for us, this adorable cat has been the center of our household for almost 12 years.


Last January things seemed to be going wrong with La-Lee.

For all of you who have cats, I'm telling you about our ordeal in the event you have a cat with symptoms similar to what La-Lee had.

Perhaps some of you have already been there and done that with your cat and wonder why it took me so long to arrive ... at the "second opinion" that saved her life!

It all happened gradually. This calm, sweet girl began acting nervous, then later seemed to be having "panic attacks". I rushed her to an old vet I'd used years ago. He said she was a Tonkinese and was "neurotic" and not to worry. (La-Lee has never been neurotic!)

However, things got worse. When holding her I could feel her heart pounding, and she was panting as though she couldn't get her breath.

Back to the vet:
This time he said she was having an asthma attack. It was decided she was allergic to the dogs. This meant she had to be isolated in the bedroom, permanently, forever. I also had to use a face mask to give her asthma medications.

Things still got worse, nights were especially bad. She was so hungry, yet she never ate. I tried every food imaginable. She seemed to like tiny bits of my left over egg or tuna salad with mayonnaise. Eventually, La-Lee only licked Nutra-Cal from my finger.

Back to the vet:
She was put on high powered steroids and penicillin. I was sent home with the syringes to give her the meds. I said there was no way I'd be giving penicillin shots, it is painful, requires a large needle ... and I knew La-Lee would have no part of that.

Back to the vet:
After a good scolding, the vet said ... let me show you how to give a penicillin shot. I knew what was coming! He held her firmly and attempted to give the shot. The cat jumped in the air, the syringe hit the wall and the vet was covered with penicillin. He was very annoyed, I was amused and La-Lee was furious. We were sent home with medications less troublesome. (I later found out it was tranquilizers mixed with antibiotics.)

La-Lee continued to get worse. She was now dreadfully skinny, had insomnia, cried all the time and was extremely restless.

Back to the vet:
This time she was given an ultrasound. The vet determined she had cancer throughout her intestines and if I loved my cat, I'd put her to sleep ... right then.

This didn't sound right and didn't feel right. I'd had enough with what I now considered to be a neurotic vet. I told him I didn't make hasty decisions and would need to take her home and give this some thought.

After calling all my friends to help me locate a specialist, I decided to rush La-Lee to the young vet that in the past had the unpleasant responsibility of coming to our house when it was time to say "good-bye" to a family pet.

I needed a second opinion, pronto.

Off to a Different Vet:

Dr. Kelly was all business. To put my mind at ease, she did an ultrasound of La-Lee's intestines. Several other vets, as well as myself, studied the screen. It was agreed by all that there was no sign of any cancer. Next came x-rays and then drawing the blood for a complete panel.

Dr. Kelly was quite certain by La-Lee's behavior and appearance (skinny, nervous, hungry) that she was ... hyperthroid and that there was probably a non-cancerous tumor on her thyroid.

When the blood results came back ... her diagnosis was correct. La-Lee's thyroid was alarmingly high. Had we not found this out she probably would have had heart problems and not long to live.

We had three options:
1. pills = which made her vomit
2. medication rubbed on the inside of her ear = this made her vomit
3. radioactive injections

Radioactive !! To poor La-Lee? How frightening!

But that was now our only option. I couldn't imagine sending her off to a special hospital for this procedure and then leaving her there for a week while she became ... non radioactive! But that is what we did and how fortunate we were that such a clinic was near our home, so off she went.

There were 18 cats that checked in that day, all being sent for the same hyperthyroid treatment and all kept in individual isolation "suites". I was amazed. I had no idea this was such a common problem in cats, especially 13 years old and over.

I coughed up the $ so that I could watch her on my computer screen from early morning to late at night. It was worth the peace of mind.

I'd sent along an old green T-shirt I'd worn for her to sleep on. Somehow, I think it made her feel better. It certainly made me happier.

Here is the first picture of her in the hospital.
She is not radioactive, yet.
But she knew ... this wasn't home.
She's tucked back under ... on my green shirt.

The next day she had her radioactive procedure. I didn't know what to expect, how she would act. Would she be a sick-er cat? I knew she would be lonely, since they couldn't pet her.

So I checked out my computer screen to see what was happening.

I certainly didn't expect to see this.

Hey! Any room service here?!

We all survived her week being gone. She is now healthy, loves to eat, is no longer skinny or nervous. She is back to normal ... purring, sitting on my lap and keeping all the pillows nice and warm.

That's her job, you know ... that is when she isn't walking in front of the computer screen or pawing her way across the keyboard.

Wow ... I sure missed her and how lucky we are to still have her ... thanks to a second opinion!