On Monday, the emergency vet had a specialist perform a cardiac ultrasound to check the odd heart rhythm that was heard when Fermata was admitted to the emergency pet hospital on Sunday morning. Concerned that kitty might be experiencing heart failure, the vet wanted to rule that out before restarting any steroids for fever reduction. Thankfully, no signs of heart failure were seen. Fermata does have a mildly thickened heart, a condition that often occurs in hyperthyroid patients but not cause for current alarm. With such a good result, prednisone was begun to help with fever and inflammation.
An abdominal ultrasound showed less positive results: evidence of hepatitis and significant lymph node inflammation with a lot of bacteria. Ruling out lymphoma, Fermata was diagnosed with a massive opportunistic infection, the result of either a gastrointestinal bug or that same bug combined with a severe reaction to his recent rabies vaccination. Treatment with antibiotics began immediately, which finally brought down his fever (thank the Lord!). Now, the concern is getting Fermata to eat, poor appetite being a side effect of his many current medications. That is our job at the moment since kitty arrived home yesterday afternoon. If we are unsuccessful, Fermata will go back to the hospital for installation of a temporary feeding tube just to get him over this appetite hump. Being quite thin, he doesn't have much reserve, so we need to be careful that his weigh doesn't drop too low.
One decision has been made with certainty: being an indoor cat that has had two serious vaccine reactions over his lifetime, Fermata will never be vaccinated again!
Related articles:
Kitty Thyroid Update #2
Kitty Thyroid Update #1
Another Thyroid Patient
No comments:
Post a Comment