At last, an interested vet!

Well the vet didn't call back yesterday. It isn't the first time this one hasn't called me when I've been told he would, so I wasn't desperately suprised.

Last night I stayed up and kept an eye on Scooter, getting him to take some food through the night. Once again, he was fine in the morning, no seizure, and not a twitch through the day that I observed. He even managed to get up on to a chair in the garden, and from there, up on to the table where mum and me were sitting:

I called the clinic again and asked if Nick G., the vet who had visited Scooter at home last month, was back from holiday yet. I was relieved to hear he was! I asked if he could call me and again, went into what it would be about. He called after hours, this evening.....

Well, the upshot of it is that he will come out on Thursday to take some blood from Scooter. I am so scared for my fur-baby but I know we need to see if there are any clues in his blood. 

I mentioned that Scooter hadn't had any blood tests for about a year, so he said he'd do a full test, checking to see how the thyroid is doing too.

About my hypoglycaemia theory, he was very interested to hear about the night feeds and the difference these made. He said that hypo-g could be caused by liver cancer :(   or by a tumour on the pancreas called an insulinoma. He said he hadn't heard of this tumour in a cat before (but has treated dogs for it) and he has been in practice since 1987. But there is a specific test for this type of tumour, so he will run that on the blood he takes.

As to prognosis, IF it IS that kind of tumour, he said the usual treatment is palliative; give steroid shots to control it and slow it down, and this will make things ok -for a while. But we don't know what effect steroids would have on Scoot though, as he is FIV. This type of tumour is always malignant :(

Re. liver cancer, he doesn't suspect it but can't rule it out. The thing is, he doesn't have obvious abdomen discomfort, he doesn't have bad digestion problems, he isn't sick, doesn't have bad breath, isn't peeing more than usual (these are all liver cancer symptoms), doesn't drink more than usual, isn't losing weight, doesn't have jaundice and whenever his temperature's been taken, it's normal. Just about the only symptom he has on the liver cancer list is the seizures.

PRIMARY liver cancer is rare in cats, apparently, meaning if it's there it probably spread from somewhere else. Waaahhhhhhhh...

Anyway, he said the hypo-g., in the end, may be the result of a very tired pancreas, perhaps due to the FiV, and that maybe if that's the case, it could be controlled with careful diet monitoring.
OR it may be the bacterial infection, as bacteria gobble up blood sugar.

Above all, I keep telling myself, Scooter is 19, Fiv Positive, has hyperthyroidism yet is still a big cat who shows an interest in his surroundings. He is a fighter!!

THANK YOU again for all your lovely, loving support. PLEASE keep Scooter in your purrrayers and send us the most positive vibes you can muster.

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Love, tea & cake,  
Helena