Friday, September 14, 2012

TWITTY IS HYPERTHYROID!

I intimated in my last post that things had been crazy around here and it's true. A couple of months ago I found out that one of my black and white kitties, Twitty, had hyperthyroidism! He has always been a bit hyper and skinny, but I never noticed a big change. When he had some "digestive" issues I took him to the vet and the blood work they ran showed his T4 was waaaaayyyy above normal. I mean waaaayyy above!!

So we started him on thyroid medicine, methimazole. The medicine has some side effects, but Twitty was also suffering from an upper respiratory infection at the same time. So the combo led to anorexia and eventually nausea and vomiting. I was trying to tempt him with all sorts of foods and poking stuff down him, trying to keep him from just wasting away.


Twitty on his favorite perch

After a couple of different antibiotics and a visit to the emergency clinic for a high fever, the URI finally went away. And, since the pills were making him throw up, we switched to a "transdermal" method of administering the medicine. This is a gel that is applied to the inside of the ear and absorbed into his system that way. This bypasses the stomach and has much less of a gastric side effect. He's been eating like a horse ever since.

Well, no one told me that you need to wipe the gel off of the ear after a few hours. I thought it would just be absorbed like body lotion. His ears got all yucky and we had to put drops in for 10 days. That was fun. But now everything has cleared up and his ears are pink and healthy. In the mean time, I discovered a great wipe to take the gel remainder off - they are called "Boogie Wipes", a saline wipe made to clean "boogies" from little noses. Twitty doesn't particularly like the scent, but they work so very well. (Hint to Boogie Wipes maker - make an unscented version!)

Eventually we will be getting Twitty's thyroid irradiated for a permanent cure, but we must save up the money for it as it's a tad expensive. To that end I've listed several new creations - a couple of quilts and a tote - and will have more shortly. I've also listed several vintage items from my pottery and china collection. So keep checking my Etsy store to see what's new.