When I arrived to collect him, the vet took me into a little consulting room and showed me an x-ray saying: “There are several problems I’m afraid. He has a benign tumour on his neck and this has interfered with the thyroid which should be like that…” (indicating the x-ray, which was clipped up onto a lightbox) “…but instead you can see it’s like that. And this area here is the lungs which should be dark on the x-ray but as you can see it’s white, which suggests the area between the lungs and the lung wall has become filled with fluid, almost certainly as a result of the over-active thyroid. And this is the liver, which is much larger than normal, which is caused by an associated heart problem…”
The cat is to be treated first for the heart problem (with pills) and if this is successful then an operation will be considered to remove the tumour. “Don’t worry” the vet said, “I’ve seen cats with far worse conditions make a complete recovery.”
I took the poor old cat home, and he had a huge meal, drank some milk, and went to sleep.
We have had the cat about ten years, since he was a kitten (we got him from a neighbour, together with his mother who was completely white, with bright green eyes). The kitten grew into an enormous ginger and white cat, prowling the surrounding fields, climbing the chestnut trees, defending his territory. He would go out all day and reappear in the evening like Nimrod the Great Hunter, laying his catch (voles, birds, small rats) on the flagstones outside the back door.
Now he prefers to spend the day sleeping.
The poor old cat (please excuse the bourgeois carpet – my grandparents set the standard when the house was first furnished, and nothing has really changed since then).
2 comments:
I hope your cat gets better soon. In your post, you never mention his name though.
He went to the vet again on Saturday - all the fluid has gone from his lungs, so it looks hopeful.
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