BABY MACKIE GOES UNDER THE KNIFE
This is how Baby Mackie looked before his thyroid started acting up. He weighed as high as 18 or 19 pounds.
Now he is down to about 8-9 pounds and looking like a sack of bones. His hyperactive thyroid causes him to lose weight to the point where it's not healthy. He did need to lose some weight, but not this much. It is also hard for him to keep his food down sometimes, although medications have helped him to the point where he now only barfs about once per week. Poor guy... He doesn't act or seem miserable, though. He still plays, still purrs, still cleans his fur.He's at the veterinarian today, getting half of the thyroid gland removed. The vet called to say Mac made it through the surgery o.k. The vet also said she saw some masses in his throat near the larynx, and she thought they were swollen lymph glands, but removed them and sent them for a biopsy anyway.
We will get him home tomorrow, but he will be weak for a little while. There will probably be meds we have to give him. Wish him the best, because... he's a good boy! 8-)
11 Comments:
My best wishes to Baby Mackie. I thought there was some sort of radiation therapy for thyroid disease in cats. I read up on it last year when we thought one of our cats had it. It was supposed to be a one-time procedure with very little chance of any side effects.
Thanks, Tom!
There is such a procedure available. It costs about $1000 to do it in the area where we live. We would have to take him to Idaho, and he would have to stay there for four or five days because I guess when they do that procedure they need to look at urine samples for a few days for levels of specific chemicals.
The guy is going to be 15 in June, and I guess we figured if there is a way to let him gain enough weight for him to be fat and happy when his time comes, that's what we would like to see. So, we thought we would just keep him here in town, close to home. The poor guy doesn't do well at all when he has to stay in kennels or at the vet's overnight!
I will know more about how he's doing when I go in to pick him up tomorrow. Then next week we will know about the biopsy, and then in a couple of weeks we will have to have blood work done to see if his thyroid levels have come down to where they are more normal.
I do hope Baby Mackie recovers swiftly from surgery. And I really hope that the masses near his larynx were just swollen lymph glands.
I hope he does well. I'm a cat fancier myself. My guard cat Missy is always by my side. I think she's part dog. She growls when sombody's at the door but don't tell her I said that.
Another cat lover here. We have three, all from shelters, and they're all beloved members of our family.
I sincerely hope Mackie's recovery goes well and his prognosis is good, for his sake and for you and yours, as well.
Let me add my well wishes!
Thanks for all the kind comments, everyone. I will go pick him up at the vet today around 3:00, but then I have to hit the road for a meeting in Portland tomorrow... so I won't know much about his energy level, how he is feeling, etc. until I get back from Portland tomorrow night.
My kids are having to move out of their house, and if they have an apartment lined up to move into by tomorrow afternoon I might be in Portland until Sunday helping them move and do clean-up in their current living space.
Anyway I will provide updates as news happens. Thanks again!
Our cats are all rescues. Baby Zekie is a 16-pound bruiser in body, but with one of the tiniest meows you will ever hear. We found him hiding in the engine of our neighbor's truck when he was about 6-8 weeks old. We heard the cries, and located him near the truck's manifold. Zeva is from an animal shelter in Emmett, Idaho where my sister-in-law volunteers at the shelter. Zeke and Zeva are about 1 1/2 years old. Zeva likes to play fetch with little pom-pom toys, and is one of the smartest cats I have ever known.
Mackie wasn't as much of a rescue. One of my daugthers' friend's cat had a litter of cute kittens. We had an icky iguana at the time, and Mrs. Snave and I made a deal with the girls... You can have a kitten if we can find a new home for Iggy. They agreed, and so for the last 14 1/2 years we have had Mac.
Along with two other kitties (Bonnie and Clyde, now deceased) we already had Abby at the time we adopted Mac. Abby is now about 15 1/2 and seems to be in excellent shape for a cat her age. She was left on our doorstep at about age 4 months, along with her sister... We believe they were left there by a lady down the street who had a cat-rescue thing going as a sort of hobby. There was a deserted old house across the street from our place, and she kept sick and stray cats at the house. When the wind would blow just right, the smell would just about knock us out! Anyway, Abby's sister, a striped orange tabby, was sick. The vet said she was septic, and there wasn't any way to save her; she had to be euthanized.
So, at our house we have two elderly cats and two young ones. It's fun wathcing Mackie wrestle with Zeke or Zeva... despite being outweighed more than 2-to-1 by Zeke, Mac usually wins because he knows all the moves. Zeva is trickier for him because she is faster (trying to catch her sometimes is like trying to snag a small, greased pig!)
I must say Baby looked good with the weight on. Does not look good that bony! I hope he or she gets better soon and recovers some weight and those tests come back negative!
Good luck, Mackie! Hope you feel better.
Best wishes to Mackie. I love cats, and have all my life. There's one pawing me right now.
my little guy is wishing your guy all the best, and so am i
my last guy had his thyroid removed and was just fine afterwards -
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