Be thinking of Neelix (and Buddy too)

Neelix isn't feeling well and we are going to the V.E.T. this afternoon - they are being nice enough to fit us in. He knows something is up because the PTU (prisoner transport unit) is out on the couch.

I will update this when I get home. Please purray for him, OK.

6:30 p.m. UPDATE - Well, I guess I kind of over-reacted - last night Neelix actually came IN to use the potty box - this is a cat who will only use a cat box in a full blizzard and then, under duress - and when he was "going" he seemed to be grunting, not exactly crying, but enough to make me notice. I've had a cat die from kidney disease before, so I freaked - He also has lost a lot of weight - he is down from 15# last year to 11 # today - (2 1/2# down in six weeks ) - Dr. Todd Perry (or Dr. Todd) and his dad Dr. Max Perry (or Dr. Perry) have been Neelix's vets since he was a baby and when Dr. Todd picked him up today, he said "Wow, he's lost weight - Lets do some blood work." Other than some "impacted feces" (probably from eating two mice the other night) which Dr. Todd "loosened up" we are thinking (hoping) that the blood work show hyper-thyroid, which is better than some of the alternatives - and will require medicine every day.

There is really a lot to be said for having the same vet over the life of a kitty. I did take Neelix in about 6 weeks ago because he was having a problem with diarrhea. They have a third vet in their practice, Dr. Curtis, who wasn't concerned that Neelix only weighed 12# - that's a lot of cat in most circles - but he had never seen Neelix before and had never picked him up when he was in his prime and weighed 17# - now THAT was a lot of cat - So I didn't press him to do any other tests than the fecal samples to see what was going on with his "messy poops" - guess I should have - There's that old word - "should" We could do a whole blog entry on SHOULD couldn't we? Anyhow, Dr. Todd said he'd call me tomorrow when they get the results. Think good thoughts...

And Buddy? Poor Buddy (the one in the foreground with the white nose) got "banded" (turned into a wether - if you really want to know how it's done, email me) on Saturday. Plus everybody in the barn got their CDT shots and Sunday everyone got worm medicine. Tuesday night John noticed that Buddy was kind of "stumbling" - not able to coordinate correctly - Wednesday a.m. he whisked him into our sheep vet and turns out that when they banded the little guy, they didn't get both of the testicles up in side the band - oops - he had a huge infection and so they did surgery, took off the offending parts and he's on antibiotics for a week. Luckily everyone else seems to be OK out in the barn. What a week.