It’s often said at The Cat Clinic, that it’d be nice to come
back as a cat in a future life; all that waiting on hand and
foot and a nice warm fireplace does have its attractions. Of
course, who you end up being owned by (or, from a cat’s point
of view, who you own) does count for a lot but there is one
owner in particular where there would be a queue several miles
long of cats trying to get in.
As well as having a family and working full-time, this lady
spends a lot of time doing voluntary work at one of the many
much-needed cat shelters. This shelter, like so many others,
gets cats with a wide range of ages, conditions and reasons
for being there. Of course the attractive, cute kittens and
young cats get adopted quite quickly but there are always feline
OAP’s coming in – often they have elderly owners who have either
passed away or had to go into care where pets are not allowed,
or just that the cat’s medical problems have become too much
for their owner to cope with.
It's always more difficult to persuade prospective owners to
give a home to an old cat who may have health problems but that
doesn't faze this particular client! With four cats already
in her household being over thirteen years old, an accusation
of ageism certainly can’t be raised.
One
day, in to the rescue came Squirrel, 15 years old, very thin
and unable to go more than a few paces without collapsing. She
really was a very sick elderly lady and, it was felt, unlikely
to survive very long in kennels, never mind be rehomed. However,
she was trying her hardest to hang on to life and she bumped
into the right person at the rescue! Her new owner brought her
to us to see us. We were presented with a very thin frail old
cat with a racing heart and an obvious swelling in the left
side of her neck. Any prolonged handling caused her breathing
to become quite laboured and we saw for ourselves she was unable
to take more than a few steps before collapsing on her side.
The swelling was diagnosed as an enlarged thyroid gland. Cats
have two thyroid glands situated either side of the windpipe
(trachea) near where it enters the chest. They produce a hormone
called thyroxine which regulates the body’s metabolism – too
little thyroxine (hypothyroidism) and the symptoms are sluggishness,
hair loss and weight gain (extremely rare in cats); too much
thyroxine (hyperthyroidism) and amongst the symptoms are hyperactivity,
weight loss and a fast heartbeat. The effect of hyperthyroidism
on the heart muscle, if left untreated, causes heart failure;
the cat will also suffer from other potentially fatal conditions,
such as elevated blood pressure. Despite an overactive thyroid
problem being associated with "old age", it's a very treatable
condition which we can control or even cure. In less obvious
cases (and with cats less easily stressed) a blood test would
be taken to confirm our diagnosis and to check there were no
other causes of the problem, but the weight loss, fast heart
rate and palpable neck mass all pointed without doubt towards
the problem.
We felt that the stress of handling her to take a blood sample
could be too much for old Squirrel to cope with so we opted
to go ahead with tablet treatment to settle her condition and
keep our fingers crossed there were no other underlying health
problems being masked by the thyroid.
After
a matter of days, Squirrel started to put weight on and her
heart began to slow down to a normal rate. The longer we went
on, the better and better she looked and the more confident
we became about realising there were no other significant problems
being hidden by the thyroid condition. We were then in the lovely
situation of being able to discuss other possible treatment
options for Squirrel- either we carry on long-term with the
tablets or we consider surgery to remove the overactive thyroid
tissue. The owner ( who has had other cats with overactive thyroids)
opted for thyroid surgery. By the time of her operation, we
were presented with a much healthier elderly lady. She had gained
more than 10% of her bodyweight and was as active as any other
cat of her age. A blood sample was taken to check how organs
such as the liver and kidneys were coping with the rigours of
old-age, but apart from one liver enzyme that was slightly elevated
everything was good so into theatre she went. During surgery,
it was discovered that the left thyroid gland was grossly enlarged
whereas the right side thyroid looked normal. This made surgery
easier in that we only needed to remove one gland; the normal
side stays in situ therefore helping to avoid any problems with
her calcium levels after the surgery.
Four months after her surgery she was weighing a very respectful
5.2kgs, a gain of over 2kgs and at her last check, 12 months
after surgery, she was enjoying a well-earned retirement with
her other OAP friends - her 1 remaining thyroid gland behaving
itself perfectly! For someone who was given little hope when
she came into the rescue, this photo of Squirrel at home shows
how things can be turned around when someone's willing to give
you a chance.
MEET
SOME OF OUR PATIENTS: “Squirrel"
One
day, in to the rescue came Squirrel, 15 years old, very thin
and unable to go more than a few paces without collapsing. She
really was a very sick elderly lady and, it was felt, unlikely
to survive very long in kennels, never mind be rehomed. However,
she was trying her hardest to hang on to life and she bumped
into the right person at the rescue! Her new owner brought her
to us to see us. We were presented with a very thin frail old
cat with a racing heart and an obvious swelling in the left
side of her neck. Any prolonged handling caused her breathing
to become quite laboured and we saw for ourselves she was unable
to take more than a few steps before collapsing on her side.
After
a matter of days, Squirrel started to put weight on and her
heart began to slow down to a normal rate. The longer we went
on, the better and better she looked and the more confident
we became about realising there were no other significant problems
being hidden by the thyroid condition. We were then in the lovely
situation of being able to discuss other possible treatment
options for Squirrel- either we carry on long-term with the
tablets or we consider surgery to remove the overactive thyroid
tissue. The owner ( who has had other cats with overactive thyroids)
opted for thyroid surgery. By the time of her operation, we
were presented with a much healthier elderly lady. She had gained
more than 10% of her bodyweight and was as active as any other
cat of her age. A blood sample was taken to check how organs
such as the liver and kidneys were coping with the rigours of
old-age, but apart from one liver enzyme that was slightly elevated
everything was good so into theatre she went. During surgery,
it was discovered that the left thyroid gland was grossly enlarged
whereas the right side thyroid looked normal. This made surgery
easier in that we only needed to remove one gland; the normal
side stays in situ therefore helping to avoid any problems with
her calcium levels after the surgery. 