All About Cats

Maynard, my oldest cat is not feeling well. Maynard is about 15 years old. We’ve had him since he was born. And he’s always been very healthy.

He’s usually a very quiet cat. But here lately he’s been yowling a lot. And by yowling I mean that very loud yowl that siamese cats make. He’s not siamese but his father was burmese so he has some siamese blood in him.

When he first started this yowling I took him to the vet to see if we could figure out what was up with him. The vet couldn’t believe he was as old as he is. She said he looked to only be 10 years old and she couldn’t seem to find anything wrong with him other than what we told her about his sneezing. She gave us some antibiotics for him.

We gave him all the antibiotics and he seemed to settle down for a few months. Then he started the yowling again. So we took him back to the vet last week. This time a different vet examined him.

This vet, they call her Dr. Ashley, told me he had a heart murmur and cataracts. She also said he had some gum problems. We had put him on canned cat food anyway to help him try to gain some of his weight back.

Now, last year I took him to the vet for his sneezing and that vet never mentioned anything about a heart murmur. He did mention the cataracts but I believe he said he only had one. When I looked at Maynard’s chart it said the vet did detect a heart murmur on a scale of a 2. Dr. Ashley, last week, said his murmur is now on a scale of a 5 out of 6.

Dr. Ashley took some blood and sent it off to make sure there are no other problems with any of his other organs. The test came back and he’s fine. Now she wants to run a thyroid blood test. She says sometimes a hyperactive thyroid can cause the heart problems and the yowling.

Although I am very concerned with the heart murmur, there’s really nothing they can do for him for it until it gets to the point where it’s causing flood to accumulate on his lungs or stomach. I do think we have figured out he yowls because of the cataracts. He’s not seeing well and it upsets him.

I guess for the probably short time he has left we’ll just have to learn to live with the yowling. I’m just relieved it wasn’t something dreadful that was causing him pain.

We love our pets almost as much as though they were our children.

Katy

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