~ MCJ's photos

She starts to do well and I lower her diuretics, but then the problems with the toxic fumes from the neighbours will get us and I'm too slow to get her inside. And she deteriorates immediately. I was on the phone when it happened about 4 days ago. She is back on maximum dose diuretics as a result. I have now relocated all the cats to a temporary home until I can find us a home to move to. I sleep there and feed them but I don't have internet access. I only moved them last night. I had Josie's blood tested on Saturday. They were good. Her thyroid is 35. Over 60 is hyperthyroid. Her T4 in march was 87. She still needs her heart medication. I'm hoping that in the new environment, her heart thickening may reverse. (It is unlikely) Ideally her T4 should be under 30. There is a chance that over 30 is pre hyperthyroid.

She starts to do well and I lower her diuretics, but then the problems with the toxic fumes from the neighbours will get us and I'm too slow to get her inside. And she deteriorates immediately. I was on the phone when it happened about 4 days ago. She is back on maximum dose diuretics as a result. I have now relocated all the cats to a temporary home until I can find us a home to move to. I sleep there and feed them but I don't have internet access. I only moved them last night. I had Josie's blood tested on Saturday. They were good. Her thyroid is 35. Over 60 is hyperthyroid. Her T4 in march was 87. But she still needs her heart medication. I'm hoping that in the new environment, her heart thickening may reverse.

Josie's suffered heart failure from the radioactive iodine treatment. I had an echocardiogram done on her last week, and they believe she had cardiomyopathy prior to treatment and it wasn't picked up. She had a grade 2/6 heart murmur prior to treatment, which normally goes away once she's cured from hyperthyroidism, and now it's a grade 4/6, which means she suffered some heart failure. She was drinking excessively when she came home as her lungs were filling with fluid. She's now on diuretics, and an ace inhibitor called Fortekor, and she's been given maximum 3months prognosis. I've put her on a several supplements and she really has a better quality of life due to them, but she has difficulty breathing (not that you would know it in the photo). She does a lot of stretching. That shaved area is where they put the instrument to do the echocardiogram.

I visited my sister's newly purchased rural property, and there were horses in her neighbours property. They were curious and beautiful.

My baby. I did a urine dip stick test on her this afternoon. Her urine is perfect. No glucose, no blood, pH under 6. In the morning I did a Blood Sugar Level test by pricking the inside tip of her ear. It was 4.6. Almost back to 4. It was 5 yesterday when I tested it, and the same at the hospital. But in February I tested her a few times and it was always 4. Stress elevates it. I took these tests because I was worried she had been excessively drinking yesterday and this morning. This afternoon it all settled down. I gave her lots of affection today. Went through copious rubber gloves. She notices I'm using gloves, she notices there is a difference, I can't wait till I can just touch her like I used to. Only 13 more days.

Josie is much calmer and very happy to be home. She coped with the car trip very well and she was not car sick. She was happy and affectionate at home when I let her out of the carrier. She was so happy to eat and drink straight away. She is not supposed to be on the bed. I found her there. She doesn't normally get on my bed but she is now. It's a problem, she keeps going back there. I have to wear disposable gloves when I touch her. Her radiation levels are 92, which are just inside safe levels the vet said. She can stay 2minutes on my lap at a time but she's not a lap cat so that's ok. I can't pick her up and put my cheek against her. For 2 weeks I can only touch Josie with disposable gloves. I am very happy to have her home. I will test her thyroid levels in 3-4weeks, and the vet also wants me to do another urinalysis, that is a dip stick test on her urine, to make sure there is still no glucose present just as a precaution. Josie has been drinking a lot since being home, and this does worry me. I won't relax until I see her blood tests and urine tests. I'm hoping the drinking is her just catching up. She's been drinking a lot even late tonight. Hopefully tomorrow she will calm down. At the moment I must dispose of her kitty litter daily bagged and using gloves. That was important. The idea is not to give myself unnecessary radiation exposure due to the fact they don't know how it might affect humans even at these lower levels. I sincerely thank everyone for your encouraging words and understanding, for your support in any and every way, it has been very helpful to me.

Mercedes on the left. Midnight in front. Raphael behind. Charlie behind Raphael. Matilda in the shed way back, on the left out of the sun on a box. She had been in the sun and she got hot.

Josie Update Monday 11th July, 2016. Josie can't come home from hospital today, her radiation level is 110, and it needs to be under 100. They don't know if she can come home tomorrow, but it won't be later than Thur morning, as 8 days is the longest cats ever take to get their radiation levels back down. The dose she was given was 210, and it breaks down with half life, not a consistent amount each day. Josie is being friendly, and she did eat in the afternoons on the weekend. They said they worked out she will eat if she can keep the vet in sight, but I think this afternoon weekend vet got Josie to eat with the time she gave her, and Josie felt safe with her, since then Josie relaxed and started being friendly. She wouldn't eat in the morning on each day, only the afternoon. I suspect Josie might not come home till Wed or Thur. She may come home tomorrow. I asked if eating helps get the radiation levels down, and they said they don't believe that makes a difference. I know it took Josie 2 days to do her first pee, and I'm wondering because after she was dosed she was holding her pee, if this made a difference to her levels now. I don't really know how it works, but I do know a lot of it gets out of the body through excrements, so maybe keeping the urine in her bladder was keeping more radiation in her system in those first two days...it's just my thinking but I don't know. The photo was taken when I needed to get her to a vet and my old car had stopped running. I knew she was sick, I had taken her blood sugar and it was 4. I had tested her urine with Combur 10 Urine test strips and it showed everything was fine. I had narrowed it down to possibly her thyroid due to her excessively drinking. The cats were poisoned by the back neighbour on the 1st of January, and I didn't know if Josie was having a reaction that would pass. With the miserable way she looked here (her eyes became a mottled colour), and the way she was excessively drinking, I suspect she was suffering the hyperthyroidism and poisoning. I had her diagnosed in March eventually, as she seemed to doing better at one stage, and then the excessive drinking started to become obvious again. Then I was having difficulties getting someone to drive me there. I should have just rang a taxi. It's awful how in hindsight I can see a better way of doing things.

JOSIE UPDATE 8TH JULY 2016 The vet ran me 8.30am this morning. Josie is very distressed and not eating. When he opens her box up, she is vocal, i.e. she is crying, but not vocal when no-one is there. She is not eating, he said this is due to stress and this is what they worry about. He has given her an appetite stimulant under the skin and he won't be in over the weekend. there will be another vet there. He said he will scan her on Monday to see the levels of her radiation, and hopefully she will be able come home. He said she might be like she was the first time on coming home, (she was aggressive and didn't want to be handled). The clothing I had worn and asked them to put in there for her so she has my smell does not seem to be giving her any comfort at all he said. It's a bit heartbreaking, but she has to be there now till Monday hopefully her radioactive levels will be down enough for her to come home. This is the hardest part of the treatment. Not all cats react this way.

Tuesday morning. She was car sick, badly, on the trip. We've just arrived in this photo, and she's settled a bit. She sat like this the whole way there, threw up, and was crying and when we stopped at lights, she stopped crying, but she was hanging her head in despair, and moving it side to side. She looked woeful. This morning (Wednesday) 9.30am, they gave her the Radioactive Iodine Tablet. The vet rang a few hours later, He was pleased she didn't vomit it, which happens sometimes. She's in isolation for 5 days minimum. I feel confident she will be cured, and she will benefit greatly. After agonising over the decision to treat her, I had to just listen to my inner sense of things, and I felt it was going to be ok even though my mind was frantic about it all.

Josie goes to hospital.

He's over 7kg now, 7.3kg in fact. He should be 6kg. I've got a job on my hands to get his weight down. He needs more cuddles, I think that will relax him a bit about not getting as much as he wants. At the moment he sprays if he doesn't get more when he wants more. It's driving me a bit crazy this behaviour. A few of them are doing it, I think a lot of it is because they need more attention.

Got a negative glucose reading in her urine today. Josie came home the day after dropping her off for her radioactive iodine treatment. The vet had glucose in her urine two days in a row and he wanted to send her home and for me to test her urine while she's relaxed and see if there is glucose. If negative then she's likely not pre-diabetic. And then I can take her back for her treatment. He is being very cautious as once she's been given the tablet, if something goes wrong, they can't touch her to help her. She is completely isolated. He thought the glucose could be stress, but he has to rule out pre-diabetes So I brought her home Thursday night. I finally got a urine sample this afternoon (Sunday). Her pH was 7, which is not good. It needs to be 5 or 6 (acidic). This was caused from the stress of the hospital. Tomorrow (Monday) I will contact the vet with the result and discuss taking her back for her treatment. I'm still undecided about taking her back. She came home aggressive and very distressed from her one day there. They hurt her with the testing, they used a needle to extract urine from her bladder. I've never seen Josie aggressive after a vet visit overnight or all day. It's worried me enough to think about pulling out. I've got overnight to thing about it.

I admitted Josie into hospital today. They ran tests and said she is in very good health. They will administer the radioactive iodine tablet on Friday morning. The dose they choose depends on her TT4 level and also when they feel her thyroid, how large the goiter is. They rang me today and said she is eating well, so she is not distressed. But it's Friday morning they give her the tablet, and the night before they give her an injection to stop her vomiting the tablet. There are two risks, one is she still may vomit the tablet (the tablet costs $650), and the other risk is her thyroid might go too low and stay too low, i.e. she might end up with HYPO thyroidism which would require medication for the rest of her life. Only about 1% suffer that. I asked the vet is it because they got the dose wrong, and he said yes. Josie's TT4 level will go too low in the beginning and then it normalises after about a month. The radioactive Iodine kills the abnormal cells in the thyroid. For the last week I put an old sheet on my pillow and slept on it every night. Then I cut it up into 7 pieces and placed them in a bag for them to put in a piece every day while she's in isolation. The vet said he'll make sure they put a piece in every day. Josie was 10 years old on the 3rd of June. It's a guess of her birthday.

What can I say?

She is doing well most of the time. She never came back properly after she was poisoned a while ago. She vomits bile in the morning if I don't feed her a second dinner late at night, and it has to be meat, not canned. She is eating more than she used to, and I am worried she may be going the way as Josie. Matilda's thyroid level was 35. Over 30 can be pre-hyperthyroid. So I will test her again 12months from the last test. At the moment I am happy she eats. She does go off her food sometimes though. She starts to drop weight. I give her vitamins when she starts to go off her food and she bounces back. But she hates the vitamin paste.

Raphael. I've bought my very first smartphone. I needed it for security from these neighbours. I keep it on me all the time. I saved for 12months to buy it, I chose one with a good camera and waited and waited for the price to come down when the newer model came out. It has a good video and high Ram for viewing security cameras when I'm inside. I haven't purchased the cameras yet. The best thing about a smart phone is the ease of capturing things in the moment. I caught this of Raphael in an instant. If I had tried with my normal camera, Raphael would have moved. Two days of having the phone, I got video evidence of the neighbours smoking me out. The video is excellent, clear, precise, and non disputable. If only I had something like this earlier.