~ MCJ's photos with the keyword: 10yo

Her weight creeps up, I'm sure it's fluid. And slowly but surely she's deteriorating here. I am trying to secure a rental place for us. The only way I can even get a chance to view would be not to mention the cats. I'm trying to secure a place that allows pets, so far no response from real estate agents to even view a place.

She came up to him for a kiss, and he obliged.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I've been worried about Chariie, he's constantly dehyrated. So I added water to his wet food and almost removed all cat biscuits, but he needed a lot of water added at intervals, especially before bedtime. The blood tests revealed he is very healthy, except his immune is bordering on the low end of normal. The vet said the next test would be chest xray to find out what's going on. When he said that I then realised that the chemical fumes the neighbours are making (it is their new way of harassing me), is making him sick. I kept him inside mostly for several days, and now I don't need to add water to his food. His hydration is ok, it's not too bad, and I'm also giving him vitamin paste to help his immune. Charlie already suffers with bronchial problems, asthma. Therefore he is more sensitive to the fumes. The fumes have been rotten egg gas smell and awful chemical smells. It's really foul. It nauseates me. My doctor doesn't think I should be worried about it affecting my physical health. I'm not so sure about that though considering I don't know what they are burning, and they run indoors or drive off in their car after they create the fumes. So they are worried for their own health.

He's looking good here. I have had to put a lot of water mixed in his food as he's been constantly dehydrated. I'm waiting on test results to find out why.

These two photos were taken at the same time of the last post of Matilda.

These two photos were taken at the same time of the last post of Matilda.

Taken in March. Enjoying the start of Autumn.

Matilda is fast asleep outside. Our cooler weather has arrived finally. She has a very sore tooth at the moment. Trying to organise a vehicle to get her to my vet far away. I don't trust the local vets, and they charge a lot more than my old vet. Update on Josie: Josie is doing ok but gaining weight rapidly. I'm letting her eat more, then I put her on a low Iodine diet but she began to refuse the food. After researching online I'm giving her high quality protein, and when she wants to overeat I give her the low Iodine food. She's not drinking like a maniac anymore, but she's gaining fat weight. If I reduce her food, she loses muscle weight. I'm looking at homeopathic ideas to treat her. Realistically I don't have the means to treat her with a vet.

She's 10yo and my darling. I've had her from a kitten, and she adored me whilst choosing her from a heap of kittens at the pet store. When others held her she was scared, when I held her, she snuggled in and showed obvious signs of affection. She turned 10yo on 23rd Dec 2015.