Sunday, February 18, 2007

I forgot to tell you all about my Boris Vet Visit.

Boris is a very large cat - I don't mean in fatness, I mean he's tall and long and just BIG. He tipped the scale at over 20 pounds a couple of years ago, at his fattest, and even then he didn't look that FAT, just big and solid.

Lately he's been throwing up on an annoyingly regular basis, and nobody knows why. So I took him to the vet last weekend and paid $145 for a checkup and fancy bloodwork. The vet found nothing wrong, and the bloodwork came in on Tuesday and she called me herself, sounding happy but baffled. His bloodwork was, in her words, "absolutely perfect." Aside from needing some dental work - he's 11 and has some bad molars - he's in perfect health, and she has no idea why he is puking more often. She suggested different food, but had no objection to the Purina One Senior I'm feeding him - different food might matter, might not. She didn't advise changing foods since this is what he's been eating all along.

I took him to the vet out of lingering Natasha Guilt. Natasha was his littermate - he looks like a Russian Blue, albeit a giant RB, and his littermate was dark and long-coated, so we know Boris' daddy wasn't the only man in Mom's life, if you get my drift. We adopted both at the same time as kittens.

Natasha died a year and a half ago after a short and dramatic illness. Girl and I had been idly observing that she looked like she'd lost weight, and by the time we made a vet appointment she suddenly went into a decline like a luge ride to hell, and died before we got her to the vet. So when Boris started throwing up and we could see he had lost weight (he's a dainty 18 pounds now) I made the vet appt and popped for the fancy diagnostic lab work.

Diagnosis: He's fine. He just pukes alot.

Damn cat. For $145, I at least wanted a damn food allergy.

2 comments:

Amie said...

Trevor has suffered from kitty bulemia most of his life (not that his physique would show it). I've tried a couple of different foods, maybe three or four, and not seen a drastic difference. I'm on a new food now - Felidae - and we'll see how it does. This is only the third day of it, so we're still at the stage where they think they can go on a hunger strike and suddenly be fed mouse pate and goldfish. I'm not sure why they think this, since they have no history on which to base this hypothesis, but since they can't reach the gas pedal to drive the car to the store, I'm pretty sure I'll win this.

Your scarf puddle looks beautiful - the colors are terrific!

Francesca said...

Oh, but worth it! I still think if I'd taken my chinchilla to the vet asap, she'd still be here destroying furniture.

He's a beautiful kitty, too.

Janet