"Red Cross Blood" transfusions for cats / dogs? Not only on the North Shore of Vancouver.
You may laugh, but when it comes to having pets, we have two cats in our household, and when I say "in", I mean exactly that, they're not the outdoorsy variety. We want to keep them safe and not have them bringing any trophies back........ like one cat did...... 38 years ago...... once it was a partial RAT and the next time it was a snake.
The Female had a slight problem, something called Hyperthyroidism.
She was always meowing for food (raw food - see the above Post), taking her share eagerly, and would have taken his as well if we didn't feed them separately. The only problem, that the more she ate, the thinner she was getting.
Turned out, after the blood work was done at the Vet, it proved to be Hyperthyroidism.
Google Key Word Search Hyperthyroidism or rather, working backwards from the type of medication that is prepared at a Compounding Pharmacy (for humans) it's methimazole for cats
Fifth result down in Google is this:
Hyperthyroidism in Cats
maxshouse.com/Hyperthyroidism_in_Cats.htm
The major negative aspect of methimazole is that some cats are not the best pill takers. Rather than fight these cats, methimazole can be “compounded” by some ...Snip....... Symptoms of hyperthyroidism
Each cat responds to his or her hyperthyroidism a little differently, causing observed abnormalities to vary from cat to cat. Among the most common owner observations are the following:
- Weight loss
- Increase in appetite
- Patchy hair loss or failure to groom (some cats have been observed to pull their hair out)
- Increase in water intake
- Increase in urine output
- Increase in activity level (some cats are persistently restless or nervous) ...Snip
The medication for our cat is Methimazole. Its a liquid, and its added to HER meal, and we make sure HE doesn't get a chance to finish off HER plate, NOT bloody LIKELY.....! even with the medication.
What does she look like Now? Or more to the point, how long did it take to put some "meat" on her bones, about four months........ Now she looks, and acts, like a healthy cat.
As for dogs, this Google search for the same medication Methimazole for Dogs
Been there, done that and our cat lived to be 17. If you want to try pills (which we found to be way cheaper than the liquid and a more reliable dosage as it seemed that no matter how well we shook the bottle, by the end of it, she seemed to be exhibiting symptoms) - pill pockets are great. We found that a whole one was too much - she would eat the pocket and leave the pill, so we just broke them into bits and used just enough to cover the pill. She practically inhaled her pills after that.
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