About Lily

 

This is Lily. This photo was taken when we finally managed to wrangle her into kitty jail to take her to the vet a couple of months ago.

I thought I'd do a post on Lily's journey over the past few years, since it's been ... let's say challenging.

Anyway. Picture it, Invercargill, 2020. (Yes I have been watching the Golden Girls lately, why do you ask?) I'm parked up in the living room on a quiet Sunday, on my iPad and Lily is on my lap.

Out of nowhere, she presses her head against the back of my iPad. Now, I don't know if you know this, but that's a Bad Sign. If a cat presses their head against something, that usually means some kind of neurological event has happened.

So I take her to the vet - a week later because of work, and she seemed okay otherwise, and getting her into the cage is akin to persuading 1000 spiders to do a tango. The vet says it's one of 3 things: it's her teeth, which weren't in great shape, and the infection has possibly travelled, toxoplasmosis, or lead poisoning.

No, I don't know where, in the year of our Lorde 2020 Lily got lead poisoning. But. She did. Which meant trying to give her medication. I don't know if you've ever tried to medicate a highly strung, deaf cat with trust issues, but believe me it is not easy.

Also, because NO ONE GETS LEAD POISONING IN THE 21ST CENTURY we had to give her human medication, which had to be ordered in. BECAUSE NO ONE GETS LEAD POISONING IN THE 21ST CENTURY. Ahem.

Anyway. After a while, the medication does its thing, and Lily's lead levels (say that 3 times fast) return to normal. So then we get her teeth fixed. At this point, she owes me at least $3k but has not a care in the world.

All is well, and quiet, For a while. Then Lily starts to have a discharge from one of her eyes. So we wrangle her into kitty jail and off she goes again. She's a white cat, so she's prone to skin cancer. There's a growth on her third eye. So the vet removes the third eye and all of the growth with it. 

Then, last year, I notice she's getting a bit wobbly on her back legs. She's about 10-11 years old now, so I'm thinking arthritis. Which, she does have. Ask me how we go with giving her painkillers. Go on. 

BUT the vet senses something else is amiss, as Lily's heart is racing. So more blood tests.

And Lily - who has so far survived lead poisoning, teeth removal, growth removal and arthritis, now has hyperthyroidism. The good news is it can potentially be treated with a change in diet. The BAD news is Lily is only meant to have these biscuits and no other food and no other cat can have her biscuits. We are a multi-cat household. The biscuits don't work.

BUT there is a medication, called methimazole. It's topical, so I don't have to fight ten Lilys to get pills down her throat and *fingers crossed* it's only $140.00 a month! (I do hope you detect a note of sarcasm.)

So she's on the topical medication for the rest of her life. 

And that - so far - is the story of Lily.