It's Not His Thyroid . . . .

The vet called Friday night with Rocky's blood test results. It's not his thyroid. It's not his liver. It's not his kidneys. It's his ..... teeth?

Turns out that Rocky has an infection in his blood, which the vet thinks is caused by some pretty severe tartar buildup. Now, I am mindful of Rocky's teeth. He will not let me brush them, but I do feed him special "dental diet" food, and the vet checks Rocky's teeth every year. For the past couple of years he had noticed some tartar buildup, but of course to clean a cat's teeth you have to anesthetize them, and vets are reluctant to do that with cats Rocky's age (15).

Well, it looks like things have come to a head. So on Saturday I ran out to the vet's office to pick up some antibiotics, and next Tuesday they will clean Rocky's teeth. The vet assured me that they would be very careful with the anesthetic, they would monitor him very closely, and I had no reason to fear.

Oh, and the antibiotics are in liquid form this time, as opposed to pills. And the liquid tastes absolutely horrible, as I can attest to from Saturday night, when Rocky shook his head while I was dosing him, giving me a big old dose myself right across the face. Yuck! Poor Rocky!