Final Elvis Update

← Taken 2 minutes ago

A nice person named Jane asked how Elvis was doing and I realized that I forgot to tell you all what happened!

Last I told you, he was vomiting and not eating so I took him to an emergency vet who gave him fluids under the skin. That was a Thursday. By that Saturday he still hadn't started eating (Poor thing... I kept trying to force-feed him Pedialyte through a medicine dropper), so I took him to our regular vet who X-rayed his stomach.

The X-ray showed that Elvis has a growth of some kind in his stomach, like a tumor or something. The vet couldn't tell exactly what it was and doesn't know how long it's been there, but he doesn't want to do exploratory surgery for reasons which I'll explain in a minute.

First, he wanted to get Elvis eating again, so he gave him Valium. Apparently, it increases cats' appetites. I asked the vet, "Is it the sedative effects of it that makes cats eat, kind of like—" and he cut me off and said, "Kind of like when people get high and get the munchies? Yes." It was funny. So anyway, when we got home, Elvis CHOWED down like I've never seen him chow down before and has been eating well ever since.

As for the vomiting, I have to give him 1/4 of a tablet of Pepcid AC every few days, which I've been doing. Since the visit (which was almost two weeks ago), he's only barfed once, but I'm not too worried about it, though, because Elvis barfs ALL THE TIME and has since he's been little. (The difference between this and when he was sick was that he was barfing every 10 minutes and hadn't been eating.)

Now, back to the tumor. The reason the vet doesn't want to do exploratory surgery is because the tumor could be something that Elvis has had his entire life. As long as his blood work continues to come back normal and the tumor doesn't grow (we're going to monitor both regularly), it doesn't make sense to have him undergo surgery. Doing so couldn't be more stressful for him. The funny thing is that the original thing I took him there for (the lump in his neck) is totally unrelated to the tumor in his stomach. But the meds for the first led to him not eating, which led to the X-ray, which led to the discovery of his tummy tumor.

Am I worried about him? Yes. But he seems to be returning to his old self since the visit, so I'm going to take it day by day, watch him closely, and give him lots of love. If he really does have nine lives, he used up one before I got him (he lived in a bush the first eight months of his life) and two more in the last couple of months. That means he's got six left.

It's funny, but people always say dogs are more loyal and cats more aloof, but in my household, things are flipped—Beverly is very independent while Elvis is ALWAYS by my side. I live in a small apartment, but he follows me everywhere—from the bedroom to the kitchen to the desk to the couch. In fact, as I type this, he's sitting right next to me. (See photo above.) I love him. I don't know what I'd do if something were to happen to him.

Okay, that's all! Thanks for asking about him Jane!