Beatrice's herpes...an update.

Now *there's a post title not many people would put up, hmmm?  ;-)

So,  we've been busy around here.  Y'all remember Bea was tentatively diagnosed with Feline Herpetic Keratitis, no?  The options we had were basically that or cancer, and apparently they look very much the same.  So, she responded okay-ish to her meds, I saw a little improvement happening slowly, and then I woke up to this in my face one morning.

Sad, sad, little Bea face and her eye looked awful, just overnight.  I mean *bad, totally clouded over, lumpy, red patches...bad. Bea was very unhappy and Mama here was pretty panicked.  We headed into the vet, where the poor thing didn't even insist on being in her carrier with her invisibility cloak on.  They put her on the scale and she just stayed there.  She was just a pitiful little girl.  :-(

Our vet was not happy at all with how her eye looked and cancer was mentioned a couple of times as something that now needed to be considered.  So, with a referral to an animal ophthalmologist (who knew those even existed?) in hand, we went on a 100 mile round trip to get a biopsy done and see what was really going on.  Luckily, Beatrice is a great traveler, thanks to the fact I've tossed her loose in the car for short trips to drop Jake off places since she was a baby, but she's never made a trip like this before.  I took half of one of someone else's Xanax, Bea wore her invisibility cloak in her carrier and off we went. I took no pictures of the next part since I was:  1)  a basket case;  2)  wary of taking pictures with one hand and driving with the other, considering the Xanax factor;  3)  trying to not vomit.  We get to the ophthalmologist's office and it's good...dark inside, no other pets but for an old, quiet pug with cataracts, so no real dogs to scare either of us...it's good.  They take her in, burrito wrap her and, in no time flat, have the biopsy done and we're left to await the results. They had to scrape that sad eye, but once again, Beatrice showed off her manners and was proclaimed one of the sweetest cats they've ever dealt with.  Apparently, I have the Eddie Haskell of cats here.  ;-)  After 15 minutes of waiting room hell,  we go back in and the doctor gives me news that nearly makes me pee myself with relief...no cancer.  Yay!  On top of herpes, she's got Eosinophilic Keratitis and it's unusually aggressive, it seems.  On that link, see the eye of that cat?  That's exactly what her poor little eye looked like, but hey, it's not cancer and I was so damned relieved, I almost couldn't stand it.  We got her new meds, many meds, lol, and got our asses out of there.  I swear, I don't know if she sensed my relief or what, but once in the car, she pawed to get out of her carrier and I figured what the hell...driving in downtown rush hour traffic with a loose cat in my lap and a loose Xanax in my body sounds like a fun thing to do.  I opened the carrier, she climbed out and assumed her favorite spot for car rides...partly on me, partly on the armrest, watching the world go by.

She was all "Let's go, Mama!" so off we went, garnering much attention at traffic lights. It seems people don't often see cats in cars, lol.  It went very well until we got on the interstate and a semi passed us, rocking  the car hard.  She looked at me with pure terror in her good eye, belly-crept over the gear shift and back into her carrier. The rest of the way home, this is all I saw.  :-D

Yes, I took a picture while I was driving.  So sue me.  How could I not document that bit of cuteness?  Here are the new meds...9 drops a day, which she's become accustomed to and doesn't fight anymore, plus two things for her food.

 

The miracle drug has been the Prednisolone Acetate (steroids) and is, ironically, the exact stuff Miss Arse has to use daily in her cadaver eye  the rest of her life.  These two tickle me with their twin medications.  Anyway, just one week into our new regime and just look at the pretty eye that's showing back up again! By the way, I balanced a bag of treats on my head to get this shot. I'm slightly ashamed of that.

It's still got a long way to go but it's just got a thin cloudy layer on it now, no lumpy stuff, no red!

I surely do love this goofy cat, in case that's not obvious.  I know, you couldn't tell, could you?  You're shocked. *nods* Part of why I'm sharing all this, though, is because it's easy to initially miss or dismiss these conditions as nothing serious and, in fact, it can be very serious for your cat.  Not all vets can diagnose it, either, as we found out, if it's aggressive, and since it does mimic cancer in appearance.  It *is fixable, though, and do not be put off by the potential cost of a specialist.  I'm not one to typically talk money, but the entire visit to the ophthalmologist, including the biopsy and all of her meds, was under $200.  Yes, it's a lot of money but not nearly what I feared it would be and not what a lot of people might fear and put off until something bad has happened.  Luckily, I didn't put it off because seriously, who wouldn't want that face up there to be so happy again?  ;-)

Also, totally unrelated, but I'm going to be messing with my blog some later. I don't like the layout anymore.  For whatever reason, I can be a situational 'tard and just realized that hanging around with the whole MWOP/BWOP bunch and having a little sheep(le) dragging dead like that looks like I'm some radical anti-MckMama person and, in reality, I just thought it was cute.  But yeah, I need to change it. I might even go private for a day to get it in order, but I'll be right back!

(Edited:  Good God, I connected the "cadaver eye" link to a cooking post.  Fixed *that!)