Smokey update

In case anyone’s been wondering what the current scoop is on the amazing stupendous balding cat:

He went to the vet yesterday for a follow-up and went back in today for skin biopsies. While there, the vet checked the elevated liver enzyme. It’s no longer in the mid-400s but at 260 it’s still twice the normal level. His urine test came back with high protein but no infectio — the no infection part is good, but it doesn’t help explain why he’s starting to go outside the litter box. The biopsies will take a week or two to come back, but should tell us a lot — i.e., if he’s got hormonal imbalances, FIP, or even lymphoma that could be causing the severe fur/skin loss. Two of those are fatal, but if he’s got either of them, at least we can keep him as comfy and happy as possible until he’s no longer so, and he won’t have died in the shelter, as he surely would have if we hadn’t adopted him (I mean really - how many people adopt an 11-year-old black cat?)

So we keep our fingers crossed and hope the news isn’t as bad as it may seem. We have the utmost confidence in the vet - who had a colleague join the poke & prodding at yesterday’s appointment, and discussed Smokey’s case with a dermatologist, too (translation: she got good info w/o our having to cart the cat and our wallet off to the dermatologist.)

We’ll keep you posted!