Who Moved My Bone?

Looks like I will be doing my part to stimulate the economy this weekend and this week ahead. Starting out on Saturday with the World Series of Dog Shows. Houston hosts the largest dog show in the United States every year called the World Series of Dog Shows. It really started yesterday and goes through Sunday. They have all of the competitions: obedience, agility, flyball, etc. as well as the standard best of breed, best in show competitions. The real reason a lot of people go is for all of the shopping. It’s like the Mall of America for dogs and I have never made it out of there with the same amount of money that I went in with.

The real stimulus package hits on Monday. Spaz, our older cat, was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism a couple of months back. There are really three treatment options: pills and periodic bloodwork for the rest of their lives, surgically removing part of the thyroid or the new gold standard treatment, a one-time injection of Iodine-131.

The pills do not actually treat the disease but just keep it in check. Surgery is a treatment option but there is a risk of the thryroid once again becoming hyper down the road. The newest treatment and is an injection of Iodine-131 which is a radioactive isotope of Iodine. The I-131 treats the bad cells in the thyroid and is a permanent cure. It is usually 98% effective with the first injection and for those that it is not a second injection is given which is basically 100% effective. After the injection the cats have to be kept isolated for 4-5 days due to the levels of radiation associated with the injection. During that period the treament center monitors the levels of radiation and once they fall into the safe zone, Spaz can come home.

Anyway, the kicker is the $1700 price tage. There is another place in town that performs the injections for $1350 but ultimately we decided to take Spaz to Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists. I believe they have the finest staff of veterinarians in the nation. Dr. Liska at Gulf Coast is who performed Emma’s hip replacement surgery. He is one of the pioneers in this field and just recently performed the first ever knee replacement in a dog. Dr. Poteet, one of the radiologists at Gulf Coast, pioneered the I-131 injection procedure. So, even though it is $350 more at Gulf Coast, it is well worth the peace of mind that Spaz will be receiving the best care from the best doctors from the best veterinary care facility in the nation, IMO.

So I will update more on the dog show and Spaz’s I-131 treatment next week.

Tags:   cats · treatmentNo Comments