Ramsey's under the weather :(

One time or another, most of you have probably met our clinic cat, Ramsey. He is our little cross-eyed, "fanged" Siamese mix that likes to hang out at the front desk (usually grooming himself in inappropriate areas, while you're trying to check out ). As we were leaving the clinic last Friday, eager to begin our big 3 day holiday weekend, we noticed that Ramsey had not touched his breakfast from that morning. We begin to talk among ourselves, and everyone noted that they hadn't seen Ramsey out and about through the clinic that day, but he had been snuggled up in his kitty bed most of the day. Our clinic kitties had recently had a food change, so we concurred that maybe he had a sore tummy from this. We left for the day, all agreeing to pay special attention to Ramsey when we were in for our weekend duties.

Dr. Carl was the first one in Saturday. Ramsey had once again, not eaten, and was still acting puny. She started him on a medication for a queasy stomach. Sunday was DeAnna's day to check in our our kitties. When she arrived, she noticed that Ramey seemed to have taken a turn for the worse. He was given a few hundred milliliters of fluids and more medication. He was also started on a canned food, designed for cats having GI problems. DeAnna was able to coax him to eat a small amount of this. Monday, was my day to stop in. Based on DeAnna's description from the day before, Ramsey seemed to be feeling a little bit better however he did not appear to have eaten any food over night. I repeated his fluids and medication.

Tuesday morning, we were back open for business. With more staff on hand, we were able to collect a blood sample to send in to our lab for testing. We had results back that evening, and the results were unremarkable. We proceeded to take some radiographs, which revealed a large amount of fluid in his abdomen. At this time, the scary "C" word started creeping into Dr. Carl's mind, but we needed to know more.

Yesterday, DeAnna took Ramsey to Rood and Riddle to have an ultrasound performed. No tumors or abnormal masses were seen. The only thing significant was, once again, a large amount of fluid in his abdomen. We then proceeded to "tap" the fluid to take a peak at it under the microscope. What we saw was not pretty. Large amounts of abnormal, irregular cells were present, the scary "C" word was looking more like a possibility.

Today, we did another "tap" on Ramsey's abdomen and submitted the fluid to Antech (our lab) for analysis by a pathologist. So at this point, we are sitting and waiting for the results. On the upside, Ramsey does seem to be feeling a little bit better today, and has even eaten a few bites of food. Ramsey, or Bammers as we all affectionately call him, is a special part of our clinic! We will be fighting for this little guys health and hopefully have him around much longer! We will keep everyone updated on his health as we learn more! 

-Tabitha