(Pictures can be found in this thread.)
We finally brought Tiffany and Zippy in to the vet. Neither one had gone in for 5-6 years due to Joe's parents becoming sick and passing away and us not officially 'adopting' them until recently. (More like inherited.)
So Tiffany was first, you can't really see it in the pictures but she has this weird hump between her shoulder blades. It comes and goes but she started scratching at it and making it bleed so we decided to get it checked out. As it turns out she has hyperthyroidism. Unfortunately there isn't much we can do; the vet doesn't think she can handle any kind of anesthesia due to her age and a heart murmur, but she's doing fine. She did need antibiotics for an infection from her scratching at the hump but other than that she's healthy. We did find out our original age estimate for her is a bit off, she's close to 14 years old.
Zippy just went in today and did a great job capturing all the vet staff's hearts lol. He's just such a sweet, gentle boy. We had noticed he has some difficulty getting around every now and then; we now know the reason why. He's 100% blind. He was always so stressed and scared all the time before that no one could really get close to him so now that he's settled down we were able to observe his behavior. He does such a great job navigating around we thought he may have been partially blind, not completely. No wonder why he didn't like being around the kids! He will have to go back to get the canine that sticks out removed; vet said it's loose and it'll likely fall out on its own if we don't have it pulled first. He's also a bit younger than we thought; he's only a few months older than Chaos.
So does anyone have tips for either of these conditions? They're both doing fine but if there's anything extra I can do for either one I'd gladly do it. We'll try not to rearrange anything for Zippy so he never gets "lost" and we do guide him (or pick him up and air lift him to his destination) if he gets confused or he's having a bad day. Tiffany, we already switched foods so she doesn't vomit so much. Both get all the food and attention they want and then some.
We finally brought Tiffany and Zippy in to the vet. Neither one had gone in for 5-6 years due to Joe's parents becoming sick and passing away and us not officially 'adopting' them until recently. (More like inherited.)
So Tiffany was first, you can't really see it in the pictures but she has this weird hump between her shoulder blades. It comes and goes but she started scratching at it and making it bleed so we decided to get it checked out. As it turns out she has hyperthyroidism. Unfortunately there isn't much we can do; the vet doesn't think she can handle any kind of anesthesia due to her age and a heart murmur, but she's doing fine. She did need antibiotics for an infection from her scratching at the hump but other than that she's healthy. We did find out our original age estimate for her is a bit off, she's close to 14 years old.
Zippy just went in today and did a great job capturing all the vet staff's hearts lol. He's just such a sweet, gentle boy. We had noticed he has some difficulty getting around every now and then; we now know the reason why. He's 100% blind. He was always so stressed and scared all the time before that no one could really get close to him so now that he's settled down we were able to observe his behavior. He does such a great job navigating around we thought he may have been partially blind, not completely. No wonder why he didn't like being around the kids! He will have to go back to get the canine that sticks out removed; vet said it's loose and it'll likely fall out on its own if we don't have it pulled first. He's also a bit younger than we thought; he's only a few months older than Chaos.
So does anyone have tips for either of these conditions? They're both doing fine but if there's anything extra I can do for either one I'd gladly do it. We'll try not to rearrange anything for Zippy so he never gets "lost" and we do guide him (or pick him up and air lift him to his destination) if he gets confused or he's having a bad day. Tiffany, we already switched foods so she doesn't vomit so much. Both get all the food and attention they want and then some.