Zoe has a lot of issues. The ones I want to talk about now are medical issues – arthritis and glaucoma. Cats generally can’t take the kinds of pain-relieving arthritis medications that dogs and people can, so finding a treatment is hard. First the vet tried injections of a kind of supplement that is supposed to act like glucosamine is supposed to work for humans. Unfortunately, it worked on Zoe about as well as glucosamine worked for my bad knees, which is not at all. So now he’s getting some laser treatments that are supposed to work kind of like the one that Goldfinger was going to use to cut James Bond in half, crotch to crown. No, forget that last part. It’s a low level laser, not a metal-cutting laser.
Here he is hiding his head while receiving a laser treatment.
Zoe is a good patient, which is not what I would have expected.
When we’re getting him ready to go to the vet, he doesn’t want to get into his carrier, and when he’s at the vet, he doesn’t want to get out of it. At home he treats the carrier like his little kitty cave.
I was skeptical about laser treatment for arthritis, but apparently it works quite well for most patients, human or animal. However, at this point it appears not to be working for Zoe. I have suspected for some time that his grouchiness is partly a result of being in pain. It would be nice for him and us if we could find a good treatment.
Zoe’s other problem is glaucoma. The vet has prescribed Latanoprost eye drops, which are the same type drops prescribed for humans with glaucoma. The drops seem to be working, at least as indicated by the pressure in his eyeballs.
We think his vision is already compromised. Sometimes when we talk to him he looks around the room like he’s hearing voices from the ether.
Zoe does not cooperate when we put in the eye drops. He acts like it’s torture, like we’re putting acid in his eyes, and I don’t think the fact that I told him that has anything to do with it. He squeezes his eyelids shut as tightly as he can, and then, after we put the drops in, he shakes his head and usually slings the drops out onto the counter. Of course the drops are cold since they have to be stored in the refrigerator. Maybe that has something to do with it.
Here he is recovering after the ordeal.
The eye drop prescription is $49, and it lasts under a month. It looks like Zoe is going to be a high-maintenance cat for the rest of his life.
Poor Zoe. Those eye drops don’t sound like fun at all. I hope his vision improves, so he “sees” that you are really trying to help!
I’m afraid his vision isn’t going to change. We have two more appointments for his arthritis treatment and those aren’t looking very hopeful either. Thanks
Aw, Zoe. Sorry he isn’t feeling well.
Besides cats’ natural reluctance to allow their eyes and other parts to be fooled with, those drops can be very irritating. Zoe may be adverse to putting up with burning and itching eyes.
Hope you can get the arthritis pain under control. Have you tried glucosamine/chondroitin supplements? A vet once prescribed that for one our aging cats. Perhaps additional laser treatments will do the trick.
Minnie — Zoe has two more laser treatments to see if it’s doing any good. We’ll see how that works. If it doesn’t help, I guess we’ll have to try something else like glucosamine. Our vet hasn’t suggested it but we can try it. Thanks.