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Well, today was kind of a roller coaster with Tiger.

He hadn't been well for several days and I thought something

was wrong in his mouth since he had trouble eating

and then gave up entirely.  I thought I saw something under

his tongue and after reading a lot of doom and gloom online,

I feared oral cancer and even had resigned myself overnight

to saying goodbye to him today.

Well, the vet took a look and his mouth was fine except for

a bad tooth way in the back.  He missed it the first two

looks but finally found it.  What a relief.  A tooth is an easy fix!

I left him there with plans to pick him up a few hours later.

However, they called with some bad news with his blood work.

Feline leukemia. That was a shock!  The cats had their

vaccines back when they were spayed and neutered

at a different place where I was told that FL was practically

nonexistent now and rarely seen and that it wasn't

among the necessary vaccinations.  Obviously they were

wrong.  The vet said that they could have contracted it

 very early in their lives.  I remember 30 years ago with

 my first cat hearing how fatal FL was, and how contagious!

So I was particularly concerned with the contagious part!

But after talking through some things on the phone, it was 

suggested that letting him come home wasn't introducing a 

new virus.  After all, these cats have lived together for almost

six years.  And I was told that it isn't necessarily the death

 sentence it once was.  Tiger is young and otherwise healthy

and would probably do very well with a daily immune booster.

 So we are going to have the other cats tested, vaccinate

the ones that don't have it, and go from there.

He's not out of the woods, yet.  How he recovers

this next week will tell a lot.  But for now, he's going to

sleep off his anesthesia here on my lap.

Thanks for thinking of us today.  I'll keep you posted.

♥