Hector Half-Life the Atomic Catboy
This is our black and white kitty, Hector Half-Squid. A while back the vet discovered he had a benign thyroid tumor which was making him thinner and thinner. We chose to treat it with medicine you swipe in his ear, he chose to develop a strong allergic reaction to the medicine. (Have you ever seen a kitty with swollen lips?)
So last week Hector underwent last chance treatment: the same procedure undergone last season by Diamondbacks pitcher Doug Davis, injection with Iodine-131. The only cells in the body that take on Iodine are those of the thyroid, which then don’t survive the isotope’s radioactivity.
The clinic keeps the treated kitties until their levels of radiation emission are safe and low enough to send them home (as determined by the Arizona State Nuclear Regulatory Commission). But for two weeks we need to wash our hands a lot and “limit snuggling time” to half-an-hour a day. This is hard on everybody because he’s a snuggly boy, and dear to us.
So far, so good; but only time will tell if the treatment has been effective. At least in the meantime we can always find him in the dark.
Photos by A. Shock
[…] be inclusive. Apparently, I’m not the only one who has a hard time liking them. Our cat, Hector Halfsquid, spent the evening on the inside of the wet screendoor alternately approaching hesitantly and […]