[flybigjet]

An update on our boy Max, since we've been in Cali for a long Wine & Food weekend:

He had his ultrasound and the news wasn't great. The specialty doc, three surgeons and a radiologist all got together and couldn't come up with a solid solution.

Max has been on a low-dose steroid (prednisolone) for a long time due to an intestinal issue. He has to stay on them else he starts throwing up and not absorbing nutrients. But, the steroid also apparently weakens ligament and tendon tissue. Surprise!

And a Catch-22.

He was already on a pretty low dose (2.5mg/day), but after consultation with the vet(s), we're going to try a compounded 1.25mg/day and see what happens- we've tried to go every other day before, but not much luck there.

As far as his Achilles? The tendon doesn't look to be in great shape, so surgery is sort-of at the bottom of the list; the surgeon's aren't sure that there'd be enough good tendon to attach-- and they were talking about non-removable mesh and sutures with a significant chance of failure.

So. Plan B. He had PRP done around the suspected partial-tear areas as well as Shockwave treatment. He also had molds made for an orthotic boot that's going to make him look like RoboKitty. He's going to be in a splint for the next three weeks until the boot gets here. He'll get three more Shockwave treatments in the next six weeks and we'll see where he's at then.

The doc is "hopeful" that the tendon will "scar-up" enough to work-- since he's an indoor cat, there's not a huge amount of jumping in his life.

We got home late last night, so Max has been getting a LOT of snuggles in Dad's lap today.

R.