Charlie has to go back to the vet on Friday, potentially for xrays and an ultrasound, which won't be good because he's utterly fucking traumatised from the past 2.5 years of treatment.
His last 3 month checkup just over a month ago went fine (apart from the traumatised bit - it's getting harder to get blood from him for his checkups). Thyroid levels are perfect, weight is good (5.2kg, which is about right for him), heart rate was spot on. I told Ted I was concerned because for about a month Charlie had been coughing on occasion. Getting really low down and hacking, not a vom hack, but a cough hack. I've since learned - from looking at youtube vids - it's probably reverse sneezing. It wasn't happening often, but often enough that it was a change in his behaviour.
Ted listened to his lungs, and said they sounded absolutely clear and fine. Breathing was good. I said that while Charlie has always been a noisy sleeper, of late I've been able to hear him breathing more generally. He said to keep an eye on him, but as of yet there was nothing to indicate a problem.
Well it's got worse. Not so much the reverse sneezing, which is happening about the same amount, but he's hiccupping a lot, and gurgling (like the gurgle you'll hear if they have an upset stomach, or perhaps if you have acid reflux, that single long gurgle type thign). And I can hear him breathing 95% of the time. Crackly breathing. He doesn't seem to be struggling to breath, he's eating fine, not vomiting, everything that ends up in his litter tray seems fine, and in himself he's seemed, well, himself. The hiccuping isn't restricted to just after eating, it's anytime. He'll wake up and hiccup.
Until yesterday, he'd do a gurgle or two and then hiccup for a minute, and then settle down, and be a bit more breathy, and that would happen several times a day. Last night though, he woke up and had a bad hiccupping/gurgling fit for an hour. It was distressing to watch. He wasn't gulping for air that I could tell, but it was clearly upsetting him. Hiccups are painful and annoying, after all. He eventually jumped off the sofa and was wandering around, lying on the floor, moving somewhere else, etc. They eventually went away, but he's been more breathy and a bit more unsettled ever since.
I've looked online, and hiccups seem to be the nexus for everything else (the coughing/gurgling/noisy breathing). They can apparently be caused by many things. Eating too fast (not an issue that I can see, plus it doesn't only happen after eating, it's chronic now); changes to the anatomy in the throat (could be his thyroid tumour growing); and then all the fun ones like cancer, heart disease, massive organ failure. If it is any of those last 3, if it was in any way progressed he'd be showing other signs too, like losing weight, losing interest in food, vomiting, etc. He's doing none of those things, so that's a good sign. But I still have a bad feeling about it, because that's my default setting.
Anyway, I called the vet and asked to speak to Ted today. He's not in until Friday. So a different vet called me back. We discussed it, he said hiccups in themselves aren't dangerous, just annoying, and I said well yes but it's whatever is causing them I'm worried about. He said it's a case of balancing risk, because he's older (15) any invasive investigative stuff will be... well, invasive. But they could look at doing xrays and an ultrasound, and a general check over, while under sedation, to see if the heart looks enlarged, if there are any masses in the lungs or stomach, etc. It won't show any nerve issues (which could be related to a growing thyroid tumour, pressing on the nerves which then cause problems with the diaphragm) but it could rule out other things. Charlie's been extremely traumatised over the past couple of years, so this will be dreadful for him, and difficult for them to actually be able to sedate him at all. I'm terrified, tbh.
Ted's back on Friday and is apparently their imaging specialist, so I'm booked in for 9am, which I guess works out well. It gives me a full day and a half to get zylkene into him to try to calm him down (he's just had his second one since last night), although no food from 9pm tomorrow night, so I'll have to frontload him
(it's super safe, Geraint - today's phone vet - tells me).
But I'm a mess, as I usually am these days whenever anything goes wrong with Charlie. Not just that there's something wrong with him, but because of the ordeal of trying to test and treat him. It's like flashbacks to 'Nam every fucking time he gurgles (which is near constant, tbh). I don't handle this stuff very well any more.
The little fucker seems so fine in himself otherwise. GAH. I just wish I could tell him that no one's trying to kill him, that if he can just keep calm and let them stick needles in him it'll help him get better. It's devastating seeing him scared, never mind seeing him in the throes of an hour long hiccuping fit.
