We have had a busy past week at Tiger Creek. Several of our cats needed vet visits. Cybil, our Asian Leopard, made a trip to Dr. Hobbs for a chest x-ray due to a chronic cough and wheezing. The x-ray showed a mass by her lungs so Dr. Hobbs aspirated the mass and sent it off to the lab for diagnostics. Terri was prepared to have to have surgery done on Cybil if it was a tumor that could be removed. Fortunately, its not a tumor but unfortunately its histoplasmosis, which is a fungal infection that could take months to clear up, if it ever clears up. This is very critical and we could lose Cybil to this. She is on antifungal medications and it will just be a wait and see game. So far her coughing has decreased a bit and she never got very sick like most animals or people when they contract this. This fungus is carried by birds, so we are not sure how she contracted it. We do know she occasionally catches birds and eats them and we have fed out whole chickens that we bought for Jessie to eat. So far, no one else has shown any signs of having histoplasmosis. Coco, one of our Pumas, also made a trip to Dr. Hobbs for x-rays of his left back leg. We noticed Coco wasnt fully extending his leg when he walks and occasionally we could heard some crunching. X-rays did reveal he has arthritis in his knee. So he is on medication for that. Sammy, one of our tigers, has been having bouts of vomiting and and acting like he cant see very well. A trip to Kilgore Veterinary Associates was scheduled so Dr. Thoni could do an endoscope on Sammy. Terris suspicions were correct, Sammy has a large mass or tumor in his stomach. Unfortunately it is not operable, so for now we are feeding Sammy small meals a couple times a day so the food can pass the large mass. After checking his eyes, we found the right eye lens has detached at the top. This does not cause pain, but has effected his eyesight. We also took x-rays of his neck, as there have been times he acts like he hurts and will hold his head in a different position. We found Sammy has 3 blown disks. This does cause some pain, so he is on medication for that. Sammy is 18 years old and starting to show the signs of an old tiger.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 18:08:46 +0000
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