Leonard Gets His Results

Leonard returned from his cardiac ultrasound appointment today with a diagnosis and some medication! He has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle. His heart has to work harder than it used to; there is no cure, but the condition can be managed with medications designed to help ease the heart's workload. Leonard is starting a medication called Atenolol, which is a beta blocker (just like humans with heart disease!)
Dr. Slusser will be rechecking him every 2 weeks until we get his medication adjusted correctly. It's a good thing Leonard doesn't mind car rides!

Leonard Gets A Check-Up

Today, Leonard saw Dr. Booman for a routine senior check-up (though he doesn't consider himself a senior). He thinks he's just "Sweet 16". He's lost a little weight and he'll need to have his teeth brushed too as he has some gingivitis. His heart rate was slightly elevated even when he was relaxed, plus he had a murmur which was new. So, we decided to run some lab work that includes a thyroid level too. As wonderful as he is, he kept his good nature even during the blood draw, purring the entire time!

Older cats are prone to a couple of disease processes that have an elevated heart rate as one of the symptoms. Hyperthyroidism is very common, as is primary heart disease; the murmur can be a symptom or can be as a result of an elevated heart rate. He has an appointment next Friday with our internist Dr. Slusser for a cardiac ultrasound.

We're hoping for a condition that can be controlled with medication. As you can see in the photo above, he just doesn't have time for much more than that, it would cramp his style! When we got home, he really wanted to patrol the yard and make sure everything was okay, but had to settle for checking all the beds and food bowls inside as it was raining (and rather hard too!) If all goes well and his health is good, we will continue working with him on his pet therapy certification.

Shop, Shop, Shop!

You can now help support the animals and spread the word about the sanctuary with our Golden Hearts gear!

CafePress both produces the items and handles the ordering, payment and shipping process. There's no cost to us, and, for every item sold, the sanctuary makes about $2.

You can find:
~T-shirts
~Sweatshirts
~Dog t-shirts
~Teddy bears
~Tote bags
~Coffee mugs
~and more to come!

Here's the link:
http://www.cafepress.com/ghas

A New Name!

Well finally, we have a new name for the new guy. Thank you for all of your suggestions! We've decided to call him "Bob". He answers with a hearty "baaa" when we're outside and say "Where's Bob?" He's pictured above on a walk stopping to munch on some weeds. He walks on a lead better than many dogs!