Khan's Checkup

Khan had his checkup today. His left ear may have a new infection (there was a bit of white discharge in there, and they are testing it), and the doctor noticed a growth or swelling in the already narrow ear canal that seems to be blocking it (thus causing more infection). He thinks this may signal to us that a total ablation of the left ear is imminent. This will involve removing his left ear canal and sewing up the opening. At this point, he is pretty much deaf on that side anyway, and after the procedure he'd no longer be bothered by the "leaky" ear, recurrent infections, medications, and us cleaning it all of the time. But it is surgery, and comes with its own risks and possible complications. For now he said we'd treat with antiobiotics if needed, and then probably reassess in a few months. They wouldn't do the surgery with an infection there anyway. Tomorrow I'll know the results of the ear culture and the stool sample testing.

Regarding the latter, he said to try him on a diet of Purina EN (dry) to see if he digests that better than his current Science Diet. He does seem to be liking it--but he's never been picky about food. If this diet doesn't solve the problem, they want to do a colonoscopy (under full anesthesia). However, my instincts say that the diet will work, and that's what I am willing to occur. I do not want him to have to go through a colonoscopy--especially since it appears to just be caused by an irritation. It will take 3 weeks on the diet to see results.

Anyway, depending on what they tell me tomorrow, he will probably be on another couple of weeks of antibiotics. He's had a lot of them since we got him, poor boy, all because of ear trouble. Then for him to lose an ear after all this is just frustrating. But we knew when we had the resections done that it might come to this. My instincts are also telling me that we are on a conveyor belt to ablation-land, so I'm going to come to terms with that if it happens. He'll be a one-eyed, one-earred, fluffy, purring people-greeter! (Sorry, that was the best I could do!) Oh! And he also got his Adequan injection, though we are thinking of adding Cosequin to his diet in the future, as I've been seeing a slow but steady decline in the strength of his back legs/hips. (I asked again about learning to give the intramuscular injection myself, but he says the literature is now indicating that maybe Adequan in a subcutaneous injection will have the same effect. It would be nice for both of us if I didn't have to take him in every 5 weeks just to get the shot.)