State of the Cat

Well. It’s been a few months, and I wanted to let you all know that Ben’s made it nearly four months without a flare-up of his mouth problems!

Back in October, I honestly didn’t expect he’d pull it off, and I’d, after much misery, decided that if he had another flare-up in six weeks, the way he was doing, I’d bite the bullet and have him put to sleep. He was spending too much time in agony, the steroids were starting to do bad things, and it just wasn’t worth it.

I suspect that because I made that decision, and lost sleep, and was horribly depressed by it–y’all may remember the blog post–Ben, being a perverse bastard, decided to be healthy for awhile.

So, four months. That was my cut-off point–if he makes it to the end of January, then it’s been long enough between flare-ups that if he gets another one, I’ll get him the steroid shot again. (He should be getting one at most every two YEARS, but this is at least an indicator that he’s going a lot longer between attacks.)

He’s not out of the woods yet, his mouth could start hurting him tomorrow (although since the usual indicator is swollen throat glands, which Kevin checks religiously every day, he’s probably in the clear for awhile yet.) but so far, signs are promising that it may be subsiding into more manageable levels.

Ben himself, largely unconcerned by all this, is asleep on the bed in a puddle of sun, with his toes spread out and every claw extended, looking menacingly relaxed.

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