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I don't know if you can ever get rid of eosiniphilia. My experience with it was in the 1980s so things might have changed since then. I don't think it's terminal, but it probably doesn't do anything to help you live longer ...

Long story, I'll post it in several comments. About a year ago, I took her in to the vet because she had been "slower" than usual. My cats go outside and this particular cat normally kills one or two rodents a day (my neighbors love it). She got very dopey and seemed to lose energy, so I took her in for some tests, thinking maybe she had thyroid issues like her sister. They couldn't find anything wrong with her though. Over the summer ...

I took my three cats to Maryland for the summer. During that time they developed coughs, which is kind of odd. Then it turned out several people in the neighborhood had DOGS that came down with "kennel cough" though they had not been in kennels. The vets seemed to think perhaps it was some sort of virus or bug in the environment, in the grass or something. I never treated my cats for the coughs and they didn't seem that sick, but one STILL coughs and seems "stuffy." So, when I brought the cats back to Iowa in August, they seemed fine but Rosy was still not hunting or being as active as usual. Then, one weekend in early November ...

We had to go away for one night. Rosy was acting oddly all week, but just before we left Rosy sat in front of her water bowl, seemed to try to drink but couldn't. When we arrived home the next night she was STILL sitting there in the same position. She was very weak and clearly dehydrated. I started giving her water with an eyedropper, but took her to the vet the next day and warned my family that I thought she was probably going to need to be put down. I mean, she was NEARLY dead. So, at the vets, they did all sorts of blood tests, x-rays looking for cancer tumors, and I left her there for the day to be hydrated via IV. That night I picked her up and she seemed very recovered .. that was the $600 day (after I spent about $500 testing her the previous Spring before we went to Maryland. Then ...

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Love it!! :)

Whoa, Switzerland, that would be quite the adventure! Look into quarantine rules for animals though. Sometimes you have to quarantine them for like six months. That would be the worst part about moving abroad, in some countries you can't take your pets!

My older daughter is at University of Mary Washington, a small college about an hour from DC, and my younger one is going to William & Mary in the Fall, which is about 90 minutes from UMW. So, they will be close to one another.

Sounds beautiful!!! The seafood is probably out of this world! :) My Friend is in Baltimore born in Germany raised in Northern California. I'm not sure where her husband is from but I don't think it's Maryland. They really like it there although I don't think it's as wonderful as the west side. :)

What part of Maryland is your friend from? Our place is near Salisbury, on what is called the "West Side, a peninsula bounded by two Chesapeake Bay rivers (Nanticoke and Wicomico). We're about an hour from Ocean City, which is the big ocean resort in Maryland. The area where our house is used to be mostly a fishing economy, oysters and crabs, but now it's mostly retired people and second homes. Lots of people like us who buy houses there and then come live there when they retire. It's not a tourist area though.

And, we have a house in Maryland. We used to live in the DC metro and moved to Iowa 4 years ago. This was a second home, it's on the water and in the same area where my husband's family lives. So we had always spent all our holidays there. We plan to retire there, and now that both kids will be in college in Virginia, the Maryland house will be our home base when they are home for holidays. I don't know if the kids will ever come back to the house in Iowa, which is kind of sad.I'm not looking forward to being an empty nester, so far from them! But we hope to move back east, possibly to the Wilmington, Del. area, within the next year or so.

I've never heard of another animal with eosiniphilia so I don't know how common it is. But while I had that cat I actually me a man who had it. He was really, really skinny, a co-worker, and one day while chatting he told me what he had. I think he was pretty surprised that I knew what it was!

No, he just got real skinny even though he was still eating and a blood test showed the eosiniphilia. He plumped out with the prednisone but stayed kinda skinny. When he finally died, he just got skinnier and skinnier, which is typical. I think he was about 15 or 16 years old, so it was a normal time of life to shut down.

I had a cat many years ago that actually had eosiniphilia, which is a disease in which you are allergic to your own blood (people get it too). The symptoms were that he got really thin although he wasn't old enough to be shutting down and losing weight, like old animals do. The treatment was prednisone pills, every day, and that cat lived for about five years. He was easy to give pills to, thank goodness.

Nothing showed up on the blood tests or the x-rays. The vet thought perhaps she had some sort of infection, so I had them give her an antibiotic shot ... this only costs $30 and is SO much easier than trying to give a cat pills for a week or more. This cat is REALLY sassy and I knew I wouldn't get most of those pills into her.

So, a month later we were planning to leave for 10 days for the Xmas holiday and Rosy didn't seem sick, but she still didn't seem right either. I took her back to the vets and asked them to give her another antibiotic injection, which the vet agreed seemed to be a good idea. Since then she has been fine, and in the good weather she's back hunting again and seems to have more energy. She is about 10 years old, so part of it is probably just normal aging and slowing down, but a 10-year-old cat is hardy geriatric. The weather here in Iowa has been ABYSMAL for about three weeks now, but when the sun finally comes back out I'll be better able to evaluate how active Rosy will be. We also plan to take them back to Maryland the first week of June for about three months, and I'm thinking of getting her another antibiotic injection before we go in case there IS some sort of bacterial issue in that area that is affecting animals. SUCH a danged mystery, but honestly if she goes down again like she did last November I'll probably put her down rather than put her through more crazy tests and treatments.

I've never had a purebred cat or dog. My dog when I was a kid lived to a ripe old age without any real problems. I've known SO many people who've had dogs that start getting sick at just a few years old. They can't bear to put them down. If my cat gets sick again I'm not sure I'd go beyond trying the antibiotic treatments. If that doesn't fix her up, I don't really want to put her through some sort of dramatic treatment program. But it would kill me to put her down, I know that!

The free shipping thing about gift cards, that's new ... Listia is doing lots of new stuff. Wish they would alert member when they make changes to policy ...

LOVE it, I've got my watch bid in!

I have three cats, all strays we've had since they were kittens 10+ years. One has hyperthyroid, easy to treat and not too expensive. But one of the others got sick last Fall. We still have no idea what was wrong with her, but in after more than $1,000 in tests and vet visits we gave her a series of antibiotic shots and she seems to be fine since--although I still think she's got something that's gonna come back. If it happens, we'll try the antibiotic injection again but if that doesn't work, I can't pay another $1,000 or more to try to figure out a mystery disease. This is just an example .. I've had "mutt" cats all my life and have never had any that got sick until now. So, unless you have LOTS of money to spend on vet bills, get a nice healthy little mutt ... better chance it will stay healthy longer.

Mechele, if you get a dog, get a nice mutt, or a rescue purebred. My problem with purebred dogs is that so many of them have health issues early in life. I've known SO many people who've spend THOUSANDS on purebred dogs health issues. Once you fall in love with your pet it is SO hard to say no to spending TONS of money on it if it has any genetic health issues.

cannot offer free shipping on items that are emailed to winners, i changed it to reflect that

i fanned u and be watching this auction please fan me back!!!

Mechele's Choose Your own Adventure ! Winner's choice of Gift Card DVD / DVD's New or Used Tiered

woops sorry, I'm on here for my sister, that must have been confusing

Oh! :) I'm completely in love with my little dogs..one's a mini Dachshund and one's a tiny Papillon :) It probably won't take him much convincing to have you wanting one too lol!