As most of you know that I recently had 2 bouts of seizure. Pawrents being the typical "Kiasu" (meaning cannot lose out mentality in dialect Hokkien) Singaporean, decided to bring me to another vet for a second opinion.
We went to Dr Tham from Jireh Veterinary Clinic as recommended by my pawpal Baubles and his Mummy. My first appointment with Dr Tham was on 22nd May. Dr Tham is a very patient vet and he listen to Daddy describing all the details regarding my seizure episodes.
After listening to Daddy, Dr Tham proceeds to explain some of the possible causes of seizure, e.g. liver shunt, pancreatic cancer, epilepsy, etc and some of the test which he would like to conduct to look at the possible cause of my seizure. Some of the tests that he would like to conduct include CBC, blood glucose, X-ray, etc. Then he proceed to do a physical examination on me. During which he found that I have a slower heart rate than normal and an ECG was to be performed to confirm this.
My ECG results shows that I might be having Bradycardia, which could be caused by sinus blockage or congential. While the rest of my test results yield normal reading, my T4 level was low. A low T4 reading could be due to hypothyroidism in which the thyroid gland is not producing enough hormones. And hypothyroidism can also cause the heart rate to be slowed.
Dr Tham feels that we should address the hypothyroidism as in extreme cases can cause seizure. Thus I was given thyroidxine and in the next review, his colleague Dr Poh (as Dr Tham is out of town) would review my T4 level and another round of ECG would be done. An ultrasound would also be done when Dr Tham is back from his trip to rule out liver shunt and sinus blockage.
The following week, we went back for the review with Dr Poh. Yippeee, my T4 level when up and my heart rate also increase from 60 per min to 70 plus per min. Things are looking good.
When Dr Tham was back, an ultrasound was conducted and luckily there is no liver shunt and sinus blockage. But, my heart wall was thicker than normal and there is an extra space in my heart. On the whole, Dr Tham feels that my condition is manageable and he hopes to increase my heartbeat to 90 per min.
Here are my X-ray done on my first appointment:
Can you see the heart?
Here you can see the liver and pancreas
My next review with Dr Tham is on early July. Hope to have more positive results :)
