I was to meet Sister J at the vet today at 10.20am, as Max's gum problem is flaring up again. His gums are red, and when he yawned, he couldn't open his mouth very wide. Strangely, he still eats as much as before. I decided to walk to the vet, as the weather was cool. After 40 minutes, I took a bus for the remaining of the journey. The timing was just nice when I reached the vet. It wasn't so crowded today, and we had a tortoise patient.

The vet has been giving Max steroid injection every 8 weeks, which had helped, but we wonder there is another alternative, considering the side effects of steroids. Max was drooling quite badly today, and he was very chatty. The vet suggested cyclosporin, which is to suppress the immunity system, and to prevent inflammation. He said the dose is small, so Max is not really immunocompromised. The upside is the adverse reactions are less, and it tends to be effective. The downside is the cost involved ( $3.50 per day vs $15 per injection ), and Max has to take the capsule everyday. It will be a long term thing. If the situation improves, the dose can be reduced to twice a week. If he suffers from diarrhoea, vomitting, lethargy, anorexia and anything odd, we have to stop the dose.

Sister J decided to give the cyclosporin a try. We reached home at 11.30am, and we let Max had some snacks and rest. Spencer wasn't too pleased to see him. I showed Max to Hat at the staircase, and Hat started to hyperventilate. Silly boy.

We have to use a syringe to draw out 0.05ml of the liquid from the capsule, and give to Max. It wasn't easy. Luckily the volume is very small, so Max hardly detected it. When we came back from lunch, Max was alert and acted as per normal, no vomitting or diarrhoea. We trimmed his chin fur as they kept getting wet and stuck together. Then Max watched me clean house, and he had his tea breaks. Sister J picked him up at 3.30pm.