Dust Request For My Kitty Please

[stephbolt]

Tons of dust for your sweet boy! I hope he is feeling better soon!

 

[iheartscience]

Semi-good news: blood work came back fine. The vet said we should schedule an ultrasound for his intestines in case there's some sort of blockage she couldn't feel, so we're going to do that ASAP. Sigh...I'm sort of relieved, but I wish it was something cut and dry with an easy quick fix.

Feel free to keep the dust coming and thank you!!!

 

[tyty333]

Thats a positive thing! Let us know what the ultrasounds finds.

 

[cookies]

Lots of dust coming your way! Try to take care of yourself too, as your kitty needs a healthy & strong you.

 

[isaku5]

More ***DUST*** for your kitty.

 

[centralsquare]

Well, clean blood work is always a relief. Keeping my fingers crossed for the intestine exam!

 

[Verdy]

Lots of DUST for your kitty! It's so sad when pets get sick because they can't TELL you what's wrong the clean blood results are a positive, and I do hope he gets better soon! Perhaps he might have a stomach infection or a bacteria in his digestive tract (just a guess).

 

[jewelerman]

MORE DUST!

 

[yssie]

What a relief that the bloodwork is clean! Though the waiting for more tests is so hard

I have fingers, toes, and other appendages crossed that you find out quickly, and that the fix is fast, painless, and effective!!

More ::HUGS:: coming your way.


Ours - it was a couple of years ago, we still don't know what happened to him. He just - stopped eating - went from 12lbs to 8.5 in two months. The vet diagnosed FIP but gave him meds for acute hepatitis as a Hail Mary, and it *worked*, and he's back to full health and other than some digestive issues you wouldn't ever guess there was once something wrong!

We've got them all on raw stuff and Costco Dry kibble - his tummy seems to be least offended by gross bloody chunks of chicken/pork/fish. Well, whatever works, right? Even if you do find bits and pieces on the sofa later ...

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

Hoping for good news...dust across the miles...

cheers--Sharon

 

[violet3]

********************************************************oh poor charles! I'm dusting for you both ***********************************************************

big hugs that he feels better soon thing!

 

[iheartscience]

Thank you so much for the dust and good wishes. It really does make me feel better to know you all are sending him your good thoughts and dust! We made an appointment for him on Tuesday for the ultrasound so hopefully that will turn up something fixable.

Tonight he ate about 3/4 of a small jar of baby food and a fair amount of baked chicken breast I made for him. I didn't want to give him too much but he was definitely interested in more when I stopped giving it to him. (And my other two are loving Charles' special treatment because of course I have to give them the chicken, too!)

Yssie-how terrifying your kitty got sick like that for no reason! I so wish animals could talk and tell us what's wrong!

 

[pregcurious]

Good luck for your kitty!

 

[Amys Bling]

dust for a speedy recovery!

 

[yssie]

Thank you so much for the dust and good wishes. It really does make me feel better to know you all are sending him your good thoughts and dust! We made an appointment for him on Tuesday for the ultrasound so hopefully that will turn up something fixable.

Tonight he ate about 3/4 of a small jar of baby food and a fair amount of baked chicken breast I made for him. I didn't want to give him too much but he was definitely interested in more when I stopped giving it to him. (And my other two are loving Charles' special treatment because of course I have to give them the chicken, too!)

Yssie-how terrifying your kitty got sick like that for no reason! I so wish animals could talk and tell us what's wrong!

That's fantastic thing! Eating is one thing - being interested in eating more sounds like a huge step!

Tuesday - only two more days of thumb twiddling... I'll be thinking of you guys. It really would help if they could just tell us what's wrong!

 

[iheartscience]

Thank you again everyone! He goes for his ultrasound tomorrow so hopefully that will go well and they can identify the problem and fix it!

He ended up throwing up Friday...I think I let him overdo it a bit on the baby food and chicken but he was so hungry I didn't want to stop giving him food! But he ate chicken all this weekend and seems to have kept it all down. We just fed him a little at a time all day. He's still having some ahem...bathroom issues, but I assume keeping the food down will help him gain the weight back.

I'll keep you all posted! (Whether you want me to or not! )

 

[susimoo]

Dust for you and your kitty!!
Hoping it's good news tomorrow!!!!! Thinking of you.

 

[tammy77]

I hope your kitty is doing better! Did they check him for fatty liver disease? I'm assuming so, but just in case! My Chloe had that and the only thing she did was lose her appetite at first, then got progressively worse.

A little info can be found here:

http://www.televets.com/articles/dogs/liver-disease-in-dogs-cats.html

Other than that, here's sending lots of kitty get well dust!

 

[iheartscience]

Thank you both! I'm so glad the ultrasound is tomorrow...he's still obviously not feeling well and I want some sort of answer so we can treat him. I know the vet doesn't want to give him medicine without knowing what the problem is, but I wish she would have given us SOMETHING to give him to help him feel better.

tammy77-they said his liver and kidney function was fine in the bloodwork, so I assume that means they tested for that. A friend's cat had fatty liver disease as well and ended up being okay, thankfully!

 

[missy]

Oh thing,your sweet kitty is so beautiful! Sending bucket loads of dust for him!!
I hope whatever it is it's a simple fix and he starts feeling 100% better real soon!!

 

[Aoife]

Sending dust your way again for the ultrasound tomorrow. I hope that it's something easily treatable, and that he feels better very soon.

Don't you just wish they could point and say, "It hurts here"?

 

[iheartscience]

Thanks so much missy and Aoife.

Good news update: the specialist diagnosed him with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which should be controlled well with steroid treatments. He's sending a prescription over to our regular vet and we're going to get him the medicine ASAP. Hoping it's a shot because Charles has impressive skills when it comes to avoiding taking medicine!

I'm so relieved...hopefully once he gets the shot he'll be able to gain the weight back quickly because he is looking so skinny! Plus they had to shave his belly so I bet he looks extra skinny!

Thank you again to everyone for the PS dust! You all are the best...I love that there are so many animal lovers on PS who understand how much I love my kitties!

 

[Matata]

I'm relieved it isn't anything dire but IBD is a chronic condition that can become life threatening very fast. My 17 yr old kitty was diagnosed with it 3 years ago. She takes prednisolone every other day to control the condition. Diet is an important factor in IBD because food allergens are implicated in the condition.

If you're feeding a dry diet, you really should change to canned. If you're already feeding canned, be sure it doesn't contain corn or wheat or any such by-products and has adequate protein without unnecessary fillers (veggies & such).

I switched Maggie to a raw diet along with a high quality canned (Instinctive Choice from Life's Abundance). Here's a link to the canned -- she has done great on this food. Nothing else I tried alleviated her chronic constipation/diarrhea. http://www.lifesabundance.com/Pets/PetsHome.aspx?realname=&cat=0&hdr=&Ath=False

Best wishes to you & kitty as you learn to live with this condition.

 

[iheartscience]

Thanks so much for the info, Matata. He was eating a combo of high quality wet and dry (both Wellness Core) and the past several days we just gave him baked chicken breast which definitely seemed to help. He kept it down but still had some diarrhea. The vet said to keep giving him the chicken breast for now and then once he is stabilized we can try some of the higher quality canned cat food again.

I just ordered Tiki Cat which is apparently human grade food and supposed to be good. (But please tell me if you've heard otherwise.) We got it yesterday and the other 2 cats LOVED it and Charles ate it too (my husband didn't want to stop him since he was actually hungry) but then he ended up throwing up, so we are definitely going to stick with the chicken breast for a while. I'll check the ingredient lists to see what is in the food though.

I'm going to switch all the cats to canned food only. I was giving them canned 2x a day and leaving the dry out for them to free feed on, but I'm going to stop that.

 

[yssie]

Well, that's about as good as we could have hoped for! I'm so glad to hear it

I don't know if you're feeding them meat with bones, but as an aside our vet warned me never to warm meat with bones in the microwave - I didn't know that! Apparently that makes the bones brittle and liable to splinter when they gnaw - you're supposed to run it under warm water to warm it.

 

[madiamondgirl]

I'm so happy to hear the news!! You must be so relieved! I hope he's feeling much better soon!!

 

[movie zombie]

I'm relieved it isn't anything dire but IBD is a chronic condition that can become life threatening very fast. My 17 yr old kitty was diagnosed with it 3 years ago. She takes prednisolone every other day to control the condition. Diet is an important factor in IBD because food allergens are implicated in the condition.

If you're feeding a dry diet, you really should change to canned. If you're already feeding canned, be sure it doesn't contain corn or wheat or any such by-products and has adequate protein without unnecessary fillers (veggies & such).

I switched Maggie to a raw diet along with a high quality canned (Instinctive Choice from Life's Abundance). Here's a link to the canned -- she has done great on this food. Nothing else I tried alleviated her chronic constipation/diarrhea. http://www.lifesabundance.com/Pets/PetsHome.aspx?realname=&cat=0&hdr=&Ath=False

Best wishes to you & kitty as you learn to live with this condition.

my LaHonda girl cat had IBD and i can backup what Matata has said: it can become life threatening very very fast. the change you're making to wet food only is a good start. watch out for constipation issues with IBD due to some of the meds. talk to your vet re subcutaneous fluids to help keep things moving more than to keep kitty hydrated. do not expect great weight gain immediately. it could be that kitty will go up a bit but will not get back to "normal" weight. we bought a baby scale and weighed her regularly. any drop in weight can be significant and prednisone may need to be adjusted.

 

[coati]

Sending Charles recovery dust! I wish your kitty the best, Thing2, and I hope the steroid treatments do the job.

 

[iheartscience]

Thanks so much everyone!

Yssie-thanks for letting me know about the bones-I didn't know that! I was just giving him chicken breast but he's starting to get sick of it of course! Picky cats-gotta love them. He's begging for the canned stuff now!

madiamond-thank you!

mz-good tip about the scale-thank you! He's definitely feeling better already and has a much better appetite. As long as he gains back some weight I'll be happy!

coati-thank you! They seem to be doing the trick already-he's so much perkier and has been much more interested in eating!

 

[Matata]

An addition to what MZ said about constipation -- you can add pure pumpkin (1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp daily) into his food if constipation becomes an issue. It took my girl some time to get used to the pumpkin but she's ok with it now and she simply can't poop without it. Sheesh, you know what a close knit animal loving community PS is when we start sharing poop tales