2/27 Morris AMPS 391 - vet update - PMPS 560

yesterday: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7512

Morris has been fasting over night. He is really not too impressed with me this morning! I have done all my usual *mean* things to him & still didn't give him any food!!! :lol: We head to the vet in about an hour or so to get his labwork drawn & then he will be able to eat. I have also printed off jojo's wonderfully written post from my condo yesterday to take with me & give to my vet! I will let you know when I get home how everything went! ;-)

Re: 2/27 Morris AMPS 391

Good luck!

Re: 2/27 Morris AMPS 391

jojo and bunny said:

if you don't have a third hand...well you can talk to your doctor about grafting one on or maybe have someone help you? i have to scruff my cat and work needle with same hand and hold and squeeze bag with other but i've given SQ's a few thousand times. ya can maybe hold bag under chin and squeeze it that way or there is a way to use a blood pressure cuff to squeeze bag if you happen to have around.

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Thankfully, my daughter enjoys helping me with this project! Also, when dh is home (he is away this weekend with ds), I can convince him to help out as well!

jojo and bunny said:

make sure you have cat up on a table or counter when you are giving the SQuids

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Why is that? We have been doing it with somone just holding him on their lap on the couch.

jojo and bunny said:

why aren't you givign your not so easy cat the bupe via injection rather than into cheek pouch? it is same stuff ya know (unless your vet did something weird to it like add flavoring. it should be a clear liquid from either a little vial or injecta-pen thingie, is that what you have?)

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As far as I know, they did have flavoring added to it. I remember the vet asking me if fish flavor would be ok. It is a clear liquid in a little brown bottle (after speaking with my vet last night, we think they repackaged it at the clinic for some reason. She wanted me to look to see on the label how long it was stable for as she thinks they should get some more into the clinic & have it readily available for patients)

Re: 2/27 Morris AMPS 391 - vet update

We survived our trips to the vet today! I also had them weigh Morris while we were there....he is now 5.22 kg (11.5 lbs) down from 5.63 kg (11.8 lbs) when he was weighed on Feb 10. I was given the script for mirtz & when I went to my human pharmacy to have it filled, my fave pharmacist was working & even split the pills for me!!! I will be giving 1/4 of a 15mg tab to him once every 3 days. We decided against the injectable pepcid for right now (I did provide her with more info on it!).....I figure I will attempt to get the 1/4 tab pepcid into him again. I am borrowing Brenda's idea & I purchased some laughing cow cheese today to see if I can get these pills into this darn cat!!! Wish me luck & keep sending me any suggestions/tips/ideas you may have for me to get these little pills into him!!

Re: 2/27 Morris AMPS 391 - vet update

Glad thilngs went well at the vet. If Laughing Cow doesn't work, try cream cheese and you can coat it with chicken dust or FortiFlora. Will Morris eat chicken or beef? You could always make a slit in a piece of meat and put the pill in there.

Re: 2/27 Morris AMPS 391 - vet update

I'm glad you survived the vet visit, whew! Come on down, Morris.

Re: 2/27 Morris AMPS 391 - vet update

Woo Hoo! Got the laughing cow & mirtz all to go down the hatch! At first, he just licked it a little & seemed interested in it. Then, he lost interest just as quick! LOL! So I picked up what was left & shoved it all into his mouth! He did his gagging thing, but nothing (cheese nor pill) came back out!! Then, to get the taste out of his mouth or something, he headed over to his bowl & started eating!!! I will try my luck with this again in a few hours & see if I can get a pepcid into him that way!!! If I can get the pepcid into him, great! If not, hopefully the mirtz will work & he will be eating more regularly anyway & may not need the pepcid.

Re: 2/27 Morris AMPS 391 - vet update

I'm so glad you are making progress!!! Actually I have stopped using the Laughing Cow now in favor of peanut butter, which my Morris LOVES and it is much more sticky and hard to spit out. I use a Temptation on the bottom, put a dab of peanut butter on a knife and then pick up the pill with the peanut butter and spread it on the Temptation, making sure to completely hide the pill....so far, so good! Give it a try. haha_smiley

Hope the mirtz works better for you than it did for me...I only got one day of eating out of each pill and couldn't give another for two more days. That's why I switch to the cypro. I give Morris the cypro and pepcid in the Temptation/peanut butter "snack". :lol:

Was a little surprised to see his number so high tonight! I knew he would be higher than normal because of the 1/2 dose insulin this morning, but wasn't really expecting to see him quite this high!

I gave him about 100 mls or so of SQ fluids this afternoon. I got some smaller needles from work (20G 1) & it seemed to be easier on him than the others I was using (18G 1 1/2). I then even got the bupe into the right spot (I think I missed this morning) & the pepcid went down as well (not quite as easy as the mirtz, but it still went down)!

How long do I continue with this routine? It has now been over 2 weeks since this flare started (we were at the vet on Feb 10), and this Mon will be the end of his 14 days on bupe (started in the evening of Feb 15).

The vet said she would have the lab results from today back either Mon or Tues & would call me once she gets them. She wants to see the results before we start the B12 injections.

the mirtz might make it so that he goes back to eating so well that you can sneak the pepcid out of routine since you did not get the injectable and he is so tough to pill. good job on getting them in tonight and SQuids too! you'll be a pro at this soon.

why put a cat on a table when you work on it? for same reasons vet does~ one it is easier for you to work while standing with cat on table, and you can do things way more effectively and two it throws them off of thinking they can escape. way less likely to fight and resist on table.
so easy to scruff a cat and do whatever you need to while on table, impossible practically on floor.

i would continue until you have a totally back to normal cat. all 5 P's in place.
i have found over the years of hanging out on this board that often the first flare is the worst for the CP cat. not that future flares cannot be real hard, but you have tools now and know how to use them and can jump on them the second you think he is heading down the flare path and head him off. barb/tori wrote a wonderful post all about this a few caturday's ago. worth going back and finding it to read.