It's pancreatitis

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Wesley and Spicoli

Wesley and Spicoli

Member Since 2017
This morning Spicoli had a rather large hairball. We groom him all the time...but it's shedding season... He vomited it up outside, luckily I found it while getting ready for work. I noticed it had small amounts of blood in it. I decided to stay and watch him for a little while. 3 hours later he started throwing up blood/gastric juices.

He's at the vet now. Was dehydrated so subq or iv fluids will be given, check for pancreatitis, check for obstruction... His abdomen seemed a little tender.

Any similar experiences? What do you guys use for hairball control? I obviously don't want to change his food to a hairball formula and I know there are things on the market to help treat them. I'm just not sure if they would effect his bg numbers so I figured I'd ask you guys.
 
Sorry to hear Spicoli is not feeling well :bighug:

Something I've typed for other members:
Fiber / Hairball Help

Once a day, smear a 1/4 teaspoon of vaseline or petroleum jelly on the front paw and see if they lick it away
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.

Another alternative is to increase fiber but with sugar kitties the best option for that is pumpkin (not raw pumpkin). You can use 100% canned pure pumpkin without additives, fillers, spices, or sugar. I found this article: http://www.cathealth.com/nutrition/is-pumpkin-good-for-cats
Don't want to give a lot because it is a natural laxative so you will want to monitor stool firmness. Yes, poop duty ;)

Healing vines that it's nothing too serious
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:cat:
 
So this was unrelated to the hairball... I was wondering what was up with his numbers the last 3 days as they were a little off for him. He'd been doing so good, now this. Think this will set us back as far as his diabetes is concerned?

Any advice on dealing with this would be helpful. Vet prescribed Famotidine and Sucralfate. He was also given Cerenia for the vomiting.
 
The Sucralfate can affect glucose numbers, especially if it given in liquid form. I am wondering why he prescribed both Sucralfate and Famotidine, since they both help to prevent stomach acid. Also when my kitty has pancreatic flares I usually will use some pain relief since pancreatitis can be quite painful I use buprenorphine and cerenia usually for a few days until his appetite returns.
 
W.K. said:
So should I just give one and not the other?
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IMO I would be more inclined to use the Famotidine ( which is basically pepcid AC). With my chronic pancreatic kitty I use SEB (slippery elm bark) for the stomach acid when he has flare ups, since the Pepcid AC didn't seem to work as well with him, but each kitty is different. The Cerenia for the nausea or vomitting is important and pain relief as well ( I use buprenorphine )
 
W.K. said:
So should I just give one and not the other?
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So sorry about your kitty. I would do if it was my cat, the famotidine, cerenia and bupe for the pain. Pancreatitis is very painful and makes them nauseous. Vomiting too. Phoebe takes cerenia vomitting, gabapentin and bupe for pain, zofram for nausea. She also has Inflammatory bowel diesease. But the p'crentitis has vomitting, nausea, pain, all will cause them not to eat. If they don't eat you have major problems. Hopefully your vet will get on board. You can look on my ss and see her numbers corresponding to vomit and not eating. Good luck to you and your furbaby. Get your baby some relief. Head bumps!:bighug::cat:
 
Phoebes said:
So sorry about your kitty. I would do if it was my cat, the famotidine, cerenia and bupe for the pain. Pancreatitis is very painful and makes them nauseous. Vomiting too. Phoebe takes cerenia vomitting, gabapentin and bupe for pain, zofram for nausea. She also has Inflammatory bowel diesease. But the p'crentitis has vomitting, nausea, pain, all will cause them not to eat. If they don't eat you have major problems. Hopefully your vet will get on board. You can look on my ss and see her numbers corresponding to vomit and not eating. Good luck to you and your furbaby. Get your baby some relief. Head bumps!:bighug::cat:
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IMO you might wanna get him shaved for the summer. Not a professional or as experienced, someone might have different opinion, but the extra hairballs will not help. If he will tolerate the grooming. :)
 
I am so sorry. Pancreatitis sucks. I suggest reading through this post and consider some of the supplements. The Canna Companion seems to really help with the pain and discomfort, but I still give small doses of Gizmo's RX pain meds when needed.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/exciting-supplement.173867/

The more fluids you can get into Spicoli (love that name) the better. Add all the water you can to his food.

Along with the post "Primer on pancreatitis" ^ posted above by Nan, here is some additional info:

http://felinecrf.org/pancreatitis.htm

:bighug:
 
I'm a little surprised they didnt send me home with pain meds/ anti nausea... I'll give them a call tomorrow and see if the vet will prescribe him some.
The SO has been wanting to have him shaved so I imagine i'll have it done once he recovers from this.

LizzieInTexas said:
The more fluids you can get into Spicoli (love that name) the better. Add all the water you can to his food.
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The vet gave him some subq fluids, and I add water to ALL his meals.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High - thats where I got the name. Still took me a week to name him till I found something that fit!
 
I'm willing to do anything for my furbabies!! :) I'll go grab the ingredients first thing tomorrow! And thanks for that. His appetite was completely normal (4-5 cans/day) till the vomiting episode this morning and now... well he doesn't want to touch a thing. Can't really blame him though. I'm sure he'd LOVE some bone broth. There isn't much he doesn't like.
 
W.K. said:
I'm willing to do anything for my furbabies!! :) I'll go grab the ingredients first thing tomorrow! And thanks for that. His appetite was completely normal (4-5 cans/day) till the vomiting episode this morning and now... well he doesn't want to touch a thing. Can't really blame him though. I'm sure he'd LOVE some bone broth. There isn't much he doesn't like.
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I used a slow cooker and cooked about 14-16 hrs on medium high. Smokey loved it. He wouldn't eat it by itself as recommended, but putting on his food worked. I used beef hocks, necks, thighs, gizzards & heart, backs, some chicken breast. I made sure to remove bones as I don't give any bone. Neck and back vertebrae are tiny so be careful with those. Even after his pancreatitis I gave him some every day. It's a bit greasy so it could help overall with hairball.
 
Oh yes he's most certainly nauseous and uncomfortable. While he's not really eating, he is drinking. In this case should I syringe feed?

I won't take no for an answer and usually my vet is good at listening and doing mostly as I ask even if he doesn't think it necessary. Still not sure why they didn't give them to me in the first place!!!
 
A lot of doctors don't give the meds unless you ask. The old school thinking is it will pass given time. I would like to see what they say if it was themselves. They would demand meds.
 
Woodsywife said:
A lot of doctors don't give the meds unless you ask. The old school thinking is it will pass given time.
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That is crazy. Gizmo's most severe attack they loaded him up. Even shaved his side and slapped a fentanyl patch on him.

W.K. said:
While he's not really eating, he is drinking. In this case should I syringe feed?
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I would really try and get him to eat on his own. The sooner the better. Do you have any tuna in water? Might try a little of it on a plate with more tuna water than tuna to see if he will eat some given that presentation. If he absolutely will not eat on his own I would give some via force but if he will eat on his own encourage it!

Also, what do you get to force feed?
 
He ate a few bites... but im not satisfied. I've only done it once when he was super dehydrated and not eating and I seriously watered down some FF pate.

What's the best thing I could force?
 
W.K. said:
I seriously watered down some FF pate.
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That is what I used too. Keep encouraging self feeding. I always gave Gizmo the chance to eat on his own before I force fed.

These are from my notes (both are by prescription so you will need to get from your vet)

Royal Canin Recovery RS 7% carb
Iams Maxcal 9% carb

I don't know much else about them but think they are high in calories so you don't have to give a lot. I don't remember who knows, tagging @Wendy&Neko maybe she knows more.

Another thing that I just found out about is these. All are -0- carb, consistency like baby food but complete nutritionally wise. I think you can get it at pet stores.

http://www.tikipets.com/velvet-mousse/
 
Some people try a little Parmesan cheese sprinkled on the food... worth trying to see if it gets him to take a few bites.
 
Suggestions on how to stimulate kitty's appetite

Ondansetron is a good med for nausea. It's a human med that vet needs to write a prescription for.

Maxcal has a lot more calories than the Royal Canin Recovery, but I'd heard that Iams was phasing it out. I like the Maxal cause I only needed to syringe 2/3 of a can in to get a days worth of calories in. But my girl liked the taste of Recovery and would mostly eat it on her own.
 
The good news is this morning he's eating fairly well by himself.
JanetNJ said:
I'm surprised cerenia wasn't prescribed for nausea.
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They gave some at the office, but I actually think this was the reason he was avoiding everything last night. He seemed so groggy and just wanted to sleep.
I'm heading out in a bit to go demand meds, even if he seems improved.
StephG said:
Some people try a little Parmesan cheese sprinkled on the food... worth trying to see if it gets him to take a few bites.
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I did this... he loves cheese...and everything else. Nothing really worked last night. Not even mayo.
 
Good news that Spicoli is eating on his own!!

Cerenia should not make him groggy. It is only an anti-nausea medication. They may have given him a shot of Buprenorphine for pain relief at the vets and that can make him groggy since it is a type of narcotic. It is always good to have meds on hand. When my kitty has his pancreatic flares I usually will give meds for about 3 days even if the episode was not overly bad.
 
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Well here's to the first time i've been a little disagreeable with my vet... Just got off the phone and he wanted to hospitalize Spicoli. I told him I didn't want to do that, at least not yet. His behavior is normal besides not having his normal huge appetite... So they are at least going to give us some pain meds and hopefully that will help. Don't get me wrong, if I for one second thought he needed to go and stay at the vets I'd do it in a heartbeat.
Tuxedo Mom said:
Cerenia should not make him groggy.
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Nice to know that! I don't think they gave him anything for pain. At least it wasn't on my itemized bill. He was probably in pain and that's why he just laid around and slept.
 
W.K. said:
he wanted to hospitalize Spicoli. I told him I didn't want to do that,
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It may be necessary. Your biggest issues will be dehydration, inappetance and pain. Gizmo has been hospitalized three times (4-6 days each time) with sever pancreatitis. If Spicoli starts to vomit (again), dehydration will set in - you will need to take him in. It is like dominoes. If you can keep him eating and drinking and manage the pain at home you may be able to avoid hospitalization - just remember the weekend is approaching and you may be limited to emergency hospitalization which may be more $$.

Are you taking him back for a check today (at your regular vet)? If so, I would get them to give more fluids (IV) while you are there. There are two meds that increase the appetite - Mirtazapine and another that I haven't given (hopefully someone can chime in with the name). Some say Mirtz have given some weird side effects but I didn't see any in Gizmo. I personally have taken Mirtz (anti-depressant) and can attest to is effectiveness of increasing the appetite:cool:.

ETA - the other appetite stimulant is Cyproheptadine (or Cypro).
 
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Luckily he hasn't vomited since yesterday morning. He's been drinking better than eating. He received subq yesterday and they still haven't absorbed all the way.
He is going back on Monday for reevaluation.

If he does start vomiting again we're headed straight in. Also, If the pain meds don't help then we're going in.

Luckily our vets office is 24/7. It is considered emergency after hours but if he declines at all I will take him. I'd like to try the pain meds first and see if his pain is what is keeping him from gobbling his food up.
 
The main stays for pancreatitis in meds for nausea and pain relief. A vet should send you home with meds to use for after hours and when you cannot reach them. They can prescribe meds that are appetite stimulants. Sometimes receiving fluids can turn things in the right direction. Be careful a kitty can get food aversion when having problems with nausea. At times a kitty can be having a bout of pancreatitis with no symptons.
 
W.K. said:
Luckily our vets office is 24/7. It is considered emergency after hours but if he declines at all I will take him. I'd like to try the pain meds first and see if his pain is what is keeping him from gobbling his food up.
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Sounds like a plan. Please keep us posted. :bighug:

Are there several vets in the office? If so, do you know if you are seeing the "cat" specialist? I loved the vet Gizmo was seeing but Dr. W wasn't the cat specialist and I switched to Dr. P with much better results and knowledge.
 
wolfey said:
Be careful a kitty can get food aversion when having problems with nausea.
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I just tried a different flavor...and guess what. Gobble gobble gobble. YAY!
LizzieInTexas said:
If so, do you know if you are seeing the "cat" specialist?
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We do have several. I'm not seeing the cat specialist, but I do believe he is the diabetic/other specialist. I heard him on the phone giving a cushings dx yesterday for a pup. He never questions my insulin reductions, and has no problem with us not coming in all the time to check bg numbers.
We've seen every vet in there and Dr. A (current) is by far my favorite. Nothing is too insignificant to have checked when it comes to him.

I will ask if they have a cat specialist though. As long as it isn't Dr. M. He's ticked me off one too many times..

Off to pick up meds!!
 
He's doing well :) Eating on his own, not quite as much as I'd like but he's downed ~3 cans of FF today (he's just over 13 lbs.). Pain meds seem to have really helped. He's an indoor/outdoor kitty so we had some supervised time outside. He NEVER gives up when he wants out, so I figured this was better than him being miserable and driving me crazy. He had a nice time sniffing the air and laying in the garden. Before it's brought up we don't use insecticides so that wasn't what caused this... It's almost PMPS time! Overall he is much improved from last night. No vomiting at all, improved appetite, no longer seems to be in pain (thanks to the meds).

On another note I think the reason the vet gave him both Sucralfate and Famotidine is because he actually has acid reflux and that's why he's been a little hoarse. Honestly, I thought it was due to allergies since its pollen season and he's had skin allergies recently by his ears. They were not related to flees, mites etc.. as he was checked for both and I use Revolution monthly which *should* protect from both.

Hopefully nothing else arises. Thank you everyone for your advice and support :)
 
Just an update. We had our checkup today. Vet says he looks really good. He isn't dehydrated, hasn't lost weight, eating well, going to the bathroom normally.
For the time being we are keeping him on the Famotidine for his acid reflux and a possible ulcer.
We also started Pro Pectalin for his messy poops.

So over all I think we're in the clear, at least for now.

Thank you all for everything! With all this advice and info I'll be ready if it ever comes up again :)
 
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