MJW
Member Since 2017
@Marje and Gracie
@Wendy&Neko
Yum has had intermittent diarrhea since 9/3.
She had blood work indicating kidney disease on 8/14. (Blood work is on labs tab.)
I put her on phosphorus binders and added RadCat raw lamb (and once raw beef) to her diet mid August.
She started having intermittent diarrhea (about 15 out of 37 days now) on 9/3.
At first her appetite was not affected and she maintained her weight.
She had more severe diarrhea on 9/11 with inappetence.
Her required insulin dose started dropping and has continued to drop since then.
Her appetite recovered after a day or 2 and the diarrhea became intermittent again.
On 9/19 we rechecked her kidney numbers---with in-house lab work, not the usual lab.
Her phosphorus level was improved but not enough, her creatine level was much better.
I encouraged Yum to eat more RadCat lamb and I reduced her Fancy Feast by half. I was only adding phosphorus binders to her Fancy Feast, so her daily phosphorus binder dose decreased slightly (from 300 to maybe 200).
We rechecked her blood work on Friday 10/6, with the usual send-out lab. It was awful. Her phosphorus number had skyrocketed and her creatinine number was up. I will note: she did vomit twice (coincidentally) a few hours before her blood work. She vomited food once (which she re-ate) and a large amount of water once. She never vomits food. Could the vomiting have influenced the blood work result?
Since the vet visit on Friday, she vomited water on Saturday morning 10/7 and the diarrhea and inappetence have returned to stay.
I began dosing her with metronidazole (50 mg every 12 hours) on Sunday morning.
She had a 2/3 normal/1/3 diarrhea bowel movement yesterday but all diarrhea again this morning.
She might have eaten 100 kcal yesterday max. She's not eating much today but it is early yet.
Her water consumption has dropped a bit along with her insulin dose.
It was 8 oz or more a day and now it's more like 6 oz.
You'd think the kidney disease would make her thirsty. Diarrhea should make her thirsty too.
Her activity level is normal but her weight has dropped 6 oz since Friday.
Should I stop the RadCat lamb in case it is causing the diarrhea? I had hoped to go through the 7 days of metrodinazole first before resorting to a food change. The onset of the diarrhea trailed the food introduction by several weeks. The RadCat is the only low phosphorus/low carb food she will eat. Of course I can increase her carbs with kidney prescription food and just give up on remission. I think my vet thinks I should do that.
What are causes of intermittent diarrhea? It's not usually indicative of kidney disease, according to my vet. Yum hasn't vomited since Saturday.
Is it suspicious her insulin requirements are dropping with these other issues (from 3+ units to 1.25 units)? Well, for the past few days she is eating less and losing weight, so that could make sense. But it began dropping on 9/11, with her first brief bout with inappettance.
Any ideas or suggestions are welcome. She is still a very happy cat. I am very worried.
@Wendy&Neko
Yum has had intermittent diarrhea since 9/3.
She had blood work indicating kidney disease on 8/14. (Blood work is on labs tab.)
I put her on phosphorus binders and added RadCat raw lamb (and once raw beef) to her diet mid August.
She started having intermittent diarrhea (about 15 out of 37 days now) on 9/3.
At first her appetite was not affected and she maintained her weight.
She had more severe diarrhea on 9/11 with inappetence.
Her required insulin dose started dropping and has continued to drop since then.
Her appetite recovered after a day or 2 and the diarrhea became intermittent again.
On 9/19 we rechecked her kidney numbers---with in-house lab work, not the usual lab.
Her phosphorus level was improved but not enough, her creatine level was much better.
I encouraged Yum to eat more RadCat lamb and I reduced her Fancy Feast by half. I was only adding phosphorus binders to her Fancy Feast, so her daily phosphorus binder dose decreased slightly (from 300 to maybe 200).
We rechecked her blood work on Friday 10/6, with the usual send-out lab. It was awful. Her phosphorus number had skyrocketed and her creatinine number was up. I will note: she did vomit twice (coincidentally) a few hours before her blood work. She vomited food once (which she re-ate) and a large amount of water once. She never vomits food. Could the vomiting have influenced the blood work result?
Since the vet visit on Friday, she vomited water on Saturday morning 10/7 and the diarrhea and inappetence have returned to stay.
I began dosing her with metronidazole (50 mg every 12 hours) on Sunday morning.
She had a 2/3 normal/1/3 diarrhea bowel movement yesterday but all diarrhea again this morning.
She might have eaten 100 kcal yesterday max. She's not eating much today but it is early yet.
Her water consumption has dropped a bit along with her insulin dose.
It was 8 oz or more a day and now it's more like 6 oz.
You'd think the kidney disease would make her thirsty. Diarrhea should make her thirsty too.
Her activity level is normal but her weight has dropped 6 oz since Friday.
Should I stop the RadCat lamb in case it is causing the diarrhea? I had hoped to go through the 7 days of metrodinazole first before resorting to a food change. The onset of the diarrhea trailed the food introduction by several weeks. The RadCat is the only low phosphorus/low carb food she will eat. Of course I can increase her carbs with kidney prescription food and just give up on remission. I think my vet thinks I should do that.
What are causes of intermittent diarrhea? It's not usually indicative of kidney disease, according to my vet. Yum hasn't vomited since Saturday.
Is it suspicious her insulin requirements are dropping with these other issues (from 3+ units to 1.25 units)? Well, for the past few days she is eating less and losing weight, so that could make sense. But it began dropping on 9/11, with her first brief bout with inappettance.
Any ideas or suggestions are welcome. She is still a very happy cat. I am very worried.
