Sean & Rufus
Member Since 2018
So...I wrote a long post a couple weeks ago introducing Rufus and his issues. Just wanted to explain again what happened and ask what would you do...
Rufus is a big dude. He was 24 pounds at his heaviest, vet thinks he should be about 18 pounds, he does have a long body. A couple years ago, Rufus started throwing up quite a bit, and vet thought it was eating too much too fast. We then switched foods and started to vomit less, but then he started licking himself. Never did testing for allergies because was told it was a waste of money.
Fast forward this last April. Brought him in for a vaccine and the vet said he looks miserable. Loss of hair, red ears, etc. I said, yeah, I've been saying for years. We switched him to Royal Canine Selective rabbit. He was also eating a tiny bit of deli turkey each day (dumb, I know now seeing as this was probably contributing to his issues). He was scratching and licking less, but still doing it. Switched to a different protein twice in Late July/early August because of cost of food. He didn't care for the new ones. Switched back to Royal Canine.
Late August I noticed that he was eating less and less dry food. He was always getting 1/4 can of rc rabbit at night and continued to eat that, until later next month.
Brought him to vet. No real reason that he wasn't eating. He had bad ears (infections?) and his creatine was a little elevated and he was slightly dehydrated. Vet said sometimes cats don't like to eat when creatine is elevated. A week goes by and still not eating well. This guy loves to eat, so this is strange. I called vet and asked about this drug that I read about, prednisone, to increase appetitie, and stop the itching. She doesn't want to do, but I twist her arm. He's on it for a few day and no change, so I decide to get second opinion from a different vet.
New vet (Late September) gives him sub q fluids, new meds for ears, and antibiotic. He was like a brand new cat for about 2 weeks, then starts again witht he not eating. Now he's not eating dry and the wet has to have water added to eat. On top of that, he only likes a food for a couple days, and then no longer will eat it. The ear drops aren't working so we switch to a ear dropped only approved for dogs. It seems to work better. So now his appetite is up and down. Vet thinks he has pancreatitis now from me switching foods on him, but I had to to get him to eat.
In november I wanted to have his teeth checked because why is he not really eating dry food. She says lets try some buprenorphine and see what happens. 1st day no change, second night he was eating dry food (normally), and wet food that wasn't altered with water! 3rd day, he was having issues with the dry food (dropping it, chewing head tilted). Didn't attempt to eat dry for 1 month after this. He was only on this for 3 days.
So she agrees to dental check (this whole time vet 1 and new vet don't think his issues are tooth related). She wants to do bloodwork first. We scgedule it 3 weeks out. Week and a half later (thanksgiving), Rufus is peeing like crazy. We do bloodwork early and BG was 400's. We stop the predinsone and start Lantus.
So here we are end of January. Rufus is kinda sometimes eating dry food, but mostly it is pureed fancy feast. He still won't eat unaltered wet food. Only wants Fancy Feast. I'm pretty sure he is allergic/intolerant to it. His stomach is always gurgling, has gas, could be IBD now. Went to dental specialst a couple weeks ago, and she doesn't think its a dental issue, but we cant't check because his number are too high.
So, we are now on 5 units am & pm. He seems "better" for the most part. But his numbers won't go down to where they need to be, and still has issues eating. Is it the pancreatitis or bad teeth? Who knows because I can't fix the other without fixing the other first!
We did have a scare last weekend and went to emergeny vet. She said while 5 and 5 units isn't THAT high, she thinks I need to see a specialist for him to get better because the underlying issue is casuing the numbers not to drop. My regular vet thinks it would just be a waste of time and money, and that when we get to 7 and 7 we should switch to a different insulin.
I did leave out some details, as I truly didn't want to write this much. Thank you for reading this I know it was long. Now, what would you do in this situation? I truly thought that no more steriods and low/zero carb food would do the trick, but it's not working.
Rufus is a big dude. He was 24 pounds at his heaviest, vet thinks he should be about 18 pounds, he does have a long body. A couple years ago, Rufus started throwing up quite a bit, and vet thought it was eating too much too fast. We then switched foods and started to vomit less, but then he started licking himself. Never did testing for allergies because was told it was a waste of money.
Fast forward this last April. Brought him in for a vaccine and the vet said he looks miserable. Loss of hair, red ears, etc. I said, yeah, I've been saying for years. We switched him to Royal Canine Selective rabbit. He was also eating a tiny bit of deli turkey each day (dumb, I know now seeing as this was probably contributing to his issues). He was scratching and licking less, but still doing it. Switched to a different protein twice in Late July/early August because of cost of food. He didn't care for the new ones. Switched back to Royal Canine.
Late August I noticed that he was eating less and less dry food. He was always getting 1/4 can of rc rabbit at night and continued to eat that, until later next month.
Brought him to vet. No real reason that he wasn't eating. He had bad ears (infections?) and his creatine was a little elevated and he was slightly dehydrated. Vet said sometimes cats don't like to eat when creatine is elevated. A week goes by and still not eating well. This guy loves to eat, so this is strange. I called vet and asked about this drug that I read about, prednisone, to increase appetitie, and stop the itching. She doesn't want to do, but I twist her arm. He's on it for a few day and no change, so I decide to get second opinion from a different vet.
New vet (Late September) gives him sub q fluids, new meds for ears, and antibiotic. He was like a brand new cat for about 2 weeks, then starts again witht he not eating. Now he's not eating dry and the wet has to have water added to eat. On top of that, he only likes a food for a couple days, and then no longer will eat it. The ear drops aren't working so we switch to a ear dropped only approved for dogs. It seems to work better. So now his appetite is up and down. Vet thinks he has pancreatitis now from me switching foods on him, but I had to to get him to eat.
In november I wanted to have his teeth checked because why is he not really eating dry food. She says lets try some buprenorphine and see what happens. 1st day no change, second night he was eating dry food (normally), and wet food that wasn't altered with water! 3rd day, he was having issues with the dry food (dropping it, chewing head tilted). Didn't attempt to eat dry for 1 month after this. He was only on this for 3 days.
So she agrees to dental check (this whole time vet 1 and new vet don't think his issues are tooth related). She wants to do bloodwork first. We scgedule it 3 weeks out. Week and a half later (thanksgiving), Rufus is peeing like crazy. We do bloodwork early and BG was 400's. We stop the predinsone and start Lantus.
So here we are end of January. Rufus is kinda sometimes eating dry food, but mostly it is pureed fancy feast. He still won't eat unaltered wet food. Only wants Fancy Feast. I'm pretty sure he is allergic/intolerant to it. His stomach is always gurgling, has gas, could be IBD now. Went to dental specialst a couple weeks ago, and she doesn't think its a dental issue, but we cant't check because his number are too high.
So, we are now on 5 units am & pm. He seems "better" for the most part. But his numbers won't go down to where they need to be, and still has issues eating. Is it the pancreatitis or bad teeth? Who knows because I can't fix the other without fixing the other first!
We did have a scare last weekend and went to emergeny vet. She said while 5 and 5 units isn't THAT high, she thinks I need to see a specialist for him to get better because the underlying issue is casuing the numbers not to drop. My regular vet thinks it would just be a waste of time and money, and that when we get to 7 and 7 we should switch to a different insulin.
I did leave out some details, as I truly didn't want to write this much. Thank you for reading this I know it was long. Now, what would you do in this situation? I truly thought that no more steriods and low/zero carb food would do the trick, but it's not working.
, and I've seen a few posts go on for days here!
