Tara & Ivana (GA)
Member Since 2015
Last post for HRH's 20th birthday
Hello FDMBers! Hope everyone is going well. It has been a bit of a stressful time in our household, Ivana gave us a mighty scare about a month ago and we weren't sure how much longer she would be with us, but in true Ivana-style she is way too stubburn to give up and so she still graces us with her presence. Here's the story...
So as some of you know, Ivana has been in FD remission for a bit over two years. She's also been dealing with CKD for about 2.5 yrs now, as well as high blood pressure, sundowners dementia, and CKD-associated constipation. She had two bouts of constipation in March I think it was, and both times needed an enema and manual evacuation. She was then on laxatives (Laxapet) twice every day. Sadly that only worked temporarily, and last month she had yet another constipation episode - on a Saturday afternoon 30min after our vet closed, mind you - and we ended up at the emergency vet with another enema and manual evacuation under anaesthetic. That was bloody scary, let me tell you, to have a 20yr old kitty put under... it was an extremely tense afternoon til we got the phone call that she was in recovery, but she came out the other side just fine.
Anyway, the emergency vet gave us a diagnosis of megacolon and also gave us Lactulose (which we'd already discussed with our vet as being the next step), and we started her on that twice a day. Come the next Wednesday, she still hadn't pooped. Our regular vet gave her until the Thursday night to poop otherwise we'd have to take her back in. We were stalking her tray for 'presents' but she had still not produced anything besides lots of wee. On Thursday afternoon, hubby and I came home from work and both of us said that'd we'd been stressing out about the situation because if she can no longer poop on her own, we weren't liking the alternatives - we couldn't just take her to the vet every time she needed to poop, not only was it stressful and undignified for her but we just couldn't afford it (the emergency vet cost us $750!). If she didn't poop soon we would seriously need to consider her quality of life and make harsh decisions, with the vet's input. Turns out that as we having this conversation, she was in her ensuite pooping
Talk about leaving it til the last minute Ivana!!!
So the upshot of that little 'adventure' is that she's now on Cisapride for megacolon, and Osmolax/Miralax for the constipation. And subcutaneous fluids will no doubt be helping too. It seems to be working, infact they may be working too well as she is leaving tiny chocolate nuggets for us that we think she doesn't even know she's doing - she will be asleep, and when she wakes up and moves away from the spot there's a little reminder of her visit. It's not that she can't make it to the tray, because she doesn't always go there after moving, so we think maybe her colon motility is so much better now that it just makes it own way out, not sure really but it's sure as heck better than the alternative. We're going to reduce the Osmolax as of today and see if that makes a difference, otherwise we'll just resign ourselves to checking our bed before we get in and our chairs before we sit down.
Now it's photo time!!
Ivana and Buddy snoozing on the lounge a couple of nights ago - don't they make a gorgeous couple?!
Ivana is such a champ with her fluids, she lays like this almost every time, so tolerant of everything we do to her.
What a poser! This was during the stressful period when we were waiting for poop.
This is why we have no spare time and no spare money at the moment...
Hello FDMBers! Hope everyone is going well. It has been a bit of a stressful time in our household, Ivana gave us a mighty scare about a month ago and we weren't sure how much longer she would be with us, but in true Ivana-style she is way too stubburn to give up and so she still graces us with her presence. Here's the story...
So as some of you know, Ivana has been in FD remission for a bit over two years. She's also been dealing with CKD for about 2.5 yrs now, as well as high blood pressure, sundowners dementia, and CKD-associated constipation. She had two bouts of constipation in March I think it was, and both times needed an enema and manual evacuation. She was then on laxatives (Laxapet) twice every day. Sadly that only worked temporarily, and last month she had yet another constipation episode - on a Saturday afternoon 30min after our vet closed, mind you - and we ended up at the emergency vet with another enema and manual evacuation under anaesthetic. That was bloody scary, let me tell you, to have a 20yr old kitty put under... it was an extremely tense afternoon til we got the phone call that she was in recovery, but she came out the other side just fine.
Anyway, the emergency vet gave us a diagnosis of megacolon and also gave us Lactulose (which we'd already discussed with our vet as being the next step), and we started her on that twice a day. Come the next Wednesday, she still hadn't pooped. Our regular vet gave her until the Thursday night to poop otherwise we'd have to take her back in. We were stalking her tray for 'presents' but she had still not produced anything besides lots of wee. On Thursday afternoon, hubby and I came home from work and both of us said that'd we'd been stressing out about the situation because if she can no longer poop on her own, we weren't liking the alternatives - we couldn't just take her to the vet every time she needed to poop, not only was it stressful and undignified for her but we just couldn't afford it (the emergency vet cost us $750!). If she didn't poop soon we would seriously need to consider her quality of life and make harsh decisions, with the vet's input. Turns out that as we having this conversation, she was in her ensuite pooping
Talk about leaving it til the last minute Ivana!!!So the upshot of that little 'adventure' is that she's now on Cisapride for megacolon, and Osmolax/Miralax for the constipation. And subcutaneous fluids will no doubt be helping too. It seems to be working, infact they may be working too well as she is leaving tiny chocolate nuggets for us that we think she doesn't even know she's doing - she will be asleep, and when she wakes up and moves away from the spot there's a little reminder of her visit. It's not that she can't make it to the tray, because she doesn't always go there after moving, so we think maybe her colon motility is so much better now that it just makes it own way out, not sure really but it's sure as heck better than the alternative. We're going to reduce the Osmolax as of today and see if that makes a difference, otherwise we'll just resign ourselves to checking our bed before we get in and our chairs before we sit down.
Now it's photo time!!
Ivana and Buddy snoozing on the lounge a couple of nights ago - don't they make a gorgeous couple?!
Ivana is such a champ with her fluids, she lays like this almost every time, so tolerant of everything we do to her.
What a poser! This was during the stressful period when we were waiting for poop.
This is why we have no spare time and no spare money at the moment...
