1/14 Trixie PMBG 117 - Culture Results: Enterococcus

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Amy&TrixieCat

Amy&TrixieCat

Member Since 2011
Yesterday

I am once again saying this with great caution and as many anti-jinxes as possible...but it looks like Trixie is back! The change in her over the past couple days has been remarkable, and in hindsight, I believe I had missed some subtle signs that she wasn't feeling like herself for a while. I think she must have had some sort of low-grade infection - whether it was p-titis or something else - going on that really didn't show any strong symptoms until this past Sunday, and now that she's had a few days of ABs (which fortunately are not bothering her), she's feeling much better. Her recovery is much quicker than I would expect if it wasn't something that needed an AB...I could be wrong, because she does like to keep me guessing, but that's my theory.

We have our fairly happy appy (I'm still doing some assist-feeding to be sure she gets all of her calories - and then some), we have snuggles and kibble hunts and playing with 'nip toys and a "hissy growly swatty repack it" gelcap event this morning (got it down 20 minutes later....:rolleyes:)

I tell ya, though, if she didn't have a food aversion before, DH and I managed to give her one last night by startling her while she was eating....not once, but twice :confused:. The first time was right after we did fluids...she was SO happy and snuggly and rubby lovey dovey. She came down for her post-fluids snack...I was holding the plate in one hand and spoon in the other. I dropped the frikken spoon right next to her little ear :nailbiting:. She RAN...poor girl was scared of me for at least an hour. She was finally starting to relax a bit, I was doing her last feeding of the evening via syringe, and DH made some sort of loud noise in another room. Since she was already on edge, that sent her over...UGH. She wanted nothing to do with the syringe or eating after that. I had to wait almost another hour before trying again. Poor girl...and, of course, even though DH made the second noise, I was the one feeding her when it happened, so you know who she associated it with :(...

But, she seems to be over it today.

I'm sorry I haven't visited many condos in the past few days...and we have such an influx of new folks to meet, too. I know you all know how overwhelming it is when our furbabies don't feel well. Last night, DH and I cracked open a couple bottles of cheap Trader Joe's wine and breathed a sigh of relief. Today, hopefully it's back to visiting as usual...

For now, though...it's time to get ready for work :(. Have a great day, L&LL!

Amy
 
Hi Amy, I'm so happy that Trixie is feeling much better. Too bad that she got spooked when you dropped the spoon(!), but she's is probably on hyper-alert these days. Trix, your mamabean was just a little clumsy. Cut her some slack! Go and do some yoga stretches!

Have a good day, a calm day,

Hugs and scritches,

Ella & Rusty
 
Great great news!! The ABS must have kicked whatever it was. We have done the loud noise thing before too. Tarragon is super skittish and it always happens to be when I just put the needle in or am trying to test. Grrrrr.

You definitely deserved a bottle of wine after the week you have had. I need one of those too. I have been horrible about visiting condos but work has been and will be absolutely insane with year end and then I get home and have Charlie to deal with right now. ((((Amy))))
 
I'm sorry I haven't visited many condos in the past few days...and we have such an influx of new folks to meet, too. I know you all know how overwhelming it is when our furbabies don't feel well. Last night, DH and I cracked open a couple bottles of cheap Trader Joe's wine and breathed a sigh of relief. Today, hopefully it's back to visiting as usual...

Amy[/QUOTE]
So glad to ready this condo this morning. As long as it's gone and good bye and good riddance to whatever it was. Don't worry about visiting. We all know how worried you have been and busy too.
 
I'm glad Trixie is doing better. Hopefully she's over whatever it was. Sorry about the loud noises scaring her. I'm glad she's over it today.
 
Trixie is feeling like Trixie tonight - happy appy, snuggly, and spunky :)!

Had VERY long conversation with our awesome vet this afternoon. Trix's urine culture did test positive for a scant amount of enterococcus, so we will be doing a 4-week course amoxycillan (not even going to try to spell that correctly) to try and eradicate it. Vetty did say this bacteria can be a bit of a pain in the butt sometimes, but since this is the first time it has shown up for Trix, we will treat with ABs. This is in addition to her Zenniquin; since that AB seems to be helping with whatever else Trix had going on, Vetty wants to run the course - I think we have 5 days left on that one. Unfortunately enterococcus is resistant to Zenniquin. She also suggested we start a cranberry supplement and probiotic to help push this bacteria out of the picture. We re-culture 4-5 days after she finishes the AB.

If this bacteria continues to show up, we probably will do an ultrasound to see if there is a stone that could be harboring it.

This also means we're going to have to do a second gelcap both morning and night, for a total of 4. Yay! There's just not enough room in her current gelcaps to add in another med. Unfortunately the liquid form of this med has sucrose in it, so that's not an option....pill it is.

And she said it's possible that Trix's extremely elevated kidney values could be related to this p-titits flare, or with the enterococcus (which MAY be sitting on a kidney stone), or both. She's still baffled that Trix seems to feel so good despite these kidney values.

She also consulted with two other internists about Trix's case, because she's such a head-scratcher (her words!). That's my girl! And, what an awesome vet...in case I haven't mentioned it before!

We talked for almost 40 minutes this afternoon, so this is the very abridged version of what went on.

Gelcap time.
 
hey , you almost had it right.....
amoxycillan vs amoxicillin
we all know what you talking bout.

aw man, another pill, you definitely need a compounding pharmacy .... I hate gel caps....

Sending continued improvement vines....
 
great to hear she's feeling better! And nothing like having a diagnosis and a direction to go.

Fortunately she's forgiven you for ruining her life last night! LOL. what a good girl!
 
Aha! Maybe. Could be. This might be the answer to Miss Trixie's enigma(s). But, oh man, pills and more pills. Short term for the a/b. You can do it Trix. You, too, Amy.

Such promising news. And it's great to have the little feisty girl back.

Marilyn and Polly
 
I too am a big fan of answers! And awesome vets. :) I do hope this helps with the kidney values too. Bummer on the gelcaps - you two are going to be such pros at that. :rolleyes:

What cranberry supplement are you going to use? There's someone over on Health who is looking for diabetic friendly cranberry supplement.
 
Good to see Trixie is happy appy snuggly and spunky tonight!:joyful:..ahh..yet another gelcap...but your the gel cap queen Amy!:).lol..Sounds like you have a super great vet..so fortunate you are for that. Hope your little "head scratcher" continues to feel better.
 
4 gelcaps! Poor Trixie and poor you and DH! I'm thrilled that Trixie is almost back to her normal self and eating. Hopefully, she will forget all about the loud noise association with her mamabean. You are doing such a terrific job taking care of her and figuring out what is going on. I hope the new AB really kicks out whatever else is bothering her. Hopefully, she will not have any tummy issues with the 2 AB's together.

Enjoy the wine. Trader Jo's wine is always our fall back wine. Cheap, but fairly decent. Get some rest tonight.
 
Continued good vines for Trixie. :):):):)

wow on the 4 gelcaps.... good luck!

I am elated your vet will take the time to talk to you like he does. it is awesome. When Mannie had so many issues mine would take the time too, her and his IM vet. It is such a comfort to know they will listen, take the time to talk.

Have a great evening Amy!
 
Wendy&Neko said:
What cranberry supplement are you going to use? There's someone over on Health who is looking for diabetic friendly cranberry supplement.
Click to expand...

I haven't gotten that far yet...I was going to ask here :joyful:!!! I remember seeing someone or other (Ann and Tess???) using cranberry.

One of the many reasons Trix is a headscratcher is that she has no symptoms of a UTI of any sort, so yet another "huh???" here. It was a scant culture, so maybe we JUST caught it. The only reason we ran the culture was because blood was in her routine culture...and that could have just been from the stick, but since she was "off", we decided to culture it.

LOL on being the gelcap queen....talk about a title I never wanted! It doesn't affect DH much...he doesn't do gelcaps. I'd love him to be able to do it, but at the same time, Trix is used to my technique, and I don't want to throw her off, so he's never tried.

Vetty said that amoxy isn't too problematic for most kitties. So far, the Zenniquin doesn't seem to bother her at all. Vetty also said she avoids clavamox unless it is absolutely necessary since it is so rough on them. A couple years ago, my civvie Petey was on clavamox for one dose (broken tooth, pre-dental)...and it took him down within a few hours. Nasty stuff.

She is happy and hungry and spunky this evening....she's Trixie!
 
For a while I was adding Cranimals to civie Theo's fuds. Then I found out from a bean with idiopathic cystitis that cranberry is not a good thing to add. :rolleyes:
 
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My vet did say the cranberry idea was "controversial", but at the same time, she said if it was her kitty, she'd do it. She said that this bacteria can be a pain, and when cats have had it show up multiple times, the one thing that really got rid of it was the cranberry. She went into great detail about how and why it works (in her opinion), but that is more technical than my tired brain can recall o_O! She said you can ask a lot of different vets and get a variety of opinions. The two internists she spoke to gave her different opinions about it.
 
YAY for answers, and more YAY for Trixie being back to Trixie!!! :):):)

You do have an awesome vet! It's wonderful you were able to speak at such length and get all your questions out there.

I can relate to the gelcap issues, but what would we do without them? Can you imagine having to give her every pill separately? :eek: Me, either.

Sending lots more healing vines for a continued recovery.
 
((((Amy))))) I love that Miss Trixie is her old feisty self- and eating her fuds(despite the loud noises - been there, done that!! :oops:) I am glad to hear you are getting some answers to fill in the pieces of he Trixie puzzle- sending tons and tons of prayers and easy gel-cap swallowing vines for continued progress.

Question: is there a slightly larger sized gelcap that could be used? I admire you so much for being able to get those things down! your vet sounds wonderful as well!
 
Hi, I'm so glad that Trixie is feeling better and that you are getting some answers. yes, we were using Cranberry for Tess's UTIs. from what I understand (and it's been a while since I did the research) it's actually d-Mannose, the active ingredient in cranberry, that helps. Not to acidify the urine, but the d-mannose blocks the sites in the bladder that the bacteria uses to attach itself, preventing it from forming colonies. We were using Pet naturals of Vermont UT Support chews. YAY, on less pill. Unfortunately Tess decided she didn't like them anymore. I got it at Vitacost.com at half the price retail shops charge. There are also a couple of products at Drs Foster and Smith that looked good.

Another thing that helps is glucosamine/ chondroitin (Cosequin). The lining of the bladder is made up of a membrane very similar to that in joints. The G/S helps to strengthen it and prevent irritation.
 
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