13 July, Minerva, update from vet, mixed news

Joy W

Joy W

Member Since 2021
Minerva's AMPS yesterday was 18.8ish (338) and I gave her the full dose.

I was then able to get her admitted into the vet immediately afterwards, rather than waiting for a consult at 3.30 in the afternoon. They ran a range of tests, and all were normal including pancreatitis enzyme (and no signs of DKA) but her amylase was slightly raised so they decided to treat it like pancreatitis based on her symptoms and the amylase. We had the option of out-patient care as they thought it was a mild case easily managed, but as I am going away again this afternoon, G was worried about doing all of the meds by himself at home, so we admitted her.

They fitted a feeding tube yesterday and are/will be using anti-nausea, pain, and appetite stimulant drugs.

Her PMPS at the vet last night was over 18 again (can't remember the exact number) so they gave her the full dose, but due to their staffing hours it was about 1 hour 45 early, which I didn't love.

They just called to give me an update for today (about 10am my time). Her morning AMPS was 2.8 (50.4) so they skipped insulin and started her on a dextrose drip, and then she actually started having a mild seizure while they were on the phone to me so they have upped her dextrose and will reduce her insulin for future doses.

They said her prognosis is still good but the diabetes makes it trickier, but they are aiming to have her ready to come home on Friday, but that I should be aware that nothing is guaranteed.

I stopped by to see her on my way home last night, she had her tube and her cone and her drip, she was awake but perhaps a bit groggy (they lightly sedated her for her tube insert),or maybe not groggy but just unhappy, she was not very interactive (no vocalisations, no moving, no purring, none of which is that surprising) other than she did push her head into my hand when I reached into her cone to scratch behind her whiskers.

I leave today for a work trip and don't get home until Tuesday. I am so worried that things might go wrong while I am away and I might not get to go see her again, so I am trying very hard to focus on the "very good prognosis" part so that I don't fall apart completely during my work trip.

I would love to hear some good pancreatitis recovery stories.

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...238-11-5-381-no-appetite.265647/#post-2974458
 
Amylase is not really a pancreatitis marker for cats. A bg of 50 should not cause seizures. This does not make sense to me. Max never needed a feeding tube and was on,y hospitalized once fur 24 hours for pancreatitis. Tiffany was hospitalized more than once fur several days but she also had lymphoma. Did they do an ultrasound?
 
They said that amylase is correlated with pancreatitis although not a direct marker, and that not all cases of pancreatitis show with the lipase test, so given her symptoms they wanted to treat it like pancreatitis with anti-nausea, pain, and appetite stimulant drugs. They did say that she didn't show dehydration, and all her other blood markers were pretty good. No idea if they did an ultrasound, they just told me what they found and recommended. They were happy for us to do syringe feeding at home if we had opted for out-patient care, the tube might just be to make it easier for them to manage in house? To be fair what he actually said was "she started to get a bit shaky and wobbly" which I have summarised in my head as seizing but perhaps that is overstating it. We were on the phone at the time though and he put me on hold to dash off to her and that is what he said when he got back.

What should they be looking for with an ultrasound?

Thank you
 
[QUOTE="Joy W, post: 2975276, member: 33134" They were happy for us to do syringe feeding at home if we had opted for out-patient care, the tube might just be to make it easier for them to manage in house? To be fair what he actually said was "she started to get a bit shaky and wobbly" which I have summarised in my head as seizing but perhaps that is overstating it. We were on the phone at the time though and he put me on hold to dash off to her and that is what he said when he got back.

What should they be looking for with an ultrasound?

Thank you[/QUOTE]

The feeding tube will make feeding easier and medicating as well. Sounds like it likely was not a seizure. An ultrasound would show if there are cysts or the pancreas is enflamed. With cats amylase is not often a way to judge pancreatitis in cats but is for dogs. Did they run a SpecfPL blood test ? That’s the test for it. She’s getting the standard type of medications for pancreatitis.
 
Thanks @tiffmaxee They did say they did a specific pancreatitis test but I'm not sure of the exact name, I will try to find out. Thank you.
 
If the one I mentioned and negative it’s less likely to be pancreatitis. If they did the in house SNAP it only gives a positive and negative so if in the gray area could be pancreatitis but come out as negative. I hope that makes sense.
 
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