Had an emergency visit with Asia to our vet today.
Asia has been having something going on. Recurrence of the kidney infection or a UTI, I think one of those is true based on pee pee pants going away with antibiotic treatment. But unlike the first kidney infection treatment where her BG returned to status quo in 7 days, it hasn’t been the case here. I still think she has a UTI or kidney infection because the antibiotics stopped the pee pee pants, but I think she has something else going on too which may or may not be related.
She has been having more pain recently, as I’ve stated earlier. Today she was just laying around and then she started making her “ow, help me I’m in distress” meow, which I’ve only heard 2 or 3 times in almost 22 years, but it’s pretty unmistakable that’s exactly what it means. She seemed like she may have been “turtled” flipped over enough such that she couldn’t right herself, I tried to help her up. She laid back down and stretched herself out as if to relieve pressure or discomfort, then something in her abdomen started to spasm. It did not look like a heart/funky breathing thing, it looked like a violent muscle spasm, I have it on video. I pet her side and she made the help me cry again, some pain in her abdomen somewhere.
I immediately gave her more bupe which was about 7 hours after her last dose, she’s getting it every 8 hours at the moment. She got up and went to her food dish, I gave her some food. She walked with some ataxia like she was trying to go straight but her whole body was veering left. She ate a couple bites of food and then went to lay on my daughter’s bedroom floor, which has recently been her “I don’t feel awesome” spot, not to be confused with the “this is really bad” sick spot which involves hiding behind something or under the bed. I called my vet to see if I could come in right away, gave her cerenia and grabbed all of her stuff. I guess the bupe kicked in by this time and she was acting more normal, went back to eat the rest of her food and then yelled at me for more food, I gave her more food.
She was 10.4 (pounds) at her heart echo appointment, she was 10.11 at the vets today. I was concerned with fluid or something in her abdomen, she keeps gaining weight despite not getting more food. I mentioned maybe pancreatitis, I showed my vet the video of her yelling and the abdominal spasm, didn’t get the ataxia on video. They did a couple X-rays, nothing funky, no fluid, pancreas was clearly defined (a good thing), not constipated, stomach was EMPTY (she had just eaten two helpings, two tablespoons, of food too, that threw me for a loop). No gas, bladder looked fine, no masses. X-ray told us nothing other than everything looks okay. In house labs (chem 15) didn’t reveal anything significant, electrolytes were good, BUN was down, creatinine didn’t run so we sent it out. Basically, blood work showed nothing of note. She also sent out for a PLI, she thinks that number with Asia’s symptoms is clinically significant. Their ultrasound tech was not in today.
Vet doesn’t know what’s going on, I don’t know what’s going on, she suspects pancreatitis, but Asia is eating fine, no bathroom problems, she had acid tummy barf this morning, but I didn’t give her cerenia since Sunday, so that’s not unusual. I think it could be pancreatitis too, but...I asked if the ataxia would be related to pancreatitis and she said no. I asked if it could be neurological or if it wasn’t what could explain that and the spasm and the pain/cry. She said possibly a stroke or a clot. That would make more sense to me. She had a mini episode of this last week, I thought maybe she was having a symptomatic hypo, but her number was in the 60s. I gave her some food and bupe and she was back to normal in short order just like today.
I told vet I’m not leaving her overnight anywhere to sit in a cage and be scared and hooked up to things, if it comes to that I will make a more humane decision, but whatever I could do non-invasively to help her without leaving her somewhere alone, I’m open to it. I’m usually very stoic in moments of needing to use my brain and think fast, but I told her these things with uncontrolled tears running down my face because I thought this is the end of the road. She said it’s not that time, not to worry, we could try steroids and there were others things to do, it wasn’t at that point yet. She said give her bupe, keep her out of pain, give it every 6 hours if I need to. Call tomorrow to get the results emailed from IDEXX and that she would call me when she’s back at work on Monday.
I’m nearly a grand poorer, I think it’s going to be a long weekend. I’m not sure the PLI or creatinine is going to tell us much. Sometimes recently when I pet her side, I feel something, think small water balloon, but it moves out of the way as I pet her and I can’t find it again. She loves belly rubs, but sometimes recently when I pet her tummy, I know it bothers her because she furiously licks and bites her paws when she’s bothered and she’s done that a few times. Her ataxia episode it looked like her potbelly was markedly popped out more on the left side than the right.
Anyone want to take a shot at what could be going on here? Or things I can do or look for? It’s a whole lot of guesswork as the labs aren’t telling much, vet said we can do another ultrasound next week. Next week seems far away. I’m worried.
ETA: vet also mentioned something with the ultrasound and lymph nodes, taking a sample, not a biopsy, but a sample.
With the naked eye, they appear fine, but we all know that doesn’t mean much.
