Amy&TrixieCat
Member Since 2011
Yesterday
Thank you, everyone, for your replies and support yesterday. Trix has become a never-ending mystery these days! Today has been pretty much the same: she's snuggly and social, but I have to do the plate holding for her.
To answer a couple questions and comments off the top from last night's condo:
The addition of kibble is two-fold: to get her interested in eating her wet food again, as well as to get some extra calories in her. I'm putting the kibbles on top of her wet food, and she does "dig in" to the wet food to get the kibbles. I'm not using a lot of kibbles for this...maybe 5 or so at a time. I really don't want to use too much kibble, but at this point, she needs the boost, so we'll do what we have to do.
With the Fancy Feast as a big part of her current diet...I couldn't agree more, Tina. It is far from ideal with regards to its phosphorous levels. However, it is currently one of the very few things she will currently willingly eat that is also LC. Before the pancreatitis, she was eating low phosphorous/LC foods, but now she has an understandable aversion to those foods. And, even before the p-titis, she hated a lot of the low phos/LC options...if I even attempted to put EVO in front of her when she was at her healthiest, she would walk away without even taking a lick. At this point, I am using a binder most of the time, so I hope that is helping with keeping the phosphorous down for her. And I'm not using binder ALL the time, because sometimes she does seem to reject food with the binder in it.
And, FWIW Tina, you did give me some comfort by saying that your kitty's ulcers would heal. Even if the healing isn't permanent, healing is healing and that is hope.
Between the kibble and the Fancy Feast, her food situation is far from ideal, but as we all know...a cat HAS to eat. I told the vet yesterday I feel very trapped about her food situation. This is where sometimes having too much information at our fingertips is a bad thing: I can't tell you how much it stresses me out that I can't convince her to eat what she should eat to remain healthiest. It's practically paralyzing me.
At this point, I am really trying to keep her off insulin, not because I mind shooting, but because I'm really scared about trying to steer numbers with a cat whose appy is wonky and iffy. I have been very fortunate that her pancreas seems to be working well enough right now to keep her numbers down without insulin. So, I really don't want to go down the road of low phos foods that might be higher carb just yet. Hopefully the kibble won't mess that up too much, but if it does, we may have to use a small amount and until her appy is happier, we won't be able to be as rigid with TR. FD by itself was easy to manage...throw in the CKD, high BP, and pancreatitis or potential ulcer/GI bleeding, and my head is about to explode. I know many of you have juggled multiple issues for years...my hat's off to each and every one of you.
And of course now I'm wondering if this hasn't been pancreatitis all along....maybe it has been an ulcer. One of those things we may never know for sure, but hopefully the BW will provide some answers.
BTW, my vet mentioned yesterday that she is not a fan of the Weruva fuds, like the Paw Lickin' Chicken that Trix was so fond of (and which she now has an aversion to thanks to the p-titis). She said it is the too low caloried (I knew that) and she doesn't feel it is a complete diet. They've had cats come in who have lost weight and gotten sick from it. Soooooo....now I have to wonder about THAT choice, since this was one of the things she was eating when she got sick. Ugh!
I think Trix can't believe her little nose when she smells a few kibbles on her plate! I do have to shop around for some better kibbles for her...right now, all I have are the civvies' kibble, and none of them can digest the high protein/LC stuff...just another crazy corner of my life.
I am curious to see what the BW shows. Trix's case is so strange. Her appy is weird and I have to follow her around to get her to eat a fair amount, but at the same time, she LOOKS good...she really doesn't have a the look of a cat that doesn't feel well (or have insanely high kidney values), if you know what I mean. She's snuggly and social and not all balled up or meatloafing or hiding. Her eyes are bright and her ears are perky. That is one of the things that is really confusing the vet, who literally said yesterday that she is having a hard time figuring out the path to follow because Trix's behaviors don't match her numbers. She doesn't want to over- or under-medicate her. It's all so weird and surreal.
I also want to clarify my comments about the possibility of GI bleeding and/or an ulcer, as I don't think I explained it well last night.The vet wasn't disregarding the possibility/probability of a GI bleed/ulcer or brushing it off as being a minor thing. I think I made it sound like she thought it was no biggie and that is totally not the case. She knows it's something that needs to be addressed, but wants to get the full picture from the BW before deciding the course of action, and I think she was trying to ease MY mind a bit because although something like this is serious no matter what, it seems like it's something we've caught very early since Trix's gums look pink and she, for the most part, is feeling quite spunky and feisty. One of the reasons she thinks we should probably switch to Zantac is because of the possibility/probability of an ulcer, but she needs to research that it won't interact with her BP meds, and she wants to see the BW results to see if we need to consider switching from LRS to a different SubQ fluid (I hope not...I just bought a full case of LRS and with the shortage, they are not super cheap these days!). I hope that makes more sense.
My vet is just insanely awesome. I don't know how she manages to spend SO much extra time with me, both in the office and on the phone. She genuinely cares about Trixie and is working so hard to make all the best decisions for her.
BTW, I think there was another possible Trixie poop in the box...it was uncovered and in the corner where she usually aims. If it was hers, it was dark brown and not black, and it was well shaped. But I have no way of knowing for sure, since I didn't witness it. It probably could have been from Frankie, too, but I'm pretty sure Frankie usually buries. But, from what I've observed, Trix is the only one who consisently doesn't bury her poop.
This has turned into a crazy juggling act. Before her check up on March 1, all seemed well with Trix. Ever since then, all hell has broken loose. It's hard to say if it would have happened anyway, but I wonder how much of it was provoked with all this poking and prodding and meds and vetty stress....it is just so crazy.
We'll see. I'm 99% sure my vet doesn't work today, which means I'll get the BW results tomorrow....
Gonna try to squeeze a quick pre-work workout in (although my snugglebug just jumped on my lap
). It will be a stressful day for me since I'm working the store by myself and won't be able to come home and check on Trix...
Thank you again, my wonderful LL family!
Amy
Thank you, everyone, for your replies and support yesterday. Trix has become a never-ending mystery these days! Today has been pretty much the same: she's snuggly and social, but I have to do the plate holding for her.
To answer a couple questions and comments off the top from last night's condo:
The addition of kibble is two-fold: to get her interested in eating her wet food again, as well as to get some extra calories in her. I'm putting the kibbles on top of her wet food, and she does "dig in" to the wet food to get the kibbles. I'm not using a lot of kibbles for this...maybe 5 or so at a time. I really don't want to use too much kibble, but at this point, she needs the boost, so we'll do what we have to do.
With the Fancy Feast as a big part of her current diet...I couldn't agree more, Tina. It is far from ideal with regards to its phosphorous levels. However, it is currently one of the very few things she will currently willingly eat that is also LC. Before the pancreatitis, she was eating low phosphorous/LC foods, but now she has an understandable aversion to those foods. And, even before the p-titis, she hated a lot of the low phos/LC options...if I even attempted to put EVO in front of her when she was at her healthiest, she would walk away without even taking a lick. At this point, I am using a binder most of the time, so I hope that is helping with keeping the phosphorous down for her. And I'm not using binder ALL the time, because sometimes she does seem to reject food with the binder in it.
And, FWIW Tina, you did give me some comfort by saying that your kitty's ulcers would heal. Even if the healing isn't permanent, healing is healing and that is hope.
Between the kibble and the Fancy Feast, her food situation is far from ideal, but as we all know...a cat HAS to eat. I told the vet yesterday I feel very trapped about her food situation. This is where sometimes having too much information at our fingertips is a bad thing: I can't tell you how much it stresses me out that I can't convince her to eat what she should eat to remain healthiest. It's practically paralyzing me.
At this point, I am really trying to keep her off insulin, not because I mind shooting, but because I'm really scared about trying to steer numbers with a cat whose appy is wonky and iffy. I have been very fortunate that her pancreas seems to be working well enough right now to keep her numbers down without insulin. So, I really don't want to go down the road of low phos foods that might be higher carb just yet. Hopefully the kibble won't mess that up too much, but if it does, we may have to use a small amount and until her appy is happier, we won't be able to be as rigid with TR. FD by itself was easy to manage...throw in the CKD, high BP, and pancreatitis or potential ulcer/GI bleeding, and my head is about to explode. I know many of you have juggled multiple issues for years...my hat's off to each and every one of you.
And of course now I'm wondering if this hasn't been pancreatitis all along....maybe it has been an ulcer. One of those things we may never know for sure, but hopefully the BW will provide some answers.
BTW, my vet mentioned yesterday that she is not a fan of the Weruva fuds, like the Paw Lickin' Chicken that Trix was so fond of (and which she now has an aversion to thanks to the p-titis). She said it is the too low caloried (I knew that) and she doesn't feel it is a complete diet. They've had cats come in who have lost weight and gotten sick from it. Soooooo....now I have to wonder about THAT choice, since this was one of the things she was eating when she got sick. Ugh!
I think Trix can't believe her little nose when she smells a few kibbles on her plate! I do have to shop around for some better kibbles for her...right now, all I have are the civvies' kibble, and none of them can digest the high protein/LC stuff...just another crazy corner of my life.
I am curious to see what the BW shows. Trix's case is so strange. Her appy is weird and I have to follow her around to get her to eat a fair amount, but at the same time, she LOOKS good...she really doesn't have a the look of a cat that doesn't feel well (or have insanely high kidney values), if you know what I mean. She's snuggly and social and not all balled up or meatloafing or hiding. Her eyes are bright and her ears are perky. That is one of the things that is really confusing the vet, who literally said yesterday that she is having a hard time figuring out the path to follow because Trix's behaviors don't match her numbers. She doesn't want to over- or under-medicate her. It's all so weird and surreal.
I also want to clarify my comments about the possibility of GI bleeding and/or an ulcer, as I don't think I explained it well last night.The vet wasn't disregarding the possibility/probability of a GI bleed/ulcer or brushing it off as being a minor thing. I think I made it sound like she thought it was no biggie and that is totally not the case. She knows it's something that needs to be addressed, but wants to get the full picture from the BW before deciding the course of action, and I think she was trying to ease MY mind a bit because although something like this is serious no matter what, it seems like it's something we've caught very early since Trix's gums look pink and she, for the most part, is feeling quite spunky and feisty. One of the reasons she thinks we should probably switch to Zantac is because of the possibility/probability of an ulcer, but she needs to research that it won't interact with her BP meds, and she wants to see the BW results to see if we need to consider switching from LRS to a different SubQ fluid (I hope not...I just bought a full case of LRS and with the shortage, they are not super cheap these days!). I hope that makes more sense.
My vet is just insanely awesome. I don't know how she manages to spend SO much extra time with me, both in the office and on the phone. She genuinely cares about Trixie and is working so hard to make all the best decisions for her.
BTW, I think there was another possible Trixie poop in the box...it was uncovered and in the corner where she usually aims. If it was hers, it was dark brown and not black, and it was well shaped. But I have no way of knowing for sure, since I didn't witness it. It probably could have been from Frankie, too, but I'm pretty sure Frankie usually buries. But, from what I've observed, Trix is the only one who consisently doesn't bury her poop.
This has turned into a crazy juggling act. Before her check up on March 1, all seemed well with Trix. Ever since then, all hell has broken loose. It's hard to say if it would have happened anyway, but I wonder how much of it was provoked with all this poking and prodding and meds and vetty stress....it is just so crazy.
We'll see. I'm 99% sure my vet doesn't work today, which means I'll get the BW results tomorrow....
Gonna try to squeeze a quick pre-work workout in (although my snugglebug just jumped on my lap
). It will be a stressful day for me since I'm working the store by myself and won't be able to come home and check on Trix...Thank you again, my wonderful LL family!
Amy
