Thank you everyone for your replies. It's 4am on Thursday here and I'm exhausted, so I'm just going to post this reply and make a new thread tomorrow. The SS is up to date.
Dosage recommendations for budesonide vary, but the standard is generally 1 mg. per day for cats, regardless of their weight. However, doses may range from .5 mg to 3 mg. per day depending upon the prescribing veterinarian and the cat.
there’s tons of good info on that site. There’s a whose section on steroids that’s very informative.
What is Henry’s dose currently?
I've read quite a bit of that site, but I need to go more in depth and make sure I hit up all the pages and make sure I haven't missed anything. Thanks for that dosage info. I'll be talking with the vet tomorrow so I'm interested to see what she'll have to say. Henry's currently on 1mg.
How is his poop? You said it seemed to vary based on the enzymes and how they’re administered, so just wondering how he’s doing digesting his food.
Weight can vary a bit based on recent meal or urination/defecation, fluid intake, and so forth. But he was around this weight not too long ago, wasn’t he? It might be a win to just to “stem the tide” (stop or slow the rapid weight loss) and then hope for a bit of weight gain as all the variables (EPI, BG, IBD, etc) start to respond to treatment.
Importantly: what is the “whole cat report? How are the 5 P’s — purring, pooping, peeing, playing, preening?
Poop is looking good. It's gotten a bit softer than usual, but the color is pretty good. No more light/clay color, so I do think the enzymes are working. He's been getting 95%+ of the enzymes mixed with the food and only pills very rarely. Yes, he actually pooped a TON yesterday and the day before. He's insides don't feel nearly as bloated as they have in the past. I'm wondering with the soft stool if maybe a "log jam" finally broke and that is responsible for the sudden weight loss. I'll hope anyway. I thought I could feel that he seemed like a little bit of meat had been growing between his ribs, but I'm not really feeling that anymore unfortunately. He eats less when he's not getting the FF, but he still eats at least 3 times what a normal cat would. Yes, I'm really hoping he isn't actually loosing and it's just all the different variables that make it seem that he's losing weight.
About the WCR: He's doing fine in the pooping and peeing department. He hasn't preened in a long time unfortunately. I take a wet paper towel to him everyday and wipe him down, making sure to clean really well around his nose and mouth since they get a lot of food stuck on them. He wasn't too happy about me doing this at first, but he's came around to the idea. I always start by doing his coat first and I think that kind of relaxes him, so that he'll like me do his mouth and nose. Haven't seen much for playing since that wrapper about 2 weeks ago, and the mouse a couple days ago. Purring has been sporadic, but infrequent. He used to be a purr machine and I couldn't pick him up or get close to him without his motor running non-stop, now I'm lucky to get a couple purrs maybe 1 every day or two usually when he's begging for food, and it just doesn't sound the same unfortunately. It's like he's trying really hard, but having a difficult time getting it out, but he does make little coos and other noises that are hard to explain unless you've ever had a Siamese.
1 mg is a good starting dose, that's what Neko was on. Then we reduced down to 0.75 units. I had it compounded into a liquid, so easy enough to change the dose. But she had presumed SCL, not IBD.
It can be helpful to put the dose in the Remarks section when you first start it. And then later if you change it. Remarks is a good section to document anything that might have an influence on the BG's. He's only on day 3 of budesonide, have patience.
Well, we're not sure if it's IBD or SCL either, but since the treatment is essentially the same, I guess it probably doesn't matter much. I added the Budesonide info to the remarks section, I'll try to be more consistent with adding any additional info I have too. He had his first Budesonide dose on Saturday and today (well, yesterday now) was Wednesday so he's had 5 doses. Come to think of it, I'm now really wondering if the Budesonide may be responsible for the large amount of stools and his bloating going down significantly hence the weight loss. Paws crossed it's doing its work.
He’s adorable with the mouse, even though it’s sad for the mouse (although you said the mouse must have been dying). He does look better in his face. Such a sweet boy!
Yeah, the mouse was probably dead before he even got to it, but it's hard to know for sure since he headed directly under the porch so I couldn't take it from him. It didn't move as far as I could see, but it also didn't look like it had been dead long either, so I'm really not sure. He was super proud of that thing and sprung right to life when he spotted it.
This really is a marathon with Henry. Everything is in a state of flux: appetite good/ appetite bad; ketones up/ketones down; enzymes being eaten/enzymes not being eaten…. And more. You are a wonderful, persevering dad to Henry.
Aww, thank you. It certainly feels like a constant battle. Some days you feel like you're winning and other days not so much. I'm glad the ketones seem to be staying low despite some high BG numbers lately. I think fighting them with the R has helped keep the ketones down, along with the frequent feeding.
The Budesonide is 1mg is that a standard dose? Maybe he requires prednisone?
