Lisa and Angel
Member Since 2023
Hi all,
Haven't been very active here lately due to some super hectic life events. I'm in the middle of a move, dealing with my own health (not very well tbh), and my clan of 7 seniors who are now taking a combined 25-30 meds a day.
Angel is doing pretty well. Her SS is not up to date but still much the same numbers as before. We're currently trialling an experimental treatment for her Persistant Post-Surgical Nerve Pain, where we're injecting different areas of her scar with a local anesthetic to pinpoint the origin of her pain. We've narrowed it down to an area of about 2 inches so far, getting closer every time. We're hoping to then get a permanent nerve block in place to cure her pain completely.
I'm posting today about our latest medical disaster. His name is Rover, he's a (nearly) 12 year old black furred domestic shorthair, non-diabetic. History of IBD for about 6 years, previously treated with meloxicam long term. Has always worked reasonably well, with few minor flareups. Without the NSAID, he gets liquid bloody diarrhea within days and extreme abdominal pain. Ultrasound in 2019 showed thickened bowel walls.
Last month, he was vomiting a lot, one time it had a small amount of blood. Off to the vet we went. Physical exam showed pain in the stomach, no other abnormalities. Considering symptoms + long term NSAID use, a stomach ulcer was suspected. Chose to treat with omeprazole and sucralfate and reduce the meloxicam as much as possible and wait and see. He improved quickly, no more vomiting.
Last week, he had, what at first seemed to be another flare up with diarrhea and abdominal pain, presumed at the time to be from reducing the meloxicam. Increased again but symptoms persisted. Peed outside the litter box for the first time in years, so off to the vet we went for a urinalysis. That was all good. Got bloodwork done, complete geriatric profile (organ function, bloodcount, fructosamine, SDMA, T4) and fPLI. Got the results back on monday, most was was all good. White blood counts just within range (on the low side). fPLI just within range at 4,4 (<=4,4 is normal, 4,5-8,7 elevated/pancreatitis possible, >= 8,8 pancreatitis highly likely).
On sunday, he started refusing treats. Immediately started him on cerenia. On monday, he was eating only minimally. Made an appointment for tuesday for an ultrasound. By monday night he was very poorly, not purring at all, refused all food, hiding under a blanket all night, no interest in anything. Come tuesday morning, physical exam showed he had a fever (104 fahrenheit). Then we went to the ultrasound room. Ultrasound showed more thickened bowel walls, but also an enlarged lymph node near his pancreas and a small amount of free fluid between his bladder and bowels. They attempted to get a fine needle aspirate from the lymph node 3 times, but didn't get enough cells to see/test. It seemed unusually difficult to get the needle into it, and it took some tugging to get the needle back out again.
Conclusion was pretty clear: IBD or cancer, most likely cancer. Definite diagnosis requires exploratory surgery and full thickness bowel biopsy. I'm not willing to put him through that.
Sidenote: he had a dental 1.5 years ago, his first time under anesthesia. He developed a seizure disorder afterwards. Tested EVERYTHING, including an MRI in fear of a brain tumor. No abnormalities. No explanation for the seizures. After, IIRC, 7 seizures total in the span of about 5 months, they went away and haven't come back since. But since it seemed that the anesthesia triggered the seizures, we don't want to put him under again in fear of that triggering him again.
He got an injection of methylprednisolone, cerenia and buprenorphine, and we were sent home with methylprednisolone tablets, antibiotics, more cerenia and mirtazapine, and sublingual buprenorphine. He started improving that evening, you could see him perking up more and more every hour. By wednesday, he was much better. Haven't needed to use the buprenorphine at all. He's normal now except his appetite is still at about 75%.
Now I'm looking to the future. Assuming it's cancer, I hope it's SCL and not large cell. I don't know if/how the enlarged lymph node factors into this. Maybe it's metastasized, or maybe it's just enlarged due to inflammation... I'm flat out not willing to put him through intensive IV chemo treatment. But pulse treatment with oral chlorambucil at a high dose once every 2 weeks seems much more tolerable. My vet is on holiday next week so I won't get to discuss it with her yet, and this past week was all about getting him feeling decent again, so I'm hoping to get some pros/cons from ya'll since I saw that many members here have been through this as well.
So... if you've had a cat with (presumed) SCL, did you treat with chlorambucil? Why yes/not? Can you share your experiences? Did your kitty experience side effects? I'm reading conflicting info about whether or not he has to be separated from the other cats, what did you do if you have/had other cats? Should I even consider this when it's not sure if he has SCL?
Haven't been very active here lately due to some super hectic life events. I'm in the middle of a move, dealing with my own health (not very well tbh), and my clan of 7 seniors who are now taking a combined 25-30 meds a day.
Angel is doing pretty well. Her SS is not up to date but still much the same numbers as before. We're currently trialling an experimental treatment for her Persistant Post-Surgical Nerve Pain, where we're injecting different areas of her scar with a local anesthetic to pinpoint the origin of her pain. We've narrowed it down to an area of about 2 inches so far, getting closer every time. We're hoping to then get a permanent nerve block in place to cure her pain completely.
I'm posting today about our latest medical disaster. His name is Rover, he's a (nearly) 12 year old black furred domestic shorthair, non-diabetic. History of IBD for about 6 years, previously treated with meloxicam long term. Has always worked reasonably well, with few minor flareups. Without the NSAID, he gets liquid bloody diarrhea within days and extreme abdominal pain. Ultrasound in 2019 showed thickened bowel walls.
Last month, he was vomiting a lot, one time it had a small amount of blood. Off to the vet we went. Physical exam showed pain in the stomach, no other abnormalities. Considering symptoms + long term NSAID use, a stomach ulcer was suspected. Chose to treat with omeprazole and sucralfate and reduce the meloxicam as much as possible and wait and see. He improved quickly, no more vomiting.
Last week, he had, what at first seemed to be another flare up with diarrhea and abdominal pain, presumed at the time to be from reducing the meloxicam. Increased again but symptoms persisted. Peed outside the litter box for the first time in years, so off to the vet we went for a urinalysis. That was all good. Got bloodwork done, complete geriatric profile (organ function, bloodcount, fructosamine, SDMA, T4) and fPLI. Got the results back on monday, most was was all good. White blood counts just within range (on the low side). fPLI just within range at 4,4 (<=4,4 is normal, 4,5-8,7 elevated/pancreatitis possible, >= 8,8 pancreatitis highly likely).
On sunday, he started refusing treats. Immediately started him on cerenia. On monday, he was eating only minimally. Made an appointment for tuesday for an ultrasound. By monday night he was very poorly, not purring at all, refused all food, hiding under a blanket all night, no interest in anything. Come tuesday morning, physical exam showed he had a fever (104 fahrenheit). Then we went to the ultrasound room. Ultrasound showed more thickened bowel walls, but also an enlarged lymph node near his pancreas and a small amount of free fluid between his bladder and bowels. They attempted to get a fine needle aspirate from the lymph node 3 times, but didn't get enough cells to see/test. It seemed unusually difficult to get the needle into it, and it took some tugging to get the needle back out again.
Conclusion was pretty clear: IBD or cancer, most likely cancer. Definite diagnosis requires exploratory surgery and full thickness bowel biopsy. I'm not willing to put him through that.
Sidenote: he had a dental 1.5 years ago, his first time under anesthesia. He developed a seizure disorder afterwards. Tested EVERYTHING, including an MRI in fear of a brain tumor. No abnormalities. No explanation for the seizures. After, IIRC, 7 seizures total in the span of about 5 months, they went away and haven't come back since. But since it seemed that the anesthesia triggered the seizures, we don't want to put him under again in fear of that triggering him again.
He got an injection of methylprednisolone, cerenia and buprenorphine, and we were sent home with methylprednisolone tablets, antibiotics, more cerenia and mirtazapine, and sublingual buprenorphine. He started improving that evening, you could see him perking up more and more every hour. By wednesday, he was much better. Haven't needed to use the buprenorphine at all. He's normal now except his appetite is still at about 75%.
Now I'm looking to the future. Assuming it's cancer, I hope it's SCL and not large cell. I don't know if/how the enlarged lymph node factors into this. Maybe it's metastasized, or maybe it's just enlarged due to inflammation... I'm flat out not willing to put him through intensive IV chemo treatment. But pulse treatment with oral chlorambucil at a high dose once every 2 weeks seems much more tolerable. My vet is on holiday next week so I won't get to discuss it with her yet, and this past week was all about getting him feeling decent again, so I'm hoping to get some pros/cons from ya'll since I saw that many members here have been through this as well.
So... if you've had a cat with (presumed) SCL, did you treat with chlorambucil? Why yes/not? Can you share your experiences? Did your kitty experience side effects? I'm reading conflicting info about whether or not he has to be separated from the other cats, what did you do if you have/had other cats? Should I even consider this when it's not sure if he has SCL?
