Bix update

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Joanna & Bix (GA)

Joanna & Bix (GA)

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Just made an appt to see the specialist on Thursday, expecting an ultrasound & probable switch to Pred (ewwww). The Budesonide just doesn't seem to be cutting it anymore, and they say he's maxed out on the dose (over 3mg/day now, and still barfing every few days).

Thankfully he seems well much of the time, or at least not miserable-sick. He is subdued though, although since they pretty much all sleep all the time :lol: it's hard to be sure.

Last night we got an 89 at +14 :shock: . If he were tip-top I'd be excited, but I think it's cuz he barfed earlier in the day and wasn't eating too much. :cry:

Anyhow, my money is on Leukeran & hoping that gives him a couple good years, but we'll see where the vet goes with things. I'm probably jumping to about 16 conclusions all at once, with insufficient data. ;-)

Sorry not to be around the board more. Don't know how people manage the working life really. I've done it before, how did I find time to get anything else done? Loving the paycheck though :mrgreen: . Kitties get to keep feeding their Wellness habit (my biggest bill after rent, LOL).
 
So glad to hear from you. Sorry to hear about Bix, I hope you guys can figure it out.

Yes, working for a living does interfere with FD.
 
Thankfully it went better than expected! She wants to keep him on Bude, and add Metronidizol, Pepcid, & B12 shots. Then if all that doesn't keep things under control, we'll try switching to Prednisolone. I dodged the u/s :-D and settled on some bloodwork. If he gets rapidly worse I may opt for an u/s after all, but he's doing well enough (seems ok-ish at this point, just on a high steroid dose) that I'm hopeful maybe we'll just have him on this dose for a while, and so be it. He hadn't lost weight since a month ago, so that's pretty good - I thought his eating has been down, but guess not. His BG #s have been pretty good this week, which is kind of weird really. Hoping it's for good reasons (maybe he's feeling better since the last upping of the Budesonide dose a couple weeks ago?) and not bad ones.
 
Glad to hear it went better than you expected and he's feeling better.

Fingers and paws crossed that his BG's are good for good reasons. :smile:
 
oh no, joanna i see update but i've been on health have'nt even seen what your updating on.
:cry: does'nt sound good. please let me know what bix has.
((((joanna))))) ((((bix)))))
 
Hi Joanna,
That's not a bad report on Bix - no weight loss and you don't have to start pred yet. Let us know how the bloodwork comes out. Congrats on the regular paycheck! Between Wellness and test strips, its a wonder the beans get to eat. :lol: I hope Bix continues to get better and that his vomiting decreases.
 
Thanks everyone! He seems ok, just angry(2)_cat cuz I'm pilling him (Pepcid) and the nasty nasty taste of Metronidizal. The look of betrayal last night just broke my heart - he likes his Budesonide, guess it tastes ok, so my sneaky move was to give him that first, then chase it with the Metro while he was still unsuspecting. It went down ok, but was followed by a look of :shock: and then the look of "mom, I thought you were :-D but I just realized you are :twisted: ". :YMSIGH:

But no barfing, so that's what we want. The doc called & said his blood work looked fine, but then she said call in 10 days and if he's still barfing we'll talk Leukeran (chemo). Kind of took me aback b/c when I was there she sounded like Leuk is off in the indefinite future. Hmmmm. Well anyhow, as long as he's not barfing we are good, so ... fingers crossed.

Lori, it's that his annual IBD turn-for-the-worse has come up, but we are totally maxed out on the Budesonide. Just over the last month or two I've ended up raising it from about 2mg/day (usual kitty dose is 1mg/day) to now close to 3.5mg/day. It doesn't really have a cap I guess in the sense of side effects, but the vet said a dose like this means either it isn't working for him, or he's not absorbing it right. I'm guessing the 2nd, since the dose increases have helped, so it does seem to work.

So basically... it's possible stomach cancer at this point, that's the bottom line. I don't have the money for extensive testing, so am playing kind of a guessing game (although with my last cat who had this, they never were able to say for sure, the biopsy result was "probable cancer" - which I could have told them before the biopsy!!! cat(2)_steam

The good news is that I don't have the sense he's going downhill, just another incremental worsening from what I have seen so far. So I am hopeful, though scared that it may be cancer. One step at a time though, and hopefully he will do ok for a while yet before I have to make any real decisions chemo-wise.
 
oh joanna i am so sorry, cancer sucks so much!!!!!
i always think i'm emotionally prepared for tom's time. he has numerous health issues and if he had cancer i know i would not chemo him. that's just us. i'm a chemo survivor you might know. i won't do it for me again either.
we just seem to grow closer each day...
you and bix will be in my heart and i'm sending out peaceful and loving vibes for you both.
(((((joanna and bix)))))))
 
The standard Chemo is designed for beans not for kittahs. From my experience it makes their last days worse days [but that's just my experience]. It really sux BOS as you alluded to earlier.
 
lori, sorry you had to go through that :(

I took the chemo route with Trixie & pretty much decided after that I probably won't repeat it - it just didn't buy her very much time, and yeah, at the end the side effects were extensive... Leukeran seems different though, I think IBD kitties often can live fairly well for 2 or 3 years on it? Trixie didn't tolerate the Leuk, so I'm on the fence on trying that with another kitty. It seems like 2 years is a pretty good trade-off if you can get that, I guess.

For me I don't know. It seems like with people chemo, peeps go through it and then often live many happy years after that. Vs. the kitty chemo has seemed more like a stop-gap to give them a little more time, but not really curative or anywhere close. I suppose it varies a lot by type of cancer, what stage, etc., etc. Philosophically I hate the idea of it, but reality is something different. :?
 
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