cats with cp

[Marci and Buddy]

My Buddy may have had a bout with pancreatitus this week, not sure but had all symptoms .
blood work came back normal, but did not have a fplt tset done, because it was after the fact.
my question:those who have cats with diabetes and CP, how have you adjusted the food intake? i read that its best to lower the fat intake and raise the carbs? what food is reccommended? do you give enzyme supplements, which ones, b-12 shot?
is there any value on the blood work to indicate CP, if not in a flare up?
hard to believ e i may have to learn all about yet another disease. :sad:
thanks very much.

 

[Jen & Squeak]

Marci

There have been a ton of recent posts on the topic, could you do a search of the term pancreatitis to start with ? You'll find jojo's link as well (I forgot to save it after posting it today)

Jen

 

[tuckers mom]

Tucker's allergic to gluten so he eats Fancy Feast gluten free varieties and he gets a B12 injection, at this point he gets it weekly.

If his flare is really bad he gets some fluids too. We have injectible Pepcid when he needs it. Most of the time he's well controlled and doesn't need much other than his insulin.

 

[Marci and Buddy]

thanks,...where did you get injectable pepsid froM?

 

[tuckers mom]

Injectible pepcid is a vet prescription. When a cat is vomitting, it's awful difficult to get a pill to stay down, so after reading Jojo's post on CP, I started the B12 injections which made a huge difference for Tucker and asked the vet for the script for the pepcid.

 

[jojo and bunny]

marci don't worry CP is very common among diabetic cats and if buddy has it, it might be the reason he became diabetic in the first place, in other words he has had it a long time. you learn about it so that when he flares you have a well stocked CP toolbox and can treat at home immediately greatly helping keeping your cat more comfortable and eating during a flare. the more you know the better you can handle the flares and the more you can customize what he needs (like for my cat when he flares the most important tool is pain meds, he doesn't present with a lot of g/i issues).

btw i got the blood work you sent, is fine, the few things that are slightly off on CBC can be attributed to slight dehydration, to be expected given his current state. the amylase is on the high end of normal, sometimes also a hint that a fPLI test is needed. i left you some questions in your LL condo....

 

[Marci and Buddy]

do b-12 shots help cp?

 

[Marci and Buddy]

Ok Jojo thats very reassuring.
my poor Buddy has been through so much this year , guess it's one more thing we'll get thru.
thanks so much for your help, can't tell you how much i appreciate everyone here.

 

[Lisa dvm]

do b-12 shots help cp?

B-12 shots may not actually help the P.itis directly but they can help the rest of the body - including the gut tract.

And.....it is theorized that an unhappy gut tract can lead to an unhappy pancreas.

The pancreas makes a substance called "Intrinsic Factor". IF is needed for B-12 absorption in the lower small intestine.

Therefore, if you have a sick pancreas that is not making enough IF, you will have a patient that can be secondarily low in B-12. - even with a healthy gut.

 

[Lisa dvm]

As a bit of added trivia, if my memory serves me correctly, dogs and humans have most of their IF coming from the cells in their stomach.

I hope that I remember that correctly......

 

[Marci and Buddy]

Re: cats with cp.b-12 shot

Veeeerry interesting...and clear -i'll get on b-12 shots right away for him. do i need to go to vet or can they give me a script for it?

 

[tuckers mom]

You can ask your vet for a script or see how much they charge for injections. Mine was too pricey so I order from b-12shot.com out of Canada. BUT... I think it would be best if you went to your vet first and discussed a script and dose amount. If my vet didn't tell me what dose, I wouldn't know what to shoot. It's always good to keep your vet in the loop.

 

[Larry and Kitties]

Per TAMU (Texas A & M university), the standard dose of B12 (cynocobalamin) is 0.25 ml of 1000 mcg/lm concentration. See the following for details. It is a lot alot less expensive to buy a vial,typically 100 ml, of the B12 rather than go to the vet for injections.

http://www.cvm.tamu.edu/gilab/research/cobalamin.shtml

 

[Nina and KB]

Marci, I recently got a prescription from my vet for the injectible pepcid. The pharmacies I contacted for prices all had to order it in but it only took a day. I haven't used it yet but now I have it on hand. The drug is actually called Famotidine. Mine is 20 ml and was not very expensive.