RenaRF
Member
Hey everyone. This regards my 15 year old Clide. Since switching him exclusively to Merrick Cowboy Cookout wet and eliminating dry food from his diet, he's gone from BG pre-switch in the low 300s to a BG that now - even at the vet's - hovers between 115-130. Awesome.
At any rate, Clide DOES have other issues. He had his remaining teeth extracted in early January to try to help his stomatitis. It HAS helped, but there are still raw-ish spots in his mouth from time to time.
Outside of that, after the tooth extractions and diet change, the past 2+ months have been GREAT. His dandruff has almost completely cleared up, his coat is shiny, and his energy level is really excellent (he chases toys, my female kitty Bella, balls, you name it). Everything was really good until late yesterday.
Clide left us two little out-of-litterbox instances of diarrhea. One of them had enough blood in it (more than a speck) to cause me concern. The diarrhea persisted through this morning with a little more visible blood. Clide was otherwise eating fine (he LOVES food) and behaving normally. We had a vet appointment at 3pm today. We did:
- Bloodwork
- Fecal
- Xrays
We reviewed past bloodwork - there's a mild concern that there's a pattern of high-ish serum protein and high globulins which - the vet says - MAY indicate some underlying issue with chronic inflammation (we don't know yet). Today's bloodwork won't be back until tomorrow at the earliest. The xrays showed a whole lot more diarrhea and gas to come, so Clide is off food for tonight until tomorrow morning (NOT going to make him happy) to give his bowels a rest. There was nothing else remarkable on the xrays or that the vet observed on abdominal palpitation, but the caveat is, obviously, that there *could* be things that the xray wouldn't show. We have been sent home with Flagyl (metronidazole), 1/2 of a 250mg tablet 2x daily and proviable, a probiotic (both paste and tablet form).
So my question is this: IF Clide suffers from some kind of chronic inflammatory issue, what are my options? The normal treatment, obviously, would be prednisolone or prednisone. Is anyone else out there dealing with IBD-like issues AND feline diabetes? Any tips or advice?
Thanks,
Rena & Clide (and Rufus, Feats, Meatball & Bella)
UPDATE, 3/17/2012, 12:28pm EDT: Last night Clide was just "off". The giveaway that something was wrong was that he totally turned down food. NEVER. HAPPENS. He's a foodie. Eats and then begs for more. It was also obvious to me that he was highly uncomfortable. He went to the ER vet at about 10pm and is still there right now.
He had an ultrasound and internal medicine consult this morning. The specialist found that his spleen and liver look "coarse", but no masses or lumps or suspected cancer were found (WHEW). His pancreas is definitely inflamed, and they thought his kidneys looked like an older cat's kidneys (though his kidney values with serum bloodwork remain well within normal, so that's good). The thinking at this point, given that he came to me at age 14 with an unknown and pretty clearly medically neglected background, is that he had an acute pancreatitis episode.
I will be able to collect him later today. I spent time with him - they are giving him IV Flagyl and say they will likely add a secondary antibiotic to that mix, and they are hydrating him via IV (heart has a very slight murmur but is otherwise good and lungs are clear). He is also receiving Buprenex for the pain of the flare-up. We will review the bloodwork, urinalysis and fecal results when I get him at about 4pm. He was clearly happy to see me - active (they are obviously managing his pain), ate food for me, head butted etc. Turns into grumpy hissy growly Clide every time a tech checked in.
The supervising vet feels that the pancreatitis is caused by what may have been long-term untreated diabetes. Does anyone have experience with this? Any advice? I want to AVOID another incident in the future, obviously.
Clide at home last year:
Clide at the ER/specialty vet today (closed his eyes as I snapped - note his soft, pink, shaved and FAT belly from the ultrasound):
At any rate, Clide DOES have other issues. He had his remaining teeth extracted in early January to try to help his stomatitis. It HAS helped, but there are still raw-ish spots in his mouth from time to time.
Outside of that, after the tooth extractions and diet change, the past 2+ months have been GREAT. His dandruff has almost completely cleared up, his coat is shiny, and his energy level is really excellent (he chases toys, my female kitty Bella, balls, you name it). Everything was really good until late yesterday.
Clide left us two little out-of-litterbox instances of diarrhea. One of them had enough blood in it (more than a speck) to cause me concern. The diarrhea persisted through this morning with a little more visible blood. Clide was otherwise eating fine (he LOVES food) and behaving normally. We had a vet appointment at 3pm today. We did:
- Bloodwork
- Fecal
- Xrays
We reviewed past bloodwork - there's a mild concern that there's a pattern of high-ish serum protein and high globulins which - the vet says - MAY indicate some underlying issue with chronic inflammation (we don't know yet). Today's bloodwork won't be back until tomorrow at the earliest. The xrays showed a whole lot more diarrhea and gas to come, so Clide is off food for tonight until tomorrow morning (NOT going to make him happy) to give his bowels a rest. There was nothing else remarkable on the xrays or that the vet observed on abdominal palpitation, but the caveat is, obviously, that there *could* be things that the xray wouldn't show. We have been sent home with Flagyl (metronidazole), 1/2 of a 250mg tablet 2x daily and proviable, a probiotic (both paste and tablet form).
So my question is this: IF Clide suffers from some kind of chronic inflammatory issue, what are my options? The normal treatment, obviously, would be prednisolone or prednisone. Is anyone else out there dealing with IBD-like issues AND feline diabetes? Any tips or advice?
Thanks,
Rena & Clide (and Rufus, Feats, Meatball & Bella)
UPDATE, 3/17/2012, 12:28pm EDT: Last night Clide was just "off". The giveaway that something was wrong was that he totally turned down food. NEVER. HAPPENS. He's a foodie. Eats and then begs for more. It was also obvious to me that he was highly uncomfortable. He went to the ER vet at about 10pm and is still there right now.
He had an ultrasound and internal medicine consult this morning. The specialist found that his spleen and liver look "coarse", but no masses or lumps or suspected cancer were found (WHEW). His pancreas is definitely inflamed, and they thought his kidneys looked like an older cat's kidneys (though his kidney values with serum bloodwork remain well within normal, so that's good). The thinking at this point, given that he came to me at age 14 with an unknown and pretty clearly medically neglected background, is that he had an acute pancreatitis episode.
I will be able to collect him later today. I spent time with him - they are giving him IV Flagyl and say they will likely add a secondary antibiotic to that mix, and they are hydrating him via IV (heart has a very slight murmur but is otherwise good and lungs are clear). He is also receiving Buprenex for the pain of the flare-up. We will review the bloodwork, urinalysis and fecal results when I get him at about 4pm. He was clearly happy to see me - active (they are obviously managing his pain), ate food for me, head butted etc. Turns into grumpy hissy growly Clide every time a tech checked in.
The supervising vet feels that the pancreatitis is caused by what may have been long-term untreated diabetes. Does anyone have experience with this? Any advice? I want to AVOID another incident in the future, obviously.
Clide at home last year:
Clide at the ER/specialty vet today (closed his eyes as I snapped - note his soft, pink, shaved and FAT belly from the ultrasound):
