Continued help with Sampson

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mccat2

mccat2

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Hi :

Sampson began to vomit and had diariah this a.m. at 6:30. He ate a bunch of food last night both bowls of wet & all of the little bit of dry that I put in for both of them. He also drank a lot of water. He is not on insulin any longer due to a hypo episode and the wet food diet is working. Sugar was at 116 this a.m. at 7:30 and he seemed very weak. Took him to the vet at 10:30 and we ran all of his blood work. It was all pretty normal. Sugar was at 188 (but he was stressed), His kidney levels were very slightly elevated at 40 and his thyroid was normal. He lost another ounce despite a very, very health appetite. The vet thinks he may be having irriatable bowel syndrome as he has had in the past but we can't give prednisone any longer due to the effect of increasing his sugar levels. There is another medication that we can try for this but I told him I wanted to wait as I have strong belief that the Vet we were seeing previously may have caused Sampsons blood sugar to sky rocket because she shot him up with a long acting steriod. They gave me some pills for his diariah and injected some fluids with a little potassium (as it showed a little low). Sampson has had this issue with vomiting and diariah the past. I brought him home and he is acting pretty good a little more vocal following me around more. I am having a party with my family this evening and am babysitting my 3 year old niece so I will have to lock both my cats up in my office for the night. Hope this won't bother Sampson too much but have to live my life. Does anyone out there have any ideas of what I can do to get to the bottom of his weight loss and vomiting. What should I watch for. He doesn't do it all of the time but I would say around 3 times a week, sometimes worse than others. He doesn't appear to be suffering but my baby is not himself. He is 16 1/2 years old so maybe it's old age maybe it's something worse = I just dont' know at this point. Perhaps some of you with older kitties can lend some advice.


Thanks,

Vicki & Sampson
 
It could be IBD or lymphoma. You might want to try the steroid budesonide. I has little effect on BGs (at least for my Mitten and Bailey). If Samson needs prednisone (prednisolone is the better choice) then just compensate for the effect on BGs. My Bailey stopped his weight slide (see my post of about three weeks ago) when I went to 5 mg prednisolone BID.
 
This was my response in your other post:

carolynandlatte said:
Hi Vicki,
My cat had IBD/lymphoma, among many other issues. She became a steroid induced diabetic. I attempted weaning her off the steroid to see if that would help her BG's, which it did a bit. She did not do well tho. She stopped eating and vomited regularly. I switched to a chemo drug (leukeran) often used for IBD/lymphoma. That made things worse (for her). I had to choose between steroid and managing diabetes, OR letting her go because she would not had any quality of life with the IBD being untreated. I chose the steroids and insulin. She was with me another year before I lost her due to a combination of many issues.

First, it would be helpful to have an ultra sound to determine if IBD could be an issue.

Consider the diet you are offering (Im not sure what you are giving). Many cats with IBD need a gluten/grain free diet. A few fancy feast varieties, most wellness, Evo, and instinct are popular choices. Its often recommended to do a trial of novel protein (proteins the cat has not been exposed to), such as rabbit, duck, or venison. Evo and Instinct are a few companies who provide these type of canned diets.

If it is IBD, it will likely need to be treated on a daily basis with medications such as prednisolone, budesonide (less systemic- possibly not affecting bg's as much as pred), Metronidazole, leukeran. Other medications such as pepcid, zantac, ondansetron, cerenia may be needed to reduce symptoms. There may be times where few of these medications are needed, if any. And times when you need the full load. IBD can wax and wane.

If vomiting, diahrea are regular occurances you want to make sure you are checking for hydration and speaking to your vet as to when it would be appropriate to supplement sub q fluids at home. A dehydrated cat (or human) is not going to feel well - tired, listless, not hungry, nauseated, etc.

Here is a link with info on IBD, as a starting place to learn more. It outlines diagnostics, symptoms, tx, etc:
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=1+2122&aid=304

If it turns out Sampson needs some form of steroid and the FD resurfaces, remember it can be worked around. Your cat can live with diabetes, but cant live w/o food. Some people have little problem managing the FD with steroids. Some will struggle. But you never know until you try.

Hope this helps a little.
Click to expand...

To determine 100% if it is ibd or lymphoma, you would need to do biopsy (explained in link I listed above). Depending on Sampsons past steroid use it may not be possible to get accurate results this way anymore. An u/s would 'help' determine if it *could* be one or the other, but not decipher between the two. Blood work is not a diagnostic for IBD or lymphoma (tho a few things here/there may be off as a result).
 
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