Help, low PMPS after pancreatitis...

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Ry & Scooter

Ry & Scooter

Member Since 2011
Hi,

For those who haven't seen my thread in health, Scooter was hospitalized a night ago. I woke up to severe vomit and diarrhea all over the house and Scooter trying to hide under the couch, meatloafing and generally just looking out of it. I tried to syringe feed him some food and a quarter tab of Pepcid but he puked it up about 20 minutes later. We went to the vet and after some testing he was dehydrated and had an elevated WBC. After a night on IV and antibiotics he is feeling much better and came home yesterday afternoon. His blood test came back today showing his pancreas values were above normal, indicating pancreatitis. He was prescribed Clavamox for 14 days.

However, his numbers plummeted to green this afternoon and he's at 155 tonight's preshot. We had been increasing the dose pretty aggressively and this is the first green he's seen in over 3 weeks. I wonder if the elevated numbers were signaling an unnoticed infection or inflammation? I don't know whether to hold the normal dose or decrease it on the chance that he is going to drop because of the antibiotics. Which, by the way, is giving him bad diarrhea as expected. I couldn't find a single pet probiotic at Petsmart or Walmart so I don't know where to look now. I don't know what's readily available in Canada or what I can do in the meantime. He came to me crying after he had a nasty wet green poo so I could wipe it off for him :sad: Poor guy, I don't want him to start bum scooting on our rental apartment or getting it on our white couches...

I also only have 9 strips left, DCIN was a bit late in sending me more, if it's an emergency I could probably pick some up but I'm trying to be conservative until they get here...
 
Ry...poor Scooter...he's been thought it the last couple of days. If you can get some acidophilus, that will also help if you can't find Fortiflora. I use small acidophilus pearls...in a pill pocket (duck and pea is FD friendly).

Scooters insulin needs may decrease as the ABs help the inflammation. I would keep a close eye on his numbers. Did they give him some bupe or something for pain and send you home with some fluids? Both of these thighs are essential for treatment of pancreatitis.

Sending Scooter healing vines and white light.
 
No I was only sent home with Clavamox and Mirtazapine (I'm not giving him it), I don't think he's in pain, he's his normal perky self, even after the diarrhea bout tonight. I have been super watering down his food though, he's always liked it soupy.

Where can I find the acidophilus? I was going to pick up some greek yoghurt tonight but it was expensive... it's so hard when you're in debt :cry: I will see if I can find some cheaper tomorrow, or at least some canned pumpkin...
 
You can also feed him plain yogurt if he will eat it... some cats think it's tasty.

ETA: I see you already know this. It doesn't have to be greek yogurt I don't think... just unsweetened.
 
I don't know of any health stores around here but I'll take a look if I can tomorrow, the bus schedule for Sundays is an absolute nightmare. :YMSIGH:

Is there anything I can do for him tonight? Could I mash him up some peas or something and put it in his food?
 
As Melissa suggested you can give him regular, plain, nonsweetened yogurt. You can also mix some canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie mix) into his food.
 
Ry & Scooter said:
No I was only sent home with Clavamox and Mirtazapine (I'm not giving him it), I don't think he's in pain, he's his normal perky self, even after the diarrhea bout tonight. I have been super watering down his food though, he's always liked it soupy.

Where can I find the acidophilus? I was going to pick up some greek yoghurt tonight but it was expensive... it's so hard when you're in debt :cry: I will see if I can find some cheaper tomorrow, or at least some canned pumpkin...
Click to expand...

What's he getting the clavamox to treat? if it's for the pancreas, you don't need it. The mirtaz is good to hold onto; see if you can return the clavamox and get some bupe or a pain med to have on hand. If you can't afford the fluids right now, then keep souping his foods like crazy.

If he has pancreatitis, he has pain, and needs pain meds and also fluids.
I just posted a big bunch of info on pancreatitis for you.

plain ordinary yogurt is good for you to try.

ETA: yes, pancreatitis may have caused the increase dose need and now that's he is feeling better, he won't need the high dose.
 
He is eating OK since he got home, right? If so then I think you are probably OK until morning. Just try to keep him hydrated which it sounds like you are already doing.
 
The Clavamox was for a urinary tract infection that I don't think he actually has, it's a really long and convoluted story, but they started it in his IV while he was hospitalized so I gotta finish with it.

He's acting like nothing ever happened. It's almost funny. He steals my chair if I get up for more than a minute, slept with us on the bed last night, is playing and grooming himself, etc. He is eating like usual, so I'm going to hang on to the Mirtazapine in case we need it later.

I really need to know what to do with his dose tonight, though. I'm low on strips so I don't want to inject full and send him hypo but I also don't want to throw him off any more than I already have.
 
when in doubt about dose, side with caution.

You can always give more insulin on the next shot but you can't take back too much once it's shot.

I do know that the dose may well drop after any illness and definitely after pancreatitis, so go low and you won't have the worries.
 
I gave 1.5u... I will go get more strips tomorrow. There is a tiny seniors pharmacy near me thankfully. I also decided to give him 1/8 of a pill of mirtazapine. I'll see how he does with it and go from there. I definitely don't think he will need it every 2 days though.
 
Mirtazapine isn't really doing much for him... better no reaction than an adverse reaction though right?

He is up to ~250 so I'm gonna hit the sack. Thanks everyone.
 
If Scooter's WBC was elevated, it's an indication of an infection. I would continue giving him the antibiotic. It's not unusual to see numbers drop once an infection starts clearing. It's important that you have strips since you don't want to be battling to keep numbers in a good range on top of everything else.

Do you know how the vet tested for pancreatitis? Usually, blood needs to be sent out for a spec fPLI. If the testing only involved lipase and amylase values, these results are meaningless for cats.

A human probiotic can be fine for a cat. Many of us order FortiFlora, which is a cat specific probiotic, on-line. I've also used ReNew Ultimate which I found at Whole Foods here in the US. A health food store, grocery with a good section with vitamins and supplements, or a vitamin store may carry probiotics.
 
how is scooter doing today, ry?

i also just got some probiotics from our locally owned pet store - it's called OptaGest. they didn't have any forti-flora but this has worked very well on anya, who has chronic diarrhea.
 
I hope Scooter is feeling better tonight. I'm keeping him in my prayers and good thoughts.
 
He had an fPLI but the results didn't come back until yesterday, no mail on weekends so I will get the copy of them sometime this week to post on here.

I only have 3 strips left as of tonight, unfortunately. DCIN was a bit late in sending them because of bad weather, and even though they were sent express, they aren't here yet (thanks Canada Post). They won't be able to refund any strips I buy, so I'm in trouble if they don't get here tomorrow or he dives again like yesterday... I can't afford to spend $80 on strips right now :sad:

His diarrhea isn't as severe as I thought it would be after that green liquid poo, fortunately. I'm in Canada, in a city that has very limited selection. I haven't been able to look for anything this weekend because the bus schedule is really bad on Sat/Sun, I have to wait until tomorrow (Monday) to go anywhere. I will check out a few health stores and independent pet stores. I bought a bag of litter at a local chain and it smells SO BAD so I need to get a refund on that anyways.

He's doing fine though. I don't think he had any reaction at all to the Mirtazapine. He's not really any more hungry than usual. I switched his food over to the Special Kitty gourmet, it's 99% identical to Fancy Feast in terms of ingredients and .10 cheaper a can. I get 12 cans for $5. He eats 3-4 cans a day. So it's fairly economical and not a bad quality food.
 
You said you had a local pharmacy. They should carry acidophiles. You can crush it and mix it into his wet food.
 
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