allie and newkitty
Member Since 2010
Hello! I doubt any of you will remember me...I joined FDMB in 2004 with my diabetic soul girl, Newkitty. During her life, we dealth with diabetes, IBD, chronic pancreatitis, arthritis, etc. She passed on in 2014 and six months later I rescued Max, a Snowshoe with FIV. I hope it is still ok to ask non-diabetes questions about "civives" on this board and I hope someone with IBD experience is reading!
Max is 8 or 9 now and has been vomiting quite a bit this year, after never having been a vomiter. His appetite has always been off and on, but I have been able to keep his weight steady at about 12 lbs 5 oz. He currently weighs about 1lb less than that due to inappetance, although he doesn't seem to gain even when he has a very good eating stretch. No diarrhea. All year I have felt like many days he just did not feel good, but I thought it was because he frequently has some URI stuff going on. He went to the vet in January due to this feeling but he looks good and all his bloodwork was good and if he was vomiting then, I thought it was my other cat.
His kidney values are almost in stage 2 territory, but my vet does not believe the reason for his vomiting is kidney values. His bloodwork looks mostly good, no anemia. His pancreatitis panel came back all in normal range. His ultrasound showed some thickening the U/S doctor said was mild verbally to my husband. (Report attached)
The question is whether to do a major surgery to get full thickness biopsies on Max or to treat with steroids as if IBD and see how he does or wait and watch a little while. I am very leery about doing a major surgery (I have lost two pets either during a surgery or immediately after during my lifetime and putting him under scares the crap out of me. He is my dear baby.)
Newkitty was diagnosed with IBD at one year old after steroid shot caused immediate improvement. Her IBD caused bloody diarrhea. She never had intestinal biopsies until she developed pancreatitis six years later. How we treated it was with 5 mg pred every day until she got pancreatitis and then we had to go up to 20 mg per day. She was on pred almost every day of her 17 years. I love pred for the quality of life it gave her but saw firsthand the drawbacks.
Is there an IBD group like this one? Anyone have any thoughts from their experience? I am going to ask my vet what she would do if this were her cat but she is not neurotic like I am
and I don't know if my caution is the right thing for him. I worry about him being at the vet around other cats who might have COVID, or trouble being under, the painful recovery (am I overreacting and putting him through that for nothing?) etc.
Thanks for reading this far. Any insight appreciated.
Max is 8 or 9 now and has been vomiting quite a bit this year, after never having been a vomiter. His appetite has always been off and on, but I have been able to keep his weight steady at about 12 lbs 5 oz. He currently weighs about 1lb less than that due to inappetance, although he doesn't seem to gain even when he has a very good eating stretch. No diarrhea. All year I have felt like many days he just did not feel good, but I thought it was because he frequently has some URI stuff going on. He went to the vet in January due to this feeling but he looks good and all his bloodwork was good and if he was vomiting then, I thought it was my other cat.
His kidney values are almost in stage 2 territory, but my vet does not believe the reason for his vomiting is kidney values. His bloodwork looks mostly good, no anemia. His pancreatitis panel came back all in normal range. His ultrasound showed some thickening the U/S doctor said was mild verbally to my husband. (Report attached)
The question is whether to do a major surgery to get full thickness biopsies on Max or to treat with steroids as if IBD and see how he does or wait and watch a little while. I am very leery about doing a major surgery (I have lost two pets either during a surgery or immediately after during my lifetime and putting him under scares the crap out of me. He is my dear baby.)
Newkitty was diagnosed with IBD at one year old after steroid shot caused immediate improvement. Her IBD caused bloody diarrhea. She never had intestinal biopsies until she developed pancreatitis six years later. How we treated it was with 5 mg pred every day until she got pancreatitis and then we had to go up to 20 mg per day. She was on pred almost every day of her 17 years. I love pred for the quality of life it gave her but saw firsthand the drawbacks.
Is there an IBD group like this one? Anyone have any thoughts from their experience? I am going to ask my vet what she would do if this were her cat but she is not neurotic like I am
and I don't know if my caution is the right thing for him. I worry about him being at the vet around other cats who might have COVID, or trouble being under, the painful recovery (am I overreacting and putting him through that for nothing?) etc.Thanks for reading this far. Any insight appreciated.
with bowel inflammation was diagnosed that way. Turns out she has small cell lymphoma, currently in remission. Vomiting was her thing, but she also has some food allergies so probably a touch of IBD as well. Endoscopy is a day visit, not overnight at the vets.
