Prayers for civie Mai Tai

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Dawn and Peek-a-Boo (GA)

Dawn and Peek-a-Boo (GA)

Member Since 2015
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The past week has been eventful with my civie Mai Tai. She is a 16+ year old Persian who has had chronic respiratory issues most of her life, but recently her health has taken a downturn. She started refusing food and has dropped weight quickly. She has periods of rapid breathing that were becoming more severe. I saw two vets and one suggested diet change, the other said she is refusing food because she is having a tough time smelling it :banghead::banghead::banghead:...even thought she is currently not nasally congested. The rapid breathing was dismissed by both, as I was unable to get video to show at that time.

I took her to get a full blood panel/urinalysis and the Dr. said her heart and lungs sound good :confused:. Some of her blood component values were high. This is a new vet for her as I was not mentally prepared to revisit Peek-a-Boo's clinic yet.

He was leaning towards an IBD Dx, but felt that she should see an IM specialist. I had an appointment for this past Friday, but ending up taking her in Thursday night in an emergency after rapid breathing would not cease....here's a summary in highlight...:(

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She is comfortable now and is responding to the medications. We will see what Thursday brings.

@Wendy&Neko : You were my guide through Peek-a-Boo and acro, now you are guiding me with my civie, Mai Tai. As soon as I spoke with the IM specialist, the meds and conditions sounded familiar. Thanks to you both, I feel better prepared to tackle her treatment plan. :bighug:

She is the sweetest cat...even tolerated Peek-a-Boo when he wasn't always nice to her. It just seemed appropriate that I kindly ask for prayers in her time of need.

Thank you in advance FDMB friends...

Dawn
 
She is beautiful. Praying you find out what is wrong and she is feeling better soon. You may also want to get A/D from the vet. It is higher in calories and good for putting weight back on cats.. If she is not eating, you may need to syringe feed her. The A/D is easy to blend with water to use in a syringe.
 
Sending many vines for your special girl. :bighug: This does sound a tad too familiar. Getting an echo is an excellent idea. I'll be thinking of you on Thursday.

A couple of comments on medications. I don't know how easy Mai Tai is to medicate, but I get the Vetmedin formation that is a powder in capsules. I mix with water in a syringe and give 1/2 of the amount (same as recommended for Mai Tai) twice a day. It does seem to be bitter in that format so I mix with chicken stock which seems to help. I find liquid meds easier to give. Did they talk about Plavix (clopidegrel) yet? They may be waiting for the results of the echo, but depending on the issues, heart kitties can get strokes so a blood thinner may be suggested.

I'm not a big fan of mirtazepine (also unaffectionally called meowzepan) cause it can cause odd reactions in some cats. And you should treat possible nausea first, before doing an appetite stimulant. I found that giving ondasetron (Zofran) was all that Neko needed to get her to start eating. She's not at her usually acro appy, but is getting calories down.

Did the vet recommend anything for the possible IBD/lymphoma? The answer should not include prednisilone as it is hard on the heart. Neko is getting budesonide and Leukeran (chlorambucil). She also did not have a biopsy due to the inability to have anesthesia. They didn't do X-rays because they didn't even want to sedate.
 
Hi Wendy...thank you for the vines...we will need them.

Mai Tai is super easy to do anything with, so pilling is not a problem. I have Vetmedin in a tablet that I crush and also add to water, then syringe. Chicken stock is great idea...much more palatable for her, I'm sure.

I'm thinking the Plavix will be on it's way after Thursday's echo. They need further information on exactly how the heart is functioning. She had to stay overnight on Thursday and I spoke with the IM specialist at length over the phone about all of her possible conditions. Although she sounded a bit like an auctioneer (she barely took in a breath!) she really knew her stuff and made it very easy to understand provided I could keep up with her speed. She is not a cardiologist, but she felt she could see enough from the xrays to suspect DCM...dilated cardiomyopathy...this is where the heart itself is very large and the walls are thin. She may already be experiencing CHF since there was fluid backing up in lungs, which would explain difficulty breathing.

She also has enlarged liver/spleen. Hepatomegaly is also symptom of cardiac failure. IM doc also pointed out abnormal adrenal glands, a lymph node in her sternum that was pronounced, thin skin, tiny kidneys....holy cow...is any part of her system normal??

The mirtazepine is working. She is eating very good for me. The first night back home she was all over the place and crying at herself in a mirror. Her body had just been introduced to 4+ drugs at once so maybe that was why, I called vet just in case and they didn't seem too concerned, but she seemed ok by Saturday morning.

Concerning the IBD/lymphoma....testing for that will have to wait until after echo...as with testing for anything else that will require sedation. She mentioned if the heart isn't too bad...we might be able to get needle aspirates. Although if the lung inflammation needs to be treated with a steroid which can also help the IBD/lymphoma, that can interfere with biopsy results.:confused: Prednilisone was discussed as something that was helpful, but bad for heart.

At this point, the heart/lungs take precedence over everything. Thanks for all tips and suggestions...I take notes Wendy...might need to get my hands on some of those capsules you talk about...lol...and practice stuffing technique.

She is urinating like crazy...did that increase with Neko? That's probably a bad question since Neko is also diabetic. It is probably from the diuretic.

Hugs and scritches,

Dawn
 
Lisa and Witn (GA) said:
She is beautiful. Praying you find out what is wrong and she is feeling better soon. You may also want to get A/D from the vet. It is higher in calories and good for putting weight back on cats.. If she is not eating, you may need to syringe feed her. The A/D is easy to blend with water to use in a syringe.
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Thanks for food suggestion...so far the mirtazapine is working and she is eating her meals. She is down to 4.75 lbs :eek:. She always was a petite persian, but the vet said she was borderline "dangerously thin." Eating is half the battle, glad she is accepting food again.

Thank you for your prayers and compliments.
 
Dawn and Peek-a-Boo (GA) said:
Thanks for food suggestion...so far the mirtazapine is working and she is eating her meals. She is down to 4.75 lbs :eek:. She always was a petite persian, but the vet said she was borderline "dangerously thin." Eating is half the battle, glad she is accepting food again.

Thank you for your prayers and compliments.
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I think kitten food is also higher in calories if she does not like the A/D. Most of my cats do like the flavor of A/D so it was never an issue with them.
 
Iams MaxCal is even higher in calories, and a good texture for syringe feeding. I now have most of a case I don't currently need. :rolleyes:

Neko didn't get any Lasix yet so no on the extra peeing. She had been getting fluids so the first step was to stop that. The cardiologist might also want an EKG. Something you can do at home is to monitor her resting respiration rate (RR). When she is deep asleep, count the number of complete breaths per minute. Ideally it should be under 30. The testing is tricky, often Neko hears me and pops her head up just as I am about to start the count. The timer function on your phone comes in handy here.

The gold standard for diagnosing IBD/lymphoma is a full thickness biopsy, then the next choice is an endoscopy, both require anesthesia so we are just going by the percentages given Neko's bowel thickness. Treatment for both is much the same. If you haven't found it yet, check out http://www.ibdkitties.net/ Steroids have to be stopped for two weeks at least before any biopsy is done. I agree that treating the heart/lungs is number one. :bighug:
 
Dawn, she is beautiful. Sorry to hear of the current issues.

Smokey was just dx with left heart extremely enlarged, beginning chf, cardiomyopathy and he had a heart attack sometime in the last 6 months.

He was started on lasix so he urinates a lot more. He gets aspirin instead of plavix to prevent clots. And a combo of 3 drugs which one is Pimobendan.

I got all the drugs in liquid suspension flavored as it's easier for us. He will be having an xray this week to see if the fluid has subsided.

His appetite has gotten better. I was told to watch heat and humidity and make sure air conditioning is on.

He does seem better, not as gurglely or congested sounding. But I question the asthma dx and think this has been the problem. Although the inhaler does help him.

Good luck.
 
Woodsywife said:
Dawn, she is beautiful. Sorry to hear of the current issues.

Smokey was just dx with left heart extremely enlarged, beginning chf, cardiomyopathy and he had a heart attack sometime in the last 6 months.

He was started on lasix so he urinates a lot more. He gets aspirin instead of plavix to prevent clots. And a combo of 3 drugs which one is Pimobendan.

I got all the drugs in liquid suspension flavored as it's easier for us. He will be having an xray this week to see if the fluid has subsided.

His appetite has gotten better. I was told to watch heat and humidity and make sure air conditioning is on.

He does seem better, not as gurglely or congested sounding. But I question the asthma dx and think this has been the problem. Although the inhaler does help him.

Good luck.
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Hi Paula,

I remember when your Smokey was going through the testing...I was trying to sift through your old posts to get info and it was taking me forever so thank you for responding. Thinking there has to be an easier way to do that? :rolleyes:

Heat and humidity have been high and I was actually thinking about having her outside more...good advice...I will hold off on that for a bit.

Prayers to you as well for a clear xray this week...nice to hear his appetite is improving also. I will be thinking of you both and checking in for his update.

Hugs :bighug:,

Dawn
 
Wendy&Neko said:
I'm not a big fan of mirtazepine (also unaffectionally called meowzepan) cause it can cause odd reactions in some cats. And you should treat possible nausea first, before doing an appetite stimulant.
Click to expand...

Ok...this morning she was not really feeling her food so I gave the mirtazepine (last dose was what they gave her before discharge on Friday)...and she was acting the same as Friday night...can't settle down and crying at herself in mirror...meowzepine...very fitting. Thanks for the heads up Wendy, prevents me from freaking out and also wondering which med is doing it. The vet I spoke with on the phone Saturday morning could not tell me this, why??? :mad:
 
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