AlyMcF
Member Since 2014
My cat Sketch was diagnosed with "severe pancreatitis" and fluid in his abdominal cavity just last week. They think it started because his diabetes (which had been in remission) returned a few weeks ago and we didn't notice. The diabetes led to pancreatitis which led to the return and worsening of the diabetes. Now we have a very sick kitty at home.
We first knew something was wrong on June 28 when he threw up green liquid, was breathing rapidly, had a BG of over 300, and generally seemed out of sorts. A visit to the urgent care cat clinic revealed normal vital signs, so they took blood and urine and sent him home and we waited for results.
On the night of June 29, he seemed worse. His BG was over 500 and we rushed him back to the hospital. His temp had shot up to 105 F and they decided he need to be hospitalized and given IV fluids.
The next day we learned after getting test results back (blood, urine, chest xray, abdominal US) that his diabetes had returned and he had severe pancreatitis and fluid in his abdomen. He spend three nights in the hospital. On the last night he had trouble breathing at one point and they put him on oxygen. They believed that he had gotten too much IV fluid and it overwhelmed his heart.
He came home the night of July 2, with the following Rx’s:
buprenorphine for pain
mirtazapine for appetite
cerenia for nausea
clavamox and zeniquin antibiotics (I think this was either because they thought there was bacteria in the pancreatitis or that he had aspiration pneumonia, or both)
tumil K (potassium…I forget why but it is the low priority pill)
and of course, lantus glargine
So we have been struggling every morning and night to get these meds into him and to get him to eat. Last night a neighbor came over (who had experience with force feeding a cat through a syringe) to help get some food into him. I had to resort to giving only 1/2 cc of insulin twice yesterday because he had eaten so little.
It doesn’t help that we are having a heatwave and it gets to be 80 degrees in our house by mid afternoon. It doesn’t help that I just had laparascopic gallbladder surgery June 30 and can neither lift him nor stoop to feed him. I’m relying a lot on my husband and ten year old daughter this week. And because of exhaustion from recovering from surgery, I haven’t been able to research or make much sense of what I have read about pancreatitis.
I’m not even entirely sure why I’m posting, except to share what Sketch is going through and to see if anyone else has a similar story or advice.
Background: Sketch was diagnosed with diabetes in Nov 2014. Switched to a low carb canned food diet and after just two weeks of glargine, he went into remission. A few months later his roommate Max started boycotting the low carb canned food diet and in an effort to find something they would both eat happily, we found low carb dry food by Evo (12 % carbs), and supplemented it with the low carb canned foods that mostly only Sketch was eating. This was going well until a few weeks ago.
We first knew something was wrong on June 28 when he threw up green liquid, was breathing rapidly, had a BG of over 300, and generally seemed out of sorts. A visit to the urgent care cat clinic revealed normal vital signs, so they took blood and urine and sent him home and we waited for results.
On the night of June 29, he seemed worse. His BG was over 500 and we rushed him back to the hospital. His temp had shot up to 105 F and they decided he need to be hospitalized and given IV fluids.
The next day we learned after getting test results back (blood, urine, chest xray, abdominal US) that his diabetes had returned and he had severe pancreatitis and fluid in his abdomen. He spend three nights in the hospital. On the last night he had trouble breathing at one point and they put him on oxygen. They believed that he had gotten too much IV fluid and it overwhelmed his heart.
He came home the night of July 2, with the following Rx’s:
buprenorphine for pain
mirtazapine for appetite
cerenia for nausea
clavamox and zeniquin antibiotics (I think this was either because they thought there was bacteria in the pancreatitis or that he had aspiration pneumonia, or both)
tumil K (potassium…I forget why but it is the low priority pill)
and of course, lantus glargine
So we have been struggling every morning and night to get these meds into him and to get him to eat. Last night a neighbor came over (who had experience with force feeding a cat through a syringe) to help get some food into him. I had to resort to giving only 1/2 cc of insulin twice yesterday because he had eaten so little.
It doesn’t help that we are having a heatwave and it gets to be 80 degrees in our house by mid afternoon. It doesn’t help that I just had laparascopic gallbladder surgery June 30 and can neither lift him nor stoop to feed him. I’m relying a lot on my husband and ten year old daughter this week. And because of exhaustion from recovering from surgery, I haven’t been able to research or make much sense of what I have read about pancreatitis.
I’m not even entirely sure why I’m posting, except to share what Sketch is going through and to see if anyone else has a similar story or advice.
Background: Sketch was diagnosed with diabetes in Nov 2014. Switched to a low carb canned food diet and after just two weeks of glargine, he went into remission. A few months later his roommate Max started boycotting the low carb canned food diet and in an effort to find something they would both eat happily, we found low carb dry food by Evo (12 % carbs), and supplemented it with the low carb canned foods that mostly only Sketch was eating. This was going well until a few weeks ago.
