Laura and Harley (GA)
Member Since 2011
Hi everyone,
When I last posted, I never dreamed it’d be 2 months before I could sit down and write an update. I’m sorry this is so late and I appreciate everyone whose asked after my kitties. I’ve been online a few times a week, these last few months trying to keep up with everyone’s kitties, but was often unable to post more than a one-liner. For every post I made, there were hundreds I started and had to abandon. This will be a two-part post ‘cuz there’s just too much drama for one! Can we say Peyton Place anyone?
On June 27, shortly before my last post, my civie Princess, had a dental and local mastectomy to biopsy a small mass in the second to last nipple on her right side. Before doing the procedure, my vet took a chest x-ray to determine whether or not there were any masses in her lungs or other organs. If there were, we would not proceed with the biopsy as the presence of cancer would already be confirmed. Fortunately her chest x-ray was clear, and her biopsy went smoothly. They removed the nipple and the mass but with very narrow margins. The pathology came back as adenocarcinoma of the mammary ducts, grade I. Grade I with no metastisis is good, however since the margins were very narrow, they didn’t get all the cancer cells and it may come back. The options available (should I choose to pursue them) include radical mastectomy of either just the right side mammary chain or both left and right chains, chemotherapy and radiation. I’m leaning towards taking no further action but monitoring her for any future lumps and doing regular x-rays. As of today, she’s happy, eating like a small pony, sitting in her window seat, playing with toys, sleeping on my pillow at night and just enjoying being a cat. I alone know that she is sick and will have to carry that burden.
Harley went with us to the vet that day as he’d been doing poorly since his dry EVO feast. His blood work was fine and his spec-FPL was down to 4 which is in the gray zone for pancreatitis. But his appetite was still non-existent. During the last week of June in the days following Princess’s surgery, both cats would not eat. The vet gave me some A/D since I’d pretty much exhausted most of the OTC foods in my local grocery and pet food sores. They promptly ate the A/D for 2 days – and then just as promptly started having gas, vomiting and liquipoo. PCR tests for both were positive for clostridium perfringens enterotoxin. The food change was too rapid and the food too high in fat. At the same time as the PCR results came in, I got Princess’s pathology report. Not a day that I really want to remember. :cry: Both cats were started on amoxicillin and I spent the whole 4th of July weekend and into the following week syringe feeding both cats every 4 hours around the clock. Since A/D was too fatty, I switched to Iams Maximum Calorie (only had 5% carbs). That weekend was the most exhausting weekend of my entire life. Thankfully both cats gradually started to eat again, but they had to eat dry food for awhile to get their appetites going. ohmygod_smile For a little while both cats liked Taste of the Wild dry food (TOTW in my spreadsheet) but eventually grew bored and moved on to Hills I/D.
During July, both cats slowly improved. Princess healed from her surgery and with the loss of the tumor and addition of weekly vitamin B12 shots, she regained her appetite and also started putting on weight. Harley’s appetite waxed and waned. My vets and I used a host of supporting measures including pepcid, zantac, buprenex, anti-nausea meds. and antibiotics to work on his symptoms with varying results. My vet did another ultrasound and saw that his intestines had thickened since his April ultrasound done while he was at the ER for his plasma transfusion. I wanted to have his abcessed left upper canine extracted and my vets wanted to do an endoscopy. So we compromised and did both procedures together on August 9. The visual portion of the endoscopy revealed a normal esophagus and stomach. The small intestine was inflamed and also extra lumpy so my vet took tissue samples from the duodenum. My chief interest in the endoscopy was the visual exam of the back of the mouth, esophagus and stomach to ensure we were not missing anything like a stomach tumor or ulcer. We were already treating for IBD/cancer so to me the biopsy results really weren’t going to change things all that much.
Harley came through the surgery just fine. I sat in the lobby and listened to his heart monitor the whole time. He had three teeth extracted: the abcessed left upper canine, and the first two pre-molars on the bottom left and right. Just like Princess, he ate a little the first day or two after and then his appetite dwindled to nothing. During this time he existed on Gerber Baby Ham, grilled chicken breast and syringe feedings of Iams MaxCal. I also gave him dry when and if he would eat it. The pathology report was consistent with lymphocytic-plasmalytic inflammatory bowl disease. No shock, really. :roll: So we added metronidazole to his medication list and I’ve been cutting back on some of the more supportive meds. except for the Anzemet. (BTW, to answer Pamela’s question from my previous post: we tried both ondansetron and Anzemet to see if maybe one worked better than the other. We found out that Harley responds better to the Anzemet than the ondansetron.) I’ve been weaning both cats off the dry food and back onto canned and am almost there.
Since the removal of his bad teeth and adding the Flagyl once a day, I’m seeing flashes of my old Harley. He greets me at the door when I come home, he inspects everything that enters the house and I mean everything. And he demands snuggle time with his commanding meow just like he did years ago. I don’t even mind being bossed around by a 12 pound cat because we’ve been through so much this year and so many times I feared we wouldn’t make it. The future is still uncertain but right now, I’m seeing glimmers of hope. cat_pet_icon
To be continued in Part 2...
When I last posted, I never dreamed it’d be 2 months before I could sit down and write an update. I’m sorry this is so late and I appreciate everyone whose asked after my kitties. I’ve been online a few times a week, these last few months trying to keep up with everyone’s kitties, but was often unable to post more than a one-liner. For every post I made, there were hundreds I started and had to abandon. This will be a two-part post ‘cuz there’s just too much drama for one! Can we say Peyton Place anyone?
On June 27, shortly before my last post, my civie Princess, had a dental and local mastectomy to biopsy a small mass in the second to last nipple on her right side. Before doing the procedure, my vet took a chest x-ray to determine whether or not there were any masses in her lungs or other organs. If there were, we would not proceed with the biopsy as the presence of cancer would already be confirmed. Fortunately her chest x-ray was clear, and her biopsy went smoothly. They removed the nipple and the mass but with very narrow margins. The pathology came back as adenocarcinoma of the mammary ducts, grade I. Grade I with no metastisis is good, however since the margins were very narrow, they didn’t get all the cancer cells and it may come back. The options available (should I choose to pursue them) include radical mastectomy of either just the right side mammary chain or both left and right chains, chemotherapy and radiation. I’m leaning towards taking no further action but monitoring her for any future lumps and doing regular x-rays. As of today, she’s happy, eating like a small pony, sitting in her window seat, playing with toys, sleeping on my pillow at night and just enjoying being a cat. I alone know that she is sick and will have to carry that burden.
Harley went with us to the vet that day as he’d been doing poorly since his dry EVO feast. His blood work was fine and his spec-FPL was down to 4 which is in the gray zone for pancreatitis. But his appetite was still non-existent. During the last week of June in the days following Princess’s surgery, both cats would not eat. The vet gave me some A/D since I’d pretty much exhausted most of the OTC foods in my local grocery and pet food sores. They promptly ate the A/D for 2 days – and then just as promptly started having gas, vomiting and liquipoo. PCR tests for both were positive for clostridium perfringens enterotoxin. The food change was too rapid and the food too high in fat. At the same time as the PCR results came in, I got Princess’s pathology report. Not a day that I really want to remember. :cry: Both cats were started on amoxicillin and I spent the whole 4th of July weekend and into the following week syringe feeding both cats every 4 hours around the clock. Since A/D was too fatty, I switched to Iams Maximum Calorie (only had 5% carbs). That weekend was the most exhausting weekend of my entire life. Thankfully both cats gradually started to eat again, but they had to eat dry food for awhile to get their appetites going. ohmygod_smile For a little while both cats liked Taste of the Wild dry food (TOTW in my spreadsheet) but eventually grew bored and moved on to Hills I/D.
During July, both cats slowly improved. Princess healed from her surgery and with the loss of the tumor and addition of weekly vitamin B12 shots, she regained her appetite and also started putting on weight. Harley’s appetite waxed and waned. My vets and I used a host of supporting measures including pepcid, zantac, buprenex, anti-nausea meds. and antibiotics to work on his symptoms with varying results. My vet did another ultrasound and saw that his intestines had thickened since his April ultrasound done while he was at the ER for his plasma transfusion. I wanted to have his abcessed left upper canine extracted and my vets wanted to do an endoscopy. So we compromised and did both procedures together on August 9. The visual portion of the endoscopy revealed a normal esophagus and stomach. The small intestine was inflamed and also extra lumpy so my vet took tissue samples from the duodenum. My chief interest in the endoscopy was the visual exam of the back of the mouth, esophagus and stomach to ensure we were not missing anything like a stomach tumor or ulcer. We were already treating for IBD/cancer so to me the biopsy results really weren’t going to change things all that much.
Harley came through the surgery just fine. I sat in the lobby and listened to his heart monitor the whole time. He had three teeth extracted: the abcessed left upper canine, and the first two pre-molars on the bottom left and right. Just like Princess, he ate a little the first day or two after and then his appetite dwindled to nothing. During this time he existed on Gerber Baby Ham, grilled chicken breast and syringe feedings of Iams MaxCal. I also gave him dry when and if he would eat it. The pathology report was consistent with lymphocytic-plasmalytic inflammatory bowl disease. No shock, really. :roll: So we added metronidazole to his medication list and I’ve been cutting back on some of the more supportive meds. except for the Anzemet. (BTW, to answer Pamela’s question from my previous post: we tried both ondansetron and Anzemet to see if maybe one worked better than the other. We found out that Harley responds better to the Anzemet than the ondansetron.) I’ve been weaning both cats off the dry food and back onto canned and am almost there.
Since the removal of his bad teeth and adding the Flagyl once a day, I’m seeing flashes of my old Harley. He greets me at the door when I come home, he inspects everything that enters the house and I mean everything. And he demands snuggle time with his commanding meow just like he did years ago. I don’t even mind being bossed around by a 12 pound cat because we’ve been through so much this year and so many times I feared we wouldn’t make it. The future is still uncertain but right now, I’m seeing glimmers of hope. cat_pet_icon
To be continued in Part 2...
One thing for sure, life with an IBD kitty is never dull. When they eat and poop it's the heights of joy, when they don't - it's the depths of despair. Who needs reality TV? :lol: :lol: :lol: