4/14 Jenks AMPS 103 +3 69 +6 68 PMPS 122 +7 123

4/13

Slow night for Jenks, down a whopping 9 points. I figure that might be from a suboptimal shot placement last night.

This morning brings a new adventure. Jenks got his first dose of mirtazapine this morning about an hour before AMPS. I don't have any experience with this, so I don't know how long it takes to kick in, but Jenks sure looked more eager for breakfast and ate with more vigor than I've seen in the past week. It will be interesting to see his hunger level at +3 when it's had a couple of hours to get into his system.

He also hasn't wigged out, so knock on wood. Hopefully a 1.8mg dose in a 26 pound body provides a strong firewall against any dose-related side effects. For now, we wait and monitor.

Mirtazapine looks like it also has anti-nausea properties, so perhaps it can do double duty if Jenks is also having some lingering GI distress.

 

Jenks is 26 pounds!?! Oh my god he must be the best to snuggle with
No experience with Mirtazapine here but glad to hear he ate breakfast with vigor. All sounds like a step in the right direction.

 

Sending eating and feel better vines to Jenks.

 

Normally, if there is hemolysis, it will state it on the report and the degree of hemolysis. I appreciate you going through the list.

If you are near Dr. Church, he’s worth every penny. I believe his charge for Tobey was $600 but that included travel time to Tucson. I think the actual echo was $400 if I remember correctly.

Jenks doesn’t have any Maine Coone or other large breed cat in him does he? He’s short haired but still....26 lbs is pretty big for a normal non-large breed cat. Even with the potential of acro. If he has any Maine Coone or other large breed cat in him, my concern for HCM would be increased as it is very prevalent in those breeds, especially Maine Coones.

Interesting what you found on CK and not eating. I never say never but I’ve also seen a lot of labs with inappetent cats; again, I don’t see those kinds of elevations in CK but you never, ever, ever know. It’s still worth doing a little extra investigation. What i more often see in a cat that is not eating is elevations in liver enzymes due to potential of feline hepatic lipidosis.

While I hate to overreact, I also don’t like to put my head in the sand when I’m looking at someone else’s cat’s labs. If we’d done that with Doodles, Karen would have likely lost him much sooner than she did because he wouldn’t have been getting treatment that he needed and that gave him over an extra year of great QOL. And, if you decide on the blood test or the echo and everything is normal, then you have a great baseline. This is important on a cat that is early CKD because you will eventually, likely, start subq fluids and you’ll know his heart is in good enough shape to handle it.

It drives me crazy when vets run abbreviated panels (did I already get on this soap box?). For instance, with a CKD cat, they’ll run an abbreviated panel that doesn’t include phosphorus, calcium, or potassium. Those are such critical values for a CKD cat. While some values can be looked at independently, I am happy that my vet and I are on the same page that looking at a complete superchem and cbc gives you the big picture. What she does, even for my little Liv who is just 1-1/2, is run a senior panel and that includes the whole shebang for less than splitting it up and doing add ons. To kinda quote Forrest Gump...labs are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna find.

 

Wow on 26 lbs! I thought Bubba was a hubba tuba at 23 prior to FD DX.

Glad you have Marje looking on!

 

I'm glad the mirtzapine seems to be helping. Sending prayers.