feline spondylosis deformans

I took Stormy Blue in for his annual senior exam today.

He had all sorts of blood and urine tests done, (results of those to be available in a few days), and this time, he also had several full body X-Rays done.
His poor little back bone is such a mess! It is covered in spines, and in some cases, the spines and vertebrate are fused together - especially in his lower back right above his pelvic region and the same right above his shoulder area. All of his other joints, (hips, legs, etc.), appear to be clear of arthritis with the exception of his tail, which appears to have, at some point, had a separation in it.

He was diagnosed with a severe case of feline spondylosis deformans and the doctor said that in reality, there is very little than can be done for him other than to give him daily medication for pain, (as he is probably in LOT of pain), and to give glucosamine chondroitin & cosequin in his food each day.

For now, he is on .125mg of Tramadol bid, but we do have Buprenorphine ordered for him from drugstore.com, (they were the ONLY place that had it that I could find and I ordered the last box that they had of it). There seems to be some sort of manufacturer issue with Buprenorphine right now and none of the veterinarians, pharmacies, or online places that I contacted have any idea when they will get more in stock.

His heart, blood pressure, eyesight, and everything else to be revealed by a physical exam were normal, but he does have substantial muscle wasting in his hip/flank area which could be due to his CRD and/or the spondylosis.

Once I get the blood test results, I will let y'all know what they show.

~M

 

Hi Mary

I'm sorry to hear this. Perhaps consider adding Adequan and gabapentin if the tramadol doesn't do it on its own. Tramadol is a lot cheaper and easier to get than Buprenex so I'm hoping that works for him.

 

Ouch. It sounds really painful :sad:

Jess, do you think any of the supplements Meowzi gets could help Stormy Blue? We currently use Dasuquin, fish oil, Adequan (which you've mentioned), and Denamarin, all specifically for her arthritis. I think that's the complete list, will need to go home and check. She also gets acupuncture treatments. Something's working, her mobility seems to have improved in the last few months (ever since we raised her fish oil dose and started her on Denosyl, I think). She's been hopping up the 5-ft kitty tower a whole lot (which she'd never attempted before), to our great delight.

And Dr S is looking into Gabapentin for us; it's on the agenda for discussion at our 7/14 appointment.

 

Well, the Tramadol at RXed dose turned the boy into a zombie. Even at .125mg, the dose seems to have been too much for him. His pupils were all that you saw when you looked at his eyes, and he refused food until I put a tiny bit of tuna water into it about an hour ago. That was after 24 hours of not eating at ALL. He also wanted to do nothing more than lay on the bathroom floor - behind the toilet. Last night when I gave him 1/8 of a Tramadol tablet, a dose of .0625mg, he fought me like a demon to NOT take that pill crumb, (which I am sure was counterproductive for alleviating his pain). Then he slavered and drooled for hours afterward. I have not given him any of it today so far.

I have tried gabapentin before, for Georgie - for his mammary cancer pain. Whenever I gave it to him, (compounded into fish oil), he hated the taste and did exactly what Stormy Blue did last night - fought me like a demon and then drooled and slavered for hours afterward. There is only one pharmacy in about 50 miles of me who will compound Gabapentin because everyone else is a chain store, and they will not compound. :-( Stormy Blue is flat out terrible about taking ANY medication orally. It is a real struggle to pill, or squirt meds into this 6.4lb cat's mouth.

At least with the bupe I can inject it SubQ and avoid the bad taste of the pain medication, and the fighting me like a demon. Adequan must be injected IM instead of subQ, and that makes me a little nervous. Stormy Blue has so little meat on him that I would be a bit frightened of sticking him IM which would mean repeated trips to the vet office for the injections. Something that I cannot afford with my not having had a paying job in over a year now, and my unemployment benefits running out in 3 weeks time.

I am giving him one crushed Flex-a-min Bone Shield, Complete tablet sprinkled on his food over the course of 3 days. It is meant for humans, but a person is supposed to take 2 of them per day, so I figured one table shared over 3 days would be about right for him. I have been doing that for close to a year now. He is also now getting Cosequin once daily, but that just started yesterday. I will start adding a few drops of fish oil to his food each day, too, since we have that here and both hubby and I take a capsule daily, (stuff gives me nasty fish burps!!).

~M

 

Not true. Adequan can be given subQ. My vet looked up studies on VIN that showed it was just as effective given subQ as IM. The reason it is prescripted IM is because that is the way it was administered during the FDA trials. The trials were in dogs and horses, not cats.

 

Really??? Then it might be something to add to his treatment plan. Per his vet, it is only given IM and that is just not something that I,
personally, am comfortable doing as thin as my boy is. SubQ? Not a problem

~M

 

Hi Mary
Your vet can get free chewie samples from Veterinary Pharmacies of America if you'd consider compounding the gabapentin that way. Don't bother with the tramadol because it tastes so bad that the chewies would still taste bad (a few meds are like that, including amitryptiline and metronidazole).

Yes Karen's right, give the Adequan SQ.

Choy Foong also has good ideas: high dose fish-oils definitely seem to work well for arthritic pain, but cats have issues in terms of eating that much fish oil. Hills has a new rx food (I know, I know), j/d for cats, which has extremely high levels of fish oils. I am (dont' shoot me) trying it for Dillon actually, giving him a handful of kibbles each day to get some Omega 3 in him. Not the full benefit because it's not his sole diet, but still a means of getting him to eat his fish oil. (I'd prefer the canned, but got the j/d dry for a free trial so that's what I'm using now.)

Denosyl (dont' need Denamarin, just for joints) is also a joint medication but has the issue of being most effective when swallowed whole.

Antioxidants in general will help with joint pain, so if your kitty will eat NuCat Senior or NuCat, or will permit you to mix Cell Advance with his food, that would also help.

 

Thank you, Jess, for the information. It appears that Nu-Cat senior chews can be purchased on Amazon.com. I will order a package of it and see if he will eat it. The j/d is a no go. Too high in carbs and Stormy is super sensitive to insulin. I'd rather trying getting fish/krill/flax seed oil into him w/o adding carbs to his diet which would force him to go back on insulin. Right now, he is diet controlled very well and I would really prefer to keep it that way.

~M

 

Mary, have you called Las Colinas Pharmacy? I used them for several years to compound high blood pressure meds for kitties. They also do a lot of work with zoos.

 

Thank you. If I need something compounded, I will keep them in mind. The only other compounding pharmacy that I am aware of, in the Metroplex,
is Garland Independent Pharmacy on Broadway Blvd., in Garland. They are the ones that made Georgie's gabapentin compound, but he loathed the stuff.

~M