5/12 Ruby AMPS 106/+2 138/+7 98/PMPS 70/+2 78

[Katherine&Ruby]

Yesterday on Ruby: A Love Story.

Last night Ruby ate her PM preshot meal and then not very much else after, only her small +9/4 AM snack, and then refused all of her food this morning. AMPS was 102, so I increased her back to .1 units as she doesn't seem to be doing so well on a drop dose. Produced a half solid, half runny poop after her shot, and when I saw how elevated her BG level was at +2 even after having not eaten, I took her to the vet. Vet said that she seemed fine, in no pain. Heart, lungs, teeth all good, no pain when he felt around her tummy. She got fluids, a Cerenia shot, and they drew blood for a geriatric panel with Spec fPLI. When we came home, she ate a bit of beef and is now chilling on her poufy bed, looking at me as though nothing happened. I'm not going to poke her until a little later as I am sure she is tired of being prodded right now and her BG is probably sky high. Worried that her kidney disease has progressed. We will find out tomorrow.

Healing thoughts for all of the sick kitties and hugs to you beans.

 

[tiffmaxee]

I hope she feels better soon.

 

[Butters & Lyla]

Your poor girl. It's sooo tough contending with more than "just" the diabetes. Sending many healing and eating vines her way.

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Oh Katherine, poor baby, I'm praying her kidney disease hadn't progressed
I know how you feel about that, every time I took Perry for his blood work for his kidneys I would hold my breath. Praying she starts to eat more.
Sending her big kisses ♥
Just saw the +7 happy to see she's not that stressed from the visit ♥

 

[Katherine&Ruby]

Your poor girl. It's sooo tough contending with more than "just" the diabetes. Sending many healing and eating vines her way.

Thank you, Lyla. You know better than anyone how challenging it is.

 

[Katherine&Ruby]

Oh Katherine, poor baby, I'm praying her kidney disease hadn't progressed
I know how you feel about that, every time I took Perry for his blood work for his kidneys I would hold my breath. Praying she starts to eat more.
Sending her big kisses ♥
Just saw the +7 happy to see she's not that stressed from the visit ♥

Thanks, Diane. Her BUN and SDMA were high the last time we checked in March. Had hoped that feeding raw would keep everything level. Fingers and paws crossed.

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Thanks, Diane. Her BUN and SDMA were high the last time we checked in March. Had hoped that feeding raw would keep everything level. Fingers and paws crossed.

 

[carfurby (GA)]

Sending prayers.

 

[JaxBenji]

Sending lots of healing vines to sweet Ruby

 

[Katherine&Ruby]

PMPS = 70. Took a nibble of dinner. Don't want to take a chance of her not eating with such a low preshot so gave her cyproheptadine.

 

[Suzanne & Darcy]

Hi Katherine. I saw your post while I was waiting at the vet and I was upset. I will pray that Ruby’s kidney values will not be bad. I sure hope she will eat for you. I had been giving Darcy Mirataz but it doesn’t seem to work for him. So far no eating action. So I am going to try cyproheptadine. I have some at home.
It could actually be the IBD inhibiting her appetite?

 

[Liz & Minnie]

Hoping for good i.e. treatable news from the vet tomorrow. This disease is not for the faint hearted. Eat, Ruby, Eat!

 

[JOJI and Kit]

dear ruby,
food is good for you.
please feel better and eat a little.
your friend, kit

 

[Suzanne & Darcy]

Katherine,

PMPS = 70. Took a nibble of dinner. Don't want to take a chance of her not eating with such a low preshot so gave her cyproheptadine.

@PerfumedCatMom I have been giving Darcy 1/4 of a Pepcid AC in the hopes of it helping. I know the IBDkitties people are not fans of that. Do you think it’s okay? I have been using a “throw everything except the kitchen sink” approach for the last several days to try to get him to eat.

 

[Katherine&Ruby]

Hi Katherine. I saw your post while I was waiting at the vet and I was upset. I will pray that Ruby’s kidney values will not be bad. I sure hope she will eat for you. I had been giving Darcy Mirataz but it doesn’t seem to work for him. So far no eating action. So I am going to try cyproheptadine. I have some at home.
It could actually be the IBD inhibiting her appetite?

Thank you, Suzanne. I used to give Ruby mirtazapine but it caused some weird behaviors like a lot of yowling and pacing and uncontrollable hunger. The cypro is much milder. She still acts a little strange on it, a bit twitchy, but she did eat about 75% of her dinner tonight so that's something.

We'll know it's IBD or SCL if her kidney values come back relatively low, in which case I'm going to have to consider whether or not to do a biopsy, which I really really do not want to do to my sweet one. I had really hoped to be able to control the inflammation through changing her diet to raw and giving her lots of probiotics, but we shall see.

 

[Katherine&Ruby]

Katherine,

@PerfumedCatMom I have been giving Darcy 1/4 of a Pepcid AC in the hopes of it helping. I know the IBDkitties people are not fans of that. Do you think it’s okay? I have been using a “throw everything except the kitchen sink” approach for the last several days to try to get him to eat.

I believe it's not a good long term solution but is fine for brief periods of inappetence. The idea is that it causes gut dysbiosis if you take too much of it, which exacerbates the inflammation creating a vicious cycle of needing more and more Pepcid. If you ask me, in the case of Darcy, whatever gets him to eat is worth doing.

 

[Suzanne & Darcy]

Thank you, Suzanne. I used to give Ruby mirtazapine but it caused some weird behaviors like a lot of yowling and pacing and uncontrollable hunger. The cypro is much milder. She still acts a little strange on it, a bit twitchy, but she did eat about 75% of her dinner tonight so that's something.

We'll know it's IBD or SCL if her kidney values come back relatively low, in which case I'm going to have to consider whether or not to do a biopsy, which I really really do not want to do to my sweet one. I had really hoped to be able to control the inflammation through changing her diet to raw and giving her lots of probiotics, but we shall see.

I know that this is not the officially approved way of handling IBD/SCL, but I have had cats in the past who we highly suspected had SCL. I would not do a biopsy due to age or, in another case, a medical condition, so we did less invasive things like ultrasound and the Texas A&M GI Panel to point us in the right direction. Then we proceeded with prednisolone and/or chlorambucil and did a trial and error. With my Maverick, he regained a great quality of life and gained weight and was very happy for several years on Chlorambucil. We never did the biopsy (this is heresy on the IBD group I know, but sometimes you have to be practical.)

 

[Katherine&Ruby]

I know that this is not the officially approved way of handling IBD/SCL, but I have had cats in the past who we highly suspected had SCL. I would not do a biopsy due to age or, in another case, a medical condition, so we did less invasive things like ultrasound and the Texas A&M GI Panel to point us in the right direction. Then we proceeded with prednisolone and/or chlorambucil and did a trial and error. With my Maverick, he regained a great quality of life and gained weight and was very happy for several years on Chlorambucil. We never did the biopsy (this is heresy on the IBD group I know, but sometimes you have to be practical.)

Many people do what you did for Maverick. I think it's a matter of personal preference. I would probably want to know for sure before giving chlorambucil but I am afraid of putting Ruby through a biopsy. Hopefully I won't have to make that decision anytime soon. This past February we sent bloodwork to TAMU and everything came back completely normal and the thickness in her intestines actually shrank from September to February of this year. I strongly suspect it's the CKD causing her to stop eating right now.

 

[Suzanne & Darcy]

I HATE CKD!

 

[Suzanne & Darcy]

Katherine. I had a cat who, several years ago, had a laparotomy to biopsy all of his internal GI parts. He did have IBD and later SCL... this was before chlorambucil was in use in cats, I believe, and my poor Inky died a premature death because of it. But... really what I am writing about was the laparotomy. It was truly awful. I don't know if they use different techniques now, but he literally was cut from stem to stern and had a lot of stitches. He was on a Fentanyl patch for days and stayed in the hospital for like a week and had to come home with a feeding tube (which wasn't that bad except for that the tubes were a lot larger back then). He did recover fairly quickly after that first week in the hospital. I went in to visit with him and sit by his cage a day or two after his surgery, and I was just horrified by how he looked and the big incision and the stitches and everything. I promised myself then that I would never again allow that to be done to one of my cats. Now, as I said, it was a while ago (this was about 2004), but it was so shocking to me. I probably could have kept Inky alive if chlorambucil had been in use back then in cats -- all we had was Pred. I think maybe if I had been prepared a little better with an idea of what it would be like, and how he would look, and how long he would have to stay in the hospital, it wouldn't have been such a shock. Anyway... I don't know why I am telling this story to you now, except that we were talking about biopsies. I think I will look up and see how it is nowadays -- to see if the laparotomy is any less traumatic and if the recovery period is any better. I don't think they are allowed to use Fentanyl patches anymore, but I was really impressed with that. I doubt if oral Bupe can work nearly as well as that Fentanyl patch (not to mention that it has to be dosed regularly for major pain like post-surgical pain.) This would be for people to use at home. In the vet hospital, I believe they use Simbadol, which is a 24-hour Bupe injectable. I guess the IM injection makes it last so long as compared with oral Bupe.

 

[Summer and Susie (GA)]

Prayers that your Ruby will get good blood test results and that she was just having a bad day. Also, I hope her eating improves. So, so critical to these kitties. I agree with Lyla. So hard to have to deal with more than the diabetes. That is challenging itself.

 

[Our Dolly Girl (GA)]

Yesterday on Ruby: A Love Story.

Last night Ruby ate her PM preshot meal and then not very much else after, only her small +9/4 AM snack, and then refused all of her food this morning. AMPS was 102, so I increased her back to .1 units as she doesn't seem to be doing so well on a drop dose. Produced a half solid, half runny poop after her shot, and when I saw how elevated her BG level was at +2 even after having not eaten, I took her to the vet. Vet said that she seemed fine, in no pain. Heart, lungs, teeth all good, no pain when he felt around her tummy. She got fluids, a Cerenia shot, and they drew blood for a geriatric panel with Spec fPLI. When we came home, she ate a bit of beef and is now chilling on her poufy bed, looking at me as though nothing happened. I'm not going to poke her until a little later as I am sure she is tired of being prodded right now and her BG is probably sky high. Worried that her kidney disease has progressed. We will find out tomorrow.

Healing thoughts for all of the sick kitties and hugs to you beans.

Hi Katherine, sending healing prayers, I hope Ruby’s kidney values look good. Hope she eats better today. Will look in on you later on new condo. Hope you are feeling better.