Bad Week
Meelee the “fuzzy indoor duck” had a bad week.
She went to the vet on Tuesday afternoon because she has not been eating well. She has had episodes like this for the past few years, and is slowly losing weight. She is on a good prescription diet for old cats with early stage kidney disease, but when she doesn’t eat, it gets scary. When she doesn’t eat, she gets her choice of anything in the world (sorry vegetarian friends, Meelee gets whatever she wants to eat, at any time). If she won’t eat the prescription canned food or packets, she gets Simon’s wet food. If she doesn’t like that, she gets tuna fish or chicken with broth. If that doesn’t work, she gets canned Friskies. So far one of those five options has worked most of the time, but she never eats very much.
At the vet on Tuesday afternoon she got fluids and anti-nausea medication and seemed a little better. Wednesday she did okay, but Thursday night she was in pain and vomiting, so we ended up at the emergency clinic until 2:30am.
By Friday morning she looked a little better and was out of pain, but she’s just sooooo skinny and her weight is not headed in the right direction.
Friday evening she hung out in the aviary and seemed to enjoy it. She is also eating a little better, so she’s more stable.
Saturday she was suckered back into the cat carrier, and we took her to the radiologist for an ultrasound. This will help decide if she has cancer, a blockage or inflammatory bowel disease. The results were just fine, so those bad things are probably not the problem. This is great news.
But we’re still not sure what the problem is. She has high-normal thyroid levels, on two different thyroid blood tests. But they’re both in normal range. I’m a little torn on what to do for her next. The cancer specialist cat clinic thinks an endoscopy might be a good next step, as gastrointestinal problems can lead to cancer. The thyroid specialist cat clinic thinks we should just treat her for hyperthyroidism, as that can cause all the gastrointestinal problems anyway.
I guess I’d be a little more clear if both clinics hadn’t recommended their own specialties as next steps. Know what I mean? I’d be a little more confident if one or both of them had recommended something/anything besides what they specialize in. I’m not suggesting that either of them is trying to sell me on an option, it’s just possible they both see what they’re used to seeing most often. And it’s my job to make sure I see what’s best for Meelee.
So… we might be going for a third opinion.
For the moment, Meelee is happily napping in the sun, having just snacked on some chicken juice (four other options were not to her liking). She is purring and snuggley and happy to be home.
And after a bad week, that’s a good day.
Miss Amelia Dingo
14-years and 1-month old
2.91kg/6.42lbs
UPDATE: Meelee is going to try the pills for hyperthyroidism for a few weeks and see if she responds well. In a few months, if she’s gaining weight and otherwise doing okay, we’ll think about the radioactive iodine treatment for her, so her human doesn’t have to give her pills twice a day.
13 Comments
I’ll have your girl in my thoughts, and keep my fingers crossed, too.
I will keep you and Meelee in my thoughts as well–I hope you’re feeling better soon Meelee!
Hey Tiff, Have you tried “Prescription Diet a/d” food? It’s in a can, for both dogs and cats. It’s super high powered food for critters who are either recovering from surgery or have a serious illness. It’s a very smooth, very wet food so it’s easy on the digestive system. They can eat half as much and get all the nutrition they can. You have to have a prescription for it, and it’s a bit expensive, but it might be helpful in getting weight back on her. My kitten Elvis had surgery last week (because he ate 6 feet of yarn-oy vey!). The only thing I could get him to eat for the first few days afterwards was this a/d food. My previous cat, Truman, ate it for the last month of his life. He had cancer and it really helped to keep him from losing weight too rapidly.
If I remember correctly, Petsmart has the cheapest price by the case. Your vet can write a Rx which you can take there. Maybe this could be at least a suppliment for her? Oh, and by all means keep it away from Simon!
Good luck! Thinking of you and Little Buddy-ette!
xoxo Meg
Meg, yes we have Prescription Diet a/d. It’s not great for her kidneys, but it’s one of her many, many options. She has…
The three foods she is supposed to eat:
Prescription Royal Canin Renal LP
Prescription Royal Canin Modified Formula
Prescription Purina NF Kidney Function
Simon’s options:
Prescription Lamb Formula (limited ingredients)
Prescription Venison Formula (limited ingredients)
Two recovery options:
Prescription Royal Canin Recovery AS
Prescription Hills Prescription Diet a/d
Random options if she won’t eat any of that:
Purina Pro Plan Sardines & Tuna
Friskies wet food
Tuna fish
Chicken
We open one option at a time until she eats something. Today she did a little better and only made me open four things. Tonight she ate Prescription Diet a/d REALLY well. Nom nom nom. She must be feeling better. Sometimes we make it through the whole list. She also sometimes decides she doesn’t like cold leftovers and we have to microwave the options. I think she’s feeling a bit better though, and I think the antibiotics helped.
Feel better soon little sweetie-pie so your Mom (and I) can stop worrying so much about you. You have the sweetest kitty face ever!
Meelee is definitely thin. I will be praying that he thyroid pills will work for her. it’s hard when our buds get older and especially when the doc’s are trying whatever because they don’t know what the problem is either. You hang in there Tif. You are a great mother.
Tuna or whatever she will eat works great. Plus she is purring and snuggling – that is good. It shows she’s not necessarily in pain or discomfort.
Miss Amelia has the prettiest face. I’m sorry she is not feeling well. It makes me teary-eyed to hear that she had a bad week. But you’re such a great mom, Tif, and I’m happy she is snuggley again. I’ll be thinking about you and Meels and hoping for speedy progress!
Glad to hear she’s eating! That’s quite a list of cat food you’ve got there! These animals are so lucky to have you!
Thanks, Meg. This morning Meelee didn’t want to eat. So I gave her the anti-nausea shot, the pill of antibiotics and thyroid medication, and then the BIG needle of sub-q fluids. After that she said “okay okay ENOUGH I’ll eat. Sheeesh!”
And now she’s eating.
Stupid, stupid question, because I haven’t read all the posts about Melee thoroughly I suppose – but has she steroids?
All my best to you all.
Thanks, Carrie -
She has not had steroids. If her ultrasound showed IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) I think that would have been the recommended medication. I can’t remember for sure at this point, but steroids were discussed. I think because the ultrasound was good, we didn’t do that. Steroids would be bad for her kidneys, too. So for now I’m glad she isn’t taking them. Meelee is doing good Sunday night. She’s on an antibiotic that is also an anti-inflammatory that targets only the gastrointestinal tract. And she’s on thyroid medication. She’ll go back to the vet in a few weeks to see if she’s gaining weight.
Good to hear Meelee is doing a little better, but we don’t settle for little, do we Meelee we want big better. Little steps, and small bites at a time will do the trick.
Your list of food options remind me of Ratje, when he as getting old we also needed all kinds of stuff to keep him happy (and the other cats loved it too;-)
Keep it up Meelee, okay?
I only asked because I had a male cat who was a whopper during his heyday – over 1.5 feet tall and 15 pounds of muscle – he suddenly dropped to 9 pounds. They looked for IBD, never really found it, but a few rounds of steroids made him perk up and start eating again. They told me the damage to his kidneys was far less worrisome than the fact that he was not eating for whatever reason. Once a year we had a steroid shot and he was good to go.
He lived to a very ripe age of 20 before we decided to let him go because of other health issues.
Still hoping for you guys. Melee is so pretty and delicate. I want to pet her tiny little head, all my cats were big strapping thugs.