Flowerbelle's turn: Heart problem? Asthma? Megacolon

I'm glad you got some good news today.    I'm praying you will get more good news soon!!!

Well. Flowerbelle reguritated her wet food yesterday and again this morning. As her xray showed her small intestine had a lot of ... stuff ... in it, I decided to start her on pumpkin.

We had to work on that, as she won't eat it mixed into food. She is hard to medicate, and using the syringe didn't exactly work at first LOL. So out came the cat bag. Well THAT was a bust. She thrashed around SO MUCH I thought she was going to give herself a concussion, so I released her as quickly as I could. I put a few pieces of kibble down and she immediately started purring LOL. So we worked out an agreement. I would syringe 1ml (of a/d mixed with pumpkin), and she'd get a piece of kibble. I only got a teaspoon of pumpkin into her last night - most of it had wound up on the floor, bathroom wall or cabinet. :lol3: I didn't want to stress her any more.

But she remembered our "deal" this morning, and I was able to get a little more than a full tablespoon into her, alternating the syringe with letting her eat a piece or two of kibble.

I'll probably give her some more tonight, as we're not yet doing the poop dance..... :cross:

:cross: to get some more pumpkin into our little sweetie, Flowerbelle. Poor little sweetie, I wish it could also be easier for you. I hope Flowerbelle begins to realize that this must be done and give in a bit. AWWWWW she is just so cute and I know this is hard on you to have to do this to her It is much harder having to get these "medicines" in our babies when they stress so over it being done .

Doing the POOP dance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I think the blobs do a better job of the "pooping" dance :blobmir: :blobyello :blobmul: :blobturq: :blobpink: Hope to hear you have poop very soon :cross:

just checking in to see if we're doing the "poop dance" yet.  Maybe you're so busy cleaning it up you don't have time to post!!

There was only one poop this morning! I don't know if it was hers... there was a lot of hair in it. :dk: She hasn't pooped yet today though. We were out and about, but I know this because there wasn't any poop to clean out of the box yet. :lol3: I gave her more pumpking this morning. We'll just have to see what happens. :cross: :lol3:

Well somebody did that hairy poop Let.s just hope it was Miss Flowerbelle's. One way to know, upon closer inspection, was the hair in the poop white?

Seriously, I worry about your furbabies so much :heart3: and sending cyber for you and :rub: all around for the kids :heart3:.

Here's hoping the poop patrol found what it was looking for!  ;-}

AC

Flowerbelle was very obliging, and was pooping as we walked in this afternoon. :lol3: I think I'll just keep her on maintenance pumpkin for a while. She's not thrilled about the syringe, but with the kibble treats, doesn't fight it (in fact, I don't have to do any cleaning up any more, as it all gets into her!).

And.... so far no news, so I hope Doc was right and that means good news. :cross: :lol3:

for Flowerbelle!

Way to go Flowerbelle!    We're doing the "poop dance" now

Poopie Dance !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :blobturq: :blobpink: :blobyello :blobmir:

AND YAY YAY YAY for no news - so far. Looking good to you, sweetie :heart3:

I called the Doc. She'd just left for the day, gone home sick. She's expected back in the morning, we're "first" in her inbox. Supposedly.

I do hope she feels better, of course.

But I'm pissed. Not because she's sick, I feel badly about that. No, I'm pissed because I asked to have copies of Flowerbelle's file faxed to her other vet. I should have set it up to be done automatically when we checked her in, but I forgot. This doc's office has a complete file on Flowerbelle and this doc knows we work with multiple vets. We like to keep everyone's files current. I was told that they can't fax her records without the doc's permission. I've never heard that before. The vet's offices need OUR permission to fax things to another practice... but I've never heard of the VET needing to release the records. nfire: I saw no point in getting upset, since they obviously weren't going to do anything, and all I could possibly do is upset the person to whom I was talking. Especially because I was really mad. So instead of saying, "I'm sorry, I don't understand. She's our cat, and we paid for the services, the diagnostics, and the consultations, and your file is complete with her records from the vet to whom I'm asking you to fax this current information," I said, "thanks, I'll talk to the Doc tomorrow."

But I am fuming.

I really like this doc. But I REALLY hate this practice.

I do understand how mad you must have felt. Those records do belong to you and the more I think about I have to wonder something. Did Dr. Cheng even look at the results today before she went home sick :dk:. We have no way of knowing this. But maybe that is why they wouldn't fax over the records. I know that doesn't make it right but maybe Dr. Cheng wants to go over the results with you first before she releases them to your other vet. I am sure you will bring this up to her on the phone in the morning. I know, is is lousy because you have been waiting for five days now for the results. Now, no news is good news doesn't cut it. We want to know the results NOW. I am just thinking that this is a good sign :bigthumb: :nod: one more night

Well, Doc is in today. We called at noon. She called right back. There were no reports back from radiologist or cardiologist. She doesn't know if the report from radiologist is just not in her file, or if it was not returned. She is going to look into it. She never asked the cardiologist for a report. She wanted the radiologist report to go to cardiologist before his report, so hasn't even asked the cardiologist for a report yet. We should hear from her by Saturday at the latest, unless the reports actually are there or in email or something.

I am not happy.

OH Dr. Cheng :nothappy: ..... I don't blame you for being a bit miffed. I wish she would have stay on top of this better than that BUT.... maybe this is just a real good sign that she is not worried. So let's just think that way about it :nod: I will be waiting along side you on this one, sweetie Give Flowerbelle a big kiss from me tonight, please . :rub: :rub:

LDG said:

I gave her more pumpking this morning. :

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I meant to quote this a few days ago - only to make you laugh cause I :heart3: you so . Have to keep you laughin'

Did you really give her some more "PUMPKING" umpkin::king: ................ If the King :king: says Poop, then Pumpkin umpkin: it is and it better be shunny, too :sun::sun::sun:

Yes, pumpking is the king of poop! You succeeded in your mission to keep me laughing. :lol3:

LDG said:

Yes, pumpking is the king of poop! You succeeded in your mission to keep me laughing. :lol3:

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:bigthumb: and more umpkin::king: and more :sun::sun::sun::sun::sun: and more :rub::rub::rub::rub::rub: for Flowerbelle - my special fur-neice

For today's xray results :cross:

:rub::rub::rub::rub::rub::rub: and :heart3::heart4::heart2::heart4: To beauty Flowerbelle this morning.

:sun::sun::sun::sun::sun::sun::sun::sun::sun::sun::sun: :lovegrin2:

OK, forget this morning's drama... Doc called after the office was officially closed for the day.

The radiologist report was in, but not the cardiologist. I don't remember all the technical jargon, but the bottom line is:

1) He does not think there's an issue with her heart. It was a position thing more than an "enlargement" problem (one of the reasons Doc thought it was enlarged was because of how much of it appeared to be along the whatever bone that is). THIS we can have our other vet check. It'll mean getting the digital xrays to him so he can look at them to compare to her other xray a couple years ago. But that we can definitely check. :nod: (Or he can send the older xrays to the board certified radiologist - everyone in NJ uses the same guy - and he can provide his professional opinion). But that's a relief. I guess we'll see what the cardiologist has to say.

2) Looks like bronchitis-whatever. Potentially early asthma OR damage done by prior parasitic infection. Now - we know it's not damage from prior parasitic infection, because the older xray was clear, and the lung worm problem that was sooooo bad was 2003, when we first rescued her. BUT... she does have herpes, and it IS possible that's doing some damage. She's never had a flare-up (in terms of eyes or nose congestion), but it is possible it's doing other internal damage (Stan, her other vet, said that most likely over the course of her life it would continue to eat away at her turbinates (basically the sinuses)).

BUT... she has started to cough a little bit here and there again. So Doc said it is also possible this is an issue with mycoplasma, and she may have tracheitis. What she wants us to do is bump her lysine up to flare-up dose (500mg/day), and give her liquid doxycycline. Now - no one carries liquid doxy. They usually have it compounded. But she called around to local pharmacies, and found one that is ordering it today, and it will be here Monday. IF it's this, we should hear an improvement in 4-5 days, but give her the full course of 20 days. If there's still a problem after that, then we explore treatment for asthma. :nod:

IN THE MEANTIME (lol), she threw up again this morning. A minute after she ate, all her undigested food. But I'm pumping her full of PUMPKIN (not pumpking!) every day, and she's having regular and normal bowel movements now (saw her go again this morning). SO... we know it's not hairballs, and we know it's not backed up poop in her small intestine causing the problem.

I'm to continue giving her the Dang Girl, Gone Wrong herb ( ), the two little capsules twice a day... and if this continues to happen on any kind of regular basis, she's going to figure out the best herb to treat what would appear to be a spleen Qi deficiency (same thing Chum has, though his problem wasn't hairballs). It would be different than the herb we give Chum, because he has a Yin deficiency (too hot - that's why he licked all the fur off his abdomen), and Flowerbelle has a Yang deficiency (too cold - that's why she loves to sleep on the heating ducts).

So we don't have cardiologist report back yet, and we probably will have the old xray compared to new xray, whoever does it and however it gets done (the whole POINT of having a baseline xray! We have them for ALL the cats except Chum and Billy, and we will get those done as soon as we can afford it) so we can be sure her heart looks the same as it did.

But we are GREATLY relieved to hear the news that this does not look like a heart problem (knock wood!). :bigthumb: