Toby vomiting and losing weight, fine otherwise

It's ok Violet, I am just so upset about Toby, and it is nerve wracking that this has been drawn out while my little boy seems to slowly waste away. Plus it is hard because he walks around like nothing is wrong but his appearance is so different. I put another picture of him on the link. 

And here he is a year ago, all his normal self. https://plus.google.com/photos/1150...ms/5734663927667708273?authkey=CN-XiqiIg7SIfA

I just talked to the vet's office, they said bring him in Wednesday bc they have surgeries tomorrow. I will meet with the vet ahead of time, then they will keep him and xray him and call me at the end of the day to pick him up. 

Oh dear, I have just read the entire thread and looked at your photos, looks like he has definitely lost a lot of weight poor baby, all you can do is continue with the vets visits and get them to look into it further. I am so sorry and sending huge vibes for you and Toby.xx

I agree about the grass eating. I really don't recommend that with kitties who have any sort of tummy issues. Especially since you don't know if there's been any kind of treatments on the grass, the kitty could be eating toxic chemicals. Please see an internal specialist as this very well could be any of the diseases talked about, sounds like IBD but the thyroid should be tested and please make sure to do it soon as the liver can start to be effected very soon with all this vomiting and losing weight.

Yes, thank you for all the advice!

Just to bring everyone up to date, my plan is to get the x-ray first, which is scheduled for Wednesday, and then go to the U of I vet school-related practice; that way if there is any particular problem I will not have to wait for a referral to a specialist. 

I really like my vet a lot http://www.wvc.org/inc/mods/speaker_profile.php?id=60005, she is very good. It's just that she didn't see Toby until he was already thin. Last year Toby saw her associate.  

When he went this past fall, his blood panel was fine, and she treated his throat for bacteria bc it was there and he had lost his voice, even though he didn't have a temperature. Then about 10 days ago she re-swabbed his throat and he was fine. 

It is just that he can only eat so much and then he vomits, where he used to chow everything down. Here is how he looked a few years ago. https://plus.google.com/photos/1150...ms/5734740869647835265?authkey=COjN47Sx1aOMKw 

I couldn't see the 2nd Google+ photo, but I could see the first one. Yes, your boy has lost a lot of weight.

It does really help to have a vet you like. It's always in hindsight we wish we'd waited for that appointment to see them rather than the associate.

Have you heard back from the U of I practice? Is an appointment scheduled?

Hope all goes well Wednesday. I hope he gets the all clear. IBD or IBS can be difficult to manage, but definitely better than cancer!!!!! :rub:

What is he currently eating? Because either way, you may want to adjust his diet. :heart3:

Yes the vet is a long story, I searched her out originally for my FIV+ foster Curly who had allergies. I took Toby there bc this vet looked so good- I thought let's see about his dental and maybe we can switch my other kitties over and I can also ask about a consult for Curly in the homeopathic area. But the practice owner was on a lecture circuit and her associate was the only one there. A year later the associate left, Toby lost his voice, that is his vet and now there is the practice owner and she has cut back on her lectures. So I guess I'm ok with it but I am still going to U of I as soon as I get the x-ray- and I hope to get copies of his records while I am there. I haven't made the appt yet, I don't anticipate a wait. 

He is eating natural balance or BG turkey wet food with a tiny bit of fancy feast fish on it and some water to make it mushier. His crunchies are RC 33 sensitive stomach. Also I sprinkle 2 docs pet wellness GI defense powder on his wet food, for intestinal health and it also contains probiotics, it has some wonderful ingredients http://www.2docspethealth.com/blue-label-formulas/gi-defense-powder.html.

He also has access to the free feeding crunchies which are Iam's weight loss/hairball control mixed with BG chicken crunchies and Innova weight loss. I am transitioning them all from Iam's, wanted to switch to a prescription brand of RC but they are in the process of reformulating.

Just posting some vibes! (with a couple of hugs thrown in for good measure).  Toby is a beautiful boy.

I have had a kitty with IBD and it does seem like that in a lot of ways, except Toby's stool is perfect. I'm nervous about the condition of his fur and how it seems like he isn't absorbing the nutrients of everything he is eating. 

Stool can be perfect with IBD. (Even with intestinal lymphoma.) I would like to ask you, however, have you noticed any increased drinking lately?  (It would be very important for you to know that.)

Yes my Alex never had any stool problems at all with her IBD so that's true. Everyone assumes it will always include diarrhea but not so.

Well we had the x-ray and it turns out he has severe constipation. He is still pooping but he is really backed up. This is funny in a way because I think my some of my very first posts on this site had to do with him having a problem that turned out to be severe constipation- about 10 years ago! So I am giving him laxatone twice daily. 

He is also scheduled for an ultrasound tomorrow at 12:15. The vet showed me some white area right in the middle of the x-ray looking down from the top. She doesn't know what it is and I said I don't want to wait and see. 

She did say the constipation could indeed be causing him to vomit, and being backed up for a while can cause gastrointestinal problems in other parts of the body. I asked if the stool is slowly pushing through and staying constipated, or if the stool is stuck in there and food is moving around it. She said the ultrasound will help resolve that question. 

Toby is drinking water normally. I am very curious to know what is causing the constipation, especially since it seems to be an ongoing theme with him. We have a drinkwell fountain that he is fond of. 

The only thing he ever did that was abnormal was eating LOL. He loves his food- and he always ate the other cats' food too. That is why him eating less and vomiting was a concern to me. I really hope he is ok in the end. 

I can't remember what he's eating, is it all wet food or some dry food? Dry food has no moisture and can definitely constipate. Cats can get constipated from hairballs believe it or not and sometimes it can be something called megacolon. I'd say work on the diet first. Grains in foods can also lead to constipation as they cannot process all that sugar.

He eats mostly wet food and recently I changed his dry food to RC 33 sensitive stomach because of his vomiting. The consistency is softer and it feels like it has olive oil on it. He had been eating less and less dry food, and I don't even leave out the RC33 for him and just give him a little bit at the end of the day. 

It does sound as though Toby has megacolon. We are giving him laxatone now. I think he is going to require an enema and possibly physical extraction of the impacted stool. 

Right now he doesn't appear to be at all lethargic, I hope this is because we caught it before it has gone too far. At least I hope that is the case. 

Reading about this, if he does have megacolon, they have medicines that help with motility. And they recommend low residue food, apparently because megacolon is partly caused by the inability in some cats to have proper motility in the colon. Well I guess we will see. 

You may want to consider what we use for Chum, it was recommended by his holistic vet. We buy from the health food store powdered slippery elm (loose). With his AM meal and his PM meal, we add 1/4 teaspoon of slippery elm to his food, and add 1/4 teaspoon aloe vera juice (I buy George's - it's not organic, but it's fractionally distilled with NO taste). It kind of "gels up," and I mix it into his food. Then I sprinkle a probiotic on top. Slippery elm, like pumpkin, helps regulate water in his colon - so it's a great fiber, but it also "coats" the colon, which is especially helpful when a cat is constipated. (We used it for Spooky to help resolve her constipation problem. Chum has never gotten constipated. He's also never coughed up a hairball, and I think the slippery elm mixture helps him pass his hair too).

You can use it with the laxatone.

I hope it hasn't progressed too far - megacolon can be reversible. :nod:

Good luck today!!!!

That is exactly what I want to do LDG!

But I read a few articles and if he really has megacolon, I am interested to see what they advise. There seems to be differing opinions based on some new information that indicates megacolon cats have impairment of the colonic smooth muscle and adding fiber may worsen their situation. The new group are of the opinion it is better for him to just have less stool overall. Others think fiber is the way to go. It probably depends on the cat since megacolon, most likely, doesn't present exactly the same way in every cat. Toby is still pooping for example!!

This is a good article about it that I printed out to read. http://www.acvs.org/AnimalOwners/HealthConditions/SmallAnimalTopics/Megacolon/

I wanted to open a can of pumpkin last night and give it to him but wasn't sure if it constituted more of a diuretic or fiber. I would think that everything you mentioned should help him since it is all watery, though. I decided to just do what the vet said and gave him his laxatone. 

Anyhow, I have a feeling I will end up with a list of very specific do's and don'ts, assuming this is his issue. Having seen his x-rays and knowing his history, it sure seems to me that he has megacolon now, regardless of what started it. And when I dropped him off this morning I left a card saying "megacolon?" and told the nurse that people on my forum had suggested this may be his issue. I'm sure my vet has come to that conclusion but I am so protective of my kitty boy, I cannot keep from butting in! 

I am praying he doesn't also have a tumor or anything that has caused the obstruction, and I'm hoping it is just megacolon seeing as how this is the second time for this with our boy. Thanks everyone for all the help and advice. I will keep you posted. Now I am off to "my" own vet LOL doctor and I am picking up Toby later today. I will update the forum as soon as I know what's up! (I do hope they give him an enema if possible!)

Well we heard back from the vet and he does have a mass between his large and small bowel. They believe it may be lymphosarcoma and are recommending exploratory surgery to find out what it is exactly and whether it can be removed. 

In the meantime they said the laxatone is clearing out his stool a whole lot and he is doing much better. 

I wasn't able to pick him up from the vet, I was at the doctor downtown and so my husband got him. I just got home and have to call the vet and find out more. 

I'm still in major shock about this, he is our baby. It is nice to see him running around now, it is obvious he feels a whole lot better. But the loss of the stool makes him look quite a bit thinner as well. :-( :-( :-(

LDG, I think this is what you were worried about. Was your kitty able to benefit from surgery? Here is my feeling though; if it were me I would want the best surgeon for myself, so I feel the same way about my kitty. I'm going to ask my vet who she recommends for the surgery.

Oh hun, I'm so sorry. :heart3: :rub: Lazlo had lymphosarcoma. His was a mass in his stomach. His was inoperable, because it was so "integrated" with his stomach lining. It was an 8mm mass - they called it "massive." We opted for chemotherapy. With large cell lympho (85% of lympho is produced at the stage where the white blood cell are older - thus larger), chemotherapy has a 50% chance of working. 15% of cats experience side bad side effects. Lazlo never had problems with diarrhea or anything other than inappetance. I did syringe feed him for a bit there, though for the most part, it was because he wasn't eating enough on his own, not that he wasn't eating. That lasted maybe a week, when he wasn't really eating at all. Fortunately, he was easy to syringe. In fact, he liked it. :lol3:

He was also given a low-dose of pred (5 mg. He weighed 9.6 pounds, I think, at his lowest weight. His normal weight is around 12 / 12.5 pounds). We had him on appetite stimulants (we used mirtazipine. This can make some cats loopy. But it only needs to be given every three days. It worked well for him). We had him on anti-nausea medication (Cerenia. 1/4 pill every day). Lazlo was additionally on ulcer medication. I doubt your boy would need this. We needed the app stimulant and the anti-nausea through December, I think. He didn't need them all the way to the end. He needed the anti-nausea med longer than he needed the appetite stimulant.

The chemo was in cycles of four treatments. The first two months were every week for the first four treatments, then a one week break. The second month was weekly treatments, then a one week break. Then it went to every other week chemo for four months. He started chemo at the end of July, he finished at the end of January. We had ultrasounds done after the first month and the 2nd month. I don't know if those are necessary. That first month, it was nice to know he was responding to the chemo. That 2nd month... the oncologist (who we then called Dr. Doom) wasn't happy there was only a 40% reduction. We did no ultrasounds after that until 2 weeks after the chemo was done. And his mass was gone. Our understanding is that remission is on average about 9 months. But if that's all we get... to see Lazlo healthy (now), happy, playing like a kitten.... it was all worth it. :heart3: We're doing our best to spoil him rotten, hoping that this alone gives him lots of incentive to do well long beyond all those "averages." :lol3:

We did transition him to a raw food diet in January. We wanted him on the healthiest food possible to help his immune system, and we wanted the least additives possible aggravating his GI system. We'll be seeing his holistic vet shortly to find out if we should additionally put him on some antioxidant supplements. At the time, she suggested tumeric, but the oncologist did not want him on it: powerful antioxidants can interefere with the chemotherapy.

And if you need to minimize the amount of stool, you really need to consider going raw. On an all raw diet, their stool drops to... maybe 1/3 of what it was, and MAYBE they poop every day - it is not unusual for them to poop every other day. You can just see that they utilize all the nutrients in raw food when compared to canned or kibble. The chemo suppresses their immune system, so that can be a risk if any of the meat has bacteria on it. But you run that same risk with kibble. A high-quality (e.g. low carb, no grain) all wet food diet would help OR the pathogen-free guaranteed commercial raw foods. The pathogen-free guaranteed frozen raw foods include Stella & Chewy's frozen raw for dogs (95% meat/bones/organs, 5% other stuff, supplemented with taurine), Nature's Variety raw (but this one does need to be "cut" (diluted) with canned food or raw meat, because the bone content is 15%: 10% should be the MAX, because too much calcium causes constipation, and you definitely don't want that, and Primal are the three commercial raw companies that process their raw food in such a way they guarantee it is pathogen-free. We started the kitties on probiotics a week or so before we started them on raw, as this helps give them good gut flora. And we're keeping them on probiotics ... forever. :lol3: In the wild, they'd be eating probiotics (basically) when they consume the stomach and guts of their prey - and they just don't get this from their food (canned, kibble, or raw). So it's a supplement we will always use. We do NOT use fortiflora - we use a people probiotic, from the refrigerated section at the health food store. Any acidophilus supplement is fine - all that really matters is that you get 10 billion active cultures into kitty daily. I don't remember what you said you were feeding him, but IMO, if using canned, I'd switch him to Merrick Before Grain, Nature's Variety Instinct canned, Earthborn Holistic, By Nature 95% meat canned foods, or ZiwiPeak canned. I think all of those except Before Grain have carageenan, which can be a GI irritant. None of the pathogen-free commercial raw foods have carageenan.

We had ups and downs those first two months, and we had our doubts. But we were fortunate, and we got our miracle. :heart3:

Chemo in animals is VERY different in chemo in people. With animals, the focus is entirely on the quality of life, not length of life. So the doses given are not toxic, which is why so few animals suffer severe side-effects, the way most people do. And depending on your vet or oncologist, if he reacts poorly one week, they'll lower the dose. Lazlo always had his appetite dip after a treatment, but after the first week or two (when his ulcers were healing), 2-3 days after the treatment, he'd be eating on his own again. :nod: Lazlo's treatment was a combination of basically VinBlastine (most vets use VinCrystine (sp?)), and the fourth treatment in each cycle was Adriamyacin (a much stronger chemo treatment). Again - this was the protocol of the oncologist, the local vet uses a different protocol (I think they treat only with VinCrystine). Lazlo received injections, which is why we went to the vet for each treatment. The VinBlastine and VinCrystine are available in tablet form (you have to give the pill wearing a glove). We preferred the injections, because it bypassed the GI system.

that whatever this is, it is benign - and that it is operable!!!!!!

Thank you Laurie for all your information, words of encouragement, and help :-(. I spoke to the doctor and will be calling the veterinary specialty center ASAP tomorrow to see about scheduling surgery for Toby. The vet said there is a 9 out of 10 chance that it is lymphosarcoma. They found it interesting that he had impacted stool earlier in life and speculated that it could have been dormant for many years and activated by some kind of immune response. I said that would have been the 3-year rabies shot he got last year after no vet appts for a long time. She said she would not associate that with this, but she would not rule it out either. 

Anyhow I am going to print out your info for whenever we get in to see the surgeon(s). I did tell her I was thinking of U of I and she mentioned they are having trouble getting accredited up here at their Chicago location. So I am not going to go to them and besides, I like this other place very much. 

Thank you again. I am still in shock. I will update as I find out more. On the good side Toby really likes his laxatone and is doing well with it. 

Yes, I remember well that sense of shock. Everything was buzzing, and it feels very surreal, like you're in a waking dream - rather - nightmare. We were fortunate, in that we received the biopsy result just 1 or 2 days after the ultrasound (and the biopsy was via needle, because the tumor was in his tummy, it was done at the same time as his ultrasound). We got those results in the evening, and the vet referred us to an oncologist. We called the next morning, and they had an opening that day. We flew out of the house - and Lazlo began his chemo treatment right then at that first visit. So we had very little time to digest what was happening before we began treatment. We figured - it was worth a try. If he didn't handle it well, we didn't have to continue.

I'm very glad he's doing well with the laxatone! I do hope you can get that biopsy schedule quickly, and hoping even more that it will prove to be benign, and you won't have to deal with any of this!!!!!!!