Please help! Can my cat be saved?

Hi all, I am going through a terrible time with my beautiful senior cat Zen, He has been through the mill health wise this last year. He will be 15 in April if he survives that long. He has suddenly become inappetent.. He has been battling pancreatitis for a while, Then around Christmas he got a bacterial infection or a UTI, with blood in his urine. We went to the vet on the 26th and he had a big blood test and urinalysis. He was on Clavamox for awhile, but was then not eating at all, or pooping. On the second of January we were back at the vet, where he was taken off the Clavamox and given a shot of Convenia. He is on subq fluids, famotidine, and Cyproheptadine appetite stimulants that do NOTHING for him. He is eating very sparingly, I am syringe feeding daily, on Tuesday he ate an egg with chicken baby food, Tried to give him more yesterday but no way would he eat it. He looks good,..mostly stays in the meatloaf position. His blood tests cam back all normal, no kidney failure, diabetes, cancer,  thyroid issues. or liver problems. He is peeing but not pooping or eating much. I don't know what to do. Is it his time? or should I continue to fight? Should I go to another vet? Or stick with mine? he wants him back Monday for another blood test. I just lost my dad, and I would very much like to keep my precious baby with me a little longer...but I don't want him to suffer either. Please advise! Thank you!

Poor baby, i hope he feels better soon!

I suggest trying a different vet. if there's an emergency vet near by or a feline-only vet, try them. Sometimes second opinions helps.

I would also try a cats only vet.  That's the type of vet that got things right with my chronically ill kitty.  I think there are good general vets out there as long as a kitty remains well or has easily diagnosed straight forward illnesses.  When a kitty has things that don't fall into the straight forward category a vet that specializes with kitties can help.  If you do go to a cat's only vet they may be able to get his records from your current vet.  That's what my vet now did when I first took my kitty to her.  That way you avoid an awkward situation but may be able to avoid paying for unneeded repeat tests.

I don't think anyone here could advise you about whether or not this is fixable or controllable.  A good diagnosis can give you the needed information for a decision like that.

Did you run the bloodwork test for the pancreatitis? Are you doing anything to treat that issue specifically?

My senior kitty was having real troubles yet nothing unusual was showing up in bloodwork. But an ultrasound led us to the problem (some bile duct/liver and other issues that could only be seen via ultrasound). For this reason, we started her on prednisolone and it has brought her back to a much better state. I do think that prednisolone can be used for pancreatitis flareups.

Do you have the money to afford an abdominal ultrasound - this shows you the abdomen and many of the important organs (liver, pancreas etc.)? I think that in the future when I have a kitty that clearly is struggling yet nothing is showing up on bloodwork, my next line of action will be an abdomimal ultrasound as it really told the story in my kitty's recent case. There are just some things that do not necessarily show up on bloodwork (bile duct and other issues like my kitty has; cancers also do not always show up on bloodwork etc.). Since the bloodwork does not seem to be telling you the story, I do think you might consider putting your money towards an ultrasound instead (if you can afford it) - just a thought.  

But before going the ultrasound route, you could also try another vet opinion. I have one regular vet, but in tricky cases it can really help to have a team of vets as no matter how good one vet is, there are often things that another vet might see or suggest.  

What is the kitty on as far as pancreatitis goes?  Is it chronic?  Something that flares up?  I have a kitty who was diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis.  She wasn't eating very good.  I have her on Prednisilone, and had her on Pain meds in the beginning.  She also is on antibiotics, probiotic and pancreatic enzymes.  There are a few good threads here about pancreatitis if you do a search.   This is an excellent resource:   Iddexx Pancreatitis Treatment   I would search out a 2nd opinion and perhaps pursue xrays/ultrasound if you can.  How much Cypro are you giving her?  Some days my cat requires an entire tablet.  There is another appetite stimulant called Mirtazapine that you can use as well.

my veterinarian perscribed my cat a lot of different medications and eventually she wasn't doing very well on them. She would stop eating so he put her on a prescription canned food diet called A/D which was mixed with warm water and we would syringe fed her until she started eating on her own again. She loves the A/D even if she won't eat anything else. She has started eating dry food as well as the A/D. I have also used homeopathic meds from the PetAlive and Native Remedies websites. They work very, very well without a lot of side affects. Sometimes it takes days,weeks or months depending on condition but they do work. Maybe this is also something for you to try.