- Joined
- Mar 17, 2016
- Messages
- 2
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Hello everyone, I'm a new member but long time lurker on this and many other cat related forums.
Our boy "Buddy" is 13 or 14 years old. Last June some issues began that led to many blood tests and examinations of all types. Not only did our guy have thyroid issues, terrible anemia, UTI issues, licking the concrete floor plus eating his litter, and the beginning of kidney disease... but also a fist-sized cyst on one of his kidneys that has been twice drained under ultrasound and returned to full size in less than two days later each time.
Hes been a trooper through all of it, but the last few months we've begin to see him deteriorate pretty quick. He was always a big boy, around 18-19 pounds, but now he's dropped to just under 10 as of the last vet visit 2 weeks ago today.
-Medication brought the thyroid under control.
-Epogen yielded really great results for boy, and his anemia hasn't been a concern for around 4 months now.
-He doesn't eat his litter nearly as much, but we know he still does because we find it in the bottom of his water bowl... and doesn't seem to lick the concrete anymore. Switching to non-clumping litter and giving him a liquid iron supplement twice a day seems to have helped with this.
-Switching him to Royal Canin wet and dry food has brought his kidney level to a level of maintaining with no dropping.
-He gets fluids every other day and we also bought a pet fountain he seems to like which seems to have stopped the UTI issues for quite a while. Fingers crossed on this one, every piece of fabric in our home is lined with plastic and blankets... it only takes being pee'd on once with bloody urine while you're sleeping to become very VERY proactive, very thankful for the water proof mattress cover that was already on the bed.
Problem being, the last time he DID have UTI issues? they were back-to-back. The previous 3 times he had issues before it was one round of antibiotics and done. The last time? he literally was off antibiotics and pain meds for maybe 36 hours tops before the same thing came right back. Thankfully, a different antibiotic was the solution, but when all was said and done it was nearly a full month straight of antibiotics in his system. This is when the constipation, weight loss, and poor eating began.
The constipation seems to have been eased quite a bit with the addition of a stool softener to his diet, in the beginning he went 2 or 3 days straight of no eating at all until he finally went to the bathroom no matter what was offered to eat. Even now though, while his poop is moist enough to have litter sticking to it, he still has his times during the day where hes sitting very uncomfortably like when the severe constipation first cropped up.
His eating was doing well for a short time a few weeks ago, back to two scoops a day of dry food and some wet as well in the AM. Seemed to put on a little weight. But after a few single episodes of dry heaving spread out over a few days, I came home to find a fair amount of vomit on our UTI-protected couch and his eating habits are down to less than a scoop of dry food a day. 4 days ago, he had a dry heaving episode again and Laxitone has been introduced twice daily now with no further repeated performances. He seems to actually like it instead of flinging it ALL OVER the house like he use to many years ago.
While the litter munching could be the root to this? and is being addressed. I'm thinking the timing of when it all got bad (when the near-month of antibiotics took place) could be the culprit.
Today, I stopped by the vet and came home with this: http://vetriproline.com/gi-balance-pro/
I didn't get to talk to the vet, as he was with another patient and I didn't have time to wait. I also have never had reason not to trust the care/products they provide. My questions are, after the short novel I just typed out...
1) Are these good?
2) Is there something better?
3) Is this something that is acceptable to be giving our boy considering the multitude of issue I have listed above?
I've done so much research the last few days on probiotics, some was old and seemingly outdated, some just seemed like blatant product pushing, my head is swimming. I figured it was safest to just ask.
I thank you all so much for your time, you'll never know just how much I appreciate it.
Russ
Our boy "Buddy" is 13 or 14 years old. Last June some issues began that led to many blood tests and examinations of all types. Not only did our guy have thyroid issues, terrible anemia, UTI issues, licking the concrete floor plus eating his litter, and the beginning of kidney disease... but also a fist-sized cyst on one of his kidneys that has been twice drained under ultrasound and returned to full size in less than two days later each time.
Hes been a trooper through all of it, but the last few months we've begin to see him deteriorate pretty quick. He was always a big boy, around 18-19 pounds, but now he's dropped to just under 10 as of the last vet visit 2 weeks ago today.
-Medication brought the thyroid under control.
-Epogen yielded really great results for boy, and his anemia hasn't been a concern for around 4 months now.
-He doesn't eat his litter nearly as much, but we know he still does because we find it in the bottom of his water bowl... and doesn't seem to lick the concrete anymore. Switching to non-clumping litter and giving him a liquid iron supplement twice a day seems to have helped with this.
-Switching him to Royal Canin wet and dry food has brought his kidney level to a level of maintaining with no dropping.
-He gets fluids every other day and we also bought a pet fountain he seems to like which seems to have stopped the UTI issues for quite a while. Fingers crossed on this one, every piece of fabric in our home is lined with plastic and blankets... it only takes being pee'd on once with bloody urine while you're sleeping to become very VERY proactive, very thankful for the water proof mattress cover that was already on the bed.
Problem being, the last time he DID have UTI issues? they were back-to-back. The previous 3 times he had issues before it was one round of antibiotics and done. The last time? he literally was off antibiotics and pain meds for maybe 36 hours tops before the same thing came right back. Thankfully, a different antibiotic was the solution, but when all was said and done it was nearly a full month straight of antibiotics in his system. This is when the constipation, weight loss, and poor eating began.
The constipation seems to have been eased quite a bit with the addition of a stool softener to his diet, in the beginning he went 2 or 3 days straight of no eating at all until he finally went to the bathroom no matter what was offered to eat. Even now though, while his poop is moist enough to have litter sticking to it, he still has his times during the day where hes sitting very uncomfortably like when the severe constipation first cropped up.
His eating was doing well for a short time a few weeks ago, back to two scoops a day of dry food and some wet as well in the AM. Seemed to put on a little weight. But after a few single episodes of dry heaving spread out over a few days, I came home to find a fair amount of vomit on our UTI-protected couch and his eating habits are down to less than a scoop of dry food a day. 4 days ago, he had a dry heaving episode again and Laxitone has been introduced twice daily now with no further repeated performances. He seems to actually like it instead of flinging it ALL OVER the house like he use to many years ago.
While the litter munching could be the root to this? and is being addressed. I'm thinking the timing of when it all got bad (when the near-month of antibiotics took place) could be the culprit.
Today, I stopped by the vet and came home with this: http://vetriproline.com/gi-balance-pro/
I didn't get to talk to the vet, as he was with another patient and I didn't have time to wait. I also have never had reason not to trust the care/products they provide. My questions are, after the short novel I just typed out...
1) Are these good?
2) Is there something better?
3) Is this something that is acceptable to be giving our boy considering the multitude of issue I have listed above?
I've done so much research the last few days on probiotics, some was old and seemingly outdated, some just seemed like blatant product pushing, my head is swimming. I figured it was safest to just ask.
I thank you all so much for your time, you'll never know just how much I appreciate it.
Russ
