12.5 - 13.5 year old cat with weight loss

lilsnakeyk

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Hi there:

I am new here, but am looking for some ideas as to what to do about my cats current situation.

He is a male, neutered cat, approximately 12.5-13.5 years old.  I don't know his exact age, because he adopted me 10 years ago when he was a stray.

In August 2016 he was went to the vet for teeth extractions/cleaning and weighed 11.6 pounds.

Fast forward to February, and I took him to the vet because he was excessively hungry, urinating more, pooping more, and the leg that he had his IV in for his teeth cleaning that was shaved never really grew the hair back in full.  The fur on his legs is now very thin.   I wanted the vet to check him for diabetes or hyperthyroidism.

He apparently was down a pound since August, so the vet was concerned about that.  She drew blood and did a urinalysis on him.  Labs came back normal, so then the vet wanted to do an ultrasound on him.  During the ultrasound, she found that his pancreas looked slightly inflamed, and that he had a bit of hardening/thickening/inflammation in his intestines.  She then wanted to run labs again to test his pancreas.  Those labs wound up coming back with slightly elevated levels, but my cat is not showing the typical symptoms of pancreatitis.   The only symptom that he has had for pancreatitis is weight loss.  He has normal stools, and is not vomiting.  She then recommended exploratory surgery or an endoscopy to biopsy his pancreas and intestines but I declined that invasive route.  We started him on prednisone and she wanted to see how he responded.

Well, I have a follow up appointment tomorrow for the vet, and I don't think I've seen any improvements.  He is still ravenously hungry, jumps on the counters and tables hunting for food, cries all the time for food, even after being fed.  Tomorrow she may possibly run a TLI test on him, again checking the pancreas.  His belly was shaved last month for the Ultrasound, and in 5-6 weeks, the hair isn't growing back.  He looks like he is excessively overgrooming his legs, and is losing more fur in that area.  His fur doesn't look/feel the same anymore.

After tomorrow, I will be about $1100 into trying to figure out what is wrong with my cat, and he isn't getting better.  Has anyone else experienced this or something similar.  The lack of loose stools and vomitting is making me think we aren't looking in the right direction.  Could it be malabsorption of nutrients due to the pancreas?  Any advice from anyone on other questions to ask my vet?
 

LTS3

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Some of the symptoms are typical of diabetes. Did your vet do a fuctosamine test? That will tell what the cat's blood glucose levels have been over the past few weeks. High levels will indicate diabetes. Does the urine smell sugary?

Thyroid issues has some of the same symptoms, too. Was that ruled out? I can't recall if there is a specific test for that.

What do you feed your cat and how much? Can you feed more food?

It wouldn't hurt to take your cat to anotehr vet for a second opinion. An internal medicine vet is often more helpful than a "regular" vet.
 
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lilsnakeyk

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Some of the symptoms are typical of diabetes. Did your vet do a fuctosamine test? That will tell what the cat's blood glucose levels have been over the past few weeks. High levels will indicate diabetes. Does the urine smell sugary?

Thyroid issues has some of the same symptoms, too. Was that ruled out? I can't recall if there is a specific test for that.

What do you feed your cat and how much? Can you feed more food?

It wouldn't hurt to take your cat to anotehr vet for a second opinion. An internal medicine vet is often more helpful than a "regular" vet.
His first round of bloodwork was a CBC and T4 screen.  He also had a urinalysis done.  The second round of bloodwork was fPL.  

The vet said he does not have diabetes or hyperthyroidism based on his labs and that all of those labs were pretty unimpressive and didn't give them reason to think he was sick.  That was when we moved on to the ultrasound for the next step.  Urine does not smell sugary. 

I have started adding some dry food to his wet food, and it is not making a difference to his hunger levels.  I even told the vet what I was feeding him and she said that it was a good amount for him.  I feed him 5.5 ounce can of Pride by Instinct wet food split into two meals a day.  I am now adding some "tiki cat" dry food into his bowl.
 

denice

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Did the blood tests include B12 levels and folate levels.  Some kitties with IBD which is indicated by the thickening seen on the  ultrasound, and older kitties don't absorb  B12 normally.  That is true for humans as well.  My IBD kitty who will be 14 next month was at the very low end of the normal range for B12 the last time it was checked so I am now  giving him monthly B12 shots.  They are usually given more often but he had also  started loosing weight with no other symptoms.  With that low normal B12 we started monthly shots.
 
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