Cat on Cyclosporine won't Eat...tips to help?

[Dean5420]

My cat Harry was diagnosed in October with Primary Immune-Mediated Hemolytic Anemia. He's been on Prednisone since then. 2 weeks ago, the vet had us start transitioning him off Prednisone onto Cyclosporine (he said long-term steroids can cause "toxicity"). Since starting Harry on the Cyclosporine, his appetite has been severely reduced.

He:

• Won't really eat his dry food (only done it 2-3 times in the last 2 weeks)
• Licks the gravy from pate/chunk food but won't eat the meat (to be fair, he's kinda always done this but he used to eat a lot of dry kibble)
• Sticks up his nose at a whole bunch of stuff he would eat the day earlier, like Tuna or a certain flavor
• Sometimes goes to the dry kibble dish like he wants to eat, but won't eat (he's way more finicky, if someone makes a noise he'll stop eating)
• Yet he still will almost NEVER REFUSE his favorite food in the whole world: deli turkey. That's the only thing he'll happily down. He'll also eat some beef , canned tuna, and wanted a bite of my corned beef.

I looked up the side effects, sure enough a bunch of sites said a common side effect is: lack of appetite and/or nausea. It really sounds like my boy is nauseous. As usual, this vet did NOT tell us anything about the drugs he gave our cat. He really doesn't tell us much at all, but I'm worried about switching to a different vet this far into treatment.

We called the vet who confirmed "oh yeah, it's pretty common for cats to lose their appetite on Cyclosporine". Wow, thanks for the afterthought. Vet said to reduce the amount of Cyclosporine Harry takes; instead of every other day, now it's every 3 days plus a Prednisone on off days 2x a week. It's been about a week since the vet told us that, and he hasn't gotten a Cyclosporine in a few days now (takes the next one tomorrow) but he's still acting nauseous. One site I read said the effect of the drug could last a few weeks. I'd say Harry may have lost a pound or two so far. This vet is fond of "monitoring" my boy for a day if something seems amiss, which means that he'll be left in a cage in the back of the vet office and with barking dogs and yowling cats and be allegedly "checked on" over the course of 8 hours. I really want to avoid putting him through that when he doesn't feel good already.

My strategies to try now are to:

• Mix some crushed kibble into the canned food gravy and see if he'll lick it up
• Smash and water down the pate food into warm water, so he ends up getting fine bits of meat just by licking
• I ordered some Lexelium Weight Gainer and Appetite Stimulant for Cats, this stuff apparently mixes into gravy or water

His next vet visit is scheduled for next week.

Any other suggestions on what to do for my boy until the medication stops making him nauseous?

 

[Furballsmom]

Can you talk to the vet, or possibly a different vet altogether, about getting an anti-nausea medicine?

If he's on a specific diet keep that in mind but there may be some things here that help;
Any Good Tips To Get Your Cats To Eat? Share Them Here!

 

[fionasmom]

I am sorry that you are going through this, but I agree with Furballsmom that bullet #4 under strategy should be to find another vet, a cat specialist or hematologist. If there are none in your area or the impact of COVID has made all this impossible, try another vet. Maybe you could get some quick referrals from friends or Nextdoor or even Yelp.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Of course, all of the things you want to try are fine, but if he's nauseated, he still won't want to eat much, if anything. That's why an anti-nausea drug would be good, if it doesn't have a bad reaction with the meds he's already on. OR an appetite stimulant might be necessary, if it isn't nausea that's the issue. One of my guys is on an appetite stimulant and it does seem to work, at least with him.

 

[susanm9006]

You can try thinning the pate with a little low sodium chicken broth. I would try a Wellness smooth loaf because it is a fine paste and perfect for thinning.

 

[Dean5420]

Thank you very much for your comments and suggestions, everyone.

I am going to call the vet again when they open today, and talk to them about nausea medication.

I'm not even sure if it's nausea per se, because he won't touch his dry kibble, but he'll lick at wet food until the plate is dry and just the meat bits are left. He's also eating actual meat with gusto. I tried to make myself breakfast after he refused a plate of wet food, and he knew the sound of the bags and was suddenly hyper-attentive. So I gave him some turkey and he gobbled it up, and he even ate some of my beef weenies. After eating all that meat, he finally took to a plate of wet food (just to lick all the good wet stuff out), and now he's lounging on my bed grooming.

I'm going to ask the vet about it, of course, but I just don't get it: wouldn't he be refusing all food if he was that sick-feeling? Maybe the lack of appetite isn't related to actual nausea.

 

[di and bob]

He still might be nauseous, but eating his 'comfort foods' is comforting to him. I keep Hartz Delectable Lickables in the stew around for my cats who have Leukemia, when they get sick they refuse all food EXCEPT for this. It is high calorie and actually looks and smells good, and is mostly a gel-like gravy, like turkey gravy. I get the chicken and tuna, the tuna and whitefish, and the tuna and shrimp. They have never refused it, you might try it to get something in his stomach. Make sure you get the stew, they refuse the bisque, which is creamy. I would feed him what he wants right now, deli turkey, etc., you might try some Gerber human baby food in the purees with meat like turkey, etc. and see if he will eat that too. My cats also love shredded deli roasted chicken, I get a chicken a week!

 

[Swttea]

I had a dog with Immune-Mediated Hemolytic Anemia. Such an insidious disease. Treatment seemed almost as bad as the disease itself, in my case at least

How bad was your kitty at diagnosis (and after, until stable?), I took my dog in for lethargy and lack of appetite on a Friday evening, and her overall counts were below normal but not dangerous and they didn’t diagnose her then. They said it was either a tick disease or AIHA, and did not at all prepare me for what the hell that meant was about to happen. They gave me Prednisone and Doxy. By Sunday I was at the emergency vet, she was peeing tea colored liquid and very much out of it. He told me to double her pred dosage and that she may need a transfusion if she didn’t stop destroying her cells soon. Well, she didn’t stop - had to have a transfusion the next day. Perked up for 2 days but had to have another that same week. And then one more 3 days later, before she finally turned a corner and stop destroying her blood cells.

She was on extremely high doses of prednisone and azathioprine. We knew about cyclo but it would have been 500$ a bottle (90lb dog), and we just couldn’t do that on top of the thousands I spent in less then a week. I found a website, “Second Chance AIHA Dogs”, where there is a small group of people that went through this and help others with it. They are extremely knowledgeable and Sassy would have probably passed much sooner without their guidance. It’s mostly dogs, hence the name but there have been a few cat posters. that is what a lot of the advice pertains to so if you have a look there keep in mind not all suggestions may be safe for cats.

Anyhow, Prednisone made Sassy extremely hungry. So hungry at one point I was loading half a bowl with green beans, to help her hunger without making her gain even more weight. But she was also very very nauseous. The ladies at the website I mentioned told me to get her on Famoditine, as it helps protect the stomach from the drugs. This seemed to help a lot, it does not directly help wanting to throw up I don’t think but it helps soothe the stomach and prevent the heavy medications from irritating them. I do not know if Famoditine is safe for cats, so be sure to ask. It has to be given hours apart from other medications. Also Slippery Elm. Again taken away from meds.

I hope that you and your vet know when reducing cyclo or ores it must, must must be done extremely slowly to prevent a relapse. Since this happened in October you’ve got some time behind you but in our case it was months and months of treatment. In the end Sassy relapsed about 6mo later, and we could not save her that time - we got her out of crisis but she was never at a point where we could safely say let’s lower the pred. It was at a point where the pred was going to start doing too much harm so (with vet in agreement), we tapered the dose a little bit down and almost immediately her lymph nodes ballooned up in her neck - it turned out to be lymphoma. We believe the lymphoma relapsed her, but the prednisone (a possible treatment for lymphoma), was hiding it for months. I wasn’t sure if I should post my full story because it is sad, but I thought you might be wondering what happened to Sassy.

Another thing I wanted to mention that maybe you’ve known or discussed but your kitty should never have a vaccine again, and your vet should be able to write you an exemption for rabies. There are other precautions to keep the immune system from over-reacting again, including lowering stress.. but vaccines should be off limits.

 

[Swttea]

Oh, my post got so long I forgot to comment on the food, my dog did the same thing with not wanting to eat regular food but was starving. She loved lunch meat and all of that. I had to start home cooking food so that she would eat. I would cook a huge pot and freeze servings in tupperware that i’d defrost and heat up. I can’t even remember what all went into it, but that’s sort of irrelevant since a cat would need something different. Near the end I also found a dry food she would eat, it was Bison flavored, something she never had before. She pretty much never wanted any foods that she ate before this happened. But for a long while I HAD to home cook for her. Cats must have things like Taurine so if you look into this make sure you are making the meals nutritiously complete. Also, I would not suggest a raw diet at this time, because the immune system is being heavily suppressed and the bacteria they would usually have no issue with could be very harmful right now.

 

[Dean5420]

Thank you everyone who tried to help. The day after his vet visit he got so sick he couldn't get up. Took him back to the vet, and now they say he was diabetic (undiagnosed by them because that vet clinic are all idiots). He had Ketoacidosis on Friday and wen to the Vet ER.

He didn't make it. I'm so heartbroken I just want to die too. How am I supposed to keep living without my baby?

 

[Furballsmom]

I'm so so sorry

 

[di and bob]

OMG, I am so very sorry, you must be in shock....I pray you can find comfort in that you tried so hard, your love ensures he is at peace. Please come to Crossing the Bridge when you are able. We are here to help in any way we can. May God be with you and that precious, brave boy....

 

[mani]

Dean5420 the team at TCS are so very sorry for your loss.

We lock threads when a cat has passed, out of respect, but as di and bob mentioned,
you may like to start a thread in our Crossing the Bridge forum as a testimony to Harry's life,
and also for support from members, who really understand what you are going through.



RIP Harry


.