Cat still has BAD diarrhea even after eating all meals w pancreplus

[thooor]

My 9 year old cat has been losing weight gradually for months and finally we took him to the vet, to find out that he has an inanimate object in his stomach and with no luck were they able to get it out. She prescribed him pancreplus because she suspects he might have exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, although i dont think she did a proper test, and he has been taken that for almost 2 weeks, yet there has been no result. He is still having very runny and stinky diarrhea and has not put on any weight. Should i continue giving him the medicine? She did prescribe a higher dosage than what I've been giving him, but that is because it is impossible to get him to eat the food if it has more than like 1/4 a scoop.

I'm just so gutted because I've finally got him to eat like 4 small meals with it the past two days and then he has explosive diarrhea right after. I thought he was finally going to get better. :{ Im aware i need to get him to the vet again, but i will be going to a different one since i was unhappy with her and she is so freaking expensive. it cost over 3k last time so my family needs time to recover from that before trying to find a new one.

Could it be the object causing this? I still dont even know whether he has it in him or not, she kept going back and forth whether there was something and then in the end she gave him an enema, but they never told me if it came out with that. I've seen nothing in his stool that looks foreign.

 

[kittymow]

My 9 year old cat has been losing weight gradually for months and finally we took him to the vet, to find out that he has an inanimate object in his stomach and with no luck were they able to get it out. She prescribed him pancreplus because she suspects he might have exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, although i dont think she did a proper test, and he has been taken that for almost 2 weeks, yet there has been no result. He is still having very runny and stinky diarrhea and has not put on any weight. Should i continue giving him the medicine? She did prescribe a higher dosage than what I've been giving him, but that is because it is impossible to get him to eat the food if it has more than like 1/4 a scoop.

I'm just so gutted because I've finally got him to eat like 4 small meals with it the past two days and then he has explosive diarrhea right after. I thought he was finally going to get better. :{ Im aware i need to get him to the vet again, but i will be going to a different one since i was unhappy with her and she is so freaking expensive. it cost over 3k last time so my family needs time to recover from that before trying to find a new one.

Could it be the object causing this? I still dont even know whether he has it in him or not, she kept going back and forth whether there was something and then in the end she gave him an enema, but they never told me if it came out with that. I've seen nothing in his stool that looks foreign.

Crazy.i told my vet I had a limit 2800.00.well he ran up bill to 2800.00 than had to put him down and could tell me nothing .I believe these vets have changed they're ways because of money.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

First off, HOW did they try to get the inanimate object out of his stomach? Or was it in his bowel and that's why they thought perhaps an enema might help it come out? Did he have surgery? Second, how did they diagnose EPI? You said you don't think they did testing, did they do bloodwork? Do you have copies of it? There are some specific tests for it, that's why I ask.

Next, are you mixing the Pancreplus into his food and letting it sit for about 20 minutes before serving it. That has been found to be helpful. What are you feeding him? With EPI, some folks think lower fat foods are helpful.

Lastly, for now, most cats with EPI need Vit. B12 shots, and many also need Folate as well. Did your Vet discuss this with you? How about antibiotics. The bacteria in their gut sometimes gets out of whack and needs a little help from antibiotics. But I think the only way to know this is with a fecal PCR test, which is pretty pricy.

You might start by called your Vet and asking whether that inanimate object was "ejected" with the enema, and how the EPI was diagnosed AND let them know that the diarrhea is not getting any better. Don't be afraid to ask questions of your Vet. You are paying them, after all, so you should feel free to discuss things with them.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi and welcome to TCS, despite what brought you here. I echo everything said and asked above. None of it is making much sense to me. The test that is most specific for checking for EPI is the feline trypsin-like immunoreactivity (fTLI) test. As mentioned above, a cobalamin test to see where your cat's B-12 level is (which usually includes checking the folate level as well).

Get a copy of all the tests/notes/treatments from the vet so you can share them with other vets. This could help reduce expenses by not having to repeat tests with another vet. It probably wouldn't hurt for you to learn more about what all they have done as well. Nothing better than a totally educated caretaker to advocate for their cat!
Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency in Cats - WSAVA 2014 Congress - VIN
Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency in Cats: Clinical Signs and Treatment Response (dvm360.com)

 

[thooor]

First off, HOW did they try to get the inanimate object out of his stomach? Or was it in his bowel and that's why they thought perhaps an enema might help it come out? Did he have surgery? Second, how did they diagnose EPI? You said you don't think they did testing, did they do bloodwork? Do you have copies of it? There are some specific tests for it, that's why I ask.

Next, are you mixing the Pancreplus into his food and letting it sit for about 20 minutes before serving it. That has been found to be helpful. What are you feeding him? With EPI, some folks think lower fat foods are helpful.

Lastly, for now, most cats with EPI need Vit. B12 shots, and many also need Folate as well. Did your Vet discuss this with you? How about antibiotics. The bacteria in their gut sometimes gets out of whack and needs a little help from antibiotics. But I think the only way to know this is with a fecal PCR test, which is pretty pricy.

You might start by called your Vet and asking whether that inanimate object was "ejected" with the enema, and how the EPI was diagnosed AND let them know that the diarrhea is not getting any better. Don't be afraid to ask questions of your Vet. You are paying them, after all, so you should feel free to discuss things with them.

They did a Barium Study to look at it with x rays (I attached them below. I can't tell anything from looking at them. Its over my head). I'm not sure where its located, but she said that it looked like it was making its way out of him. She gave him an enema because he wouldn't poop at the vet's office and i think they wanted to see if anything would come out. She did mention little pieces of white in his poop but i havent seen anything like that. The litter is the same color though so maybe that's why. He did not need to have any surgery. They did do bloodwork, but I don't have any copies of it at the moment.

We are mixing the Pancreplus into Fancy Feast food, but we've been letting it sit only for 15 minutes. We'll try to do 20 minutes from here on, though.

The vet did give him antibiotics (ampicillin), but she didn't mention any vitamin b shots and it's not on the receipt.

Thank you for taking the time to reply, and we will get in contact with the vet again. She is super busy, so it's just been hard to get a hold of her. The night we got him back home, she wasn't even in the office anymore so we just talked to an assistant, so that didn't help much with the confusion.

 

[thooor]

Hi and welcome to TCS, despite what brought you here. I echo everything said and asked above. None of it is making much sense to me. The test that is most specific for checking for EPI is the feline trypsin-like immunoreactivity (fTLI) test. As mentioned above, a cobalamin test to see where your cat's B-12 level is (which usually includes checking the folate level as well).

Get a copy of all the tests/notes/treatments from the vet so you can share them with other vets. This could help reduce expenses by not having to repeat tests with another vet. It probably wouldn't hurt for you to learn more about what all they have done as well. Nothing better than a totally educated caretaker to advocate for their cat!
Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency in Cats - WSAVA 2014 Congress - VIN
Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency in Cats: Clinical Signs and Treatment Response (dvm360.com)

Yeah, that test is not on the receipt i have, so I'll make sure to ask the other vet to run that, when i can find a reasonably priced one. Thanks for telling me the name, I wouldn't have thought to ask for specific lab work to be done if you hadn't told me. I said it in the other reply, but its been very hard to get in contact with her since they go on house calls too and she is not at the office a lot of the times. I wish I knew that before going to her but what can you do. I'll have to call her monday since they're closed sat/sun.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I am not versed in reading xrays, so unfortunately, cannot tell anything from them. Do you happen to know if they did another set AFTER the enema to tell if the item had been expelled?

Has the diarrhea been going on for a long time, or did it start fairly recently. Sorry, I should have asked that along with my first set of questions. And did they even run a basic fecal to test for any kind of parasite that might show up? Basic fecals are done right there in the office and you get the results while you wait.

Which Fancy Feast are you feeding? The pate versions are pretty good as far as ingredients go, but the ones "in gravy" or wheat gluten, etc in them can cause some cats to have intestinal issues. The key here is knowing whether or not he really has EPI, or IBD, or just what, as those have different "fixes".

Many cats with constant diarrhea are given S. Boulardi with MOS and it works well, however, if it's EPI or IBD that might not work. My own cat recently had Clostridium Perfingens (a bacterial infection in the intestines causing loss of appetite, diarrhea, withdrawal) and we were able to take care of it with high fiber food and adding S. Boulardi with MOS. But we KNEW what the issue was because we ran a PCR after the basic fecal didn't show anything.

 

[thooor]

I am not versed in reading xrays, so unfortunately, cannot tell anything from them. Do you happen to know if they did another set AFTER the enema to tell if the item had been expelled?

Has the diarrhea been going on for a long time, or did it start fairly recently. Sorry, I should have asked that along with my first set of questions. And did they even run a basic fecal to test for any kind of parasite that might show up? Basic fecals are done right there in the office and you get the results while you wait.

Which Fancy Feast are you feeding? The pate versions are pretty good as far as ingredients go, but the ones "in gravy" or wheat gluten, etc in them can cause some cats to have intestinal issues. The key here is knowing whether or not he really has EPI, or IBD, or just what, as those have different "fixes".

Many cats with constant diarrhea are given S. Boulardi with MOS and it works well, however, if it's EPI or IBD that might not work. My own cat recently had Clostridium Perfingens (a bacterial infection in the intestines causing loss of appetite, diarrhea, withdrawal) and we were able to take care of it with high fiber food and adding S. Boulardi with MOS. But we KNEW what the issue was because we ran a PCR after the basic fecal didn't show anything.

I thought it was worth a shot lol but still thank you for looking at them still. And no, they discharged him like right after giving him it and i was sent no more pictures after the ones i attached above. They didn't run a fecal test either but that might've been our fault since my brother was helping me pay for it and it had already reached 3k so he was in a hurry to just get him out of there asap. :{

He's had on and off diarrhea for months, it's why we brought him to the vet along with his weight loss. Before it was really foul smelling but after the enema, it did get better, but now I'm afraid its getting back to square one. So like all the symptoms he had before the vet didnt change or get any better. He's still the same as before.

I've been feeding him all varieties of the ones in the can. I have noticed when i give him the cuts or chuncks, hell just lick up the juice and not eat any of the meat. I need to be better at looking at what type they are instead of the flavors ugh. I always forget to look before just shoving it in my cart.

Yeah, nobody knows what the issue is so it's hard to know what i can do in order to help him. I'll make sure to tell the vet all the things your telling me and try to run as many tests as possible. A part of me really wants it to be EPI because then i'll finally have an answer you know. And he seems to match all the symptoms. Right now i'm just in the dark and trying everything i can think of but nothings working. Thank you for responding so much and being kind.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I need to go back and re-read this entire thread. But, I am confused as to why the vet doesn't think the sole issue is this foreign object and why the other testing was done. Things like EPI probably don't really have anything to do with this foreign object, or if they do they might resolve themselves if the object is removed.

Since you have such a tough time connecting with this vet, perhaps you can call her office and ask if she can take these x-rays pics and draw on them to explain what is showing - like what looks like food vs. the object, and if there are any other things like masses of any sort.

If this object is, in any way, obstructing his digestive tract, of course any food that manages to pass through would likely be diarrhea - because that is all that can get through. It would also explain his lack of appetite. The only good thing is that it isn't completely blocking his digestive tract, or he would be vomiting everything back up.

I think you don't have much choice but to find another vet and share not only those x-rays but all the other tests/results that have been run.

Just so you know - here is an x-ray of a cat's abdomen, and the what the abbreviations stand for. It won't look the same because this x-ray wasn't done with barium, so the digestive tract isn't any more prominent than the rest of the organs.
L- Liver, S- Stomach, K- Kidneys, S.I.- Small Intestine, L.I.- Large Intestines, U.B.- Urinary Bladder, F- Feces in the colon

 

[FeebysOwner]

Anything new???