Chickster Growling at butt

[otto]

Thanks for the update, I'm so glad to hear the episodes are lessening, and it is interesting that you see them more as the time passes after the last does.

Keep track of things like that, keep a journal, if you are not already, as that is important information the vet will want to know.

I agree that pills would be better, long term.

continued love and vibes to you both.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I wonder, could a compounding pharmacy possibly make the pills into a chewable treat? I saw somewhere where they made an asthma pill into one, and they turned it into a game where they threw the pill across the room for the cat to chase before he ate it. No fuss, certainly no foaming at the mouth. Their cat thought he was getting a treat and was actually getting his medication!

 

[snickerdoodle]

Thank you all. I will definitely implement all of these things and ask about compounding into a treat. Pills are just looking way better right now. I had to cut a small mat out of her under mane this morning and brush all of it, it was so gummy even after washing it. It's like bubble gum! My mother was having a fit at me across the house saying I was destroying her beautiful mane and not to cut it off and ... augh, I was trying to be calm and quiet around Chickster so as not to set off another episode and finally had to snap at my mother, who hushed. Then I went and quietly explained what I had done. This mat was small and had to be cut out, it didn't destroy anything and brushing it would've hurt her.

She is playing with a leaf right now and I am going to try to get some sleep, but otherwise things are going fine. No fits yet today

Though Mom's starting to look like a different story

 

[ldg]

I remember the day I was standing in the vet office. I don't remember who needed the Clavamox or why, but when I was checking out, I said - Geez I wish this was available in pill form! Of course there are antibiotic options in pill form, and they said so.

I haven't tried giving any of the kitties a liquid in... like 6 years. If there's an option, we go NO LIQUID.

Of course - sometimes the liquid metabolizes a lot better than the pill, and maybe that's why your vet prescribed it to begin with. Do call to ask!!!!

for your mom since it sounds like she could use some.

 

[snickerdoodle]

Well, just a quick update. Things are seeming to go pretty well. I'm narrowing down her medication to every 24 hours, nearly, so each morning at 8 she gets her 1ml of Amytriptyline and that's all. She doesn't need it every 12 hours, and usually a fit will start around 8AM each morning. Mom says overnight she is quiet and has no fits while I'm at work, so that's good. She has still not harmed herself thankfully. Yesterday morning was crazy, she got really riled up in a fit and it was time for her medicine, and I had to actually leave her alone to get her out of a hiding spot, caught her at the foot of the steps and she fell over on her side, ears flat, screaming hissing crying because I had a sweater to drape over her, she was way too wild to put my hands on. She even took a swipe at my foot. She was MAD. But once I got my hands on her she calmed down, and once in the bathroom, she turned into a little kitten. So weird.

She went poop overnight and it was a wonderous thing to see, so I will use this thread as my journal so I can keep a log of what happens when. So she went poop and pee, and I'm a little concerned that either the side effect of sleepiness has made her hold her bladder OR it is causing urine retention as she's going to pee, but it's more pee and less often.

Otherwise her poop was not too hard nor too soft, felt ok to me. She ate a bit this morning, I think she doesn't like the Sensitive Systems as much, wondering if I should go back to the SmartBlend Chicken and Rice formula she was eating...but don't know.. Something else I've wondered, she has round eyes (as you can see in her pics here at the cat site) and her pupils are fully dilated more often than not. Of course in sun or bright light, or if she's chasing something, they will contract to slivers or whatever, but I was curious if that's something I should keep an eye on....

Anywho thank you for all the vibes and thoughts and concern

 

[otto]

Torties are well known for that round eyed stare, I think. I used to call it the "Surprised Look" in my Sissy cat. (

12/97)

However the amitriptyline may have something to do with enlarged pupils, I know some meds do, especially the type that cause sedation.

Keeping tabs on Chickster's progress here in the forum is a good idea. You might want to just save your pertinent posts in a folder in your wp or email drafts though in case you need info and can't get in to the forum.

I only mention it because I have had a lot of trouble that way lately, unable to get in here I mean.

 

[snickerdoodle]

Aahhh, good. I am glad to know that is a Tortie trait. She is the first Tortie I've ever had, so the attitude is new to me

and I mean the attitude minus the fits

She had a VERY great day today, I was very proud of her. She was such a sweetie. I love my new vet for sure!

 

[otto]

Chickster!

And you too of course.

 

[snickerdoodle]

Well, just a quick update. Chickster is still doing the 12 hour fit thing, right before her medication time (8-9AM) I am thinking we may be able to start back to every 24 hours because it's 9:30 and she's knocked out. Of course I am starting to wonder, I am here and off work for the weekend and she's fine, but during the week at night when I have to go to work, she has fits. Hmmm....

in any case, I talked to the vet today about switching her to pills and we decided to do it, so now I have little tiny blue pills to give her. 1/2 of the Amytrip every 12-24 hours. While we were talking about the liquid she mentioned a half of 1 ml (.5) ... I said, no, I've been giving her 1ml.... that's what the bottle said?

O.O come to find out, I somehow completely disregarded the Amytrip label and assumed it was the same as the prednisone, (1ml) but it was actually .5. The poor vet saw the horror on my face and said Noo! It's alright! There's room there for that, it's ok. I said Oh, well, this must explain why she sleeps all day and half the night. She laughed and said, "She's haaaaaaaaaappy"
But I was HORRIFIED. How could I DO THAT!?!?!?

In any case, NO MORE LIQUIDS!!! yay!

I still have a couple of mats to get out of her beautiful fur, but she has been a very good girl today. That liquid was getting too stressful for either of us. I did let the vet know I tasted that stuff myself and the chicken flavor was BS, she laughed, and told me there was a sweetener in there. I told her you can't taste any sweetener (I thought cats can't taste sweet?) and it's just as bitter as can be.

So, for right now I've been given the OK to give her a tiny bit of miralax a couple times a week, her stools are hardening up again and coming out in nuggets. Her peeing is normal. She's not a big water drinker, so this is part of the problem. She's been getting small pieces of honey roasted turkey and loves it but I don't give her much because of the salt.

The vet was hoping we would see a true decrease in the fits, and while we kind of have it's not what she was going for, so our next step after these pills will be the diet change to grain free wellness core. If that doesn't work I don't know what. But she will be going in as soon as I get extra money for a check up which should be within the next few weeks.

She is bouncy, happy, and incredibly lovey dovey! Mom suspects it's separation anxiety, which I dismissed right off the bat because she'd never acted like that before, but now I'm not sure.

Another interesting tidbit, she is actually trying to STOP her attacks on her own. She believes once she starts having one I give her the nasty medicine, when in fact it is just TIME for her medicine. So the last 2 days she has Rawr'd and growled once and hid under the kitchen table and tried to calm herself down. Poor girl.

Thanks guys!

 

[otto]

Thanks for the update on Chickster. I can imagine your horror that you were giving the wrong dose, but glad it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Amitrptyline is known to cause constipation, I had a terrible time when I first started on it, so the miralax is a good idea. My body did adjust after a while and my system got back to normal.

I'm a little confused though. If her episodes are coming every 12 hours, right before a dose of meds, I don't understand why you want to cut the dose to every 24 hours. Wouldn't you want to keep it at every 12 hours, if she is having the episodes right before a dose is due? Sorry if I am misunderstanding something.

 

[snickerdoodle]

No Otto, that's ok.

I had gotten the doses to every 24 (8AM) hours and she wasn't having a fit in between, but I screwed up and missed a dose (I'm so stupid) and we had to go back to every 12 hours (8AM, 8PM) because her fits increased.

I'm also concerned about her having these episodes during the week when I get home from work. It's immediately after I get home, grab a cup of coffee and sit down at the computer. It's also right near her medication time. BUT on the weekends it's not like this, like this morning she is cozying on my bed and has been there with me from 10PM until 9AM this morning (She got up to go pee or something, she moved)

Even stranger is I can distract her with a toy, but no matter how long I play with her it only seems to pause the fit. Whether it's 5 minutes or an hour (yes, an entire hour or more) once I stop and go back to doing something else, she continues out the fit as if I had never distracted her. It only -pauses- it. It's very strange.

I'd really like to get back to every 24 hours because that would be the least amount of medication to give her. Every 12 hours seems so harsh but I will do it if I have to. I know it's not a lot of meds but it still troubles me.

I will mix up a bit of Miralax for this morning. And if I hadn't been such a fool the liquids would have been much easier to give. A half of a mL is much less than a full mL ...... and a lot to get into a squirmy growling kitty

And yes, I was relieved when the vet was telling me it was fine, there was a leeway there, and she spent a good amount of time trying to calm me down and make sure I knew it was OK. But geez, how stupid can I be?

A funnier note: The ladies at the new vet are so sweet, one put the label on the pill bottle crooked and chided herself for sending me home with a crooked label. This is how detail oriented these people are. I thought it was great.

 

[otto]

Interesting that a fit interrupted has to run it's course later. Have you mentioned that to the vet? To me that points more to neurological than behavioral. (I am not a vet) The electrical impulse in the brain seems to HAVE to be expelled whether now, or later.

In that case you may have better luck with phenobarbital. But I know you want to give the amitriptyline a chance first.

As for when you come home from work, again, you could be looking at "triggers" here. Some seizure activity does have triggers, and FHS also can have triggers.

to you and Chickster.

 

[snickerdoodle]

Yes, I told her all of that. I was amazed she sat with me for so long (I was up there to pay on Boo's bills) and they come out (once they're free) and sit and talk with you and don't charge you anything. I just love this place.

Interesting. Neurological. That sounds logical because of what's going on. Does anything like this ever end in having a cat's tail amputated? I'm not sure why that popped to mind, but I know Bobbie Jo, the bob tail cat outside, she shivers her nub sometimes when she sees me, and I just wonder why her tail was amputated.

Rambling, sorry. I gave her her 1/2 pill and it went SWIMMINGLY!!

She swallowed it with no problems, I gave her a little syringe of water slowly to make sure she wasn't hiding it and wala, all done. She's sitting in her window.

Giving her that nasty medicine could also be a trigger, yes? I mean it irritated her to no end. Hm. I will do some research on this.

Thank you Otto

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Just a reminder that I still have that bag of Wellness Core that I'll send you if you decide you want it.

 

[snickerdoodle]

Thank you mrsgreenjeens I will keep it in mind, and thank you so much for offering. I have a small bag downstairs but may need more. She wasn't interested in it at all.

It's 12AM here and she got her medication a little while ago. She's currently having a fit though it's not as aggressive as the last few. I feel like she's upset with me for not going to bed sooner as I usually do even on weekends. So I'm headed there now. She didn't take the pill so well this time and spit it out, it was half melted so I got another half of a pill and that one went down sweetly, though she'd already tasted the bitter and was foaming a bit. She is just very unhappy with me right now. Hopefully bed time will fix that!

 

[snickerdoodle]

Just a quick update, gave her some Miralax Sunday night, her pills are back to every 24 hours, no fits, much less foam if any and she's taking her pills like a champ. She is still kind of lazy-dazying around on the bed and didn't bother to move when I accidentally draped a thin fleece blanket over her, but she's eating, pooping, peeing.. the fits are a no show right now.

So it's every morning at 8am, a half of pill. Afterwards she sort of twitches her tail about, but I'm wondering if that's more of a "...I'm so mad I could have a fit, I can't believe I'm being forced to take pills" thing, or an actual fit thing.

I got a pill cutter (5 DOLLARS? It's a RAZOR BLADE.) but it's not cutting exactly in the middle so I have to refine it a bit, which is wasting small amounts of pill which will eventually add up, but these are small blue round pills and have a chippy coating on the outside.

Anyway, things are going well! 17 dollars for 2 months of pills (30 pills 1/2 a day, 60 administrations) is a great deal for me.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

hmm...maybe the problem was she wasn't getting the correct dose in liquid form because she spit too much out, even though I think you said you were actually giving her too much. Even with that, maybe she was still spitting out too much and wasn't getting enough? That could explain why she's doing better now that she's getting her medication in pill form? Just a thought. Whatever the reason, glad she seems to be having less fits.

 

[otto]

Thanks for the happy update!

Queen Eva and Jennie both flip their tail at me when I have to do something to them they don't like or approve of.

Tolly and Mazy shake their paws.

 

[snickerdoodle]

I've wondered this too, perhaps she was drooling out so much of the liquid she wasn't even getting enough. Or perhaps it metabolized too fast? Pill form would be slower to metabolize I would think? I know nothing about it though.

She's still doing well. We had a storm last night and she went and hid, but no fits.

I am hoping that is all the tail twitching is, now it's hard to tell whether she's annoyed or beginning a fit :T

I am glad I switched to pills, and thank you for recommending pills. Liquid was a serious headache, and I severely miscalculated my cat's attitude towards me. I figured she'd maul me but she is very gentle. She's all hiss and no bite (usually

)

 

[ldg]

Wow, I've missed a lot of updates! I am SO glad things are going better!

And the pills are easier!

I think you're right about her drooling out the medicine, that could explain a lot.

Also, a couple of pages ago you mentioned about her peeing more but less frequently. That IS a side-effect of amitryptaline. It does cause urine retention, which is why it is used as a medication for children with bed-wetting problems.