Cindy is losing weight again - I'm getting desperate

[misty8723]

Cindy is under the care of an internal medicine specialist.  She wants us to continue to monitor Cindy for 3-4 weeks and then take her back for her next B-12 shot and an evaluation of where to go next. We have been weighing Cindy daily.  I plan to bring a list of everything recommended in this thread and talk with her about it. She is confident that we can lick this, but I'm just getting a bit worried about the continued weight loss since Cindy is only a little over 5 pounds as it is.  At her heaviest, she was 8 pounds.

I ordered the digestive enzymes recommended by LDG because it talked about helping with nutrient absorption, it was only $14, and it was something I could bring with me to actually show the vet.  I probably should have waited, but I just wanted to feel like I was doing something proactive.  Cindy is such a sweetheart, I hate seeing her have to go through all this.  However, it's been a year since we discovered the mass, and she's still with us and seems to be enjoying her life, and I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

 

[peaches08]

I'd definitely include a probiotic.

The weight loss occurred after lowering the dose of pred, but blood work showed her B-12 was OK? That makes me think inflammatory response. We know the pred works for her, can you ask the vet about increasing it? Then reducing again later? It's a phone call, nothing to lose there!

 

[misty8723]

I'd definitely include a probiotic.

The weight loss occurred after lowering the dose of pred, but blood work showed her B-12 was OK? That makes me think inflammatory response. We know the pred works for her, can you ask the vet about increasing it? Then reducing again later? It's a phone call, nothing to lose there!

The vet wanted us to keep her on the current dose of pred until her appointment for her next B-12 shot. At that time, she will decide if she wants to increase the dose back to 1/2 table instead of 1/4.  We have been weighing her every day, and she seems to hover around 5.6 - 5.7, so we don't see her losing a lot of weight - just not gaining.  She's also not eating as much as she was when she first started on the Pred and getting the B-12 injections weekly.  She is still eating, just more back to her normal level and not following me around  meowing for food at all hours of the day and night.

The other variable is that she was on Metronidazole for a while.  She hated it and we hated giving it to her.  It also caused her to have diarrhea.  I know it's supposed to help stop diarrhea, but she didn't have it before she was on it, and doesn't have it now.  Her poop is still soft, but that's because of the missing colon.  when she was on that medicine, she was going everywhere because she couldn't make it to the litter box.  She even went in the carrier at least 4 times either on the way to or on the way back from her weekly B-12 visit to the hospital.  I hope we can find something other than going back to that stuff again.

 

[goholistic]

Lots of vibes for Cindy! 

 

[misty8723]

Minor update - we have an appointment to talk to the vet on Thursday.  I am armed with all of the information from this thread (including the Pancrezyme).  I was worried about her yesterday because I couldn't get her to eat any wet food (although she did eat a lot of dry food and drink some water), but last night and this morning she was eating again.  

Whoever said cats will reduce your stress level obviously never owned a cat!  I love that little sweetie so much!