Gallstones, Pancreatitis, triaditis...anyone have experience?

[pami]

Oh thats such good news for that fluffy sweetheart.

I am so glad his appetite is back, that his playfulness is back and that all is well.

Keep us updated when you can, with pics!

 

[kittymonsters]

Originally Posted by Pami

Oh thats such good news for that fluffy sweetheart.

I am so glad his appetite is back, that his playfulness is back and that all is well.

Keep us updated when you can, with pics!

Hey Pami,

too funny you asked for pics. I have been trying to get a little video of him running around. Everytime I get the camera out though, he stops playing and comes and headbutts me and the camera

I want to send a video to his vets so they can see how happy he is now. I'll keep trying.

 

[pami]

Originally Posted by kittymonsters

Hey Pami,

too funny you asked for pics. I have been trying to get a little video of him running around. Everytime I get the camera out though, he stops playing and comes and headbutts me and the camera

I want to send a video to his vets so they can see how happy he is now. I'll keep trying.

Thats so sweet

Stomper sounds like an absolute delight to have around

 

[bella713]

Awww Bless him

, I would love to send the BOYS to play

Sounds like he is doing better, give him some snuggles from me

 

[mrstibbs]

Hi, I have just been reading your story...a little simular to my experiece.
I rescued a Tabby cat last july and in Oct she started becoming lethargic and going off her food. This went on for a couple of days. I work at a Vetterinary Hospital so i was able just to take her along.
She had a solid lump in her right side so we took X-rays and what appeard to show up was part of her cat toy so booked her into surgery. When we operated on her it turned out that she had swollowed a 6inch stick that had gone through her stomach, intestines, pancreas and Liver, she had a really bad case of perinitis too!!!! The next few days were horrible she stayed in hospital for a month on fluids etc......
Once she had recovered from this, whch she did really well, she had to have meds (6 tablets) everyday.
After a few months she started having off days just sleeping ALL the time not wanting to go out. Off her food. She has ultra sound scans every few months and reg blood test done. We decided to take biopsy's which came back with the illness Triaditis.
I do understand what you have been through. Tibbs is on a VERY strict diet and will be on meds for the rest of her life... Her quality of life is good, she does have down days but we just bare with them and put her onto pain killers. At present she is on, Zitac, metronidazol, predisalone, hepatasol everyday but this can change.
I really hope things work out for you.
xxxxxx

 

[kittymonsters]

It is really amazing that you should post tonight of all nights about your Tabby girl.

Stomper had a major set back today. Vomiting, diarrhea, hiding, not eating. He is back on cyproheptidine to stimulate his appetite and prenisolone. I had to give him 125 mls of fluids tonight.

Interestingly, Stomper likes to try and eat stick like stuff. Yesterday one of my other cats knocked down a dried flower arrangement. I didn't know if Stomper ate any or not before I found it and got it cleaned up. Today I found a small 1/2 inch piece of one of the softer parts in his vomit.

I don't know if he has more in there or not. We are on an overnight watch with the vet on call.

Last month he ate the top of a foxtail grass plant that blew into the outside enclosure. It is a nasty thing to eat. He even ate part of the dried stem. This he did vomit up, along with blood and a small clot. He was cleared after that incident.

I am wondering if the triaditis makes them want to eat abnormal things like sticks or dried plant stems. It is really strange.

Thanks you so much for posting, because I really needed the encouragement tonight.

Lots of good vibes going out to you and your girl too.

 

[renovia]

I've been reading this thread and I'm going to bookmark it because Luxor likes to eat nasty stuff and has these bouts of vomiting and uncomfortableness that seem to occur with no reason and all........

 

[kittieshasme]

for Stomper and Tibbs continued well being.

Thank you for continued updates. I have never had a cat with this problem, but it useful to have this information in the back of my mind just in case.

 

[kittymonsters]

Originally Posted by Renovia

I've been reading this thread and I'm going to bookmark it because Luxor likes to eat nasty stuff and has these bouts of vomiting and uncomfortableness that seem to occur with no reason and all........

Please keep a close eye on Luxor, those are the exact symptoms of a rather severe pancreatitis attack. Most often there in the low grade chronic there is no vomiting. The IBD often goes along with the pancreatitis. Does Luxor have problems with getting diarrhea with certain foods? Stomper doesn't have the classic diarrhea problems of IBD, but he does get the nasty diarrhea when he gets an attack.

Originally Posted by KittiesHasMe

for Stomper and Tibbs continued well being.

Thank you for continued updates. I have never had a cat with this problem, but it useful to have this information in the back of my mind just in case.

Thanks for the vibes KittiesHasMe, we can use them this time.

Update 1/17.09. Well after almost two months of perfection, Stomper crashed big time. His bloodwork 1/1/09 was perfect, on 1/12/09 his AST was elevated 2x upper level of normal, Ultrasound showed mildly enlarged pancreas, painful belly. He was vomiting and off his food.

This time he has not perked up as quickly as normal. Standard treatment 5mg prednisolone 2x daily, cyproheptadine morning and evening, 5 day course of metronidazole ( I don't think this helps and may actually make his nausea worse). Fluid support daily. Plus his Ursodiol.

Finally tonight he seems to be getting better. I will drop the prednisolone to 1x daily and monitor closely. It may be time to keep Stomper on a constant prednisolone dosage of every other day

I was so hoping that removing the offending gallbladder would stop these attacks completely. At least now, I guess he only has diaditis, instead of triaditis!

 

[kittieshasme]

I'm so sorry Stomper and you are having such a rough time right now.

More get better vibes for Stomper

 

[renovia]

Thanks for all this information. We'll be in contact with my vet on Monday, he's already been in to get anti-nausea meds, pain killers, hairball gel, and sub-q's. He's doing great today but we're still going to be looking close at his food and information on this pancreatitis....the good thing is we could be close to actually figuring out what's wrong and helping to make him feel better. He's had these kinds of things for over a year now.

 

[renovia]

gosh you know, I was reading up on pancreatitis just so when I go to the vet I can understand what he's saying and ask questions:

but one of the things that can cause an attack of pancreatitis is the bacteria toxoplasma. Now if I'm not mistaken, that must be like toxoplasmosis from the litter box. Luxor, I've noticed, has been licking the stairs to his booda dome.........

 

[kittymonsters]

Hey Renovia,

There are several parasitic possible causes (toxo and also a form of Fluke) They put stomper on a 5 day course of fenbendazole (Panacur). Unfortunately it did nothing for him.

I noticed you were asking about Buprenophine in another thread. Is it helping Luxor? I have found the pain meds don't help Stomper, even though he is in obvious pain. They are part of standard treatment though.

Do you have him on supportive fluid therapy? I find that giving Stomper fluids does perk him up. There is also some evidence that Vitamin B12, the methycobalamin form is helpful in pancreatitis. Info is at TAMU gastrointestinal lab, they are the ones that do the fPLI test for pancreatitis. http://www.cvm.tamu.edu/gilab/

Stomper has the triaditis form, pancreatitis, IBD and cholangiohepatitis. It really stinks.

Lots of that you get Luxor undercontrol.

Please add your experiences and results to this thread if you would like. It will help others in the future. I have joined the feline IBD yahoo group. They are very nice and helpful, that list runs like wildfire though! Lots of sick kitties.

They have great advice on the newest meds and which seem to work the best.

Keep us posted.

 

[renovia]

Yes the buprenex helps and when I get more info on what Luxor actualy has I'll certainly share

 

[bonnie1965]

to you and Stomper. This has to be a trying time for you both Hoping this course works well!

 

[domas]

That is really good news.

 

[kittymonsters]

I just wanted to post an update for anyone who may come across this thread in the future.  I get a couple of PMs a year from others going through similiar issues.

It was a long road but Stomper's triaditis finally came under control. and he had his last severe pancreatitis episode in Feb 2009

I had to make homemade food for him,  very similar to the raw diet that Dr Peirson has at catinfo.org.

He also had to stay on prednisolone continuously,  as well as Ursodiol.  

During his flares he had cyproheptadine and burphrenophine. 

Stomper eventually developed intestinal lymphoma which metasticized to his lungs.   He went into respiratory distress and had to be euthanized the end of Nov 2012.  RIP my sweet boy.

I keep my account active though I dont post on TCS anymore. If you have a specific question send me a PM and I will get an email notification.

 

[kimberlou]

Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. I am sorry to hear that your boy is gone. He was so blessed to have had you in his life.

I only first read this thread a few months ago, back in Nov '12. My adolescent DSH girl was confirmed to be suffering triaditis; the acute cholangitis and pancreatitis almost got the better of her. These threads were the best resource.

I cried for days or was it weeks whilst she was in the hospital; reading your (and a few others) detailed recounts of their triaditis/ sludgy twisted gallbladder nightmares was terrifying but sooooooo helpful at the same time.

Of all the vets, and in my crappy poor suburb, we just happened to be patrons of one of the top feline specialists in our state who had experienced this problem firsthand with one of her Burmese boys. She explained the guarded prognosis and the expensive journey i could take. Ah what the hell, I threw all my wages into it and had the confirmed diagnosis and correct treatment within a day. It was worth it. I have all the records of the process and products, for future reference.

(Ironically I had recently dropped out of vet school because I needed to work to support my sick mother. Dropping out allowed me to earn the money which saved my baby cat's life!

My girl has since doubled in size and affection (possibly due to her tailor-made rabbit feasts- in Australia we have a feral rabbit problem so human-grade rabbit meat is my choice of novel protein for my little one). My eyes have been opened thanks to the time and effort you spent sharing.

Thank you, and RIP Stomper. What an absolute trooper.

I hope and trust that you are still enjoying the companionship of cats.

Peace. KM

 

[feebysmommy]

Hi,

I have just read your story of Stomper's health issues as I was researching pancreatitis, which my elderly Maine Coon, Phoebe ("Feeby") has just had an acute bout of and diagnosis. I am so impressed by your amazing care of Stomper and he was such a gorgeous boy - my baby even looks a bit like him (she's long hair, lots of white, some beige too). My story is similar yet different - Feeb has had cancer in her abdomen for 1 year and 10 months and has been on 3 different chemo meds, all of which worked till they didn't and the next one worked until etc. etc. Now, as of January, she is diabetic, on insulin twice daily, but the last 10 days had an acute pancreatitis attack and stopped eating/drinking. We thought it was her mast cell tumorous lymph node growing again - it had shrunk in January, but in 2 months, nearly doubled in size - not good (actually a very enlarged lymph node in her abdomen) so initiated a round of IV chemo (her 1st one nearly 2 yrs ago). We didn't know she was in a pancratitis attack until the tests confirmed it the next day, so for the past week she was so distressed  that I had to start assits-feeding and assist-hydrating her via syringe, and give her buprenorphine, and the cyproheptadine although twice daily was not helping her appetite. The pancreatitis and the chemo made her pee involuntarily, and she hardly got up for several days. Luckily she lets me assist feed her. I wish I had started it sooner as her system was so empty and dried up. She lost over a pound in just 10 days (she's about 11.3 lbs now, used to be a hefty 13 pounder in her healthy days). She finally seemed to come out of the acute attack last night but we realized she was SERIOUSLY constipated, and today was finally "strong" enough to get an enema. Poor thing has pooped all day, worn herself out trying to poop (before the enema and then all night after, to expel more poop and soft stuff from what they put in her).

Long story short - thank you for "listening" - was just wondering what your Stomper's "recovery" was like after an enema? I had to line my bedroom with bed-liners as she sometimes still has to get some liquidy stuff out and it drips after she goes to her box. She's also worn out from all the pushing trying to poo so often.

We feel she is on the "up" again and has a will to live, and even got off the buprenorphine today, BUT she still does not really eat on her own (she does drink water now on her own as of today - WooHoo!!). I have to help her eat to "keep things moving" now that she's gone through the enema ordeal.

We were close to euthanasia several times the past week but each time we feel close, she shows remarkable signs of improvement.

Again, thank you for listening and any suggestions you may have, or other similar stories of what Stomper went through, are sincerely, appreciated.

~FeebysMommy