Great update for Gracie, not so great for Bugsy :(

[carolina]

Originally Posted by Kody's Mom

I am just throwing this out there--but on a Yahoo forum a breeder was saying he had excellent results with Vitamin B-12 injections for diarrhea. Another breeder said that she had used Diagel (from Revival Animal). It's generally used one time -- syringe with paste -- and
it completely stopped the diarrhea in a cat she was caring for
who supposedly had diarrhea for weeks.

Carolina--maybe you could mention this to your vet and see what he thinks???

Ok, just spoke to my vet about this - even though he thinks chances are small of working, he thinks it is worthy trying. So we will do a 7 day course 2x a day and see what it does. We will postpone the steroids until we finish the diagel. I had already ordered 4, he is checking to see if he has it inhouse, if not I will order more online.
Thanks for the tip, hope it works, if it does, it sure will beat steroids!

Only thing is, this stuff is expensive! $12 a dose! So, the instructions say to do a maximum of 5 days, 3x a day... that is 15x12=$180!! The vet said 2x/day for 7 days, which is almost the same... Whew!
$12 per ml, that stuff is made of what? Gold? And that is the cheapest place I found... at my vet it would probably be around $20 a pop.

 

[katkisses]

Originally Posted by Carolina

LOL, put is this way... Like you, I will never, ever ever ever EVER give up on my baby boy... Especially because he is full of life! As I type he is here, chasing a ghost like a maniac LOL, up and down the cat tree, jumping on the window sills, just playing 17lbs of terror! He is a happy little boy who loves life.... Just has soft poop, but meowmy and the v-e-t will get to the bottom of it (no pun intended) LOL.
Because he was going through a food transition, the vet didn't want to pull him from the meds all together at once, so we weaned him off of it. The day he had nausea we put him on 1/2 dose, then yesterday was his last, and today he has a day off from everything.
Tomorrow he starts on a new steroid, called Budesonide... Apparently a great one for stronger inflammations on the GI tract, with much lower side effects than pred. I was looking at the protocol for chronic diarrhea, and all the tests, specialized tests were done, what is missing now, if this doesn't work is an ultrasound, biopsy and exploratory surgery.
Discussing this with my vet, an Ultrasound wouldn't show enough of the intestines walls, but would show the other organs. We will do this if his liver levels continues to go up. Specialized tests on A&M didn't warrant the need for a biopsy, and also he did not show any improvement with pred. My vet said he would advise a biopsy in his case only if the tests indicated the risk of lymphoma, which they don't. That leaves exploratory surgery, which my goodness, I didn't want even to discuss that with the vet

Of course none of those tests are taken out of the possible things we will do, they are just not in the plan right now, as they do not fit the bill yet. There are things we need to do before getting there I guess...
We will see how he does on this steroid... Then cross the other bridges...
I have calls with my vet about 2x a week, and we follow Bugsy very very closely - all aspects... Mood, behavior, poop, water intake, nausea, everything really...
He is keeping his weight, is happy, playing, peeing like a champ, getting in trouble, being loving, and doing fantastic outside of the diarrhea. That is what keeps me going and gives me the hope of getting him all better!

Ok, then I understood it the first time lol! I like your pun.

A couple more things you might consider is a colonospy and... whatever they call it for the other end lol. I have NO idea what that would cost, but I would do that before resorting to exploratory surgery. My vet wanted to try a biopsy, but he had to open bear up to get a liver biopsy and to look around to see if there was anything obivious causing the issue... he said it was about 50/50 if Bear would make it through surgery since his liver could not process the drugs. Bugsy would imo be fine liver-wise for surgery if you go that route, I am just saying that depending on how your vet plans on taking a biopsy... he might have to be in surgery, and if he does the vet can look at his other organs for issues. So if you do a surgical biopsy make sure to tell the vet to explore why he is at it, one surgery two precedures.

Those meds are $$$, but you never know... this might just work.

At this rate you are going to need a 2nd job lol.

I hope he doesn't need an ultrasound either, he just would not look right if they shave him the way Bear was shaved LOL!

ps, you are awesome. Bugsy sure thinks so!

Come on Bugsman, get well SOON!

 

[carolina]

Some of you had asked about Bugsy's and Gracie's auction for their vet bills... I won't post details here, but I made a thread here: http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...53#post3026853

Thanks for asking