My Old kitties issues, chronic pancreatitis?

[cprcheetah]

So the news is not great.  She thinks there is a possibility she might have intestinal cancer.  She said the intestines feel thickened to her.  Her recommendation would be either have a specialist come and do an endoscopy and take biopsy samples ($600 my cost after discount) or do an exploratory surgery on her and take some biopsy samples from different spots in her intestines.  She wants to put her on Prednisolone long term to 'quell' the cancer and maybe help with the appetite.  Right now she's on Vetalog which is a different type of steroid.  She did suggest Adequan injections for her arthritis.  And agreed to not give the Phenobarbital, she said as long as her mini seizures didn't become full blown seizures.  Right now she is inhaling some canned i/d from the vet, but she didn't even touch her breakfast so I know she's probably super hungry as it's 4pm now.  She did agree with the Megacolon diagnoses and said it's not uncommon to see cancer in the intestines along with the megacolon.  So now my husband and I have the decision to make, I mean I won't put her through chemo or radiation or anything if she does have cancer, so do we just treat it symptomatically and see if she responds or have my dad do an exploratory.  He said if she does have cancer depending on where and how it's located he could do an intestinal resection on her and remove the bad parts.  Again do I really want to put my 14 & 1/2 year old kitty through a major operation like that?   The vet recommended putting her on a highly digestible diet (i/d of course was her recommendation) she suggested mixing it with j/d but j/d has too much fiber for the megacolon in it for my liking it has 6.6% and I am aiming to keep it under 1.5%.  Right now I am heading to the store to pick up some more cans of food for her, I know the vet food isn't her favorite so looking for more variety for my picky picky girl.  The vet did agree with our current treatment plan, the only thing she would change is the vetalog to prednisolone.  But with the supply issues with that, am going to talk to her about maybe putting her on Dexamethasone (I can get that at walmart on their $4 list).   She also mentioned the possibility of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Oh boy..... another "maybe" on the table now

.   This is certainly a dilemma

I wish I had some sage advise for you at this point, but as you said, you and your DH just need to discuss and figure out what you think is the best thing to do, knowing DeeJay and what you think SHE would want you to do.

You know, some folks actually explore Animal Communicators to find out what their furbabies really want.  If you want to go that route, we can help connect you with people who do that (long distance...they never have to physically see or touch the animals).  One member had a cat with Lymphoma, and she found out that her little guy was willing fight, so he went on Chemo, and here it it a couple of years later, and he's still here

  Just putting that option out there, in case.  One communicator doesn't charge if you aren't satisfied with her services!

Continued

 

 

[denice]

I went through the is it IBD or lymphoma thing with Patches.  I didn't get a biopsy done.  The thing with a biopsy is that it needs to be done without the effects of the steroid and Patches will get very ill without the steroid, that's how he ended up with fatty liver.  I went with just putting him on the steroid and that was 3 years ago and he is still here and doing well.  He used to be on the Prednisolone and was switched to the Dex because of supply issues.  Patches has done well with the dex but the vet did tell me that some cats didn't do well with it.

 

[cprcheetah]

Thank you guys.  At this point my hubby is telling me to do whatever isn't going to cost him lots of money.  Don't get me wrong he loves my furbabies, we are just so tapped out at the moment.  Part of me doesn't want to know if it's cancer as it will break my heart.  I've had her since she was 6 weeks old.  She is my heart baby through and through.  But the other part wants to do whatever I can to improve her quality of life for whatever time she has left.  I have a friend who had a dog whom she fed raw to and did homeopathic medicine with and she lived 3 years with bladder cancer so that gives me some hope.  She is eating really good at the moment.  I gave her 1/2 of the cyproheptadine last night before bed, she finished a 3oz can and about 1/8 cup of the Fresh Pet Selects my hubby bought for her during the night.  She snuggled with me during the night and wasn't grumpy.  Normally she grumps and grouches if I move when I sleep when she is with me.  Instead she was purring so that's a good sign that she is feeling somewhat better.  She likes to come under the covers with me, I sleep with an electric blanket as my hubby has asthma and sleeps with the window open with a fan in it for the cold air  She is drinking a lot of water but she is on the steroid so no big surprises there.  I just feel so worn out with all of this.  That and dealing with my boy Munchie who has a chronic respiratory infection even the powerful Zeniquin isn't knocking out.  My dad is ordering the Depo Medrol for him (he has feline asthma) as I don't think his inhaler is doing it alone.  Sorry I'm just rambling on here.  Thank you every one for your support and advice it really helps and has given me more to think about. 

 

[goholistic]

I'm so sorry to read this.

  I, too, have been down this path with Sebastian. It still stands that he may have, or develop, lymphoma from all this. It actually didn't take me long at all to decide I didn't want to do a biopsy or exploratory surgery and that I wasn't going to put him through chemo - not because of the costs but because of the stress and recovery and side effects that it would have on Sebastian. It was a sad realization and I cried about it. But I would rather give him another week of being pain-free and content than months of treatments that I know he would have a difficult time with (and there are no guarantees). So we decided to treat his pancreatitis and as though he has IBD and hope for the best. If he stops responding to the meds, that may tell us he has cancer. Next month will mark 6 months from his first hospitalization in July, and I am just grateful that I've had this additional time to spend with my boy. 

I know this is so hard, and you've been going through a lot with a few of your cats lately. Hugs for you  

  and lots of vibes for DeeJay. 

 

[peaches08]

Chronic inflammation can cause some thickening. I understand why cancer is mentioned; one has to list all possibilities. Did she mention cancer as a possibility or that this is probably cancer?

 

[cprcheetah]

She seems to think that Cancer is the most likely possibility. 

.  My dad isn't so sure, he thinks she would be a lot sicker with vomiting/diarrhea etc if she had intestinal cancer.  But he said we can easily rule it out with exploratry surgery.  I just don't know if I want to put her little old lady body through that.

 

[peaches08]

I'm assuming when you say exploratory, you mean laparoscopic rather than endoscopic? Or both?

I can understand your reservations. When an X-ray revealed that Grey had a thymoma that took up half of her chest cavity, the first thing that came to mind was, "She's 15 years old and diabetic." However, I wanted to know if she had cancer and what signs to look out for down the road. We aspirated several places and sent off tissue/fluid. No cancer found, so I chose to ignore it. I don't regret my decisions to biopsy and not treat/surgery.

So, I guess it depends on what your options are. If pred is the option whether it is cancer or IBS, then maybe a biopsy isn't all that necessary?

 

[cprcheetah]

No it would be a full open her up all the way exploratory :-(  And yes the vet said that either way Prednisolone would be the treatment of choice to stave off the cancer or help with the inflammatory Bowel Disease.  I just don't understand why she's not exhibiting classic symptoms, she's never had diarrhea except for right after the enema. 

 

[denice]

Patches has never had diarrhea.  He has always had anorexia, vomiting and constipation with flares and he is still prone to constipation.  I think that's why it was 6 years of vet hopping before a vet started treating him for IBD.  During that six years different vets would treat the flare by looking for a foreign body, sometimes hospitalizing on an IV, and metro.  He would get through an episode and in a few months would have another flare.

 

[peaches08]

No it would be a full open her up all the way exploratory :-(  And yes the vet said that either way Prednisolone would be the treatment of choice to stave off the cancer or help with the inflammatory Bowel Disease.  I just don't understand why she's not exhibiting classic symptoms, she's never had diarrhea except for right after the enema. 

I don't like the risk vs benefit of that option. I'd rather treat including using real immune suppressing drugs over opening her up. I'm not trying to tell you what to do and I'll support you either way, but I wanted to give my honest thoughts on that.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

 

No it would be a full open her up all the way exploratory :-(  And yes the vet said that either way Prednisolone would be the treatment of choice to stave off the cancer or help with the inflammatory Bowel Disease.  I just don't understand why she's not exhibiting classic symptoms, she's never had diarrhea except for right after the enema. 

I don't like the risk vs benefit of that option. I'd rather treat including using real immune suppressing drugs over opening her up. I'm not trying to tell you what to do and I'll support you either way, but I wanted to give my honest thoughts on that.

I'm inclined to agree with you here Peaches.  Especially since DeeJay isn't in the greatest of health already. 

 

[cprcheetah]

I think that is the way we are leaning, to just treat symptomatically with the steroids, that already seem to be helping her as she is acting better than she has for a few weeks.

 

[cprcheetah]

So we got results back of the Urine Culture we sent off (can't remember if I mentioned that or not), she has Ecoli (just like my hubby did lol)  but she was resistant to the Baytril we had her on so we switched her to Simplicef (first time I have ever used this drug on any of my animals).  So she is going on that for 2 weeks then wait 3-5 days and have her urine retested.  She is constipated today and all bloated.  She took all day to eat her breakfast, but inhaled her dinner so not sure what is up with that.  For right now I think we are going to just treat it with the steroids and see where that takes us in a few weeks.  I really do think that the Zeel & Traumeel are really helping her as far as the arthritis goes.  I still want to add Krill Oil and maybe the Adequan injections to her regimen. 

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

So it's possible the E-Coli is what caused her to stop eating in the first place, and caused the pancreatitis and maybe, in reality, that's the only thing wrong with her, other than the arthritis

.  I STILL don't get the megacolon, as she doesn't present with the normal symptoms, does she.  I forget what you are doing for her with her current constipation.  Giving her Miralax in her food?  And that's helping, right? 

Here's hoping the new antibiotic for the E-Coli does the trick and your little DeeJay gets back to herself very soon

 

[cprcheetah]

Her only symptom of Mega colon is not going to the bathroom, she hasn't been for 48 hours now.  She may be getting a Christmas enema from human grandpa LOL   The Miralax was working really well at first.   I have her on  1/4 tsp of Miralax twice a day.  She hasn't been vomiting, diarrhea or anything like that, just not going poop.  Oh that and really gassy bloated belly.  That and it shows clearly on her xrays.  We may have to add Lactulose and another drug I wanna say Cisapride, but can't remember for sure.  It is possible that the Ecoli infection caused the pancreatitis.  The vet still thinks there is the possibility that she has cancer though. 

 

[catclan]

Oh, you two. My heart goes out to you.

Merry Christmas Enema, DeeJay, I hope your tummy feels better and you feel like feasting on Christmas breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

 

[cprcheetah]

Well DeeJay lucked out, she decided to leave mom a nice Christmas present in the litter box :-)  She is super crabby today so I think she is hurting somewhat today.  She grumps if I move her or touch her.  Hubby picked up some more of the refrigerated food from whole Foods last night and she really likes it so she has had a few meals of that today which makes for a happy mom.  We're just taking it one day at a time.  She seems super bloated to me today.  May have to pick her up some kitty gas x lol. 

 

[goholistic]

Wow....e-coli, huh? Gosh, there's so much going on with poor DeeJay.

I'm glad she "went" for you on Christmas.

 

[cprcheetah]

She is acting really good today has eaten everything offered to her and she is wanting loads of attention.  I really think the steroids are helping her feel better.  She pooped again today.  We may have to add more meds for her mega colon we shall see though.  I'm just happy she is feeling better today.