Please help my IBD, Pancreatic, Renal Failure, Arthritic, Geriatric Cat

[that guy]

Another bad day & night for Scratchy, he was not feeling well at all last evening and his stomach never really settled down. The Weruva makes him really gassy and I can hear his stomach going nuts after he eats it but he does like it. I was up at 04:00 pumping Pepsin into him which seemed to settle his stomach down after an hour or so and then he could sleep. He threw up about an hour and a half after I gave him his Pepsin so I don't know how much this really helped. He needs a better antacid and I think SEB will do the trick on this one. He fell asleep in his cat box so I was not able to give him his pain meds so he is not really a happy cat right now. He had to go the day without them and he was a little wobbly so hopefully these kick in quickly.

I put him back on Medleys because he is losing weight again and will try Weruva again once I find something to settle his stomach down a bit more. He wasn't interested in his Medleys with the fish oil on it but a trip out to his grass and back seems to have corrected that. He also needs a better probiotic than FortaFlora so that is the other thing i need to move on. His stools are firming up from the Weruva but the stomach won't settle down so that product will need to wait for a bit and I will try it again.

 

[that guy]

It has been a while and time for another update. Scratchy has been doing about the same and his kidney values went up a bit and levelled out and has not progressed since. Just after the last update he went to the vet and I had them check his blood and B12 levels when he was 2 weeks into his 4 week schedule where he gets a 0.25cc shot. At two weeks his B12 levels were below the normal range so he went back to weekly shots and after 6 weeks of this he was at high in the normal range. Then we dropped it back to 2 week shot intervals and after 6 weeks of this he was back to below low on the normal scale so he is back on weekly shots. We will check these numbers and see how they are doing in a few months. I tried most of the suggestions in this thread (forgot about the Omega 3 though) and they did not change anything for Scratchy. I did try the laser treatments and he was on a roll of not throwing up for 9 days when he started which quickly degraded to throwing up every day or two or having bouts where he was hiding under my bed. He went through 3 weeks of this, 3 treatments on the first week, 2 on the second, and then the last one on the third week when I pulled the plug on this. The doctor said this was a harmless treatment but something in Scratchy's body did not like it so I put a stop to it.

Scratchy also had his 19th birthday on May 25th so he is just over 19 years and 1 month old and other than being a little slow he is doing pretty well if wasn't for the throwing up. I did try him on a pre/pro-biotic called Florentero and his last blood tests show everything was okay for Flora and that kind of thing. I have tried different foods in this time and sadly he isn't interested in the Chicken Florentine that he would always eat so it can be hard getting him to eat. Currently he likes Fancy Feast and Wiskas which kind of sucks because neither are great foods for an IBD cat. I just counted and he currently has 17 types of food in the kitchen that I cycle through to find one he will eat and probably another 5 - 7 in pantry that have been played out. Most of the time he is eating unless he is not feeling well but it can take 3 - 5 types of food sometimes to find something he will eat at that point in time. Just because he eats it at one point in time doesn't mean he will on the next which is pretty frustrating. He has been maintaining a decent weight, he is usually around 3.1 - 3.2 kg although he has bumped up to 3.3 kg for a while and then dropped back down.

Scratchy is an old guy in his retirement and he was an outside cat for most of his life but the last 2.5 years he has been an inside cat with a large deck to relax on. He has a cat tower in the front window which he either sleeps on or looks out at the yard and street and seems pretty happy about it. When he is not feeling well he pretty much hides under my bed which is find until he throws up which can happen fairly often at times. To give scratchy a place to hide without going under my bed I bought him a cat house which he likes but, and there is always a but, he can't always get in it easily because of the arthritus. I bought it because it was big enough for him and it was snug as well which cats like but I found that he would go in it and then couldn't turn around or lie down because of the shape and would have to back out and find somewhere else to lie down....

Scratchy3.jpg

• that guy
• Jun 30, 2014

After a few days of this I thought I would buy him a new house that was big enough for him to easily get in and turn around and allow him to stretch out in so I got him a medium sized dog kennel. It has a hard plastic bottom so I bought a memory foam type pad for the bottom and he seems to enjoy this. I also threw some blankets over the top to block the air holes to make it a little darker and he uses this when he feels like it. I also tried it with a dish towel over the door when he first got it because he wasn't feeling well but pulled it out the way until he got used to it. I haven't put it back yet but may depending on how it works out.

Scratchy1.jpg

• that guy
• Jun 30, 2014

We can't forget that Scratchy is a cat and sometimes neither of them work and he just crashes on the floor....

Scratchy2.jpg

• that guy
• Jun 30, 2014

The idea behind the houses was to give him somewhere to go when he is not feeling well where I can still get to him and if he throws up I can clean it easily. He threw up after he got the kennel but it was in the litter box and just outside the bathroom door in the hall which was a good start. I came home a few days after this and Scratchy was not feeling well and he decided to go back under my bed which I understand because it is the only place where pretty much nobody can get to him. If he is feeling bad I typically leave him alone and then check up on him every 30 - 60 minutes to see how he is doing. During these times he usually wants little to do with me which is their nature so I let him be and go away and check back later. This time I could not see him and had to look way under the head of my bed and there he was lying on his side. I usually stroke him on the head as the rest of him doesn't feel well and this time it set off the barf response and he threw up where it is the hardest to reach. I really want to block off the under side of my bed but I understand why he goes there so I haven't done this and probably won't. I started a thread about this and one of the suggestions was to put a shower curtain under there but this isn't as nice to lie on and the carpet has long since been destroyed by him throwing up on it while I at work and nobody is around to clean up so I will probably just leave it as it is.

There are a few things I would like to try with Scratchy and the first is Slippery Elm Bark which I have been putting off while trying other things. Omega 3 is another thing I need to get him on as well just o help support his failing kidney's It is getting harder to give him his Cerenia which basically does nothing for him as far as throwing up but it is also a anti-inflammatory which is good for him. I ran through the usual foods and then cheese was working for a while and then plain butter which have all run their course and he doesn't really like. I was searching threads on this site and got a few good suggestions which I went out and grabbed today. The first was a soft cat treat which he no longer gets because of the IBD other than Pure Bites. On was called Wiska Lickers which is a soft treat but I couldn't find them so I bought a bag of Pet Greens Chicken for $6 which he would not touch and a bad of Pet Greens Turkey & Duck for $6 which he would not touch either. Knowing cats I also bought a bag of Blue Wilderness Chicken & Turkey treats which he would eat so I was able to wrap the small bits of Cerenia in these and he would eat them. Some people had suggested something called Cheese Spray which sounds pretty synthetic but I couldn't find this but I did find Cream Cheese so I will try this later and see if he likes it. Another idea was to wrap the pill bits in cheese or something he likes and then cover it with nutritional yeast, fish food, sea weed used for sushi, or Forta Flora. He is currently on a different pre/probiotic so he is not allowed to have Flora Forta while he is on it. I had tried baby food for this drug as well and although he liked baby food for a while it is no longer something he eats and it did not coat the bitter drug so he wouldn't eat it in any case.

SO that pretty much brings us up to date. Scratchy is still doing well a lot of the time although he has his down time and I notice more stomach noise with gas he is usually happy, purrs, grooms, knows where the bathroom is, and still has most of his marbles. The vet is not sure what to do with this guy though, all of the things we have tried usually treat these issues but they don't seem to work on Scratchy. The things that have worked for him were sub-q's, B12, and the steroids (these help keep his weight up there) and pretty much everything else makes no difference. The internal medicine specialists are stumped with this guy as well. My vet knows of a feline specialist that goes around the country and helps with cases like this so she is trying to set something up to have her come and look at Scratchy and see if she can find something that we have missed.

 

[betsygee]

@DonnaJean  gave some good instructions for the SEB.  It has helped many of us who have cats with IBD, kidney or other throw-up-y kinds of issues, and is definitely worth a try.  Also--oh, never mind.  I was going to suggest baby food to get him through the times he wouldn't eat anything else but I see you've already tried that.  I have tried it with so-so results on my cats, they would eat it sometimes and then turn their noses up at it at other times.  On the other hand, I suggested it to a friend with an old kidney cat and it's been a life saver (probably literally!) to keep her kitty going when she won't eat anything else.

19 years old.  Impressive.  

 

[goholistic]

Aw...Scratchy. I agree. 19 years is amazing!

 

[donnajean]

Hi,

I have two suggestions, worth a try and might be beneficial for Scratchy...

Aloe vera, by Desert Harvest.... I am trying it out on my male cat Spook who has had a major flair up of his Idiopathic Cystitis, with great results.

Desert Harvest has a pet friendly , freeze dried capsule that comes in two sizes and I bought "for larger animals" only because it has more capsules compared to "small animal" and I half it and put into an empty capsule and give twice a day.

Aloe Vera is also a consideration for my Boo who has IBD and I plan on trying it... Aloe is great for inflammation, digestive disorders, etc...

Desert Harvest would be glad to speak to you and I did call and learned quit a bit of information on Aloe Vera. This is a safe product and you can visit their website .

I have been also using a product called Duralactin on Boo and Spook... It is for Chronic inflammatory conditions such as IBD, Arthritis, Cystitis, etc.... You can visit their website at www.duralactin.com and e-mail them, they will call you...it is a safe product and works  like a non steroid anti-inflammatory without the side effects.

So far for the past month Boo has been doing well, he is now eating Nutri-source Pure Vita in Salmon and for canned he eats Addiction  Rabbit and Blueberries or Royal canin hypoallergenic canned Rabbit..

We tried the Duck it worked for about 4 months or so, Fish was the only thing I never thought about trying since Fish is listed as a possible Allergen for cats..

He likes the salmon dry alot.(at least for now)

On days when he seems to be off I give him a 1/4 tsp of SEB, twice a day.

Her's to better days for all our Furry family members

 

[that guy]

Update time for Scratchy. He is still kicking and has been doing really well for the last month. I have tried all different things with this cat and nothing has really seemed to help him with his throwing up. It is always large amounts of water and cat food and it is uncontrollable by Scratchy until it is all out of him. Scratchy has been on Cerenia at different doses in pill form for a few years. His current run started about December and it has been changed here or there but made no difference to him. The pills he gets are micro and bitter so it is really hard to get him to eat them especially if he is not feeling well because I have to hide them in treats.

Flash forward to a month or so ago when he saw a feline specialist at which time i asked to have the liquid form of Cerenia to inject into his his sub-q. She thought the plan he was currently on was good and the things I had tried were good but she did have some suggestions. She suggested to stop giving him Famotidine because she didn't think he had acid issues and if he did there are better drugs for it. He has been on liquid Famotidine for a few years now and he gets it daily and hates the taste of it no matter what flavour it was made of. He was also mildly dehydrated after having a sub-q about 14 hours before the appointment. His sub-q was increased from 100ml a day to 150ml a day and at the same time I switched to the 21 gauge UTW needles which take a little more time but he doesn't seem to feel them as much.

I keep track of the drugs he gets and when he throws up and he was going 2 - 4 days at best before the changes to 7 days, 6 days, 8 days, and is currently at 4 days and going. The first time he threw up he only threw up a small amount of liquid with some grass which is much better. He went 6 days and ate too much on day 7 and then threw up but it was just cat food which is good considering his record. He threw up after 8 days and it was cat food with a bunch of hair in it. Although he is still throwing up a little they are not the IBD messes I am used to with huge amounts of water and food. He didn't eat for an hour or so after the first one but he was back at the dish within minutes after the other ones so it is looking pretty good.

The only change there was switching his Cerenia to a liquid and getting more liquid in his sub-q but I could see the difference in him within days. He is also getting some digestive enzymes as recommended by the specialist to help break down the food before he eats to see if his body will absorb it a little better. He is a very skinny cat and eats 4 - 6 small cans of food a day (they are 85 gram cans in Canada) and he does not put on any weight. His weight has been around 3,2 kg which is just over 7 pounds for a cat that was 11 pounds when he was younger. He is also having problems maintaining his B12 levels and is getting a weekly shot in his sub-q to keep his numbers up.

He is an old and stiff cat and has a problem cleaning himself properly because of the arthritis. Because he is so skinny I started to use a soft brush because the comb is hard on all of his sharp edges. The specialist noticed a lot of old hair in his coat especially around his back legs even though it felt good. He doesn't have any knots or mats but there was a lot of undercoat in there and I have been slowly working it out of him. It is not easy for him as he has a number of sore spots even though he is on pain meds.

 

[betsygee]

Scratchy is such a trooper And so are you! He's lucky to have you taking such amazingly good care of him.

 

[goholistic]

I agree! You are taking such good care of him! 

If his GI system is not absorbing things well, that can have an affect on both the food and the medications. This is common with progressed IBD, as I'm sure you know. My guess is that he just couldn't absorb the oral form of Cerenia, so it might of been as though he wasn't getting it at all. 

  The injectable Cerenia and digestive enzymes are great ways to address these issues. 

 

[harley]

Hi Scratchy's Dad,

You are doing an amazing job. I am writing to say that I have a pancreatic cat that has thrown up most of her life. It started out as barfing a little bit here and there over the years but she was a regular barfer. But as she got pickier with her food and stopped eating all of her meals -this was - around 13 years old -she started losing weight and the problem became life threatening.  She had an acute Pancreatic attack. She was treated and has bounced back.so far :-)  I completely changed her diet and this has almost totally stopped the barfing. Anything from a can she will ultimately barf - maybe not the first day but eventually. I had to isolate proteins to figure out what she was allergic to and what she could tolerate.  In her case, she will eat chicken but is allergic to turkey and won't eat duck. She won't eat some of the other proteins like rabbit etc.. So because she will only eat chicken I started buying fresh whole chicken from the supermarket deli and chopping it up. She loves this and doesn't throw it up. So far so good on the high quality human grade chicken. Incidentally, I have read that this is what is best for the pancreatitis - high quality, unrendered, low fat, protein.  I am also giving her Viyo as a supplement which I get from my Vet to help with balancing her diet.  She likes the taste and it is a liquid made from chicken stock.

I am learning how to deal with this disease. My cat Harley had lost a lot of weight - down to 5 lbs but has now gained back everything and more with the new diet. She is up to 8 lbs and rarely barfs. She drinks a lot of water and I am having her checked every 3 months for her tests. So far so good. I keep a little heating pad plugged in at all times under the pillow case which she loves - this has really helped her pain - and she can position herself any which way to warm any spot that ails her. She hangs out on this heated pillow 50% of the time. Like you.. I pretty much feed her whenever she wants and she is a chow hound even though she is only 8 lbs. They say the way to an Abysinnian's heart is through their stomach!

I don't know what is in store for us but I do know that she feels so much better and and her quality of life has improved 500%. The weight gain and fluid intake is hopefully helping her to heal and we will just have to hope for the best.

I hope the best for your Scratchy - you are doing the best for him and maybe something I have said here will spark an idea that can improve his life.

Best regards,

Harley's Mom

 

[that guy]

Can you please lock this, Scratchy passed away last weekend just 3 months shy of 20. He had a great run and lived with IBD and renal failure for just about 3 years before he passed on and was happy for the most part. I would like to thank the people of this forum for taking the time to help people take care of their pets. I learned a lot and had a special bond with my guy over the last few years and was glad to give him so much.

 

[betsygee]

I am so sorry to read this.  Scratchy, and you, have been such an inspiration.  

We will lock the thread now.  If and when you are ready, please consider starting a tribute thread to Scratchy in our Crossing the Bridge forum.   http://www.thecatsite.com/f/19/crossing-the-bridge