things escalating with my senior, Milo...yowling/confusion?

[KarinCatLady]

Milo's kidney values are OK for a CKD cat, and his phosphorus is well within the IRIS guideline range. Other than dehydration, I am not sure they would be considered the cause of his behavior. But, as you know, every cat is different in terms of how they react to illnesses/diseases.

Did anything about the possibility of arthritis get discussed? That can cause behavior changes - as pain/discomfort may manifest itself through aggression and generally feeling unwell. As can high blood pressure. So, at least the latter is going to be checked out. Anemia can sometimes be common in CKD cats, was there any discussion about Milo's low RBC and hemoglobin? Sorry, if I missed that there was.

Re: the T-4 - I know that any blood work numbers can be misleading, or reap false positives/negatives, but Milo's T-4 isn't even close to being high. At 23, he doesn't even fall within the 'gray zone' which is usually when it is above 30. If he were to have registered above 30, the vet might have considered doing some additional thyroid testing, but since he didn't, I suspect that is why they didn't. So I think that continued monitoring, with all future blood tests, is probably appropriate.

Hi FeebysOwner! thanks for checking Milo's results.
re: dehydration - due to the warmer weather he might be a bit dehydrated but as it goes from hot to cold again here in the south of England, and he drinks well, it might not be the case...BUT he has been sleeping a heck of a lot more which means he's not drinking or eating when he's asleep, but don't now how much that would be significant...
we are meant to give him synoquin but have been unsuccessful, we got some syringes from the vet to try mixing it with some creamy dreamies treat, water and the meds...he had cerenia for potential osteo-artrhitis so we are testing that theory but so far no differences...

We do suspect that this might be pain/discomfort related in some way - perhaps arthritis, perhaps eyesight as it doesn't seem to be hyper/hypothiroidism at this point...

vet said he had mild anemia...what is RCB? she went through the results quickly with me as I asked and didn't seem to spend too much time on things that didn't seem to bother her...

we will keep monitoring and taking him to checks every 3 months or so...

 

[FeebysOwner]

we are meant to give him synoquin but have been unsuccessful, we got some syringes from the vet to try mixing it with some creamy dreamies treat, water and the meds...he had cerenia for potential osteo-artrhitis so we are testing that theory but so far no differences..

I hope you can find a way to give him the synoquin, as that could help. Usually most of the joint supplements can take as long as 4-6 weeks for them to make a difference. The cerenia is an anti-nausea/anti-vomiting med. I am not aware that it would do anything for arthritis, so maybe you meant another med?

 

[KarinCatLady]

I hope you can find a way to give him the synoquin, as that could help. Usually most of the joint supplements can take as long as 4-6 weeks for them to make a difference. The cerenia is an anti-nausea/anti-vomiting med. I am not aware that it would do anything for arthritis, so maybe you meant another med?

might be a different med - it's for osteo arthritis pain but not for neurological or anything like that...I've got brain fog today so might have got the name wrong...
we will attempt to give him synoquin soon on a regular basis - he is too clever to take it in food so syringing it might help - there's three of us here so we hopefully can prevail!

 

[FeebysOwner]

I'd try different types of food and treats (not his normal food) to mix it in with. Anything to avoid a daily oral syringe session that could be bad either at the beginning or down the road. Aside from the many lickable treats out there, baby food meat, spreadable cheese, cream cheese, tuna juice, sardines - and so on. The list of things to try is endless.

 

[IzzysfureverMom]

Most of the time I have had bad luck with liquid meds for my cats.So I second the give it foods that are not his regular food. As stated above it all depends on what appeals to Milo

 

[KarinCatLady]

I'd try different types of food and treats (not his normal food) to mix it in with. Anything to avoid a daily oral syringe session that could be bad either at the beginning or down the road. Aside from the many lickable treats out there, baby food meat, spreadable cheese, cream cheese, tuna juice, sardines - and so on. The list of things to try is endless.

won't work, he won't even eat the Chillz or Beahar calming treats because he knows what they do to him!

 

[IzzysfureverMom]

Of course if he does not enjoy any human food then this would not work.

I count calming treats as his regular food. If you find the syringe method does not work, I would still try some of the human foods that FeebysOwner listed above or something else Milo might really enjoy eating that he usually does not get.

Any method you can use to get the medicine in him is a win for both you and Milo.
Hopefully you can a little rest as I know it is stressful.
Best to you and Milo as always

 

[KarinCatLady]

Another update!
We had his eye freckle checked and his eyes are all good, we need to book another checkup in August to make sure it hasn't progressed, but eyesight is fine.
blood pressure is normal, ckd is same as 2.5 months ago, he gained a tiny bit of weight which is always good (from 3.9 to 4.1 but we'll take it!), no thyroid issues.
still trying to figure out his aggression - vet suggested solensia last week so he had his first injection last wednesday and since yesterday he's been calmer - not sure if it was the long journey to the eye doc and all that happened there, or the weather, but he's still calmer today...
(although I do worry that "calmer" means he's sleeping more because of illness and not because he's better...)
we have an animal/cat behaviourist referral if this doesn't work, but in the next few days we will see if he's calmer around the juniors (and doesn't become aggressive towards them as soon as he sees them, or growls when he sees them, which would be a welcome change!)
he has now learned that he needs to avoid them and chooses an alternate path when he's in the hallway going from one room to another...
he is such a lovely cat, I hate getting frustrated with him when he gets a bit grumpy or just behaves like he has been....hope we're finding the solution!