Parenting-Furkids

I understood what you meant  And thank you for taking the time to help.

Finally, yesterday, she started eating without picking again. It took four days for Queen Eva to resume normal eating after going back to prednisolone daily (at a lower dose). Now I'm going to have to fight to keep her at this dose, because I see by the instructions sent to the pharmacy for the updated prescription vet expects me, again, to drop the dose after two weeks. I don't want to keep putting her through this yoyo, it has been shown to MY satisfaction that she requires the higher dose (as tiny as it still is) Queen Eva is a tiny cat, and the dose is extremely small, even what she's on now. I do not want to drop it back again.

And she's constipated now too, I'm having to use the lactulose. Mazy cat got constipated on prednisolone too, but it is not supposedly a side effect of it.  More likely the CKD ramping up I suppose.  Vet may want her on fluids again.

I have the Vets-Best fiber supplement but the few times I used it, it seemed to make matters worse.

The plain psyllium was the only fiber that she seems to be able to tolerate, but it made her stools too large.

Thanks Pookie, yes you've told me about Plecher and I have the book. I had the blood work recommended for Mazy cat, and it did not show the issues that would have justified adding the steroid at the time. Years later of course I put her on it at the anti-inflammatroy dose for her arthritis, and it did help her stiffness, but it did not change her digestive issues at all.

 What's causing her issues is all speculation anyway, since I am not putting her through any major diagnostics, including the extra, very expensive bloodwork. There's no guarantee diagnostics will make any difference, the treatment is going to be the same. The main thing is keeping her on the meds that help her. 

I've switched to the product from the compounding pharmacy now, haven't seen any differences, such as side effects.  I added a little GLM to her second breakfast this morning, after letting her smell the GLM.  She ate most of the meal, but she's not cleaning her canned food dish these days, ever. Not like when she was on the higher dose of Prednisolone. 

Maybe being back on it daily, plus the B-12 injections will make the difference again.  I purchased the B product, for Mazy cat,  you recommended a long time ago, but never used it.  I only just recently threw it away, as it had expired.  I need her to eat, and adding things to her food, generally speaking, does not help her eat. B is bitter. I would prefer to continue with the weekly injections and bypass her digestive system.  Ootay had them weekly, for the last year or so of her life.

Constipation has become a problem suddenly, and I suspect it has to do with her arthritis, which is why I've decided to go ahead and start the GLM, just at half dose to see if she can tolerate it.  I've had to give her lactulose, and I think she's going to need another dose to clean her out, I am hoping not to have to use it regularly yet, because once you start with it, you only have to keep upping the dose.

I'm still adding water to al her meals, but when she doesn't finish meals, she doesn't get all the water either.

Queen Eva had her recheck yesterday. Vet is being very supportive of my choices for queen Eva except she always has to say something against the raw diet. She knows my dilemma with the end of the Organix and has urged me to continue to try to find a canned food (of course I am) and/or to feed home cooked. I assured her I do feed some home cooked portions but Queen Eva won't eat the home cooked consistently. She gets tired of it fast, only one or two meals a week.

Queen Eva is going back to daily prednisolone, at the lower dose, but daily instead of every other day. She's going to have a vitamin B 12 injection once a week for four weeks. She had her first one yesterday, and was ravenous when we got home from the vet. The remaining shots I will pick up each Thursday and administer myself.

I assured vet again I am not afraid of cancer diagnosis, and since treatment is the same as what we are doing, in Queen Eva's case, I still don't want to go that route.. I've dealt with cancer so many times already, and while each case and each cat was different, my opinions on how to proceed are shaped by my experiences, and my main goal remains day to day quality of life for Queen Eva, not the potential for long term side effects of the prednisolone.

Vet is still not convinced that Queen Eva needs pain relief for her arthritis. She maintains that most of her behaviors (reduced play included) are driven by nausea not pain.

After last night I may have to start believing her. Queen Eva played her Tunnel Sliding Game last night for the first time in weeks. She was a bit stiff on the first slide, but she went on to slide two more times before she stopped. If the vitamin B 12 is reducing her nausea by that much that she played an old favorite game, who am I to argue?

However, once she's back on the daily prednisolone for a week or so, I am going to try again to introduce the green lipped mussel. It helped Mazy cat so much. Queen Eva is not nearly as bad off with arthritis as Mazy cat was when I started Mazy cat on it, but she's about the same age Mazy cat was.

8 days later Queen Eva is now up to 6 pounds 12 ounces! So a 2 ounce gain in 8 days. I've got her on 5 to 5 1/2 ounces of food a day, some raw, mostly the Orgainx canned. I add an average (total for the day) of 1.5 fluid ounces of water to her meals every day. I haven't attempted any new foods yet. I'm still afraid to rock the boat, and I have until September, so maybe I'll wait a few more months before starting any transitions.

I would like her to be up to 6 pounds 14 ounces, and then I will start reducing her intake a little. I don't like her to go over 7 pounds, and she seems to move easier if I keep her just under.

She's still not on anything for her arthritis. Her check up is this week, Thursday morning.

As long as I don't mess with anything, she still hunkers down and eats what's in front of her, though I notice, since I'd reduced the prednisolone to 0.1 ml (every other day) per vet instructions she is not always eating with the same intentness. She sometimes walks away from the dish halfway through now, and expects me to pick it up and bring it to wherever she goes next. That's old behavior, and I never thought it might be from digestive upset, but now having seen her eat everything all at once for a month, I'm starting to wonder.

I've been resorting to incentives again, when she does that.

 I've started using the Vets-Best fiber supplement. Just the tiniest dusting to see how she takes to it. I'm not seeing any indication of crouching from cramping after, at the minuscule amounts. And she likes it. Thing is, when I go back to mostly raw, she is going to need the fiber supplement. So I'm making sure, before she really needs it, that it won't bother her.

She had a nail trim today too, along with the weigh in. That's what happens when she gives me a pee and poop first thing in the morning lol. I never do a nail trim unless I know she has an empty bladder, since that time, years ago, the poor little thing released her bladder all over me and herself, while I had her wrapped in the towel to trim her nails.

It was years ago and I was far more traumatized by it than she was. She always screams the house down when I wrap her for nail trims, and that time I did notice she was screaming louder than ever and wriggling more but I didn't realize it was because she had to pee, until she did.

Just don't want to rock the boat. I did not give her the cosequin today and she is back to her usual appetite.