Parenting-Furkids

Queen Eva had a better poop in the middle of the night. Not sure if she's completely cleaned out or not, but I'm going to try upping her fat now, instead of relying on the lactulose, now that she's had a good poop.   It took 3 days of lactulose, 1 ml every 12 hours, to get her back to normal, now I'm going to try to maintain it with added fat to her one raw meal a day.

 

She was back up to 2 raw meals while she was coping with the reduced pred. But now that she's eating up the canned again without all that picking, I'll keep her on that mostly, since I have $560 of it sitting here. 

I just love seeing her tuck in and clean her dish in one sitting. I can't get enough of it. She's never eaten like this, ever.

Also, I'm hoping the GLM will help with the constipation too. With her arthritis and the spondylosis in her spine, it is likely causing her pain to squat or hold a squat too long. I've upped her to the therapeutic dose of GLM now. She's showing no signs of stomach upset from it, and she eats the meal with it dusted over right up. She seems to prefer it dusted on top rather than mixed in. Her wish is my command.

 

She isn't on any psyllium at all, and has not been since her crash Dec 2nd.

I choose unflavored prednisolone. It doesn't taste like much, (I tasted it) and the dose is so small it doesn't even hit her taste buds, it goes right down her throat. 0.1 ml is very very tiny. Thanks goodness.  I remember when poor Jennie had to take that terrible clindamycin for the campylobacter infection. I'd never get anything like that into Queen Eva. The one time I suspected she had picked up some bacteria, I treated it with massive doses of s.boulardii instead.  4 doses a day, for two or three months. It worked.

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.