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dirby
Sep 21, 2004


Helping goons with math

Nobody Interesting posted:

I put the cap back on the needle part way for safety's sake and gave it a slight jiggle, gripping the connecting cap slightly with my fingernails.
Thanks and sorry about the silence here. For that first needle, a vet tech got it off with a hemostat or similar by doing a lot of jiggling, and for the next few I've been able to do it myself with effort.

That said, my cat is not doing great (though still eating/walking/drinking) and I expect has weeks left at best.

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holefoods
Jan 10, 2022

Have something that I'm curious if anyone can provide any further insight to re: kidney disease in cats. I've tried searching this but haven't really found anything relevant.

About 8 months ago I took my cat in and they did urine and blood work and the vet said he had stage 1 kidney disease/borderline stage 2. We started him on kidney food and put him on a kidney medication (I'm not sure which - I don't have the bottle anymore and he was on it for about a month).

After he was on the medication for a month he was retested again and I wasn't told the specifics of the results, but that he didn't need to continue taking the medication and to leave him on the kidney food.

He was retested again about 2 months after that, no new concerns noted, everything looks good - stay the course with the kidney food.

The only change with him during this time was that he was gaining weight.

The vet that diagnosed him since left to start her own practice, and I saw a new vet this past Friday. She brought up that after reviewing his past test results, only the very first test showed any indications of kidney disease. Everything since then has been completely healthy and in normal ranges, no indication of kidney disease at all. He had gained about 4lbs on the kidney food so she said she wanted to run blood and urine again and then follow up with me.

Got a call back today and she said once again everything was in completely normal ranges. She wants to stop the kidney food completely because it's very calorie dense and despite having cleared the amount I was feeding with the last vet I guess she didn't take the time to measure out the calories he was actually consuming from the food because it was about 33% higher than what he should have been having, which explains the weight gain.

Anyways, I guess my question is... what's the deal? The vet seemed kind of uncertain and that kidney issues don't usually just disappear like that. The only thing I can think of is that around that time may have been sort of stressful for him because that was when I was throwing my ex out. I don't have any concern about stopping the kidney food because she really seems to have gone back through his charts and actually bothered doing the math on the calories, so she's kind of won me over as far as putting in the effort goes. Any theories?

Slugworth
Feb 18, 2001

If two grown men can't make a pervert happy for a few minutes in order to watch a film about zombies, then maybe we should all just move to Iran!

holefoods posted:

Have something that I'm curious if anyone can provide any further insight to re: kidney disease in cats. I've tried searching this but haven't really found anything relevant.

About 8 months ago I took my cat in and they did urine and blood work and the vet said he had stage 1 kidney disease/borderline stage 2. We started him on kidney food and put him on a kidney medication (I'm not sure which - I don't have the bottle anymore and he was on it for about a month).

After he was on the medication for a month he was retested again and I wasn't told the specifics of the results, but that he didn't need to continue taking the medication and to leave him on the kidney food.

He was retested again about 2 months after that, no new concerns noted, everything looks good - stay the course with the kidney food.

The only change with him during this time was that he was gaining weight.

The vet that diagnosed him since left to start her own practice, and I saw a new vet this past Friday. She brought up that after reviewing his past test results, only the very first test showed any indications of kidney disease. Everything since then has been completely healthy and in normal ranges, no indication of kidney disease at all. He had gained about 4lbs on the kidney food so she said she wanted to run blood and urine again and then follow up with me.

Got a call back today and she said once again everything was in completely normal ranges. She wants to stop the kidney food completely because it's very calorie dense and despite having cleared the amount I was feeding with the last vet I guess she didn't take the time to measure out the calories he was actually consuming from the food because it was about 33% higher than what he should have been having, which explains the weight gain.

Anyways, I guess my question is... what's the deal? The vet seemed kind of uncertain and that kidney issues don't usually just disappear like that. The only thing I can think of is that around that time may have been sort of stressful for him because that was when I was throwing my ex out. I don't have any concern about stopping the kidney food because she really seems to have gone back through his charts and actually bothered doing the math on the calories, so she's kind of won me over as far as putting in the effort goes. Any theories?
Chronic kidney disease that results in the death of nephrons in the kidneys is not reversible. However, acute kidney disease can be, especially depending on the cause. We can also see elevations in BUN or creatinine (the two most traditional markers of kidney disease) from non renal causes, or post or pre renal causes. It's difficult to say what the case may be without knowing what values were elevated, and for how long, but kidney values improving on bloodwork isn't unheard of.

As long as you're planning on monitoring bloodwork, I don't see the harm in discontinuing the diet. If wet food isn't already part of his diet, it might be a good idea to introduce it - Cats are bad about hydrating, and wet food is a good way to help that, which is an easy way to help keep kidneys happy

holefoods
Jan 10, 2022

Slugworth posted:

Chronic kidney disease that results in the death of nephrons in the kidneys is not reversible. However, acute kidney disease can be, especially depending on the cause. We can also see elevations in BUN or creatinine (the two most traditional markers of kidney disease) from non renal causes, or post or pre renal causes. It's difficult to say what the case may be without knowing what values were elevated, and for how long, but kidney values improving on bloodwork isn't unheard of.

As long as you're planning on monitoring bloodwork, I don't see the harm in discontinuing the diet. If wet food isn't already part of his diet, it might be a good idea to introduce it - Cats are bad about hydrating, and wet food is a good way to help that, which is an easy way to help keep kidneys happy

He does get wet food for his dinner, she said with how his recent tests have looked 6 months is probably a good testing timeframe if I don't notice anything going on with him. Thanks!

Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008

I’ve had Buster (17 year old cat with CKD and treated hyperthyroid) at the vets today after he threw up a whole bunch of watery liquid overnight (at least 4 puddles that I’ve found) and I found him dehydrated, weak legs and apparently crashing when I got up. He didn’t have any appetite for wet food last night which is extremely unusual, but there was a bit of chewed undigested kibble in the earliest vomits so it seemed like he had at least tried eating something.

The vet didn’t think there was much we could do, despite his temperature being normal and his weight not much different from last time, he interpreted the events as being end of life CKD stuff. I asked if we could try subcutaneous fluid because it seemed maybe like an acute event that just got him too dehydrated, which the vet was willing to give a try. I was trying to be realistic and not have false hopes but I still wanted to give him a chance to see what would happen.

Anyway the point of this post is, the fluid did seem to brighten him up a bit, but now it seems like he doesn’t recognise us or our other cat, doesn’t remember what to do with a bowl of food or water after he’s put his face near it, doesn’t react normally to his name or to being spoken to, just a lot of blank looks. I saw him walk to the bathroom and pee in his usual place but then he just stood next to it for a while with a weird look on his face. His usual routine is to have a drink after peeing so I poured him a fresh one (he loves the smell of chlorinated tap water) and offered it to him and he just walked away. After many months of late night attention seeking demented yowling and adoring stares when he wakes me up every morning, his eye contact with me is very different, blank or maybe even suspicious. And he hasn’t yowled for attention at all, and is camping under the coffee table in the lounge room. So it seems to me like he has had an abrupt mental decline or change. I don’t know if that’s possible with feline dementia?

It’s hard to say but it seems different to our previous CKD cat refusing food. And maybe he’s just worse at night, like he was with yowling during the night and he might be more normal and capable of eating after the sun comes up?

I’m preparing for the worst though, treating it as watch and wait and hoping he lasts long enough that my sister’s kids get a chance to say goodbye to him. I had two grandparents with dementia get to the point where they were either refusing food or not capable of understanding food and the weird blank suspicious look my cat is giving me takes me right back to those visits with my poor grandma.

If he’s mentally gone and especially if he can’t work out eating or drinking it’s definitely time to say goodbye.

Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008

Since my last post Buster has kind of worked out how to drink, but all that has resulted in is all the water he drank coming back out again as extremely watery greenish brown fluid. He still isn’t making eye contact and is hunched over in that crashed “extremely sick cat” pose. We are saying our goodbyes tonight. If he magically improves overnight, no harm done but I think the chances of that are very slim.

Propaganda Machine
Jan 2, 2005

Truthiness!
Health thread,

I, uh, need some serious help.

My partner is incapacitated and out of my reach, and the rats are really and truly his.

I want to keep them and care for them, but at the moment food and water are kind of deepest things to me personally ... I do make sure the rats have food and water of course, and treats as i can figure them out, playtime if they seem interested and come out for me.

The real problem is their cage needs deepest cleaning, and I'm just not knowledgeable or equipped, myself, to arrange them such that i can really clean the cage.

Basically, i need petsitting help for the time being, both to educate me and just take care of this situation.

I've been looking and making calls and just having no luck to that end.

So if any goons know anything about this, i need all the help i can get. I don't want to doxx myself so look to pm for specifics, but in terms of location I'm in New Hampshire.

Cross-posting to rat thread.

Bilirubin
Feb 16, 2014

The sanctioned action is to CHUG


Crossposting from Dog thread

Bilirubin posted:

Having to face we are nearing the end with my 15.5 year old basset-border mutt. She has Addisons, is mostly deaf, and we noticed recently her left side lymph nodes are enlarged. She is intermittently showing signs of disinterest in food unless offered by hand. But she is still mostly bright and alert, and wanting to go on long walks (even if she poops out near the end occasionally).

Her latest trip to the vet found her right eye lens to have prolapsed into the anterior chamber (no glaucoma so far). Treatment is lens removal, enucleation (neither of which we are keen to do at her age), or just monitoring, which we have opted for right now. But what if the eye pressure starts causing bigger issues? I'd hate to pull the plug too soon, but on the other hand she's 15.5 years old.

:(

Would appreciate any further thoughts you might have in here dog docs

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

I add nothing but doomer whitenoise to any thread I'm in.
Otis has a wound on the left side of his neck.

https://i.imgur.com/2elBt6l.mp4

Naturally, I freaked out a bit, but tempered myself and said that if it didn’t look much better after two dayd then I’d take him to the vet. The video is of the two days later - and it still looked kinda wet. So off to the vet he went.

Vet said it looks fairly mild. She asked if he was an outdoor cat (no, indoor only) and if he had been scratching or itching the site (no, no scratching itching or pain response when I touch it). Considering he hasn’t had any behavioral or energetic changes at all, she diagnosed it as moist dermatitis, or a “hotspot”, as a result of some wound or scrape that got a little inflamed. My guess is either that Otis was playing around with something he shouldn’t have been and it scraped him enough to take off some skin, or he and Zidane roughhoused a little too hard and a play bite went wrong or a stray claw caught his skin. (My money is on getting into something he shouldn’t have!)

The vet prescribed a topical powder and oral antibiotics. Neo-Predef with Tetracaine for the powder, Clavacillin for the oral antibiotics. The powder I understand, but are the oral antibiotics really necessary…? A two-week-long round of systematic bug killer seems like hella overkill for a dime-sized surface wound. It’s not like he’s got strep throat or something.

Oral antibiotics are a hell of a nuke even in humans, they require a very strict regimen with no interruptions whatsoever and IME tend to annihilate your gut biome and other side effects too. I’m hesitant to give them these - are these often prescribed for hotspots? If not, why did I get them?

Otis is otherwise perfectly normal and has his usual energy mood and behavior, so I’m trying to temper my worry. I’ll apply the powder and see where it is in a few days, and if it hasn’t started shrinking or scabbing over by Tuesday then i’ll start worrying more. 🤞🤞

Edit: gently caress it, he gets the full course. Just so I do everything I can do in my power to help.

Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Dec 15, 2024

Inaction Jackson
Feb 28, 2009
My wife and I are looking to adopt a Boston Terrier after our old dog passed away a few months ago. We just talked to the people fostering the dog we were interested in and they mentioned that she had some eyelashes that were growing towards her eye, but they described the fix as a relatively minor surgery that could potentially be done at the same time as her spay surgery.

Does that sound correct? Or is it not possible to say that it is a minor procedure without having more information? Just trying to get an idea of what we are signing ourselves up for if we move forward with getting this puppy.

Slugworth
Feb 18, 2001

If two grown men can't make a pervert happy for a few minutes in order to watch a film about zombies, then maybe we should all just move to Iran!

Pollyanna posted:

Otis has a wound on the left side of his neck.

https://i.imgur.com/2elBt6l.mp4

Naturally, I freaked out a bit, but tempered myself and said that if it didn’t look much better after two dayd then I’d take him to the vet. The video is of the two days later - and it still looked kinda wet. So off to the vet he went.

Vet said it looks fairly mild. She asked if he was an outdoor cat (no, indoor only) and if he had been scratching or itching the site (no, no scratching itching or pain response when I touch it). Considering he hasn’t had any behavioral or energetic changes at all, she diagnosed it as moist dermatitis, or a “hotspot”, as a result of some wound or scrape that got a little inflamed. My guess is either that Otis was playing around with something he shouldn’t have been and it scraped him enough to take off some skin, or he and Zidane roughhoused a little too hard and a play bite went wrong or a stray claw caught his skin. (My money is on getting into something he shouldn’t have!)

The vet prescribed a topical powder and oral antibiotics. Neo-Predef with Tetracaine for the powder, Clavacillin for the oral antibiotics. The powder I understand, but are the oral antibiotics really necessary…? A two-week-long round of systematic bug killer seems like hella overkill for a dime-sized surface wound. It’s not like he’s got strep throat or something.

Oral antibiotics are a hell of a nuke even in humans, they require a very strict regimen with no interruptions whatsoever and IME tend to annihilate your gut biome and other side effects too. I’m hesitant to give them these - are these often prescribed for hotspots? If not, why did I get them?

Otis is otherwise perfectly normal and has his usual energy mood and behavior, so I’m trying to temper my worry. I’ll apply the powder and see where it is in a few days, and if it hasn’t started shrinking or scabbing over by Tuesday then i’ll start worrying more. 🤞🤞

Edit: gently caress it, he gets the full course. Just so I do everything I can do in my power to help.
The issue with deciding if oral antibiotics are needed is that finding out they were, and you didn't prescribe them, sucks. It's 100 percent a conversation you can have with your vet at the time though - They'll make recommendations, you're perfectly free to decline them, and you're not necessarily wrong to. If it's a straight up hot spot with no underlying deeper wound (like a puncture from a bite), the predef probably would be sufficient.

As to side effects, they're generally well tolerated in cats, with occasional gi effects. The real concern is of course resistance from overuse of antibiotics, but honestly it's hard to let your individual patients potentially suffer for the greater good, even if that really is the right choice.

Crooked Booty
Apr 2, 2009
arrr

Inaction Jackson posted:

My wife and I are looking to adopt a Boston Terrier after our old dog passed away a few months ago. We just talked to the people fostering the dog we were interested in and they mentioned that she had some eyelashes that were growing towards her eye, but they described the fix as a relatively minor surgery that could potentially be done at the same time as her spay surgery.

Does that sound correct? Or is it not possible to say that it is a minor procedure without having more information? Just trying to get an idea of what we are signing ourselves up for if we move forward with getting this puppy.
I think you should get more information. Assuming they're talking about ectopic cilia, this is generally a minor procedure, but there are multiple procedure options, some dogs may need more than one procedure, and sometimes the procedure needs to be done by a veterinary ophthalmologist (which may make it trickier or more expensive to have her spayed at the same time). If you're going to be responsible for getting this fixed, I'd confirm this is ectopic cilia and not entropion or a similar condition, and I'd want to know how severe it is (just a few hairs in one spot vs multiple lids affected; does she have corneal ulcers from the hairs rubbing?). If they're going to have this addressed before you adopt her, I'd just know there's a chance these lashes could grow back depending on how they were removed, so she could need some follow-up or another procedure.

smoobles
Sep 4, 2014

The FDA is putting out warnings about Librela. Our 17 year old chihuahua has done great on it for the past 12 months.

https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterina...treated-librela

What are you guys' thoughts?

I. M. Gei
Jun 26, 2005
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
Crossposting from the Cat Megathread in case anyone here has more expert advice on the matter.

One of my cats, Pumpkin, just turned 14 in late October and has Inflammatory Bowel Disease that my vet is 99% sure is being caused by a pancreatic issue of some sort, possibly an inflammation or infection. This has been pretty much confirmed by blood panels. I started treating Pumpkin for IBD symptoms in October and he has shown marked improvement since then, but still has a lot of liquid diarrhea and occasional vomit (although the vomit has gone down considerably since he started treatment). I've also noticed that since I started treating him, the amounts of poop he leaves whenever he shits are smaller than before, which may be normal but I'm not sure what's causing that yet or if it's good, bad, or just normal.

My vet wants to start Pumpkin on steroid medication to treat his Inflammatory Bowel Disease and associated pancreatic issues. She first mentioned treating him with steroids about a week and a half ago, but said she was worried about potential health issues from the side effects and wanted to read up a little bit on steroid medication for cats before advising me whether to go with steroids or a more generalized anti-inflammatory medicine like Meloxicam.

I got a text from her yesterday saying that she thinks steroids are the way to go, that she has them ready for me to pick up now, and that it'll only be until Pumpkin's symptoms improve. The only potential side effect she mentioned was "may affect cartilage", which...... I don't know what that means, but hopefully it's not deadly or permanently life-altering.

The vet hasn't told me the name of the steroid med in question, although I am about to run over there and pick it up, and I can post the name of it after that in case it matters.

Is it safe to give Pumpkin steroid medication, even on a temporary basis? Are there any other possible side effects or health complications I should be aware of if I give my elderly cat steroid meds?

Slugworth
Feb 18, 2001

If two grown men can't make a pervert happy for a few minutes in order to watch a film about zombies, then maybe we should all just move to Iran!

I. M. Gei posted:

Is it safe to give Pumpkin steroid medication, even on a temporary basis? Are there any other possible side effects or health complications I should be aware of if I give my elderly cat steroid meds?
Honestly nobody has enough info to make that call for your specific cat more than your vet does. But if it eases your mind, steroids are very commonly used in cats, even elderly ones, and is a common treatment for ibd in general. My assumption is that it'll be prednisolone.

We don't *love* long term steroid usage for any patient, but some conditions require it, and part of the game plan is finding the lowest effective dose to treat symptoms while minimizing side effects. Side effects of steroids are a list as long as your arm, but the most common are increased thirst/urination, hunger, behavioral changes, and immune suppression.

I honestly wouldn't really even blink at a short course.

I. M. Gei
Jun 26, 2005
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
It is indeed Prednisolone.

I was nervous about giving a steroid to Pumpkin at first because my vet mentioned potential health risks, but after she read up on them she told me that the risks were pretty low and that everything should be fine as long as I follow the dosing instructions. It's a 6-week course of treatment and they need to be tapered off of; it sounded like the health risks go up if they're stopped abruptly, kinda like with benzos.

Slugworth
Feb 18, 2001

If two grown men can't make a pervert happy for a few minutes in order to watch a film about zombies, then maybe we should all just move to Iran!

I. M. Gei posted:

It is indeed Prednisolone.

I was nervous about giving a steroid to Pumpkin at first because my vet mentioned potential health risks, but after she read up on them she told me that the risks were pretty low and that everything should be fine as long as I follow the dosing instructions. It's a 6-week course of treatment and they need to be tapered off of; it sounded like the health risks go up if they're stopped abruptly, kinda like with benzos.
Yeah, you absolutely want to taper off of steroids. Giving steroids forces the body to stop producing its own, so a tapering period allows the body time to realize it needs to start producing them again.

AtomikKrab
Jul 17, 2010

Keep on GOP rolling rolling rolling rolling.


Slugworth posted:

Honestly nobody has enough info to make that call for your specific cat more than your vet does. But if it eases your mind, steroids are very commonly used in cats, even elderly ones, and is a common treatment for ibd in general. My assumption is that it'll be prednisolone.

We don't *love* long term steroid usage for any patient, but some conditions require it, and part of the game plan is finding the lowest effective dose to treat symptoms while minimizing side effects. Side effects of steroids are a list as long as your arm, but the most common are increased thirst/urination, hunger, behavioral changes, and immune suppression.

I honestly wouldn't really even blink at a short course.

Just to add as someone who has a cat with a condition that requires long term steroids, the side effects have been minimal (cat is very vocal about food but that's fine because she needs to keep up her weight) and the overall improvements were massive.

I. M. Gei
Jun 26, 2005
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
I was typing up a longer post about this for the Cat Megathread, but this shorter post from a GBS cat thread sums up the story pretty well for this thread, so I'll crosspost it here.


Summary: Apparently Pumpkin has Coccidia. We don't know (yet) how long he's had it for, how or when he got it (or how it got to him; my cats are all indoor-only so it was likely tracked into our house from outside somehow), whether any of my other cats have also contracted it or not (none of them are showing any symptoms as far as I'm aware), or what correlation, if any, this Coccidia has with Pumpkin's diarrhea, past vomiting, Inflammatory Bowel symptoms, possible pancreas issues, or past bloodwork numbers. What we do know is that this finding came completely out of left field, and I apparently lucked out like a motherfucker in finding it.

I. M. Gei posted:



My cat Pumpkin was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease with a probable pancreatic cause about 3 weeks ago, and was prescribed a short course of steroid medication to treat his symptoms. He'd been having liquid diarrhea for awhile, but after one week on the steroid his poops started to harden... until today, when he did the first liquid diarrhea I'd seen him do since I started him on the steroid. Except this diarrhea had a faint streak of what looked like possibly maybe blood in it, which was new for Pumpkin, so I decided to bag it as a sample and run Pumpkin to the vet to make sure he wasn't pooping blood.

The vet gave Pumpkin a quick visual exam, said he looked a bit better and more hydrated than the last time he came in, and topped him off with some subcutaneous fluids. Then they tested the diarrhea and looked at it under a microscope, and that's when we all got a big fat TLC reality show surprise! There was no doubt about it; the microscope showed multiple coccidia protozoa, clear as a loving bell!

The vet tech was actually visibly stoked at how clear the coccidia was under the microscope (he actually called me over out of the exam room to come see it under the microscope for myself), and said something about us being "super lucky" to have caught it so well and how great and amazing it was that I thought to bag my cat's diarrhea and bring that specific bag of my cat's heinous diarrhea poo poo to the vet today. I asked why that same tech didn't find any parasites in a previous diarrhea sample from Pumpkin back in November, and he said something about coccidia sometimes hiding and being tough to find, and that the steroid med may have pulled it out of hiding. One of the other vet techs took a pic of the coccidia in the microscope lens and texted it to me, which is where that above pic came from.

(None of the vet techs ever indicated whether Pumpkin's poo poo sample actually contained blood or not, although I know Coccidia CAN cause cats to have blood in their poo poo.)

I've dealt with coccidia in one of my other cats when they were a kitten a few weeks old, so I know it is highly curable, but this raises a number of questions. How long has Pumpkin had Coccidia? Does Pumpkin have IBD or a pancreas problem at all (I'm thinking yes on the IBD, but we need to give him another blood panel after a round of Coccidia meds to know more about that)? Where did Pumpkin GET the Coccidia from? Was it tracked in from outside? Did *I* track it in from outside? Did I give any of our other cats Coccidia without them showing symptoms yet? Did *Pumpkin* give any of our other cats Coccidia without them showing symptoms yet? How do I clean up/kill off any remaining coccidia protozoa that might be in my house as we speak? :psyduck:


Pic of Pumpkin lying in a chair with he tail corlled like candy cane. :3:


I'm planning to take Pumpkin in for his next blood panel in the middle of this month, probably some time between the 13th and the 15th, which is almost exactly when the round of Albon coccidia medication I got from the vet runs out. Hopefully we'll know more about whether the Coccidia REPLACES/IS CAUSING/IS IN ADDITION TO Pumpkin's Inflammatory Bowel diagnosis and symptoms from that, although Wikipedia says he'll still likely show symptoms for several weeks after the meds are done and the protes are all out of him. He'll have another blood panel done in the middle of February, so if the one this month doesn't give us any answers then the one after that might.

In the meantime:

• Pumpkin is taking a 10-day round of Albon, which is a Coccidia med. Coccidia usually takes anywhere from 5 to 20 days to get gone with treatment, so we may need more meds or we may have more than enough. Only time will tell.
• Pumpkin will continue taking the Prednizolone as scheduled, along with the Metronidazole we've been giving him.
• We're upping Pumpkin to a WHOLE capsule of probiotic per day, instead of half a capsule. Apparently this was something I could've safely done a long time ago and wondered if I should ask the vet about doing, but... I mean, it was the holidays and the vet was closed for Christmas and New Year's and I had other poo poo on my own plate anyway. It's cool, no harm done.
• We're stopping the Amoxi-Clav, at least until we see what the Albon does, which is probably fine since we're not sure if the Amoxi-Clav is doing much of anything besides napalming Pumpkin's gut microbiome after this Coccidia discovery (Amoxi-Clav does not treat Coccidia. A LOT of antibiotic meds do not treat Coccidia).



Now I'm wondering how to spot possible Coccidia infection in my other 3 cats who aren't showing symptoms that I'm aware of, and how to clean up my house to kill off any Coccidia that might be lurking around. I mean, Coccidia is spread through poo poo, and Pumpkin just spent several days walking around the whole house with dried poo poo all over his back paws. I bought a Bissell steam vac/power mop on Black Friday sale that I'm now REALLY HOPING isn't a dud, but should I grab an upholstery cleaner too? How long do Coccidia protozoa live outside of cats and cat poo poo? How long do they live IN cat poo poo? How long do the protes live in DAYS-OLD, DRIED cat poo poo? Should I go ahead and get Coccidia meds for my other cats just to be safe? Do I need to worry about all 4 of my cats passing Coccidia back and forth to each other, like the world's grossest game of basketball?

Wikipedia says that most cats with Coccidia are asymptomatic and get rid of it on their own as long as their immune systems are healthy. It's only if the cat is older, very young, or otherwise immunocompromised and having symptoms on a problem level that Coccidia is dangerous and requires treatment, and Pumpkin turned 14 in late October so he falls in the first category. Sisqo had Coccidia when he was a kitten and curing him was a pretty quick and easy process, so I know it's treatable, but Pumpkin is older and immune systems don't exactly get stronger with age. Which means that unlike Sisqo (or like Sisqo when he's 10 years older I guess), Pumpkin could get re-infected with Coccidia again if there's any of it inside our house, or if any more gets tracked in from outside. Right now we don't know if any of Pumpkin's diarrhea, vomiting, or what we *THINK* (unless proven otherwise) are other IBD symptoms are being caused by just Coccidia and not IBD at all, and we won't know until probably next month at the earliest. However if any of those things ARE being caused by Coccidia, then that means I gotta keep Pumpkin from getting re-infected with it, because he DOES get symptoms and they could be potentially deadly to him.

What can I do to minimize Pumpkin's risk of exposure to Coccidia and getting re-infected with it?

I. M. Gei fucked around with this message at 00:46 on Jan 6, 2025

Bilirubin
Feb 16, 2014

The sanctioned action is to CHUG


smoobles posted:

The FDA is putting out warnings about Librela. Our 17 year old chihuahua has done great on it for the past 12 months.

https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterina...treated-librela

What are you guys' thoughts?

Interesting.

My 15.5 year old dog has been receiving Librela for about 6 months, and in the past month has developed hind end ataxia (along with a host of other issues that she has including Addison's). We have been struggling to keep her appetite up, but slowly no amount of top dressing of her food is attractive. At this point I think the end is much sooner than later--I know I have posted this in the past but she always either bounced back or we found a new medication that has kept her going in good spirits.

Slugworth
Feb 18, 2001

If two grown men can't make a pervert happy for a few minutes in order to watch a film about zombies, then maybe we should all just move to Iran!

Bilirubin posted:

Interesting.

My 15.5 year old dog has been receiving Librela for about 6 months, and in the past month has developed hind end ataxia (along with a host of other issues that she has including Addison's). We have been struggling to keep her appetite up, but slowly no amount of top dressing of her food is attractive. At this point I think the end is much sooner than later--I know I have posted this in the past but she always either bounced back or we found a new medication that has kept her going in good spirits.
A lot of our patients have been on it, and we've seen a handful of these side effects, but also it's been very difficult to determine if they're related, or just, you know, old dogs having issues.

Take paresis for example - Well yeah, an old arthritic dog is eventually going to develop paresis, librela or not. By the same token, you put a patient on a relatively new drug, and it's very hard to just discount anything that goes wrong with them without worrying it's your fault.

Right now, our doctors' stance is, we're giving it to dogs already near the end of their lives, and it's greatly increasing their quality of life, but we should probably be hesitant to make it our first line of defense in younger arthritic dogs that will better tolerate NSAIDs.

Bilirubin
Feb 16, 2014

The sanctioned action is to CHUG


Slugworth posted:

A lot of our patients have been on it, and we've seen a handful of these side effects, but also it's been very difficult to determine if they're related, or just, you know, old dogs having issues.

Take paresis for example - Well yeah, an old arthritic dog is eventually going to develop paresis, librela or not. By the same token, you put a patient on a relatively new drug, and it's very hard to just discount anything that goes wrong with them without worrying it's your fault.

Right now, our doctors' stance is, we're giving it to dogs already near the end of their lives, and it's greatly increasing their quality of life, but we should probably be hesitant to make it our first line of defense in younger arthritic dogs that will better tolerate NSAIDs.

True, plus NSAIDs are not allowed due to the fludrocortisone she's taking for the Addison's

Good news on doggo front, finally found a top dressing that has her eating again--a turkey and sweet potato wet food. Might be able to skip the apatite stimulant given how she tore into it

(I would like to eat turkey and sweet potato every meal *sigh* )

Upgrade
Jun 19, 2021



Slugworth posted:

A lot of our patients have been on it, and we've seen a handful of these side effects, but also it's been very difficult to determine if they're related, or just, you know, old dogs having issues.

Take paresis for example - Well yeah, an old arthritic dog is eventually going to develop paresis, librela or not. By the same token, you put a patient on a relatively new drug, and it's very hard to just discount anything that goes wrong with them without worrying it's your fault.

Right now, our doctors' stance is, we're giving it to dogs already near the end of their lives, and it's greatly increasing their quality of life, but we should probably be hesitant to make it our first line of defense in younger arthritic dogs that will better tolerate NSAIDs.

Our dog has been on Librela for a year and I think it’s helped her a ton. She’s a 13 year old beagle that has arthritis in her back leg from an injury fused her ankle bones when she was a puppy. With Librela, she can easily do an hour of walks a day and run around and play. From reading through the FDA notice, it does seem that side effects occur relatively quickly (75%-80% of incidences occur during the first dose) so that gives me some confidence. Not sure if you’ve seen side effects occur after long term tolerance, though.

Lambo Trillrissian
May 18, 2007
This seems like the best place to post about this.

My elderly cat (at least 16yo, possibly older as he's a rescue) had a severe food reaction (intense vomiting, would not eat) a few years ago and barely survived, an ultrasound revealed textbook inflammatory bowel disease and the top suspect was some kind of food intolerance. We've had him on limited ingredient dry kibble vet food ever since (he wouldn't eat the wet because I had to force feed him that in a slurry until his appetite returned.)

Things were going well but recently he started vomiting again and lost a shocking amount of weight over the course of December, he can't seem to keep any dry food of any kind down anymore. Almost 2 grand in vet exams later and all his tests (bloodwork and urinalysis) came back perfectly healthy, not even any signs of inflammation on the ultrasound. We've managed to get him to mostly keep down some wet food, either the royal canin PD vet exclusive or Instinct limited ingredient rabbit. The vomiting is still happening but much less and he's somewhat stable. The problem is that these foods are *expensive* and I'm not sure what alternatives are safe to attempt, given that the vet could tell us absolutely nothing about what is wrong.

If anyone here is familiar with this kind of situation I'd appreciate some advice, even just for cost saving on buying the same food since that seems to be... somewhat working.

Joburg
May 19, 2013


Fun Shoe
Has your vet offered any kind of anti-nausea medication? That made a big difference for my elderly cat that had pancreatitis. It was a few years ago so I don’t remember what medication she was on.

Lambo Trillrissian
May 18, 2007

Joburg posted:

Has your vet offered any kind of anti-nausea medication? That made a big difference for my elderly cat that had pancreatitis. It was a few years ago so I don’t remember what medication she was on.

I'll ask about that, thanks. I'd feel better if we could get at the root cause but not getting woken up twice a night by scream-vomiting would be nice.

I. M. Gei
Jun 26, 2005
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!

Joburg posted:

Has your vet offered any kind of anti-nausea medication? That made a big difference for my elderly cat that had pancreatitis. It was a few years ago so I don’t remember what medication she was on.

Cerenia, maybe? That's what my vet put Pumpkin on to limit his nausea and vomiting. It's expensive too though, like $39 per pill at my vet, and each pill is about 4 or 5 doses because you have to break it up (your doses per pill may be bigger or smaller depending on how big your cat is. Pumpkin is on the smaller side.).

Joburg
May 19, 2013


Fun Shoe

I. M. Gei posted:

Cerenia, maybe? That's what my vet put Pumpkin on to limit his nausea and vomiting. It's expensive too though, like $39 per pill at my vet, and each pill is about 4 or 5 doses because you have to break it up (your doses per pill may be bigger or smaller depending on how big your cat is. Pumpkin is on the smaller side.).

Yeah that name sounds familiar. I don’t recall it being expensive but it was years ago now.

Just a reminder for all of us (unless you want your vet to make more money) shop around for your pets medications if they are on anything long term. Getting my Great Dane’s heartworm prevention from Chewy versus the vet saves me $20 a month. Getting her Trazadone at Costco will save me $60 in the next 2 months while she’s zonked out for heartworm treatment recovery.

a foolish pianist
May 6, 2007

(bi)cyclic mutation

Cross-posting from the cat thread:

a foolish pianist posted:

I've got a cat that has stopped being interested in food. She's five years old, indoor-only, about 10 pounds and a bit overweight with a history of IBD. When she was a kitten, she had stomatitis and had all her teeth removed, and she became a very enthusiastic eater (thus the overweight bit).

Ten days ago, she threw up in the morning and was a bit lethargic and uninterested in food all day. She threw up 3 out of the next 4 days (which is unusual - she's not a vomiter for the most part), just stomach acid and a bit of fur. She wasn't very interested in food at all during this period.

We took her to the vet as soon as we could, and they did both bloodwork and x-rays. Her bloodwork looks good, and the x-rays showed no obstructions. The vet gave her a steroid shot, and then prednisolone and cerenia pills to increase appetite and suppress nausea.

She's been eating poorly for 10 days now, and today so far has been her worst day, with no interest even in churu treats, which she'll usually be pretty enthusiastic about. She's getting some food occasionally, but it's nothing like her old self, and I'm really worried.

There was nothing obviously different in the house, and we have 4 cats and 2 humans, and no one else is having any issues.

Has anyone seen anything like this?

Here she is mid-swat at a toy:

Crooked Booty
Apr 2, 2009
arrr
Your cat needs an abdominal ultrasound and repeat bloodwork. If your primary care vet can't facilitate an ultrasound in the next 24 hours, I would take her to an ER that can.

a foolish pianist
May 6, 2007

(bi)cyclic mutation

Crooked Booty posted:

Your cat needs an abdominal ultrasound and repeat bloodwork. If your primary care vet can't facilitate an ultrasound in the next 24 hours, I would take her to an ER that can.

She's scheduled for an ultrasound tomorrow morning. Is there anything I should be sure to ask about? She ate a bit today after getting some mirtazipine at the regular vet's office. She also had some side effects: she turned very chatty and seemed quite restless. I'm not sure how much they gave her - the invoice says 15mg, but everything I'm reading says that's an awful lot for a 10-pound cat. Going to ask tomorrow when she goes back.

a foolish pianist
May 6, 2007

(bi)cyclic mutation

Update:

The ultrasound didn't show anything remarkable. The vet's theory is that this whole business has been a bad IBD flareup. She is eating well after the mirtazapine, and she's calmed down a fair bit in the couple of days since my last post.

Upgrade
Jun 19, 2021



Curious about thoughts here.

While visiting our oncologist for a followup, they found a large (4 inch) unrelated mass on the top of my dog's right hip (she's a 21 lb beagle). We'd noticed it about two months ago, but had been told it was muscle mass because of the location. The oncologist originally thought this was a lipoma, but after taking a sample and looking at it under a microscope, now thinks its a sterile abscess. The oncologists running theory is that this was a reaction to a Librela injection, because that's where my dog gets her injections.

But here's the part that's confusing to me: despite it being called an abscess, the cytology sample showed no bacteria present, and her WBC and related values are totally normal - and have been for the last several months. She has no fever, is not sensitive in the area, and seems to have no symptoms. Also, three days of antibiotics has resulted in no change in size. Could this have been an abscess that her body fought off, and now the fluid needs to be reabsorbed? Is that what a sterile abscess is?

(One further note - oncologist appointment was for a routine xray followup after she had a lung tumor removed a few months ago. No sign of recurrence, and the tumor was completely removed with large margins and was grade 1.)

Upgrade fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Jan 25, 2025

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

I add nothing but doomer whitenoise to any thread I'm in.


One or both of these idiots just fished out an absorbent meat pad from the trash and chewed it up. I’m now putting them on lethargy and toilet watch for the next 24-48 hours.

I swear to loving god if these idiots blocked up their guts with chicken juice orbeez I am going to scream.

Slugworth
Feb 18, 2001

If two grown men can't make a pervert happy for a few minutes in order to watch a film about zombies, then maybe we should all just move to Iran!

Upgrade posted:

Curious about thoughts here.

While visiting our oncologist for a followup, they found a large (4 inch) unrelated mass on the top of my dog's right hip (she's a 21 lb beagle). We'd noticed it about two months ago, but had been told it was muscle mass because of the location. The oncologist originally thought this was a lipoma, but after taking a sample and looking at it under a microscope, now thinks its a sterile abscess. The oncologists running theory is that this was a reaction to a Librela injection, because that's where my dog gets her injections.

But here's the part that's confusing to me: despite it being called an abscess, the cytology sample showed no bacteria present, and her WBC and related values are totally normal - and have been for the last several months. She has no fever, is not sensitive in the area, and seems to have no symptoms. Also, three days of antibiotics has resulted in no change in size. Could this have been an abscess that her body fought off, and now the fluid needs to be reabsorbed? Is that what a sterile abscess is?

(One further note - oncologist appointment was for a routine xray followup after she had a lung tumor removed a few months ago. No sign of recurrence, and the tumor was completely removed with large margins and was grade 1.)
An abscess is essentially a site where pus (a mix of white blood cells and necrotic tissue) is collecting - Usually because of an infection, but sometimes as an over reaction of the immune system to trauma or a foreign material. They're rare, but I'm not gonna question an oncologist about the nature of a bump.

The best treatment for a normal abscess is lancing - I'd suspect the same is true for a sterile one, but I honestly don't know.

Upgrade
Jun 19, 2021



Slugworth posted:

An abscess is essentially a site where pus (a mix of white blood cells and necrotic tissue) is collecting - Usually because of an infection, but sometimes as an over reaction of the immune system to trauma or a foreign material. They're rare, but I'm not gonna question an oncologist about the nature of a bump.

The best treatment for a normal abscess is lancing - I'd suspect the same is true for a sterile one, but I honestly don't know.

Wouldn’t the sampling find active bacteria in the abscess? Or is that not how it works.

Slugworth
Feb 18, 2001

If two grown men can't make a pervert happy for a few minutes in order to watch a film about zombies, then maybe we should all just move to Iran!

Upgrade posted:

Wouldn’t the sampling find active bacteria in the abscess? Or is that not how it works.
That's why the oncologist is calling it a sterile abscess - I'm assuming her cytology showed evidence of an immune reaction, with no bacteria present. So, an abscess that formed as a reaction to trauma/foreign material, not bacteria.

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

I add nothing but doomer whitenoise to any thread I'm in.

Pollyanna posted:



One or both of these idiots just fished out an absorbent meat pad from the trash and chewed it up. I’m now putting them on lethargy and toilet watch for the next 24-48 hours.

I swear to loving god if these idiots blocked up their guts with chicken juice orbeez I am going to scream.

Update: they’ve been completely fine.

nashona
May 8, 2014

Though she be but little, she is fierce


Hi, I'm a newish kitten owner. I need a bit of a sanity check. We have two kittens, about 8 months old. We've had them since September. Ana just puked up what I think is a hairball. The pink parts I'm pretty sure is from our Christmas tree. It is pink with white flocking. It's been put away for a few weeks and we've cleaned up but the kittens like hanging out in the tree and the remnants of their destruction are still around.

Grossness behind spoiler

ew







I'm like 90% sure it's a hairball and Ana seems fine. Although there was a noxious fart but that's not unusual either.

My vet opens shortly but before I call I thought I'd get an opinion here first.

Ana is the grey, Peri is the black.


The tree

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Captain Oblivious
Oct 12, 2007

I'm not like other posters
Relatively basic request on my end:

My cat is going on 16 years old. She’s never been terribly food motivated in the first place and her weight is starting to slip a little bit. Things aren’t bad yet but I wanna make sure they don’t get there.

What are some weight gain options/foods/supplements for older cats that have worked for folks here?

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