Krista's Care

[daftcat75]

We had a great, long poop. About the length of a leg.

She looked mighty relaxed under the chair. Until...

More? She went back to the box for some soft serve. Soft, but still kinda formed. But yeah. That’s a lot of poop coming out of her.

And we know what that means!



Now according to UC Davis School Of Veterinary Medicine,

Typically, most drugs are absorbed within 20-30 minutes after given by mouth. Vomiting after this amount of time is not related to the drug in the stomach as the vast majority, if not all, has already been absorbed. In this case do not give another dose.

So she got her dose as that was over 3 hours ago.

I’m just sad this is still happening to her and it has to be hurting her chances for weight gain.

But that she’s still more formed (or semi-formed) poop than pudding is encouraging.

And it didn’t seem to effect her appetite. She still had a 1/4 portion left and followed me into the kitchen to see if she could get more. I gave her half a spoonful of the rabbit and pumpkin because I still want to transition one meal for her. She meowed her demands and I acceded. I plated that half spoonful and fluffed up her remainder and she cleaned the plate.

I think I will try a slow taper of the psyllium. That volume of formed poop alone just ain’t right for a cat her size.

 

[daftcat75]

This is one chill cat. As long as the vacuum is far enough away from her, she’ll continue eating despite the roaring noise coming from it. Or she’ll hover over her plate staring at me with a, “Are you done yet?” look on her face.

I’ve even used the hand vac to get crumbs right next to her and couldn’t break her chill.

 

[tarasgirl06]

We had a great, long poop. About the length of a leg.

She looked mighty relaxed under the chair. Until...

More? She went back to the box for some soft serve. Soft, but still kinda formed. But yeah. That’s a lot of poop coming out of her.

And we know what that means!



Now according to UC Davis School Of Veterinary Medicine,



So she got her dose as that was over 3 hours ago.

I’m just sad this is still happening to her and it has to be hurting her chances for weight gain.

But that she’s still more formed (or semi-formed) poop than pudding is encouraging.

And it didn’t seem to effect her appetite. She still had a 1/4 portion left and followed me into the kitchen to see if she could get more. I gave her half a spoonful of the rabbit and pumpkin because I still want to transition one meal for her. She meowed her demands and I acceded. I plated that half spoonful and fluffed up her remainder and she cleaned the plate.

I think I will try a slow taper of the psyllium. That volume of formed poop alone just ain’t right for a cat her size.

Do you think she folds it up and runs it down each of her legs? *My dad used to say I had hollow legs because I could eat like a horse even though if you stood me sideways, you couldn't see me. So maybe Krista's packing it away in there?*

 

[daftcat75]

Do you think she folds it up and runs it down each of her legs? *My dad used to say I had hollow legs because I could eat like a horse even though if you stood me sideways, you couldn't see me. So maybe Krista's packing it away in there?*

I don’t know where she’s storing it all. She’s so small and skinny these days, you’d think it would fill her out some. It makes me wonder whether she’s absorbing nutrients or just compacting food into poop.

 

[tarasgirl06]

I don’t know where she’s storing it all. She’s so small and skinny these days, you’d think it would fill her out some. It makes me wonder whether she’s absorbing nutrients or just compacting food into poop.

Yeah, IDK from chemo but I do know that some drugs cause or exacerbate inappetance, weight loss and associated problems.

 

[daftcat75]

I’ve been trying to capture just how skinny she’s become. It’s not easy. Every time I stand over her with the camera, she sits down and looks up at me. I caught these as she was walking across the desk to check out my food.


Her waist is basically just the void between her fur covered rib cage and fur covered pelvis. You can feel all those bones if she lets you.

 

[tarasgirl06]

I’ve been trying to capture just how skinny she’s become. It’s not easy. Every time I stand over her with the camera, she sits down and looks up at me. I caught these as she was walking across the desk to check out my food.
View attachment 328944View attachment 328945
Her waist is basically just the void between her fur covered rib cage and fur covered pelvis. You can feel all those bones if she lets you.

Well, yes, she's thin. But the HEART and SOUL are those of a WARRIOR.

 

[Furballsmom]

What could you give her, beyond what you're doing now, that could get some calories into her?

Scrolling down a bit in this article, is there anything here that might help?

How To Get A Cat To Gain Weight – Cat Articles

 

[daftcat75]

What could you give her, beyond what you're doing now, that could get some calories into her?

Scrolling down a bit in this article, is there anything here that might help?

How To Get A Cat To Gain Weight – Cat Articles

I don't think it's calories. She's eating 11 oz a day (maybe 10 oz when you subtract the plate and the carpet's share since she's a toothless messy eater.) Each can is 172 calories. So even subtracting the carpet tithing and plate remainders, she's still likely getting 250-300 calories.

The problem is likely two-fold: lymphoma and sub-optimal digestion. Cancer is notorious for "eating calories". And the sub-optimal digestion I see in her pale, semi-liquid or completely liquid stools. The poop pukes aren't helping much either.

The chemo is still doing more good than harm considering she wasn't pooping solids at all before the chemo. As for the digestion, I could try to increase the digestive enzymes. I have a Superfood supplement from Vitality Science that I could also try. But those supplements recently seem to make matters worse. I think they throw a default kitchen sink (bentonite, zeolite, probiotics and/or enzymes) into every one of their supplements that makes it difficult to isolate problematic ingredients. But it's possible that the IBD/cancer have altered her gut walls (thickening) that might make even pre-digested raw materials difficult for her to absorb.

The idea with her current med approach, as I understand it, is to control the inflammation and suppress the immune response such that nutrients can reach the deep pockets in her gut where they can be absorbed into the blood. But I'm not convinced the therapy has been effective enough. I am however convinced that she's doing better with this protocol than she would without it though. I may give it another week or two and then ask the head doctor, the founder, at her vet to call me to discuss other options. He might just tell me, "give it more time to work" which is why I'm not on the phone on Monday.

Anyway, she's currently staring me down for her 3 pm meal. Let's put more poop in the barrel and hope for the best.

 

[daftcat75]

One double moonshot theory I have that would be difficult and risky to test and impossible to do anything about:

It could very well be that the one day of sore throat and a morning of chest tightness last weekend that never progressed to anything else was in fact my extremely mild almost asymptomatic Covid-19 infection (in which case I apologize to any who may have been around me in the grocery stores this past week ) and that her relapse of pudding poops was exposure to virus I was shedding. The Belgium cat had diarrhea and SARS-CoV-2 (the virus) was detected in her feces. I didn’t notice any respiratory distress in Krista this past week though. But if my experience was that mild, maybe hers was too.

Is it worth getting tested myself? Probably not. If I do test positive, it’s self-isolation which I’m already doing. If she tests positive, it’s quarantine for her too. Getting a positive result would not meaningfully change what we’re already doing. Except maybe I’ll finally wear a mask in public.

As both her morning and evening poops are trending back to solid again, I think the first thing to try is a slow psyllium tapering to reduce the volume of her poops. I think the psyllium and the volume of food she eats is just overflowing her buffers to borrow from a computer analogy.

If I assume this theory is true, the best course for us both is to give it the two weeks time to pass.

So I think that’s what I’ll do. I can’t not go out for groceries once a week. But I can wear a mask. And maybe once we’re past our peak case load in this county, I’ll do the antibodies test for and .

 

[daftcat75]

She takes her pred halves like a champ now. No spitting them out. She eats a tiny portion of rabbit and pumpkin rolled in yeast. Then she nibbles the top off her dinner portion and crashes hard for an hour or so.

I expect she’ll wake around 8:30 to dig into the rest of her first dinner. She’ll be done with the plate in plenty of time to pester me before her 9:30 “sunrise” for second dinner.

 

[Furballsmom]

awww, sweetie-baby!

 

[daftcat75]

Yet another in the “I must touch you while I sleep” series.

 

[MissClouseau]

The Belgium cat had diarrhea and SARS-CoV-2 (the virus) was detected in her feces.

They didn't do an antibodies test to that cat (or to the tigers at that NYC zoo). The chances are some pets will happen to get sick when their human has Covid19. Cats might be more so as they tend to be more emotionally-triggered immune system you know. But it might very well be just coincidence and not that what got them sick was SARS-CoV-2. Detecting in feces or in saliva only means they interacted with SARS-CoV-2 and got it into their system, not that it got them sick. (Not to rule out either of course but so far there is no evidence.)

 

[tarasgirl06]

daftcat75 What an adorable long-legged little colorful beauty! And so SWEET
MissClouseau Thank you for your post! Appreciate every instance of injecting logic and common sense into "this".

 

[daftcat75]

They didn't do an antibodies test to that cat (or to the tigers at that NYC zoo). The chances are some pets will happen to get sick when their human has Covid19. Cats might be more so as they tend to be more emotionally-triggered immune system you know. But it might very well be just coincidence and not that what got them sick was SARS-CoV-2. Detecting in feces or in saliva only means they interacted with SARS-CoV-2 and got it into their system, not that it got them sick. (Not to rule out either of course but so far there is no evidence.)

"They" (the article) said that there has been a small number of cases in previous coronaviruses where they can leap from human to cats and dogs. But they dead-end there. An infected cat or dog cannot (yet) infect humans. Though I imagine they would be a surface where virus particles can attach just the same as a door knob. Except that door knobs aren't self-grooming and thus internally ingesting said particles which can then show up in a cat's feces without ever infecting the "host". But it is of note that the owner of the Belgium cat reported the cat was experiencing respiratory distress. And anyway, Krista's not having acute diarrhea as much as loose stools.

Last night's was pale, soft, and stinky like improper digestion but more formed than not--also one and done so no puking afterwards.

In any case, this is why I prefaced my post with the "double moonshot theory" disclaimer. Because it's yet unproven whether I was even infected and yet unproven whether cats can be infected or simply ingest and excrete the shed virus particles in their environment. And at the end of the day, a positive confirmation of one or both doesn't change anything. I live alone with her and we'll continue to self-isolate together regardless of whether we tested positive or not.

 

[MissClouseau]

"They" (the article) said that there has been a small number of cases in previous coronaviruses where they can leap from human to cats and dogs.

You know how coronaviruses work, what they affect and all can differ a lot even if they are in the same family.

But it is of note that the owner of the Belgium cat reported the cat was experiencing respiratory distress.

Respiratary issues is one of the most common problems among cats. And you know stress triggers chronic UTI. And it's allergy season too.

I'm really saying all these because as usual the articles are often written by people who don't know enough and things get misleading. Just today there was reporting about a single study from China people on Twitter were freaking out because "the infected cat" passed the virus to other cats in the cage in the study. But you read it and they INJECTED the cats with Sars-CoV-2, like inoculated them to test. Obviously that's not going to happen out of a lab. And euthanised the cats without even waiting to see if they would get sick and the study wasn't peer-reviewed or anything. Yet today it was even on WebMD. Sorry I got chatty will leave now. Good day to you and Krista

 

[tarasgirl06]

I thought you might like this one, daftcat75

 

[daftcat75]

More bonus poop. More poop pukes. I'm getting tired of this. Not the clean-up (the upright Bissell Revolution is the clear winner among my devices as it can clean in two wet passes and two dry passes even if it leaves the carpet wetter than any of them.) But I am concerned about eventually returning to the workplace and leaving her unpoopervised making messes that sit all day. But my chief concern is that we're losing this war here. How will she ever gain weight if she's not digesting properly and losing a meal or two a day to poop pukes? How long can she keep going like this? Longer than probably any of us ever imagined so far. But I can see it. It's rough on her. I think I'll buy an electric grinder and make a new batch of raw. I'd hate to think that the small amount of fish flakes it takes to get her to take her medicine is what may be causing all of this recent flare-up. And without some huge incentive like yummy raw she once loved (before I started adding B-vitamins?), I don't know how I could get her to take the pill again without it.

I could try the transdermal again. I didn't like it and she didn't like it because I couldn't be sure she got the whole dose and I couldn't wash off the previous day's dose. She didn't like it because she doesn't like her ears handled like that. Hence not being able to wash off the previous day's dose. But we can try it for a couple of days to see if the absence of fish flakes clears things up. I just really enjoy the convenience and assurance of having her take her own medicine in front of me. There was no question of how much she really got when I see her swallow both pill halves.

Let me take away the reward flake. Let's see if a 1/3 reduction in flakes improves the situation. She can have a reward bite of the rabbit with pumpkin in its place.

 

[tarasgirl06]

More bonus poop. More poop pukes. I'm getting tired of this. Not the clean-up (the upright Bissell Revolution is the clear winner among my devices as it can clean in two wet passes and two dry passes even if it leaves the carpet wetter than any of them.) But I am concerned about eventually returning to the workplace and leaving her unpoopervised making messes that sit all day. But my chief concern is that we're losing this war here. How will she ever gain weight if she's not digesting properly and losing a meal or two a day to poop pukes? How long can she keep going like this? Longer than probably any of us ever imagined so far. But I can see it. It's rough on her. I think I'll buy an electric grinder and make a new batch of raw. I'd hate to think that the small amount of fish flakes it takes to get her to take her medicine is what may be causing all of this recent flare-up. And without some huge incentive like yummy raw she once loved (before I started adding B-vitamins?), I don't know how I could get her to take the pill again without it.

I could try the transdermal again. I didn't like it and she didn't like it because I couldn't be sure she got the whole dose and I couldn't wash off the previous day's dose. She didn't like it because she doesn't like her ears handled like that. Hence not being able to wash off the previous day's dose. But we can try it for a couple of days to see if the absence of fish flakes clears things up. I just really enjoy the convenience and assurance of having her take her own medicine in front of me. There was no question of how much she really got when I see her swallow both pill halves.

Let me take away the reward flake. Let's see if a 1/3 reduction in flakes improves the situation. She can have a reward bite of the rabbit with pumpkin in its place.

Those sound like good Plans "B". It's a shame there isn't something you can wrap or hide her doses in that she likes as much as she does her flakes. Butter. Margarine. Yoghurt. Turkey skin. SOMETHING.