Am I overreacting?

Furballsmom

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Any handfeeding possiblities? Was there anything in the "my cat stopped eating" thread that helped, like a flat paper plate?
 
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Twylasmom

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Any handfeeding possiblities? Was there anything in the "my cat stopped eating" thread that helped, like a flat paper plate?
I do hand feed the baby food. Her wet food is served in a flat raised bowl and I top it with crushed treats or a little Fortiflora to get her going. I mound the food back up a couple of times and she will usually eat a little more, sometimes she will eat it out of my hand. Petting her sometimes helps. There aren’t many toppers she likes - no Churu or freeze dried for her. I’ve also tried some non-prescription dry but no interest. Today she has asked for food, but is only eating a small amount each time. She has never been able to meet daily intake on wet food alone so losing the dry is a big deal. Her wet food intake has decreased maybe a third, but she isn’t eating any dry. But those tricks do help some. This bout of inappetance is longer than usual.

I feel like I am making things worse by feeding things that are higher in phosphorus but don’t think now is the time to add the binder.

Honestly, I am feeling under the weather myself today, so I am understanding why she might not feel like eating! Just trying to keep her stable until Tuesday.
 
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Twyla ended up having a somewhat better day today. I left out the remainders of the Fancy Feast from earlier and a small amount of dry food and she came back a couple hours later and ate most of the FF and had a few bites of dry. Later she ate a half pouch of Hill’s Tender Chicken mixed with some dry. And tonight she came into the bedroom and “asked” for food. I got up and gave her a spoonful of her prescription dry without any treats added and she ate almost all of it! I think she needs the Cerenia every day and will discuss with the vet on Tuesday, as well as discussing having an appetite stimulant on hand. The Hill’s pouches are pretty low in phosphorus so are a good option and come in a couple of flavors.

I have been having to bring food to her for several days, so having her voluntarily seek out food is a big step.

It is helpful to have this thread to look back on and track her ups and downs.
 
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Twylasmom

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She ate just OK yesterday, not quite as good as Saturday, though still not meeting my desired minimum goal of 200 calories a day - maybe ate about 150? Mixing dry with the wet is helping to meet the goal. Her weight seems to be holding steady, maybe a loss of an ounce or two. She was at 11.3 lbs yesterday.

Having issues with Hooper wanting to eat her prescription food, both when she is at the bowl and if I leave it out for her to hopefully free feed. This is not helping! I have started a separate thread for that specific issue as it is more behavioral.

I am making a list of questions for the vet appointment tomorrow. Appetite stimulant? B12 supplementation? Subqs? Dental and mouth health? Of course labs will tell where thyroid levels are at. Anything else you can think of?
 
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I am definitely asking them to look in her mouth and check for dental problems. It seems like something might be going on there, based on her behavior and how she is chewing. She is much more likely to eat the dry if it is mixed in with wet and softened somewhat. Affection eating has been helping somewhat, but aside from Saturday she has needed a lot of encouragement to eat. Other than that she seems OK, with normal potty habits, no vomiting or drooling, and continues to make her “rounds” and seeking me out for lap time.
 
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Feeling discouraged after today’s vet visit. First off, even though Twyla’s methimazole dose was lowered after her visit 5 weeks ago her T4 went DOWN from .8 to .7 so below normal range. How does that happen? I can’t imagine that’s helping her kidneys. Going to reduce her dose to 1.25 mg twice daily (she was getting 1.25 in the am and 2.5 in the pm).Weight was down about 4 oz since visit 10 days ago.

Teeth seemed OK. And they gave me some Mirataz to have on hand.

No improvement and some worsening on kidney values - creatinine up from 2.7 to 3.2, BUN the same at 56, phosphorus up from 4.5 to 5.6 and potassium went from 4.7 to 4.4. Her hydration was OK but need to start subqs to flush the kidneys. I am so worried I’m not going to be able to do it. I burst into tears when the tech came in to show me how. I know this is an irrational fear and I need to get past it so I can help my girl.
 

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First off, even though Twyla’s methimazole dose was lowered after her visit 5 weeks ago her T4 went DOWN from .8 to .7 so below normal range.
What is the 'range' for the T4? From the ranges I know, what you are quoting, is ridiculously low. I can't comment on the other levels, as they are not horrendously bad. But the T-4 makes no sense.
 
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What is the 'range' for the T4? From the ranges I know, what you are quoting, is ridiculously low. I can't comment on the other levels, as they are not horrendously bad. But the T-4 makes no sense.
I know, right? .8 is considered the rock bottom of normal so .7 is below normal. No wonder she has been spending all her time baking in the sunshine and has a suppressed appetite. Probably contributing to the worsening kidney numbers as well.
 
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Fluids did seem to help perk her up and temporarily boost her appetite, but she is back to not eating much and needing encouragement. I just administered her first smear of Mirataz so we’ll see how that goes. I am positive the low thyroid is impacting her appetite, as well as her kidneys. How long does it usually take to kick in? If it works I hope I can just do a reduced dose every couple of days. And I would like to go back to Cerenia every other day - I have no idea if she has nausea or just hypothyroid low appetite. I was hesitant to try the Mirataz just because I didn’t want to throw something else into her system.

I have a friend coming over to help with fluids Saturday and a couple times after if needed. Only doing twice a week to start.However they are going on a 2 week vacation mid-August, so I am on the hunt for a pet sitter that can help. I’ve been putting out feelers for two days now without much success.

I’m a little frustrated with the vet and wish she had started out with a less aggressive dose of the methimazole, but she was insistent. I feel that the hypothyroid state could have been avoided.
 

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Sorry you're going through this. :( It's so tough for us and them... I understand about needing help with SubQ fluids. Have you asked your vet if they can recommend anyone while your friend is away? Sometimes vet techs or assistants will do house calls to help with fluid administration (for a fee).

In my experience, Mirtaz kicked in fairly quick with my cat when we first tried it (I think within a couple hours, definitely within a day and a little bit went a long way) but your cat may react different. Best wishes to you and Twyla. :hugs:
 
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Sorry you're going through this. :( It's so tough for us and them... I understand about needing help with SubQ fluids. Have you asked your vet if they can recommend anyone while your friend is away? Sometimes vet techs or assistants will do house calls to help with fluid administration (for a fee).

In my experience, Mirtaz kicked in fairly quick with my cat when we first tried it (I think within a couple hours, definitely within a day and a little bit went a long way) but your cat may react different. Best wishes to you and Twyla. :hugs:
Unfortunately my vet’s office wasn’t very helpful in that regard. They are actually down a tech at the moment so the current ones are pulling double duty. Hopefully one of my feelers will pan out. Or maybe it won’t take two people to give her fluids. In that case I would just need to get over my fear/phobia so I could do it alone.Thank you for your kind words and anecdotal experience with the Mirataz.
 

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Until you get her thyroid issue under control, I suspect you will be throwing all sorts of potential remedies at her. I wish your vet would reconsider the thyroid meds and let that reset itself. :nervous:
 

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Unfortunately my vet’s office wasn’t very helpful in that regard. They are actually down a tech at the moment so the current ones are pulling double duty. Hopefully one of my feelers will pan out. Or maybe it won’t take two people to give her fluids. In that case I would just need to get over my fear/phobia so I could do it alone.
Oh no! That is too bad :( I hope something else works out for you. Can you try giving fluids on your own when your friend can be there as sort of back up support to see if you're able to do it on your own? I started giving fluids with a helper and as I gained confidence, I was able to do it ok on my own.

Are you using the bag-drip method or the syringe method? My vet recommended the syringe method as it is much faster for the cat. It took less than five minutes to administer her fluids in a 50mL syringe. The only downside was I sometimes found it hard to manage (and push) the large syringe in one small hand while making sure my cat didn't wiggle away with my other hand.

There are also cat jackets or sacks you can try to help restrain her if you are on your own. Not sure, of course, how Twyla will react to that...

Just some food for thought for you :)
 
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Oh no! That is too bad :( I hope something else works out for you. Can you try giving fluids on your own when your friend can be there as sort of back up support to see if you're able to do it on your own? I started giving fluids with a helper and as I gained confidence, I was able to do it ok on my own.

Are you using the bag-drip method or the syringe method? My vet recommended the syringe method as it is much faster for the cat. It took less than five minutes to administer her fluids in a 50mL syringe. The only downside was I sometimes found it hard to manage (and push) the large syringe in one small hand while making sure my cat didn't wiggle away with my other hand.

There are also cat jackets or sacks you can try to help restrain her if you are on your own. Not sure, of course, how Twyla will react to that...

Just some food for thought for you :)
We are doing the bag-drip method.Twyla has done well with it at the vet but has been doped up on gaba during those times. I may have found a pet sitter that can start on the 13th, so fingers crossed. If Twyla is calm about it than I will see if I can get comfortable with doing it myself.

Twyla had her first dose of Mirataz yesterday. Started off with about 2/3 of the recommended dose. It took about six hours, but she did eat more and asked for food (pawing on the side of the bed to wake me up) twice last night, which is part of her usual routine. The increase in appetite isn’t very dramatic, but It is easier to get her to eat - and she did eat more overnight than she has been and finished breakfast. I don’t want to do everyday dosing if she doesn’t need it so we’ll see how long her appetite maintains.
 
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My friends came over and we had our first attempt at subqs. We got it done but it wasn’t perfect. We put Twyla in a box so she couldn’t wander but she was still very squirmy, so it is definitely a two person job. The needle came out and my friend re-inserted, though I now read we should have put in a new needle before continuing. Not great. Afterwards she jumped out of the box and happily accepted attention from everyone. Next time we are going to try using her carrier instead of the box - it’s deeper and smaller so less room for her to move and how she has received fluids at the vet. I sure hope it gets better over time. It looks so easy when they do it at the vets office (of course Twyla was doped on gaba, too) and I am so afraid of screwing up.

Have only done the one dose of Mirataz on Thursday afternoon and Twyla has been eating well since and has also seemed perkier. She has gone back to her prescription dry food - I leave it out for nibbles and mix it with wet at mealtimes. So we’ll see how long that last.
 

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So glad to hear her appetite has perked up with a little Mirtaz! I hope it continues to help :) My vet told me it also helped a little with nausea. At one point I settled into giving it to my cat every 3 days and that went well.

That's a wonderful idea to put her in the carrier to the fluids. I hope it goes well next time :hearthrob:
 
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So glad to hear her appetite has perked up with a little Mirtaz! I hope it continues to help :) My vet told me it also helped a little with nausea. At one point I settled into giving it to my cat every 3 days and that went well.

That's a wonderful idea to put her in the carrier to the fluids. I hope it goes well next time :hearthrob:
I’m also thinking of moving to a smaller table I have with a light fixture above. This would allow hanging the fluid bag from the light fixture and the table is lower so would be easier to reach into the carrier.

I hate to get my hopes up, but am wondering if lowering her methimazole does may be starting to pay off. She is being more social and affectionate, eating better and sliding back into what I consider her normal routines. Yesterday was the best day she has had in several weeks. Obviously the fluids help as did the Mirataz, but I am holding off on a second dose of that for now because she is maintaining her appetite so far. Fingers crossed! Getting her thyroid stabilized at a reasonable level would really help maintain her kidney values.
 
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Second attempt at subqs not as successful as the first, we maybe got in about 75ml. I’m OK with that amount as I think the 150 may be a bit much. My friend is almost as nervous as I am, so Twyla is probably sensing that. I so appreciate their help, but really want someone who is confident in what they are doing. However, it looks like I have a pet sitter with tech experience lined up for Saturday and hopefully going forward.

Aside from that, Twyla has had the best couple of days she has had in a long time. Much more active and social, eating well, weight is stable, affectionate and playful. Have not had to repeat the Mirataz yet.
 
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The pet sitter/vet tech came today. Twyla loved her and we were able to get about 125 ml of fluids in quite quickly. It is still a two person job, so I distract with treats and hold her still where needed, but no box or carrier. We are setup for twice a week going forward. This is a huge load off my mind. Twyla seems to be doing well and I have only had to give her a half dose of Mirataz two times. She is spending a lot more time downstairs rather than baking in the upstairs sunbeam and is being super snuggly.

She goes in for a thyroid check on Tuesday - fingers crossed it is somewhere in the normal range.
 
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