Abdominal liquid mass. Anyone?

artiemom

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Jcatbird Jcatbird You are such a strong person.. I admire your strength, resilience, love, and you just being you..
The Kitties know that. Deep down they are just doing what cats do.. They know you are trying to help them..

Banjo loves you.. unconditionally.. He knows you are trying to help him.. It is just his instincts kicking in.

I find a pill gun is easier to use for meds.. and gel caps.. I use these all the time. along with around 5 cc of water as a chaser.. I got a baby liquid medicine syringe for the water, from Rite Aid.

God Bless you..:grouphug::grouphug::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::redheartpump::redheartpump::redheartpump::redheartpump::redheartpump:
 

neely

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I have to figure out how to arrange a cat sitter and transport again! I’ll be trying to work that out next. I HAVE to get her there. Thankful she hasn’t had the meds constrict her aortic vessel or colon. At least ,as far as I can tell right now. I will update as we go. Right now Banjo is just very tired.
Prayers and may the stars align with you to find a cat sitter as well as your transport journey with dear Banjo. 🙏 💫 🙏 :goldstar: 🙏 💫
 
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Jcatbird

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W WMM201 Thank you for asking. :hugs: I am soooo tired. Lol The cats are okay. They have been very good and Thrasher has been amusing me by carrying a toy mouse around by the tip of the tail, leaping and dancing with it and then making it a flying mouse. It tends to land in the food dish. It vanished last night and Thrasher gave me such a piercing and pleading look to help recover it from behind a dresser that I got up and moved the furniture, only to discover that it was well hidden. Thrasher was sitting on it. It made me laugh so I guess we are all dealing with things okay.
Banjo has been a little playful tonight. Meds coming but I am letting her play first. It’s great to see her feeling like playing a bit. She sleeps more these days and is definitely feeling she needs to be closer to me. She had a slight leg tremor yesterday. I have noticed that twice before she started the meds. I thought it was pain then and she does have Gabapentin. This time the tremor stopped quickly so I did not give the pain meds. I am keeping a daily journal so I will be mentioning this to the specialist. I am hoping that means some improvement since it was lessened this time. We are working to schedule her next CT but that is some weeks from now.
My fingers are healing. ;) The next round of Praziquantel will be given by crushing and diluting it to syringe into her. It tastes nasty and made her drool but I followed it with water syringed and the drooling stopped. Then I gave her yummy foods.
We have waited to give her the Bravecto. A little time between meds seemed prudent. I have started on the other cats and will work my way around. By the time I get all the others, we hope it will be okay to treat Banjo.
BOY have I been scrubbing a lot of litter boxes! I was so tired the other night that I just picked up the phone at about midnight and ordered a dozen new ones. Lol They happened to be on sale!:yess: That still leaves me scrubbing but if I get too tired, I don’t have to do them all at one time now. I have backup! It was kind of funny placing that order. “You need how many?”:lol:
 

WMM201

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Jcatbird Jcatbird you take such good care of your kitties! ❤ Thrasher's little hide and seek was so funny, I hope next time he will clue you in before you start moving around furniture. It's awesome that Banjo is being more playful again and I hope that the leg tremors are nothing significant 🙏🏻

I think you have more than earned a little break and some convenience with litter boxes! Have you ever used the SoPhresh disposable litter boxes from Petco? I use those permanently for Mumu, and spray some Pam nonstick spray on it before filling with litter to make sure the clumps don't stick. They actually don't retain much odor for a long time, and then I can throw it out along with the litter when it's time (I get several months out of one box but I only have the one kitty). Probably not the most cost effective way to handle the litter box situation, but maybe you can have this quickie shortcut until this treatment time is over?

I hope you treat yourself to a nap and some relaxation every now and then! You deserve it!! Hugs to you and all your kitties!
 
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Jcatbird

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artiemom artiemom I will say the same about you. A survivor. Blessings to you as well. :hugs:

W WMM201 I do my best. Thrasher actually made me laugh. Getting me up for some muscle training! Lol Or….. maybe a cat treat?

Thanks about earning a break! Lol I did look at disposable boxes. The things is, there are many cats here and I think I would go through too many of them but I had not thought of your Pam spray trick! Great idea! For years I have said I should but stock in the Clorox and Dawn dish liquid companies. Now I should invest in litter box companies.:lol: If those companies are reading……. We love you! The pet supply company that takes orders in the middle of the night, thank you! Lol
Today I was working on trying to schedule the next CT. We have a date but now I have to work out the rest. That’s the hard part.
 

Whenallhellbreakslose

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Wow, Jcatbird. I would be exhausted too. That is a lot of work. I hope Banjo is getting use to the Praziquantel. Even if she hates it with a passion, hopefully the treats you give her afterwards makes it much more pleasant for her. I hope the specialist can tell you what those leg tremors are about since those started well before the meds she is currently given. I hope she is taking well to her other meds. Yay!!! That was a good idea about ordering those litter boxes. Hoping it make things a little bit easier for now. Love the pics you have shared of Thrasher and Banjo. Thrasher is still a kitten at heart with the way she plays. When she was outside she probably was an excellent hunter.

Well, I hope you are doing okay. Glad to hear that your scratches healed. Have a blessed week. :heartshape:
 
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Jcatbird

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It looks like we have transport! :thud:Hoping, hoping, hoping it doesn’t fall through at the last minute like last time and becomes a mad scramble of me calling every link I could find. I have confirmed the appointment but it is still weeks away.:please:
Whenallhellbreakslose Whenallhellbreakslose
I think the leg tremors are because of the pressure caused by the mass. It could be pressing on her colon or any number of other places. I am still hoping the meds have shrunk the mass, even if we need to do shrink more. If we don’t then it will be a matter of waiting and hoping that it never gets worse or causes more damage. If it does shrink I don’t know if we just leave it at that or if some surgical intervention will be needed by then. I am doubtful surgery will ever become an option so….. shrink tissue!
 

Whenallhellbreakslose

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It looks like we have transport! :thud:Hoping, hoping, hoping it doesn’t fall through at the last minute like last time and becomes a mad scramble of me calling every link I could find. I have confirmed the appointment but it is still weeks away.:please:
Whenallhellbreakslose Whenallhellbreakslose
I think the leg tremors are because of the pressure caused by the mass. It could be pressing on her colon or any number of other places. I am still hoping the meds have shrunk the mass, even if we need to do shrink more. If we don’t then it will be a matter of waiting and hoping that it never gets worse or causes more damage. If it does shrink I don’t know if we just leave it at that or if some surgical intervention will be needed by then. I am doubtful surgery will ever become an option so….. shrink tissue!
Keeping you and Banjo in my prayers. I hope their is a good report soon and that Banjo's mass has shrunk significantly. I will pray that you don't lose transport to the vet specialists. I hope everything works out. Hang in there. :alright: :redheartpump::redheartpump::redheartpump:
 
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Jcatbird

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Yesterday Banjo went for a new CT scan. After it was done the vet brought me in to review the scan. Upon entering the vet greeted me with ,” This is amazing!” It is. To back track a bit, Banjo was treated with high doses of Praziquatel for a liquid mass in her abdomen that was first thought to be cancer or Wet FIP. After many tests and an aspirated sample, the mass turned out to be necrotic tapeworm tissue. It was too invasive to do surgery so the hope was to shrink the mass with high doses of Praziquantel. An unknown condition and unknown if this treatment would work.
Amazong? The vet had still questioned if some cancer might be hidden in the mass and the tapeworm tissue was coincidental. It wasn’t. The Praziquantel is working! The mass had pushed Banjos colon off to one side and was compressing it so she could not pass fecal matter. Her colon is back where it belongs and is no longer compressed! The mass that surrounded her aortic vessel has greatly diminished as well! We can now see where the vessel branches off and it only has tissue near one side. So much of the tissue is gone now that the prognosis is excellent! The specialist fully explored Banjo through ultrasound and CT. Bloodwork was done as well and was very good! We will go through one more round of the Praziquantel for three days and then any tissue that might remain should dissipate. Oh my. This truly os amazing. We have gone from thinking of euthanasia to finding a simple and relatively inexpensive treatment that saved her life. It was not cancer and not wet FIP! This is such a ground breaking case. I ask everyone who faces a diagnosis of either of the previously mentioned conditions to consider exploring this treatment with their vet. If all hope seems to be lost, check again! This is all new information to the vet world so most would never consider Praziquantel as an option. We didn’t either at first. It was a shot in the dark but it’s working! The specialist was practically jumping for joy. I was. Lol We are both very excited to share this information and the treatment is already being used on other cats now. They have saved Banjo!
She did have an adverse reaction to the Ketamine used to get an IV in her during the seafaring process and that was scary. I brought her home and she is recovering from that nicely. It has been a long few months but unless something changes, we should not have to travel back out of state for now. I am breathing a huge sigh of relief. Precious Banjo has beaten the odds again! The story isn’t over quite yet since we have another round of meds coming. We will wait until she has recovered from a very difficult reaction to the sedation. It was a bad one and we will be looking at exactly what happened there but when all is clear, we move forward again. I will be posting more technical data when it is sent to me. We want to help as many other cats as possible through what we have learned. The specialist is hoping to save many more lives now. I believe she and the others involved will save others. If that happens then all the time and expense becomes so small to me. Banjo is a platinum kitty now. Lol She earned it. She is resting solidly right this minute. Me too. Finally. I think of all the people who cannot do a CT scan or those who live where vet care is not accessible but Praziquatel is obtainable because it is used to treat humans. My hope is that the information given to us will be spread far and wide. Every life counts. I am very grateful to everyone here for supporting us and for putting in the effort to assist us with studies they found. Everything contributed to saving Banjo. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Take what we learned and what I will be posting as it comes in and run with it!

She lives to kiss her Froggie Prince another day.
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tabbytom

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The Praziquantel is working! The mass had pushed Banjos colon off to one side and was compressing it so she could not pass fecal matter. Her colon is back where it belongs and is no longer compressed! The mass that surrounded her aortic vessel has greatly diminished as well! We can now see where the vessel branches off and it only has tissue near one side. So much of the tissue is gone now that the prognosis is excellent! The specialist fully explored Banjo through ultrasound and CT. Bloodwork was done as well and was very good!
Great to hear this! :hugs::hugs::hugs::hugs::hugs::hugs::hugs::hugs::hugs::hugs:
 

Whenallhellbreakslose

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This is great news!!!! Just getting the proper diagnosis for Banjo was a drawn out nerve- wracking experience. Especially since you were worried it could be FIPs or a tumor. TG it wasn't that!!! Instead your Banjo's diagnosis was one for the books. I am so glad to hear she is getting over the adverse effects from that medicine. I am extremely happy to hear that the necrotic mass has shrunk. Yay!!! I hope the rest is gone in no time. Thank you for sharing Banjo's special case with everyone, especially the Vetinarian school. Now if there is another kitty with a mystery mass, Banjo's case could be used as a reference. A kitty's life somewhere could be saved when the right diagnosis and treatment is giving. See, you could be saving kitties' lives all over by making sure this case is well documented and studied. Well thank you for sharing the good news. I am so happy to hear this. ❤❤❤
 

Catlover99!

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Yesterday Banjo went for a new CT scan. After it was done the vet brought me in to review the scan. Upon entering the vet greeted me with ,” This is amazing!” It is. To back track a bit, Banjo was treated with high doses of Praziquatel for a liquid mass in her abdomen that was first thought to be cancer or Wet FIP. After many tests and an aspirated sample, the mass turned out to be necrotic tapeworm tissue. It was too invasive to do surgery so the hope was to shrink the mass with high doses of Praziquantel. An unknown condition and unknown if this treatment would work.
Amazong? The vet had still questioned if some cancer might be hidden in the mass and the tapeworm tissue was coincidental. It wasn’t. The Praziquantel is working! The mass had pushed Banjos colon off to one side and was compressing it so she could not pass fecal matter. Her colon is back where it belongs and is no longer compressed! The mass that surrounded her aortic vessel has greatly diminished as well! We can now see where the vessel branches off and it only has tissue near one side. So much of the tissue is gone now that the prognosis is excellent! The specialist fully explored Banjo through ultrasound and CT. Bloodwork was done as well and was very good! We will go through one more round of the Praziquantel for three days and then any tissue that might remain should dissipate. Oh my. This truly os amazing. We have gone from thinking of euthanasia to finding a simple and relatively inexpensive treatment that saved her life. It was not cancer and not wet FIP! This is such a ground breaking case. I ask everyone who faces a diagnosis of either of the previously mentioned conditions to consider exploring this treatment with their vet. If all hope seems to be lost, check again! This is all new information to the vet world so most would never consider Praziquantel as an option. We didn’t either at first. It was a shot in the dark but it’s working! The specialist was practically jumping for joy. I was. Lol We are both very excited to share this information and the treatment is already being used on other cats now. They have saved Banjo!
She did have an adverse reaction to the Ketamine used to get an IV in her during the seafaring process and that was scary. I brought her home and she is recovering from that nicely. It has been a long few months but unless something changes, we should not have to travel back out of state for now. I am breathing a huge sigh of relief. Precious Banjo has beaten the odds again! The story isn’t over quite yet since we have another round of meds coming. We will wait until she has recovered from a very difficult reaction to the sedation. It was a bad one and we will be looking at exactly what happened there but when all is clear, we move forward again. I will be posting more technical data when it is sent to me. We want to help as many other cats as possible through what we have learned. The specialist is hoping to save many more lives now. I believe she and the others involved will save others. If that happens then all the time and expense becomes so small to me. Banjo is a platinum kitty now. Lol She earned it. She is resting solidly right this minute. Me too. Finally. I think of all the people who cannot do a CT scan or those who live where vet care is not accessible but Praziquatel is obtainable because it is used to treat humans. My hope is that the information given to us will be spread far and wide. Every life counts. I am very grateful to everyone here for supporting us and for putting in the effort to assist us with studies they found. Everything contributed to saving Banjo. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Take what we learned and what I will be posting as it comes in and run with it!

She lives to kiss her Froggie Prince another day.
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Woo hoo! That is fantastic news. Much love to you and Banjo. May he lives forever
 
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