First, I am loving thanking everyone for their concern, support and prayers.. it means a lot..
Artie is still with us..
I am going to break up this thread with a couple of postings because it is lengthy.
He has not been diagnosed with lymphoma. He does seem to have a lot of issues as of this moment.
I will list them as they currently are:
IBD (does not get diarrhea--gets constipated)
diagnosed last week with a neurological motility issue with his bowels,
constipation, and a
Grade IV heart murmur which was a functional one on his echo about 4 years ago.
Dental issues-- currently gingivitis
He is also allergic to chicken--vomits immediately after eating it..
Artie sees a regular Vet and a Specialist at the hospital.
He has had 3 IBD flares since this summer. He loses weight, inappetance, and gets constipation. He never seems to regain the weight he loses.
His daily medication was prednisolone, miralax, cisapride, provable probiotic, and cerenia during a flare.
At his last Vet Visit he was at 10.3 lbs. The specialist said she did not want him to lose any more weight. That was in late October.
I noticed him cutting back a bit on his food but did not think that much. I noticed he was down to 10.2 lbs, but that did not seem bad to me..
On Dec 1, he had an annual appointment with his Regular Vet. This is a new Vet because my awesome Vet moved to a different practice which is closer to her home, but so far from mine. This new Vet is really great--young, but so caring, compassionate, nice...
She (I will refer to her as R. Vet) found his weight at 9.9 lbs.. a big weight loss
She suggested I contact Specialist (S Vet)..
S Vet ordered Cerenia to be taken daily forever...
On Dec 10, I noticed he was really constipated. He tried several times to go and could not. His weight was around 10.1.. Took him to RVet the next day, who palpated him and found constipation. She gave him an enema, and also hydrated him sub-q's because she did not want him to be depleted of fluids..
He really messed out a lot.. all over his carrier, him and the bathroom where his litter box is. I could not contain him because he goes nuts in a closed room, even when I am in there. I took all my spare towels out and covered everything I could, still I had dribbles and pools all over. I have laminate in the great room, so that was good. I covered my bed with a sheet, and he did sleep with me..
Dec 12, His appetite went downhill again, and he was lethargic.. back to the RVet..she hydrated him and gave him a dose of Valium to act as an appetite stimulant. Artie gets very antsy and paces when he takes Mirtazapine. She also did an x-ray because she still felt him to be constipated. I saw the x-ray.. He was still filled with poop in the proximal large bowel and into the small bowel.. no wonder he had not appetite.. the poop was backing up..and it seemed like calcifications --very strange...
She did not want to give him another enema because it was too high up.. she prescribed lactulose.
The Valium really did the trick with his appetite...
I filled the script the next day, when he did not poop..Lactulose twice a day, 1-2 mg...
The R Vet even called the S Vet to update her about Artie.. The S Vet seemed to think the lactulose would push things out.. and she doubled the dose of cisapride..three times a day
He pooped small pudding poop for a couple of days..
Dec 17, he seemed off again.. appetite bad, and not much poop coming out.. The
R Vet wanted to see him again.. She felt that with the lactulose given twice daily at 2 mg each dose along with sub-Q's would do the trick..It did seem to work. He was pooping a bit more pudding stuff.
I do want to say that his R Vet is awesome. She wanted DAILY updates on him, and even returned my calls after 9PM... she is so good...She did tell me that IBD with Constipation is not very common.. We agreed that Artie needed an ultrasound soon.. to see what was happening.. at this point she did mention possible lymphoma.. it was not something I did not hear before..so I made an appointment with the specialist for a visit along with an ultrasound.
(Continued on next post because this is so long)
Artie is still with us..
I am going to break up this thread with a couple of postings because it is lengthy.
He has not been diagnosed with lymphoma. He does seem to have a lot of issues as of this moment.
I will list them as they currently are:
IBD (does not get diarrhea--gets constipated)
diagnosed last week with a neurological motility issue with his bowels,
constipation, and a
Grade IV heart murmur which was a functional one on his echo about 4 years ago.
Dental issues-- currently gingivitis
He is also allergic to chicken--vomits immediately after eating it..
Artie sees a regular Vet and a Specialist at the hospital.
He has had 3 IBD flares since this summer. He loses weight, inappetance, and gets constipation. He never seems to regain the weight he loses.
His daily medication was prednisolone, miralax, cisapride, provable probiotic, and cerenia during a flare.
At his last Vet Visit he was at 10.3 lbs. The specialist said she did not want him to lose any more weight. That was in late October.
I noticed him cutting back a bit on his food but did not think that much. I noticed he was down to 10.2 lbs, but that did not seem bad to me..
On Dec 1, he had an annual appointment with his Regular Vet. This is a new Vet because my awesome Vet moved to a different practice which is closer to her home, but so far from mine. This new Vet is really great--young, but so caring, compassionate, nice...
She (I will refer to her as R. Vet) found his weight at 9.9 lbs.. a big weight loss
She suggested I contact Specialist (S Vet)..
S Vet ordered Cerenia to be taken daily forever...
On Dec 10, I noticed he was really constipated. He tried several times to go and could not. His weight was around 10.1.. Took him to RVet the next day, who palpated him and found constipation. She gave him an enema, and also hydrated him sub-q's because she did not want him to be depleted of fluids..
He really messed out a lot.. all over his carrier, him and the bathroom where his litter box is. I could not contain him because he goes nuts in a closed room, even when I am in there. I took all my spare towels out and covered everything I could, still I had dribbles and pools all over. I have laminate in the great room, so that was good. I covered my bed with a sheet, and he did sleep with me..
Dec 12, His appetite went downhill again, and he was lethargic.. back to the RVet..she hydrated him and gave him a dose of Valium to act as an appetite stimulant. Artie gets very antsy and paces when he takes Mirtazapine. She also did an x-ray because she still felt him to be constipated. I saw the x-ray.. He was still filled with poop in the proximal large bowel and into the small bowel.. no wonder he had not appetite.. the poop was backing up..and it seemed like calcifications --very strange...
She did not want to give him another enema because it was too high up.. she prescribed lactulose.
The Valium really did the trick with his appetite...
I filled the script the next day, when he did not poop..Lactulose twice a day, 1-2 mg...
The R Vet even called the S Vet to update her about Artie.. The S Vet seemed to think the lactulose would push things out.. and she doubled the dose of cisapride..three times a day
He pooped small pudding poop for a couple of days..
Dec 17, he seemed off again.. appetite bad, and not much poop coming out.. The
R Vet wanted to see him again.. She felt that with the lactulose given twice daily at 2 mg each dose along with sub-Q's would do the trick..It did seem to work. He was pooping a bit more pudding stuff.
I do want to say that his R Vet is awesome. She wanted DAILY updates on him, and even returned my calls after 9PM... she is so good...She did tell me that IBD with Constipation is not very common.. We agreed that Artie needed an ultrasound soon.. to see what was happening.. at this point she did mention possible lymphoma.. it was not something I did not hear before..so I made an appointment with the specialist for a visit along with an ultrasound.
(Continued on next post because this is so long)
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