At Home Care For Pancreatitis

[4horses]

My cat has possible pancreatitis. Blood work was normal, snap test was positive. She throws up food even on cerenia. She is keeping water down. She is 12 years old.

I spent $400 at the vet yesterday. The vet wanted us to get an ultrasound ($450), but even then if she needs inpatient care, it will be thousands of dollars with no guarantee.

My plan is to keep her stable and put her down if no improvement in the next day or two.

We are going back to the vet this afternoon for fluids, more cerenia. Possible abdominal x rays to rule out obstruction.

Is ondansetron stronger than cerenia? As we could switch?

I want to try mirtazapine for appetite
Famotidine for gastric ulcers
Possibly discuss prednisolone/steroid injection?

I want to give her as much time to improve as possible before making the decision. She could have cancer- she has a mass on her tongue, supposedly non cancerous but we never tested. It shrinks with steroids but never really goes away. Possible eosinophilic granuloma was the diagnosis but we didn't biopsy.

She was fine last week. Suddenly got sick Sunday morning. I don't see how it could be cancer with such a sudden onset.

She can't survive long if she can't eat... I'm totally not prepared for this. I know 12 is old, but she's not that old.

 

[4horses]

Anyone?

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi! I am so sorry this happened!!
I can't speak to the meds that you're looking for answers for, but regarding eating, have you tried anything like Kitten Glop? There are recipes on the internet, you'd probably want one with goat milk...

 

[Furballsmom]

rubysmama susanm9006 do you have thoughts for the OP?

 

[rubysmama]

So sorry you're dealing with all this.

Unfortunately all I know about pancreatitis is that a friend's cat had it, and he was kept at the vets for a few days. They weren't hopeful, but he surprised them, and did pull through. He was younger, though. Probably 6 or 7. One thing that seemed to help was that his human parents went to visit him every night after work, which seemed to lift his mood.

Sending you healing vibes that she responds to the medications/treatment and starts eating and keeping it down again.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

I am so sorry to hear your cat is going through this,

My last kitty had pancreatitis. Cerenia did not work for her in regards to helping with nausea, and she also had bad reactions to it which I did not like to see. In discussion with our feline vet, we decided instead to use Anzemet for her nausea -- it works on different pathways (receptors) in the brain than cerenia. We used the injection format, as a subcutaneous shot.

 

[susanm9006]

I have never dealt with pancreatitis but certainly very sick kitties who didn’t feel like eating. I usually tempt them with plain chicken baby food thinned out with lactose free milk until it is soupy.

 

[Furballsmom]

This post, from another thread discussion, may help as well;
Please Help To Advise For Pancreatitis & Diabetes

 

[m2g2]

Sorry that you and your cat are going through this. My cat had an acute pancreatitis attack in Dec 2015 and still then he has struggled with chronic pancreatitis. It took a month to see real improvement during the acute phase. During that time his vet had him on pepcid, ondansetron, mirtzapine and subq fluids. Cerenia was not as effective as ondansetron for my cat. It took another month to slowly wean him off off the meds. Since then he has occasional bouts of pancreatitis but they have not been as severe nor as long lasting. During a flare he gets the same supportive meds as before. If you get the nausea under control, you may not need the mirtzapine. Mirtazapine makes my cat extremely vocal and restless so we give him a minimum effective dose.