Cat won't eat - despite Cerenia and mirtazapine?

[cat nap]

Mao started having more a bit more difficulty breathing last when we were discussing if we should bring him in. Then he went upstairs and started breathing open-mouth. We rushed him to the ER vet and they put him in the oxygen cage. X-ray revealed pleural effusion (fluid outside the lungs) and blood test confirmed heart disease/failure.

He spent the night in the oxygen cage and was given furosemide doses all night (since his creatinine value was now actually just in the upper normal range). Although his breathing seemed to stabilize within the oxygen cage, if they took him out of it, it would go up again which would seem to indicate the furosemide is not working. Furosemide does not tend to work very well for fluid outside the lungs; it is usually better for fluid inside the lungs.

I am absolutely heartbroken and destroyed. I'm mad, I'm defeated - all of the last week was in vain. Yesterday he got so much better; he ate a full 250 calories on his on, he wanted to go outside, he moved around and cuddled with us - it seemed we were really turning a corned on the pancreatitis. The pain and anger I feel right now I can't even. We have an appointment this evening to help him cross over; I always wanted him to cross over here at home - in the place that had been his whole world since he was just a little kitten and that has now been taken from him since it'll happen in the cold setting of the clinic. He just doesn't deserve this; he didn't deserve any of this. He won't eat in the clinic; I left my vest with him last night and today we dropped off some of his favourite food and his favourite mat so that he can lay on something comforting and familiar in his final hours.

I am so sorry to hear this terrible news, about your Mao,... T trishia42

The only good thing is that Mao was able to come home, and spend those extra days with you, to cuddle, purr, and sleep in his own place. I just cannot understand how everything went so fast, and took such downturns.

It's good that you were able to leave your vest with Mao, and also able to drop off some of his favorite food and mat.
Mao knows that everything was tried for him.
He probably would have preferred to pass at home, too, but when our animals are so sick, we often do not have the choice.
If he had an illness, that was slower moving, and causing him to not eat,...then perhaps you could plan for it...but not with this.

When our animals are so sick, and struggling, it probably does not matter to them, in what location they pass.
It's just good that you are able to be with him,...since sometimes people cannot be.

(my sister could never be in the same room when any of our animals passed, she would usually sit in the car, or stay home and say goodbye beforehand. It was too difficult for her.)

I can't help but feel that although I understand there was an underlying heart condition, that the administration of IV fluids while he was there for three nights earlier this week precipitated these events. When we visited on Monday, I saw the number at 23 mL/min, which would be 552 mL daily and according to things I see on the internet, it seems like too much to me. The vet that was monitoring then say they started at 2x the maintenance volume which they had decreased to 1.5x on Tuesday - it was that afternoon that they halted the fluids due to his breathing. Although the x-ray at that point did not reveal fluids, it's pretty clear it's what had started happening. We were also instructed to give him fluids on Thursday (we were told 100-200), but we only did 50 mL and I still feel terrible about it.

I'm not ready - I don't know how I will handle it tonight at all. My husband is also leaving the country for five days so it'll just be me in our empty house - angry, broken, defeated and just plain broken.

Thank you so much for all the support you have shown me during this past week - it has been the worse of my life and this will surely be the worse day (probably only close to the day we found our April passed away in our home one morning, not even three months ago).

I wish that this entire week, could have a 'do-over'...but sadly that's not the way things ever can go.

I would be entirely angry and defeated, too, and having all sorts of questions...as to why the heart issue was not picked up sooner.
I don't understand that part at all.
With so many vets, and tests, how could that have been missed.

Unfortunately, for now, you have to concentrate all your Love and Strength on your Mao, and helping him to cross over.
Anger will help you later, but not now.
Now just being there for your Mao, and telling him all the things...that he already knows...will help.
Tell him about how strong and brave he is, how great of a cat, and how when he sees his sister, then they can both act all good, or however they used to act.

This is so unfair, and so very sad.
I wish I had better words, to help,...but sadly I don't

Sending you only Thoughts of Strength, Clarity and Peace.
Sending your Mao...thoughts of Love, and Peace, too.

 

[cat nap]

Hi T trishia42 ...just thinking of your Mao, and you today.
Sending you more Thoughts of Strength and Peace.
Just know that others here, reading this, are thinking of you all, too.

 

[trishia42]

So this update is long overdue, but it's been a wild ride these last few weeks with a lot of ups and downs and I never knew how it was really going to go.

We still have a MaoMao with us.

The day I last posted, we went by the ER that night with heavy hearts as I carried his favourite blanket with me and a note to leave with him. When we got there, they put him in a room with us and told us to keep the oxygen tube near his face but he wanted to walk around and explore so the vet said to take it off and let them know if anything was wrong... Well, we put down a plate of food and he ate ALL of it. Then he kept wanting to explore the room and get pets from us - completely normal acting cat. The vet said it was a "different cat than she saw this morning"; obviously, this changed things drastically. So we paid to have him in the oxygen tank overnight again and for them to keep him and monitor him the next day - I went and saw him three times throughout the day just so he would know he was not alone and I got to take him home a day after.

It's been a LONG road recovering; we think after the fluid overload his pancreatitis came back some so we had to assist-feed for more than a week until he finally started eating by himself while been on a few medications. We also got a cardiac consult, and although he has mild heart disease, it was nothing crazy and most likely not the main factor that caused the fluid overload. A LOT went wrong at that ER and we were given a lot of wrong information often - including the night where we almost put him down since it turns out there wasn't enough fluid around his lungs to matter, it was the one inside and the diuretic was slowly taking care of that; I'm still so angry and so confused.

I'm not sure for how long we will have him - most days seem good; he has been eating by himself for weeks, and has been off all of the medications for at least two weeks. He likes to be around us, still plays a bit, enjoys the sunny deck and absolutely loves sleeping on our arms and our pillow. I've caught him sleeping face-down a couple of times and that worries me since that's what my April started doing just a month or so before she left us. We just had to take him last Friday in because he peed on the floor 3 times last week and a UTI strip indicated blood but they didn't see anything in the urinalysis; we sent off for a culture but they think it could be just cystisis so hopefully it will resolve itself - although I can't imagine how stress at this point could have caused that when all the other events happened in May? We were supposed to do a blood test to see where we stand in terms of kidney and liver values but we delayed that now in case there is a infection that would increase these values.

Finding out what to feed him has become incredibly difficult. Obviously wet food, low-phosphorus but then you have the higher-protein commercial foods vs the k/d prescription foods. On the one hand, he's not a huge fan of the prescription foods, and I worry about some of the additives as well as the amount of carbs since maybe that has contributed to the pancreatitis. On the other hand, I also worry about the amount of protein at his later stage, which is likely to put more of a strain on his kidneys, as well as produce more uremic toxins into his blood which would make things worse. And then there's the debate about fat in felines and links to pancreatitis (newer research seems to indicate there's no link but some cats may be more sensitive). We've been going with a mix of things since we just don't really know where to go from here and the information and data online is not very abundant, and a lot of it is contradictory.

Sorry it took so long, but I was so afraid, so paranoid and it was just such a rollercoaster; I cried just writing this. **Thank you all again; every one of your comments meant the world.**

 

[Furballsmom]

Bless your heart, and his the little trooper
I'm so with you about the challenges of what to feed your boy, here too. If I could with him, I'd go home cooked /raw, might still even though he's utterly not a fan.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

That is such great news!