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Hopefully when ImVet returns, they can suggest a better pred dose or schedule that balances the munchies against the behavior disturbances.
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Geoffrey Small Cell Lymphoma
- Thread starter artiemom
- Start Date
artiemom
, any updates? Is he pooping daily now? Have you talked to the IM Vet since his return from vacation? It's been almost a week since you've posted!- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #303
I thought you guys maybe tired of my shining.. Sorry...
Geoffrey had an urgent appointment with IMVet, on Wednesday. He had not peed for over 24 hours. He had pooped but no pee.. and still lethargic.. eating well.. but no pee. I spoke with ImVet, late Tuesday, while he was still on vacation. I got a phone call at 9:30am, saying to come in at 11 am... before Dr B's day started. He wanted to give him a good exam...
CBC, Chemistry panel and urinalysis all done.
I got the results from Dr B, at around 4pm. Geoffrey was spilling some glucose into his urine.. His blood glucose was high--but they are attributing it to being so terrified--because he was.. more than usual.. He shut down.
All of his kidney functions were normal..
Dr B did hear a heart murmur-- which he heard 2 years ago, but not since..
It seems Geoffrey is getting more and more things happening to him..
Dr B wants him to have an echocardiogram, to evaluate the murmur.
As far as the glucose in the urine... The plan is to wean him off the prednisolone and see how he does. So that is what we are doing.. All his lethargy, weight gain, increased appetite, increased urine output all began when he started the steroid.
While it stopped him from vomiting, it has not done any good to the rest of his body...
His poops are now every other day. dam.. I am giving him laxatone for it. I was giving him miralax on off days.. I remember a very knowledgeable volunteer, when I was volunteering at the humane society, emphatically disagree about giving miralax to cats. She said it caused heart arrhythmias.. I did not believe it st the time, but I looked it up, and there is a correlation, very vague, but there is one. I am stopping the miralax to see if there is any affect.
After I got off the phone with Dr B.. Geoffrey peed.. then he did not stop--4 more times before I went to bed. He has been ok since then.
The last doses of prednisolone are in progress; currently at 2 mg every other day for 3 doses.. then he stops.. fingers crossed about vomiting..
Since we began weaning him of the steroid, Geoffrey's old personality has returned.. He talking, yelling at me, alert, climbing on my sofa, on the back of the sofa, on the kitchen counter, and even played, yesterday and this morning..
It is as if I have my baby back.
Dr B cannot understand it. He said he has not seen a cat which has had this negative reaction to prednisolone.
Geoffrey's appetite has decreased.. I can tell he has lost a bit of chubbiness.
I am hoping that by discontinuing the miralax, it may have a positive effect on his murmur. finger crossed.
~~~
I spent 2-3 days thinking about putting him through the echocardiogram. Honestly, it is expensive; and it will lead to more meds, and cardiology appointments. I cannot put him through all of this.. I cannot afford it. I cannot torture him with all of this. If you saw how he was trying to get him into the carrier, how he shut down and pushed up against the back of the carrier, how terrified he was.. how the tech could not get him out of the carrier.. He was so hunkered down.
This is not My Geoffrey. My Geoffrey was a scared, but happy, alert, inquisitive kitty.. even at the Vets. He looked around, and wanted to inspect things. He was not terrified. This time he was. He has had so many bad things happen to him, he is afraid..
It is not as if his diagnosis of small cell lymphoma has a cure.. it does not.. The most we can hop for is remission; for a while.. Looking things up: SCL cats usually live 2-3 years.. maybe 4, if you are very lucky.. Geoffrey is only 7.5 years old.
He has gone through so much in such a short amount of time. He has a death sentence.. no matter which way you see it..
Cancer is a killer,, there is no cure for it.. I cannot torture him with more testing, Vets, medications..
It seems as if he is very sensitive to all medications.. he gets the worst side effects from them.. I cannot keep calling the Vet, running in there, because Geoffrey is sick-- only to add more medications to his daily life.. Nope..
Geoffry is already afraid of me.. he is already running away from me.. Medicating him has changed our relationship, dramatically, and changed his personality. No.. I cannot do this to my baby.. It is not curing him. There is no cure..
Yes, I am continuing the Chlorambucil.. and if I need a different. lower dose of steroid, ok..and anything for the cancer... . I can do that.. but diabetes??
I will not be able to switch him from free feeding to timed feeding.. I will not be able to test his blood sugar.. I saw my cousin having to do that to their lab. It took 2 people. I do not know how I can manage a stick and then an insulin shot... he will be constantly hiding under my bed, and be so afraid of me.. his life will revolve around badness... My heart hurts already.. I cannot deal with much more... seeing him suffer, and hate me.. really hurts.. especially knowing I am going through the motions because there is no cure.
This is the way my mind is thinking, right now...... I do not know if I will change my mind..
I do know that I cannot afford all of this.. I do have insurance.. But I still have to pay upfront. I get reimbursed, but, between the deductible and copayment, it is still expensive.. I do not have that kind of money. I am just making it as it is. I am taking money from my savings, right now..
I remember Artie.. and what I put that poor thing through. I felt so bad about having his daily life revolve around medications.. no joy, just poking.. I apologized to him; making a vow that I would never put another cat through all that I did for Artie.. I was afraid of losing my soul-kitty.. of live without my soul-kitty...
Now I am kind of at the crossroads with Geoffrey.. Mentally, he is a little boy.. a sick little boy. He does not understand. Right now, ALL he knows is fear and pain from me.. I saw how the prednisolone affected his personality. I can only guess how horrible he felt.. Now I am seeing the change back to my little boy.. It is incredible how much he has changed... The drug did it to him..
Now, he is looking out the window, at the flying seagulls. And he watched TV.. He is talking to me, wakes me up in the morning.. follows me to bed, immediately jumping on the bed.. back to lying on top of my printer, waking me up with her butts.. purring, and purring, HIs facial expression is so much more alert--not in pain.. he is playing..
All of this was missing, once he began the steroid..
I just pray he does not go back to vomiting..
Any thoughts, I appreciate them...
((hugs))
Geoffrey had an urgent appointment with IMVet, on Wednesday. He had not peed for over 24 hours. He had pooped but no pee.. and still lethargic.. eating well.. but no pee. I spoke with ImVet, late Tuesday, while he was still on vacation. I got a phone call at 9:30am, saying to come in at 11 am... before Dr B's day started. He wanted to give him a good exam...
CBC, Chemistry panel and urinalysis all done.
I got the results from Dr B, at around 4pm. Geoffrey was spilling some glucose into his urine.. His blood glucose was high--but they are attributing it to being so terrified--because he was.. more than usual.. He shut down.
All of his kidney functions were normal..
Dr B did hear a heart murmur-- which he heard 2 years ago, but not since..
It seems Geoffrey is getting more and more things happening to him..
Dr B wants him to have an echocardiogram, to evaluate the murmur.
As far as the glucose in the urine... The plan is to wean him off the prednisolone and see how he does. So that is what we are doing.. All his lethargy, weight gain, increased appetite, increased urine output all began when he started the steroid.
While it stopped him from vomiting, it has not done any good to the rest of his body...
His poops are now every other day. dam.. I am giving him laxatone for it. I was giving him miralax on off days.. I remember a very knowledgeable volunteer, when I was volunteering at the humane society, emphatically disagree about giving miralax to cats. She said it caused heart arrhythmias.. I did not believe it st the time, but I looked it up, and there is a correlation, very vague, but there is one. I am stopping the miralax to see if there is any affect.
After I got off the phone with Dr B.. Geoffrey peed.. then he did not stop--4 more times before I went to bed. He has been ok since then.
The last doses of prednisolone are in progress; currently at 2 mg every other day for 3 doses.. then he stops.. fingers crossed about vomiting..
Since we began weaning him of the steroid, Geoffrey's old personality has returned.. He talking, yelling at me, alert, climbing on my sofa, on the back of the sofa, on the kitchen counter, and even played, yesterday and this morning..
It is as if I have my baby back.
Dr B cannot understand it. He said he has not seen a cat which has had this negative reaction to prednisolone.
Geoffrey's appetite has decreased.. I can tell he has lost a bit of chubbiness.
I am hoping that by discontinuing the miralax, it may have a positive effect on his murmur. finger crossed.
~~~
I spent 2-3 days thinking about putting him through the echocardiogram. Honestly, it is expensive; and it will lead to more meds, and cardiology appointments. I cannot put him through all of this.. I cannot afford it. I cannot torture him with all of this. If you saw how he was trying to get him into the carrier, how he shut down and pushed up against the back of the carrier, how terrified he was.. how the tech could not get him out of the carrier.. He was so hunkered down.
This is not My Geoffrey. My Geoffrey was a scared, but happy, alert, inquisitive kitty.. even at the Vets. He looked around, and wanted to inspect things. He was not terrified. This time he was. He has had so many bad things happen to him, he is afraid..
It is not as if his diagnosis of small cell lymphoma has a cure.. it does not.. The most we can hop for is remission; for a while.. Looking things up: SCL cats usually live 2-3 years.. maybe 4, if you are very lucky.. Geoffrey is only 7.5 years old.
He has gone through so much in such a short amount of time. He has a death sentence.. no matter which way you see it..
Cancer is a killer,, there is no cure for it.. I cannot torture him with more testing, Vets, medications..
It seems as if he is very sensitive to all medications.. he gets the worst side effects from them.. I cannot keep calling the Vet, running in there, because Geoffrey is sick-- only to add more medications to his daily life.. Nope..
Geoffry is already afraid of me.. he is already running away from me.. Medicating him has changed our relationship, dramatically, and changed his personality. No.. I cannot do this to my baby.. It is not curing him. There is no cure..
Yes, I am continuing the Chlorambucil.. and if I need a different. lower dose of steroid, ok..and anything for the cancer... . I can do that.. but diabetes??
I will not be able to switch him from free feeding to timed feeding.. I will not be able to test his blood sugar.. I saw my cousin having to do that to their lab. It took 2 people. I do not know how I can manage a stick and then an insulin shot... he will be constantly hiding under my bed, and be so afraid of me.. his life will revolve around badness... My heart hurts already.. I cannot deal with much more... seeing him suffer, and hate me.. really hurts.. especially knowing I am going through the motions because there is no cure.
This is the way my mind is thinking, right now...... I do not know if I will change my mind..
I do know that I cannot afford all of this.. I do have insurance.. But I still have to pay upfront. I get reimbursed, but, between the deductible and copayment, it is still expensive.. I do not have that kind of money. I am just making it as it is. I am taking money from my savings, right now..
I remember Artie.. and what I put that poor thing through. I felt so bad about having his daily life revolve around medications.. no joy, just poking.. I apologized to him; making a vow that I would never put another cat through all that I did for Artie.. I was afraid of losing my soul-kitty.. of live without my soul-kitty...
Now I am kind of at the crossroads with Geoffrey.. Mentally, he is a little boy.. a sick little boy. He does not understand. Right now, ALL he knows is fear and pain from me.. I saw how the prednisolone affected his personality. I can only guess how horrible he felt.. Now I am seeing the change back to my little boy.. It is incredible how much he has changed... The drug did it to him..
Now, he is looking out the window, at the flying seagulls. And he watched TV.. He is talking to me, wakes me up in the morning.. follows me to bed, immediately jumping on the bed.. back to lying on top of my printer, waking me up with her butts.. purring, and purring, HIs facial expression is so much more alert--not in pain.. he is playing..
All of this was missing, once he began the steroid..
I just pray he does not go back to vomiting..
Any thoughts, I appreciate them...
((hugs))
I know every cat is different but sometimes Leroy doesn't pee every 24 hours. He's been pooping every other day lately, mostly normal but sometimes pudding, which Dr. B isn't concerned about BUT Leroy has less health issues than Geoffrey.
The pred can cause diabetes-like symptoms so not too surprising that glucose was found in the urine. Diabetes is very treatable but maybe difficult for some cats like Geoffrey. Dr. B didn't definitively diagnose Geoffrey with diabetes, did he? If not, I wouldn't start worrying about that.
Whatever you decide for Geoffrey, TCS is here to support you
The pred can cause diabetes-like symptoms so not too surprising that glucose was found in the urine. Diabetes is very treatable but maybe difficult for some cats like Geoffrey. Dr. B didn't definitively diagnose Geoffrey with diabetes, did he? If not, I wouldn't start worrying about that.
Whatever you decide for Geoffrey, TCS is here to support you
I certainly understand where you are coming from. If you were not absolutely told that he has diabetes, I would not go there yet. As an aside, I have given insulin to rescued semi-ferals (both lived inside as pets by then). It is not as hard as you think, if it were to come up as an issue. It could be because of his stress that the sugar spiked.
I do have a cat who poops every other day and the vet has told me that it is fine as long as it is EOD. It may depend on what you are looking at as health concerns in Geoffrey's case.
Out here, echocardiograms are about $500. For my HCM guy, it amounts to one visit for the ECG. An early case of any heart condition may not result in more meds, but I can understand your reasoning about continuing on this road of diagnosing everything that crops up.
Skip the Miralax and continue to wean off the pred, at this point, and see where it goes.
At least Geoffrey seems happy and comfortable again.
I do have a cat who poops every other day and the vet has told me that it is fine as long as it is EOD. It may depend on what you are looking at as health concerns in Geoffrey's case.
Out here, echocardiograms are about $500. For my HCM guy, it amounts to one visit for the ECG. An early case of any heart condition may not result in more meds, but I can understand your reasoning about continuing on this road of diagnosing everything that crops up.
Skip the Miralax and continue to wean off the pred, at this point, and see where it goes.
At least Geoffrey seems happy and comfortable again.
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Can Geoffrey have egg yolk (chicken ingredients)? If he likes egg yolk, you can get egg yolk powder to put in his meals and that will help keep the poop moving. If he doesn’t like egg yolk, pumpkin works a lot like Miralax. Except that not all cats like pumpkin and you will need more pumpkin than you did with Miralax.
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If G were mine, (this is JMO) I would hold off on the echo unless they feel the murmur is louder or more suspicious than before. Did they grade it? If they haven't heard it for two years....his body has been through a lot in a short amount of time. IDK if slight murmurs can come and go with time or if medications can intensify them. Did they mention an echo when they heard the murmur 2 years ago? My female has a 2/6, and an echo was never mentioned...
It just seems like he's doing so well clinically! He's acting himself, and enjoying you and his life again. It's so good to hear he's going back to his old self. Prayers that he will continue to rally
It just seems like he's doing so well clinically! He's acting himself, and enjoying you and his life again. It's so good to hear he's going back to his old self. Prayers that he will continue to rally
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #308
Thank you...
To answer your questions, comments:
No, Dr B did not definitely diagnose Geoffrey with diabetes. It is on the back burner. This is another reason why we are discontinuing the prednisolone; to see if the spilling of urine is from the prednisolone. He has another blood and urinalysis in a few weeks.
I am sure Geoffrey is allergic to chicken. I do have egg yolk lecithin in the house; but I am afraid of giving it to him.
As far as mixing pumpkin into his food, I am afraid of creating a food aversion. Right now, he is exclusively eating rabbit.
I do too want him to stop it completely. He is one of the few cats who can smell miralax in the food.
The murmur was classified as a 2/6. I am still wondering if it could have been steroid induced or even miralax induced.. or if it was because he was so terrified. Strange that it comes and goes. Dr B has been the only Vet to hear it. I do not go by the rescue's vet-- do not trust them as they perform quick ,cheap evaluations. I had 2 of my own vets examine him, and they never heard it.. I think with all that is going on with Geoffrey, that Dr B feels it is necessary to investigate it.
I cannot afford an echo for many months. I have been putting off a major service on my car, because of cost. I cannot put it off any longer. I will see how Geoffrey does on his next blood test & urinalysis.
Thank you all for your thoughts..
I am still open to all...
I may try a bit of the pumpkin.. I have a jar of baby squash in the house.. I may try it tomorrow..
Geoffrey ate too much and too fast at today's breakfast. He spit up a teaspoon of the wet food, into his plate and on the floor.. not worried. But I am not upsetting his tummy anymore.. He is resting.. will be starting my day soon..
My day starts with me: going in to make my bed-Geoffrey calling me, jumping on his brushing station. I stop making my bed, begin to brush him. When he has had enough; he jumps down. Then I finish making my bed. Then he wants more brushing.. or if he expects medication, he is under the bed..
Then I wash the dishes, peek to see if Geoffrey is out.. either brush him some more or give him medication. Then I sweep, vacuum, shower.. and go out...
I leave food out for him.. Since he ate so much for breakfast, I will leave out a bit of dry, to nibble on.
We have a routine.. Sometimes, if I am just lazy, I lie on the bed and cuddle with my baby.. He loves it.
To answer your questions, comments:
No, Dr B did not definitely diagnose Geoffrey with diabetes. It is on the back burner. This is another reason why we are discontinuing the prednisolone; to see if the spilling of urine is from the prednisolone. He has another blood and urinalysis in a few weeks.
I am sure Geoffrey is allergic to chicken. I do have egg yolk lecithin in the house; but I am afraid of giving it to him.
As far as mixing pumpkin into his food, I am afraid of creating a food aversion. Right now, he is exclusively eating rabbit.
I do too want him to stop it completely. He is one of the few cats who can smell miralax in the food.
The murmur was classified as a 2/6. I am still wondering if it could have been steroid induced or even miralax induced.. or if it was because he was so terrified. Strange that it comes and goes. Dr B has been the only Vet to hear it. I do not go by the rescue's vet-- do not trust them as they perform quick ,cheap evaluations. I had 2 of my own vets examine him, and they never heard it.. I think with all that is going on with Geoffrey, that Dr B feels it is necessary to investigate it.
I cannot afford an echo for many months. I have been putting off a major service on my car, because of cost. I cannot put it off any longer. I will see how Geoffrey does on his next blood test & urinalysis.
Thank you all for your thoughts..
I am still open to all...
I may try a bit of the pumpkin.. I have a jar of baby squash in the house.. I may try it tomorrow..
Geoffrey ate too much and too fast at today's breakfast. He spit up a teaspoon of the wet food, into his plate and on the floor.. not worried. But I am not upsetting his tummy anymore.. He is resting.. will be starting my day soon..
My day starts with me: going in to make my bed-Geoffrey calling me, jumping on his brushing station. I stop making my bed, begin to brush him. When he has had enough; he jumps down. Then I finish making my bed. Then he wants more brushing.. or if he expects medication, he is under the bed..
Then I wash the dishes, peek to see if Geoffrey is out.. either brush him some more or give him medication. Then I sweep, vacuum, shower.. and go out...
I leave food out for him.. Since he ate so much for breakfast, I will leave out a bit of dry, to nibble on.
We have a routine.. Sometimes, if I am just lazy, I lie on the bed and cuddle with my baby.. He loves it.
artiemom
sending hugs and love to you and geoffrey
Thanks for the update. So happy you're getting the old Geoffrey back, and fingers crossed that he doesn't start vomiting with the decreased Pred.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #313
F
Forry
You are so kind to say that... 
Geoffrey is being himself.. fingers crossed, that continues.
Thank you everyone!
He had 1/2 of a 5 oz can this morning; did the tiny spit up.. gave him one of his last 3 doses of pred, and his laxatone. He is contentedly sleeping in his corner... sweet boy... After playing this morning, cuddling with me--several times this morning.
I cannot get enough of his cuddles, and purrs.. I just cannot. I guess I am wanting to make up for lost time.. I am on my bed a lot, because that is where we cuddle.
I guess my love for him, is a bit too much. I think of him as my 'baby boy'--- not healthy.. but... Geoffrey is so important to me.. perhaps too important.. It breaks my heart to see him sick.
. Now that he is acting better, I am feeling better...
That is not a normal thing... I guess I am abnormal... oh well....
Thanks again..
Geoffrey is being himself.. fingers crossed, that continues.
Thank you everyone!
He had 1/2 of a 5 oz can this morning; did the tiny spit up.. gave him one of his last 3 doses of pred, and his laxatone. He is contentedly sleeping in his corner... sweet boy... After playing this morning, cuddling with me--several times this morning.
I cannot get enough of his cuddles, and purrs.. I just cannot. I guess I am wanting to make up for lost time.. I am on my bed a lot, because that is where we cuddle.
I guess my love for him, is a bit too much. I think of him as my 'baby boy'--- not healthy.. but... Geoffrey is so important to me.. perhaps too important.. It breaks my heart to see him sick.
. Now that he is acting better, I am feeling better... That is not a normal thing... I guess I am abnormal... oh well....
Thanks again..
I don't think that's abnormalI guess my love for him, is a bit too much. I think of him as my 'baby boy'--- not healthy.. but... Geoffrey is so important to me.. perhaps too important.. It breaks my heart to see him sick.
That is not a normal thing... I guess I am abnormal... oh well....
. I think of my guys as my babies too. Never had any human babies so they take the place of that I guess. And of course when they are sick it breaks my heart too because I don't know what is wrong or how to help them. And then when they feel better I do too! It's natural. What wouldn't be healthy is if you never got out and did anything, which you clearly do.
Yep, me too with my boy
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I completely understand since I think we all have some type of routine with our cat(s). I think it's not only good for us but our cats too.If that is not a normal thing then I think most of us are abnormal.
It's perfectly normal to me and I believe your heart is in the right place.
Sending more special thoughts and prayers for Geoffrey.
Well Dr B heard Emma's barely audible "intermittent, soft grade 1" heart murmur right away. He was giving her a check up and listened to her heart. For far too long (the motion sensor lights in the room turned off 
) which I knew meant something. That tells you how experience a vet he is to be able to hear that when other vets do not. A cardiologist confirmed the grade 1 murmur with an echo.
I'm sure Dr. B has a plan for Geoffrey but if it's all too much / too expensive, talk to him. Or J since she always has a listening ear and knows how to put clients at ease.
) which I knew meant something. That tells you how experience a vet he is to be able to hear that when other vets do not. A cardiologist confirmed the grade 1 murmur with an echo.I'm sure Dr. B has a plan for Geoffrey but if it's all too much / too expensive, talk to him. Or J since she always has a listening ear and knows how to put clients at ease.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #318
Thank you so so much!!Well Dr B heard Emma's barely audible "intermittent, soft grade 1" heart murmur right away. He was giving her a check up and listened to her heart. For far too long (the motion sensor lights in the room turned off
I'm sure Dr. B has a plan for Geoffrey but if it's all too much / too expensive, talk to him. Or J since she always has a listening ear and knows how to put clients at ease.
You described things so well. I was imagining the exam room with you... when the sensor lights go off!! 
Yes, I will explain about the expenses.. Dr B already told me that he does not want to waste my money..
I will wait until next week to discuss it.
I asked J/Dr B in my update today about a possible association of miralax with cardiac issues..
Dr B had J consult with a cardiologist about this. J went one better---She consulted with 2 !!!! She is amazing!!
to quote her message to me:
"" I connected with 2 of the cardiologists – they both agreed and said they know of no correlation and cannot think of a pathophysiologic reason for these things to be correlated (so that’s good!) """
So sorry to hear Geoffrey isn't feeling well.
I haven't read all sixteen pages of your thread, but I think I saw that G is getting Chlorambucil every other day?
I have a kitty with SCL, and that's what his vet started him on (I can't remember if it was every other day or every 3 days) as it seems to be the default. I could tell it made him feel bad. Not awful, but lousy. I didn't want that for him. I found another vet who was familiar with the pulsed protocol and was willing to go that route, and I'm so thankful that I did. My boy tolerated the higher dose just as well as the lower dose, but instead of constantly feeling crappy from chemo, he had 2-3 days where he didn't feel great, followed by nearly two weeks without noticeable side effects. His quality of life was so much better, and he eventually went into remission which lasted about a year. During that time he was on pred only, no chemo. Unfortunately we've recently had to restart him on chlorambucil, and the odds of a second remission are low so he'll likely stay on it indefinitely, but we're hoping for the best. Earlier this month I paid approx $80 (including shipping) for twenty 6mg chlorambucil mini-tabs from Stokes Pharmacy, which will last us 9-10 months.
tldr: pulsed dosing was 1000% the better option for my cat. If G's quality of life is being impacted by fear of being medicated, switching from dosing every other day to one every two weeks could make a huge difference to him, if he doesn't have any counterindications for the pulsed dosing schedule.
Another thing that made a big difference to us was getting his prednisolone in medicated chew form from BCP Vet Pharmacy. He gets his before bed and he literally thinks it's a treat. Zero stress for either of us! BCP will send you blank chews (unmedicated) in the different flavors so you can see what flavor (if any) your kitty likes before you actually order a prescription. (Two of my cats love them, one does not.) I absolutely recommend giving them a try if G is going to continue on pred in some dose.
Hang in there! It's tough but you're doing your best and G is lucky to have an owner who loves him so much.
I haven't read all sixteen pages of your thread, but I think I saw that G is getting Chlorambucil every other day?
I have a kitty with SCL, and that's what his vet started him on (I can't remember if it was every other day or every 3 days) as it seems to be the default. I could tell it made him feel bad. Not awful, but lousy. I didn't want that for him. I found another vet who was familiar with the pulsed protocol and was willing to go that route, and I'm so thankful that I did. My boy tolerated the higher dose just as well as the lower dose, but instead of constantly feeling crappy from chemo, he had 2-3 days where he didn't feel great, followed by nearly two weeks without noticeable side effects. His quality of life was so much better, and he eventually went into remission which lasted about a year. During that time he was on pred only, no chemo. Unfortunately we've recently had to restart him on chlorambucil, and the odds of a second remission are low so he'll likely stay on it indefinitely, but we're hoping for the best. Earlier this month I paid approx $80 (including shipping) for twenty 6mg chlorambucil mini-tabs from Stokes Pharmacy, which will last us 9-10 months.
tldr: pulsed dosing was 1000% the better option for my cat. If G's quality of life is being impacted by fear of being medicated, switching from dosing every other day to one every two weeks could make a huge difference to him, if he doesn't have any counterindications for the pulsed dosing schedule.
Another thing that made a big difference to us was getting his prednisolone in medicated chew form from BCP Vet Pharmacy. He gets his before bed and he literally thinks it's a treat. Zero stress for either of us! BCP will send you blank chews (unmedicated) in the different flavors so you can see what flavor (if any) your kitty likes before you actually order a prescription. (Two of my cats love them, one does not.) I absolutely recommend giving them a try if G is going to continue on pred in some dose.
Hang in there! It's tough but you're doing your best and G is lucky to have an owner who loves him so much.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #320
S
susan1430
You are so kind to respond to this.. Thank you so much for sharing your information. I sincerely wish the best for you and your kitty---btw, what is his name? He is so lucky to have a caregiver, as loving as you are!
Yes, I asked about the pulsed dosing. Dr B is not a fan of it.. I am not pushing the issue.
Good tip about compounding the prednisolone. I tried the chew treat in a fish flavor, for the chlorambucil. It was a no go..
I do not think Geoffrey likes the chewy treats. it reminds me of Silly Putty!! or gum..
And It is good to know of another compounding pharmacy. I am using Wedgewood, right now. There used to be a local humane compounding pharmacy; but that closed.
Again, my thread is so long. I am very appreciative of TCS, Anne for allowing me to have this going. I hope it may help someone, in addition to being a source of comfort for me.. I love the members here. I have made several good friends, just from this site.
I can tell the decreased dose of Pred is affecting G's appetite. He is not eating as much.. and I can see some lip smacking.. not enough for vomiting, but I am expecting it.. sigh.
I think we just have to find the correct dose of Pred for him. It is going to be trial and error... dam..
I still feel that he should have a small dose of it, weekly.. weather every 2 or 3rd day.
Again... thank you so much for replying.. ((hugs)). and
to you and your baby...
Yes, I asked about the pulsed dosing. Dr B is not a fan of it.. I am not pushing the issue.
Good tip about compounding the prednisolone. I tried the chew treat in a fish flavor, for the chlorambucil. It was a no go..
I do not think Geoffrey likes the chewy treats. it reminds me of Silly Putty!! or gum..
And It is good to know of another compounding pharmacy. I am using Wedgewood, right now. There used to be a local humane compounding pharmacy; but that closed.
Again, my thread is so long. I am very appreciative of TCS, Anne for allowing me to have this going. I hope it may help someone, in addition to being a source of comfort for me.. I love the members here. I have made several good friends, just from this site.
I can tell the decreased dose of Pred is affecting G's appetite. He is not eating as much.. and I can see some lip smacking.. not enough for vomiting, but I am expecting it.. sigh.
I think we just have to find the correct dose of Pred for him. It is going to be trial and error... dam..
I still feel that he should have a small dose of it, weekly.. weather every 2 or 3rd day.
Again... thank you so much for replying.. ((hugs)). and
to you and your baby...
