AND...one consequence of steroids can be weight gain. If that's a concern at all, and if/when Betty can discontinue the pred, you may see a slight change downward in her weight. *Or not.* Hope you get that call soon! *Betty is just adorable on her scale!*
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11.12!
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I put a call into her specialist last week (while asking for a pred refill) and asked for a callback to discuss next steps. I’d love to start taking some of these meds away. I would feel a lot better about leaving her with a sitter if she only needed meds once a day.
Yeah. I know. And I’d rather reduce her pred or change her junky carby food than to restrict her calories any further. Let’s start with the doc call and see where he wants to go first.AND...one consequence of steroids can be weight gain. If that's a concern at all, and if/when Betty can discontinue the pred, you may see a slight change downward in her weight. *Or not.* Hope you get that call soon! *Betty is just adorable on her scale!*
Betty is incredible! I'm pretty sure that NO ONE on TCS has ever known another cat to be so amenable to taking meds and weighing in weekly. She deserves an award!Yeah. I know. And I’d rather reduce her pred or change her junky carby food than to restrict her calories any further. Let’s start with the doc call and see where he wants to go first.
She still approaches the scale wearily. But in the end, the promise of treats wins out over the momentary unpleasantness of having her butt lifted skyward to make sure she’s entirely on the scale. For a cat that takes meds twice a day and gets weighed once a week, she’s really a fantastic sport and teammate in both efforts.
She probably remembers when she wasn't feeling so well, and recognizes our medicine ritual as making her feel better. Plus she gets a little "cake frosting" with her meds and her med meals. And some booty (and belly if she's up for it) rubs too. And maybe she also remembers the two or three times I actually tried to wrestle a pill into her when she was insistent on the lick and flick as the unworkable alternative neither of us wants to return to. All in all, I make it an easy and enjoyable experience for her, and she is well rewarded each time. To be honest, even if I were to get her off her morning meds, I think I'd still wake up quarter to five for her and give her a yeast/fiber supplement and an every other day poobiotic just to keep the routine. We're usually both up at that hour anyway. Then we promptly climb back into bed afterwards for third sleep.Betty is incredible! I'm pretty sure that NO ONE on TCS has ever known another cat to be so amenable to taking meds and weighing in weekly. She deserves an award!
Yes on all of the above!
Yes, we do NOT want the shoyu on the fur!!!She’s so chill.
Paper towel beneath her claws for biscuit protection.
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Paper towel on top of her for sushi protection.
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And I do not want any bloody biscuits.Yes, we do NOT want the shoyu on the fur!!!
Absolutely PAWSitively not!
Pred is cheap though and I'd happily share the dust quarters with the dustbin if it does Betty well and gets her further along the way to her indepredenance day. 
Yup! Sounds really good and I hope Betty can do well on 1.25s.On the last call to the specialist's office to get her pred refilled, I asked for a doc callback. I just got the doc callback. I caught him up and he said, "it's been almost a year since we started pred and she's been doing this well on a lower dose for this long, might as well try to reduce the pred once more." So we're going to to try 1.25 mg once a day. He said, "give that a try for at least a month and call me again in a month." But he also said, "obviously, if she back-slides and has an episode or if her appetite craters too much, you can go back up to 2.5 mg." So we have a plan, and permission to abort and revert if it doesn't work. I just unpacked the remaining purple 2.5 mg's plus ondansetron and made up new ones with 1.25's. I championed that task like anerdpro with my jewelers glasses providing illumination and magnification and cutting open the capsules to unpack them. Half of each of those pred halves turned to dust upon cutting. If I don't get any better at quartering pred, this may not save me any money.
It's still going. And you don't need to read it all. Betty had a rough first year with me with suspected IBD and tooth resorption. Now she's doing so much better. Her treatment is ongoing. She's a freak of nature that shows up for her meds and willingly takes them every time and purrs all the while. She's the ultimate lap cat, and spends mornings and evenings in my lap. At bedtime, she snuggles up face to face with me.
I kinda got more than I bargained for health-wise. But then I definitely got more than I bargained for personality-wise. If I'm going to have another special needs cat, I could not have a better one than her.
Or even, "If I'm going to have another cat, I could not have a better one than her." Yes?It's still going. And you don't need to read it all. Betty had a rough first year with me with suspected IBD and tooth resorption. Now she's doing so much better. Her treatment is ongoing. She's a freak of nature that shows up for her meds and willingly takes them every time and purrs all the while. She's the ultimate lap cat, and spends mornings and evenings in my lap. At bedtime, she snuggles up face to face with me.
Yes, of course! She's a blessing regardless of her care and feeding.Or even, "If I'm going to have another cat, I could not have a better one than her." Yes?
Two weeks? Elvis hardly ever has 'em. I brush him as often as he'll let me, trying for daily; he kicks out "furzles" and leaves them all over the house, but furballs are hardly ever found here.New case of I/D. She nearly finished dinner even before we get to see how the new pred dose treats her. I'm not sure what I'm expecting. I just don't want her to back slide with the hairballs. It's probably not a terrible thing if she left a few remainders just until she adapts to the new dose. Because she used to go as much as two weeks between hairballs, I don't think I'm going to breathe easy on this new dose until maybe week three or four.
Hairballs are why she’s on pred in the first place. She hasn’t shown any food intolerance. And another thread has me wondering if her hairballs wasn’t a stress grooming thing because of her dental pain. When she was having hairballs, she was having them weekly. I said two weeks because that was the outer edge of just when I thought she was doing well, nope. There’s the hairball I was expecting last week. I’m hoping that’s all a memory and we just skip any relapses. Wouldn’t that be something if it all went back to her teeth and that we can get her off pred completely now that they have been taken care of?
Wouldn't it, indeed?!! That would be so wonderful!Hairballs are why she’s on pred in the first place. She hasn’t shown any food intolerance. And another thread has me wondering if her hairballs wasn’t a stress grooming thing because of her dental pain. When she was having hairballs, she was having them weekly. I said two weeks because that was the outer edge of just when I thought she was doing well, nope. There’s the hairball I was expecting last week. I’m hoping that’s all a memory and we just skip any relapses. Wouldn’t that be something if it all went back to her teeth and that we can get her off pred completely now that they have been taken care of?
