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- Sep 9, 2016
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So my cat Autumn, who is 13 years old, had some incidental findings during her routine physical at the end of August. She ended up having proteinuria with a protein/creatinine ratio value of 7, but her urine culture also came up positive, so my vet is treating the infection with a 3 week course of Clavamox and retesting her urine before we move forward with any diagnostics for kidney disease because the infection could also be causing it. She has a history of frequent UTIs, bladder crystals, and idiopathic cystitis with her second-to-last vet visit being an emergency room trip for straining to urinate outside the box without actually eliminating, so this is nothing new for her. However, she's had Clavamox before, and she's usually tolerated it just fine, but this time around it seems to be messing with her GI tract quite a bit. She puked a few times, so I started making sure she eats at least a little before I pill her, but it's been a hassle some days. Mixing treats into her food sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't, adding wet sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't. She'll munch on a little bit of her portion at a time and her food often sits uneaten for several hours before she gets back around to it. I do know she ate a good portion of my other cat's wet food that she's not supposed to be eating the other day because she barfed it back up. She has periods of not eating sometimes as well when she has an infection that hasn't been diagnosed and treated yet. She eats a prescription diet because of her history of basically every bladder problem a cat can possibly have so I've been iffy about using the meat baby food method my mom used to do whenever her cats were sick and avoiding food. Otherwise her behavior has been pretty normal, almost chipper honestly. She comes running in for my attention regularly and has been playing with her toys. I was actually surprised she ended up having an infection because she was showing none of her usual signs, but she is a cat after all.
I'm just worried because of her age and weight, I work with animals and I've learned that older overweight cats are more prone to hepatic lipidosis when they don't eat enough. We had a cat boarding at my old job who unfortunately passed due to HL induced by not eating so I'm slightly neurotic about it. She's not as overweight as she used to be because I have her on a diet but also maybe because of her possible kidney problems (she's 10.8 now which is still a bit overweight for her frame, down from 14 pounds, which is what made my vet want to investigate kidney issues regardless of trying to get her to lose weight) but I'm still concerned. My vet's office doesn't have a doctor in until Thursday but I'll still call to leave a message for them in the AM. I know that sometimes drugs like mirtazapine are prescribed as appetite stimulants. I know there are other antibiotics that don't mess w their stomach as badly, and that there are subq antibiotics. I've also seen the emergency prescription food that's supposed to be really palatable but she of course didn't want to touch it one of the other times she wasn't eating when she had an infection. Am I missing any options, whether it's something the vet can do or something I can do at home?
I'm just worried because of her age and weight, I work with animals and I've learned that older overweight cats are more prone to hepatic lipidosis when they don't eat enough. We had a cat boarding at my old job who unfortunately passed due to HL induced by not eating so I'm slightly neurotic about it. She's not as overweight as she used to be because I have her on a diet but also maybe because of her possible kidney problems (she's 10.8 now which is still a bit overweight for her frame, down from 14 pounds, which is what made my vet want to investigate kidney issues regardless of trying to get her to lose weight) but I'm still concerned. My vet's office doesn't have a doctor in until Thursday but I'll still call to leave a message for them in the AM. I know that sometimes drugs like mirtazapine are prescribed as appetite stimulants. I know there are other antibiotics that don't mess w their stomach as badly, and that there are subq antibiotics. I've also seen the emergency prescription food that's supposed to be really palatable but she of course didn't want to touch it one of the other times she wasn't eating when she had an infection. Am I missing any options, whether it's something the vet can do or something I can do at home?