Mika's Struggles With Cholangiohepatitis

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mikameek

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A small update: When giving Mika her medicine this evening, I decided to scruff her (not something I have been doing for a while and have never done with her in the cat bag) to keep her head still while I put the medicine in her mouth. My thought was that if she can't fight it, then the stress can't be that bad because it will be over sooner. Don't know if that actually makes sense but I did it.

And... I think I messed up.

She didn't move her head at all being scruffed but when I shot the medicine into her mouth she made a weird sound. Like she inhaled it. I FREAKED out. I mean, dropped the syringe, undid the cat bag and cradled her to check her out. She made the sounds a few more times, like she was trying to clear her throat. She sat cradled (upwards so she could clear anything in her airways if need be) in my arms for a few minutes before she protested and wanted to get down. I sat with Mika for a few more minutes in the bathroom while she rubbed herself on me and asked for pets. I obliged and apologized profusely. I made her up a pre-dinner snack because she usually likes to eat right after getting her pred. She stopped making the noise and ate happily without any problem.

A little while later I was laying with her on the bed. She had hopped up and curled up right next to me. This was maybe 10 minutes after the incident. I noticed she sounded kind of strange, like a bit of labored breathing? But when I focused on her, I noticed it wasn't consistent and her breathing was normal. So again I freaked out. I rolled over and watched her for a moment only to realize... She was PURRING. I have never heard Mika purr so loud before. But apparently when she does it sounds raspy and very similar to the sound she made after the medicine incident.

I had to laugh at myself. Cat mom worrying over everything. But it did kind of strike me that Mika was so content with herself and her life right in that moment, she made it very clear.

I wonder if I'll ever hear her purr that loud ever again. Normally, I only know she's purring because I can feel her throat or chest vibrating.
 

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Every time I think Stinky has taken a turn for the worse or I have alienated him he surprises me. I'm glad the incident was nothing. I got a cat bag just in case I need one when I read about yours. I haven't given up on making the raw/cooked myself but I wanted to try the store bought varieties first. There is a feed store that supposedly sells Rad Cat about 50 miles away. I need to call them and see if they have it for cats. It's a pain, yesterday when I drove nearly 50 miles to Tyler to get the Instinct I had to get some "Dry Ice" to keep it frozen on the trip home. I can order it online but with our temps around 100 degrees I'm afaraid to. Plus there is a 4# minimum order. He is getting finicky again and decided he only wants beef FF. He will get whatever he eats but I try to minimize the kibble.
 
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Every time I think Stinky has taken a turn for the worse or I have alienated him he surprises me. I'm glad the incident was nothing. I got a cat bag just in case I need one when I read about yours. I haven't given up on making the raw/cooked myself but I wanted to try the store bought varieties first. There is a feed store that supposedly sells Rad Cat about 50 miles away. I need to call them and see if they have it for cats. It's a pain, yesterday when I drove nearly 50 miles to Tyler to get the Instinct I had to get some "Dry Ice" to keep it frozen on the trip home. I can order it online but with our temps around 100 degrees I'm afaraid to. Plus there is a 4# minimum order. He is getting finicky again and decided he only wants beef FF. He will get whatever he eats but I try to minimize the kibble.
I can relate to that unfortunately. :rolleyes3: Mika decided today that the raw chicken is not something she'll eat even though the first time she ate it, she devoured it so quickly and even asked for more!!

I'll probably go return the dish and see what I can figure out till Thursday. The store I went to only had chicken and turkey meat left and I was too scared to buy a turkey. More so now that she wont eat the chicken (which has been a favorite meat of hers, I'm so confused!). They get their shipment in Thursday so I will swing by then and buy up a beef since she liked that so well, venison and maybe lamb.
 
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Well, Mika is on a Fancy Feast kick. :rolleyes3: I feel like we've some how gone backwards. She wont finish the TikiCat mousse I got her now but she's begging for the Fancy Feast and eating it well. It doesn't really bother me THAT much because she's getting her calories (which, honestly, that doesn't seem to be doing much for her ANYWAY) but I worry about the synthetic vitamin K. Both the foods she's eating, TikiCat mousse and Fancy Feast, have it in it.

She's also been waking me up at 6 am these days begging for food. She's been chewing on things around my bedroom which scares me so much I bolt up. At that point I might as well feed her and then go back to bed.

I did take away the dry food I was leaving out for her at night so I might start doing that again. I was hoping to fully transition her to the raw food but until the new shipment of foods comes in, I'm kind of stuck. I really have to wonder why these foods are suddenly okay and others aren't. I especially want to know whats up with the raw chicken!!
 

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Well, Mika is on a Fancy Feast kick. :rolleyes3: I feel like we've some how gone backwards. She wont finish the TikiCat mousse I got her now but she's begging for the Fancy Feast and eating it well. It doesn't really bother me THAT much because she's getting her calories (which, honestly, that doesn't seem to be doing much for her ANYWAY) but I worry about the synthetic vitamin K. Both the foods she's eating, TikiCat mousse and Fancy Feast, have it in it.

She's also been waking me up at 6 am these days begging for food. She's been chewing on things around my bedroom which scares me so much I bolt up. At that point I might as well feed her and then go back to bed.

I did take away the dry food I was leaving out for her at night so I might start doing that again. I was hoping to fully transition her to the raw food but until the new shipment of foods comes in, I'm kind of stuck. I really have to wonder why these foods are suddenly okay and others aren't. I especially want to know whats up with the raw chicken!!
Stinky wakes me up usually after 2 in the morning, sometimes just to curl up with me for a while. Then sometimes I get up and feed him and he won't eat but an hour later he will! He ate Purina True Nature grain Free Chicken / Liver cat meat for over a year nearly every day, now he won't touch it. He is on a FF Beef /Chicken kick now. I see no reason why they quit eating some foods. He hasn't eaten much today but it is the 3rd. day of his 72hr. App. Stimulant. We do what we have to do as Cat parents....
 

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If Mika is consuming other foods that don't have menadione, that will help, I think although granted I'm not a vet. You're already giving her milk thistle?

I think her purring meant she REALLY like all that attention she got while you were making up to her after the scruff incident. I think that part is pretty darn neat-o :)
 
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mikameek

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If Mika is consuming other foods that don't have menadione, that will help, I think although granted I'm not a vet. You're already giving her milk thistle?

I think her purring meant she REALLY like all that attention she got while you were making up to her after the scruff incident. I think that part is pretty darn neat-o :)
I'm not giving her the milk thistle supplement because she's on a liver protectant pill that has it in it. Once that runs out and I get paid, I'll buy the milk thistle supplement.

It was really awesome, not going to lie. It made me really happy. :p

Stinky wakes me up usually after 2 in the morning, sometimes just to curl up with me for a while. Then sometimes I get up and feed him and he won't eat but an hour later he will! He ate Purina True Nature grain Free Chicken / Liver cat meat for over a year nearly every day, now he won't touch it. He is on a FF Beef /Chicken kick now. I see no reason why they quit eating some foods. He hasn't eaten much today but it is the 3rd. day of his 72hr. App. Stimulant. We do what we have to do as Cat parents....
OH NO! I would not be able to handle being woken up at 2 am!! I would be so cranky the next day. We're also on a similar beef and chicken kick. She didn't finish the one that I gave her at lunch but now she wants dinner. I don't know what to do with her. But honestly... You gotta love them.
 

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Stinky wakes me up usually after 2 in the morning, sometimes just to curl up with me for a while. Then sometimes I get up and feed him and he won't eat but an hour later he will! He ate Purina True Nature grain Free Chicken / Liver cat meat for over a year nearly every day, now he won't touch it. He is on a FF Beef /Chicken kick now. I see no reason why they quit eating some foods. He hasn't eaten much today but it is the 3rd. day of his 72hr. App. Stimulant. We do what we have to do as Cat parents....
After Radar's thing earlier this year (post-surgical anorexia, he had a feeding tube in for over a month), his food preferences changed completely from what they had been beforehand - and I think he remembers feeling hungry because he bolts his food, so can only be fed half a portion of wet food at a time or he will bolt it down and vomit.

This means that he needs feeding frequently, and he pokes me in the face to wake me up to feed him as often as every 1 to 2 hours throughout the night. I'd far rather that than him refusing to eat (it is always a delight and a relief that he wants food), but I do sometimes end up stumbling around in the dark in the small hours of the morning clutching a food bowl and trying to find a pouch of food like some sort of exhausted cat-feeding zombie...

mikameek mikameek - good luck with your little one, she looks so adorable in the photos you posted.
 

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epona epona is there any way you could get your baby to use a timed feeder? If you're concerned about leaving wet food out for the overnight hours these feeder have a compartment underneath for ice packs.
 

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epona epona is there any way you could get your baby to use a timed feeder? If you're concerned about leaving wet food out for the overnight hours these feeder have a compartment underneath for ice packs.
He's half Cornish Rex, the more pertinent question might be can I get him to not completely destroy a timed feeder? (The water fountain lasted less than 24 hours...) :hmmm:
 
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I have to say, that every time I see your username, epona epona , I get really happy. Zelda is my absolute favorite series.

Also, I will have another update later tonight.
 

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I have to say, that every time I see your username, epona epona , I get really happy. Zelda is my absolute favorite series.

Also, I will have another update later tonight.
Sorry for going off topic, but I've never actually played it. The name Epona pre-dates computer games by nearly 2000 years and is the name of a Romano-Celtic/Gallic goddess of the harvest, who is often depicted with a mare or foal (the maker of the Zelda game took the name from mythology). The name has been my nickname since before the Zelda games, people often mistake it as due to an interest in those games, but it's more to do with my interest in Roman-British/Gallic archaeology.
 
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Okay, sorry for the incredibly late update. Some personal life things have kept me away.

School started that day so I was absolutely exhausted. In any case, all of my roommate have returned. Mika was excited to see her old friend, Oliver (one of my roommate's cat) but he's unfortunately terrified of her because she beat him up a little when they were introduced. They're comfortable together and tolerate being in each other's space but he's wary of her where-as Mika hardly notices he's around. She's gotten really awful recently. She's taken a liking to Oliver's food which is a dry food by Merrick (I can't remember the exact brand but it's chicken flavor). She will go into the room he's eating in if the door is open. She will squeeze her way in beside him (he's a big boy, easily 13 lbs but I think he's just a large cat rather than overweight. He's only 2) to eat his food. She will also wait until he's done if she cannot get to it once its poured and will eat whatever he leaves behind.
Secondly, she's been waking me up CONSISTENTLY at 4 am to get fed. I thought that it was just because she wasn't getting satisfied by the meals she was getting during the day while we waiting on the raw shipment to our specialty store. I left out dry food which she would eat when I didn't give in and get up immediately to feed her. We did just recently get more raw food but she has less interest in it. The beef flavor she will eat but only small bits at a time. She would need to be transitioned into many meals in small portions to be feeding her solely that.
Thirdly, she's now scratching EVERY doorframe and window seal in the apartment despite there being tons of scratching posts and a cat tree available to her. I think she is absolutely bored with herself. I have ordered some interactive toys and am waiting for them to arrive. I hope that the new kitten that is supposed to be coming this Monday (this is the third new date given to me for the arrival so I might not hold my breath on it) will give her someone to play with.
And fourthly, her love of plastic has returned. ANYTHING plastic, Mika wants to chew and eat. She actually threw up a small bit of tape the other day. Bags, snacks, string, tape, anything shiny and plastic, Mika wants to eat it. I don't know how to stop her.

However, the good news is that I found out inadvertently that Mika really enjoys the taste of her beef flavored Ursodiol. I missed her mouth and accidentally squirted it on me and the cat bag. When I released her after giving her a new dose, she came back and began licking on me where the medicine was AND on the bag. I might be able to get away with just sneaking that into her food. I don't know how that would work, but that would be a sure way to bring down her stress.
 

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Okay, sorry for the incredibly late update. Some personal life things have kept me away.

School started that day so I was absolutely exhausted. In any case, all of my roommate have returned. Mika was excited to see her old friend, Oliver (one of my roommate's cat) but he's unfortunately terrified of her because she beat him up a little when they were introduced. They're comfortable together and tolerate being in each other's space but he's wary of her where-as Mika hardly notices he's around. She's gotten really awful recently. She's taken a liking to Oliver's food which is a dry food by Merrick (I can't remember the exact brand but it's chicken flavor). She will go into the room he's eating in if the door is open. She will squeeze her way in beside him (he's a big boy, easily 13 lbs but I think he's just a large cat rather than overweight. He's only 2) to eat his food. She will also wait until he's done if she cannot get to it once its poured and will eat whatever he leaves behind.
Secondly, she's been waking me up CONSISTENTLY at 4 am to get fed. I thought that it was just because she wasn't getting satisfied by the meals she was getting during the day while we waiting on the raw shipment to our specialty store. I left out dry food which she would eat when I didn't give in and get up immediately to feed her. We did just recently get more raw food but she has less interest in it. The beef flavor she will eat but only small bits at a time. She would need to be transitioned into many meals in small portions to be feeding her solely that.
Thirdly, she's now scratching EVERY doorframe and window seal in the apartment despite there being tons of scratching posts and a cat tree available to her. I think she is absolutely bored with herself. I have ordered some interactive toys and am waiting for them to arrive. I hope that the new kitten that is supposed to be coming this Monday (this is the third new date given to me for the arrival so I might not hold my breath on it) will give her someone to play with.
And fourthly, her love of plastic has returned. ANYTHING plastic, Mika wants to chew and eat. She actually threw up a small bit of tape the other day. Bags, snacks, string, tape, anything shiny and plastic, Mika wants to eat it. I don't know how to stop her.

However, the good news is that I found out inadvertently that Mika really enjoys the taste of her beef flavored Ursodiol. I missed her mouth and accidentally squirted it on me and the cat bag. When I released her after giving her a new dose, she came back and began licking on me where the medicine was AND on the bag. I might be able to get away with just sneaking that into her food. I don't know how that would work, but that would be a sure way to bring down her stress.

At least she is eating. I found this, maybe it helps:
Scratching door frames?

Maybe her new aggression is from the Prednisolone?

A while back I considered getting Stinky a play mate that it might make him eat better but I decided against it.
 
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mikameek

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At least she is eating. I found this, maybe it helps:
Scratching door frames?

Maybe her new aggression is from the Prednisolone?

A while back I considered getting Stinky a play mate that it might make him eat better but I decided against it.
Thank you! I read the forum and it makes sense. I think I might get the feliway spray too. I actually have noticed that Mika isn't scratching as much in my room, but outside the room. I have a diffuser in my room and I set up another in the hallway she mainly scratches in.

I don't. She hit him way before she was on Pred. but I suppose the new stuff could be the pred.
 
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mikameek

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Hi! Sorry for being so MIA for so long. School is back in session and my first tests for all of my classes are next week (I have a test almost every day of the week). I'm essentially in all science classes this semester which is forcing me to study way more than I normally would so that I'm prepared and on top of my game. Gotta make those grades so I can get a good job to support Mika, haha!

Mika is doing really well actually! We unfortunately had to scrap the raw diet completely because she refused to eat it. We were doing so well and then she decided that it just wasn't for her. :bawling2: Her wet food preferences have been so spotty too that it made feeding her a really big challenge. :frustrated: I decided that eating was the biggest priority over everything and got samples from Dr. Elsey for their dry food. They sent me the same flavor in wet too, which was nice. Mika went nuts for the salmon flavored dry food but I didn't feel comfortable having her on a fish flavored food so we made the switch to the chicken food. She LOVES it. She's back to running to her food bowl and my roommates have been making comments that she definitely looks like she's gaining weight. Her fur is sort of coming back in. She looks like she has some odd shading around her belly and front leg. Her back legs lost all the hair down them but we've switched back to Tidy Cats so we'll see how that works out. I have a shipment of Yesterday's News in pellets coming in. My roommate with the new kitten has a pellet litter and Mika has apparently been using it with no troubles, so we'll be making the switch to that since we have another cat in the apartment that is MESSY when he goes to the litter box. He throws the litter everywhere, tracks all over the place and even gets wet litter on the walls.
I just ran out of the Dr. Elsey's food a few days ago (I only got a 2 lb bag when I actually ordered food) and Mika is VERY upset with me. It's really hard to get the food here quickly. All of the retailers (Dr. Elsey, Chewy, Petco) take a very long time for the food to deliver. Amazon is actually out of stock for it. In the mean time, I'm been trying to supplement with the Weruva Slip 'n Serve wet foods. I bought the variety pack. A lot of them aren't a big hit but she seems to be liking the chicken flavors. They don't seem to hold her over very long. My roommate is going to give me some of her kitten's food since Mika has been stealing it. I'll be using that as well to hold her over till Dr. Elsey's arrives.

With her previous medical issues Mika seems to be doing really well! Her jaundice is now completely isolated to her ears and nipples again. She's completely off of the prednisolone. I have some sneaking suspicions that Mika might have become diabetic from being on the pred. Her water consumption on pred. was always VERY high as was her appetite. But that was what we had wanted in hopes that the lowering of the inflammation and eating more would cause her to gain weight. Instead, it caused her to appear worse (we didn't do blood work) with her jaundice and overall personality. Now that Mika is off of the pred. she is still drinking (and peeing) large amounts of water. She's also constantly hungry. Part of my issue right now is that Mika wakes me up every 3 hours during the night to be fed. But because I don't have the Dr. Elsey's (the food she REALLY wants to eat) its really frustrating because she will refuse food and then become increasingly more aggravating (I will admit I have cried the last two nights at 4:30 am from frustration and lack of sleep at Mika). She will get in my face, tap me multiple times, cry loudly and scratch on the door frames and wall corners to wake me up to feed her. If I ignore her (because I do feed her, but again, not what she wants), she will jump up on my desk and chew on my papers, folders and anything else she can get her mouth around. This includes cardboard boxes. She doesn't EAT them, just chews them. But she's destroyed important notes for classes, homework and other things in the process of chewing all over stuff. It forces me to get up, find something she WILL eat, and then this process repeats in 3 more hours.
Now granted, I was being woken up (ever so slightly because I could roll over and go right back to bed) even when I had the Dr. Elsey's food available. But I would simply move her to the bowl or drop her on the floor and she'd immediately go eat. I also don't recall being woken up so often -- maybe once a night? Where as this has been the last 3 nights, going to bed at 11 after feeding her and being woken up every 3 hours after. We'll see if the kitten chow my roommate has will appease Mika during the night tonight. I can't afford to be sleep deprived this week since I have so many tests. The Dr. Elsey's is arriving Friday.

Another thing to note is that I have noticed some interesting things going on with Mika's skin. I have two separate things occurring on her that I'm not sure about. I plan to take her to the vet in a few weeks when I get paid. The first thing I have noticed is around her mouth: I believe this is from her medication. It is only focused around her mouth on one side (the side I give her medication on). If you feel it with your fingers, it feels crunchy? Like a scab or food collected there. I have scratched it when she rubs her face on my fingers and what normally happens is it flakes off in large chunks with fur attached. Like the fur mats to the flaky skin? It's a bit hard to describe but I have gone in before and gotten tweezers and removed chunks. It isn't painful for her it seems but rather, relieving? I think it might itch because she will press into the flat side of the tweezers when I run them over the area. When the flakey fur/mat is scratched/removed there is skin below but as said, all the hair in that area is falling out when scratched or removed. It isn't spreading and the other cats haven't had any issues (Mika rubs on them) so it doesn't seem contagious. The other skin issue I've noticed is on her belly/legs: This isn't concerning to me but I don't have any idea what could be causing it. Black and pink patches have started develop on Mika's underside and legs. Some of the black patches are flaky and look dry (the skin) but they don't bother her in anyway. I don't ever see her licking them or anything along those lines. When I rubbed one of the black dry spots it flaked like dandruff. I read that dry skin like that in cats is associated with being dehydrated but as mentioned before she drinks A LOT of water. Another suspicion for diabetes.

Lastly, the only other update with Mika is in regards to the new kitten. My roommate was a little ignorant in believing that because the kitten grew up originally in a vet's clinic, surrounded by many other new animals all the time (and did really well with the transition to her parents home) that she wouldn't need to be transitioned here. When she got here with the new kitten, she let her out directly into the kitchen when Mika was hanging out. Of course the new kitten got frightened and Mika got curious about the new animal. I, of course, separated the two and then helped my roommate transition the new kitten in her room and bathroom. Every time the male cat in the apartment meowed (or went to the door) or Mika went to the door, the new kitten would hiss and swat under the door. My roommate was shocked. :rolleyes3: Regardless, it took the new kitten a week to transition to the new room and then we slowly let her out. She's now fully transitioned and comfortable around the whole apartment. My issue is that the new kitten (Stassi) has gotten along BEAUTIFULLY with the male cat (Oliver). They play all day long, sleep together and groom each other. But Stassi and Mika? Nope. Stassi will consistently hiss at Mika, even if she approaches Mika first. Mika never reacts and it has never escalated beyond that but it really bothers all of us in the apartment that Stassi can't be around Mika without hissing. Mika has tried to play with Stassi, like chasing after her or play batting a few times and EVERY TIME Stassi shuts her down with a hiss. The weird thing is that they can sleep near each other and be in the same general area/room with no trouble. But as soon as they get to a certain distance from each other, Stassi hisses. I thought it might have had to do with the bad first introduction but I'm not sure. It breaks my heart because Mika clearly does want to be around Stassi but the feeling isn't reciprocated so Mika often gets dejected and will go sit in a corner or a perch to watch Oliver and Stassi play. I don't know how to fix the problem..

Again, SO sorry for the long delay (and as a result a long long update). I will try to be more proactive about updating with Mika, but they may be every weekend rather than every day like they use to be.
 

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That's wonderful to hear that she's doing better! When you get to the vet, could you have them do a skin scrape and test it?

Can you start to play with Mika and Stassi, first sort of separately but in the same room where each of you is playing with each cat, then eventually where you're playing with the two cats together after the same wand toy?

All the best of luck on your tests and everything else!!
 
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