Possible anemia-Desperately needing support

fionasmom

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She looks so healthy and happy sleeping in that sock drawer! I had expected to see a cat who looked in very bad physical condition, but she looks great. Try to relax so that she does not pick up on your stress since she is trying to recover from the long vet visit and procedure.
 
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anxiousvesper

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She looks so healthy and happy sleeping in that sock drawer! I had expected to see a cat who looked in very bad physical condition, but she looks great. Try to relax so that she does not pick up on your stress since she is trying to recover from the long vet visit and procedure.
Thank you so much, your comment made me feel SO much better🥲 I’m much more relaxed now that her little anxiety fit is over and she’s back to normal again. I also successfully gave her a pill for the first time ever so I’m feeling very pleased with myself, if I do say so😂
 

iPappy

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It’s somethin’ else isn’t it? Sometimes I catch myself examining them and cataloging their behavior and think “wait…why am I doing this again? They’re just chilling in the window” lol it’s like my brain looks for reasons to freak me out some days.

At least we’ll both probably look super cool with the white hair😅
I think we can pull off the white hair. Let's be trend setters! ;)
I keep a behavior/symptom journal. So much happens so fast it's great to be able to go back and say "this happened on X day, and I did this and this was the response...." Plus if the vet needs any ASAP information on anything I've done, I can tell them what, when, and how much!
 
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anxiousvesper

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I think we can pull off the white hair. Let's be trend setters! ;)
I keep a behavior/symptom journal. So much happens so fast it's great to be able to go back and say "this happened on X day, and I did this and this was the response...." Plus if the vet needs any ASAP information on anything I've done, I can tell them what, when, and how much!
I do that too!!!! We are two peas in a pod, you and I😂 I have a stethoscope and everything now so you can imagine how annoyed all my cats are with me when I suddenly sneak up on them to listen to their little hearts lol
 
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anxiousvesper

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UPDATE:

Tosie is having some difficulty with meal times. Not in the sense that she doesn’t want to eat, but more that her scar tissue in her esophagus seems to giving her some trouble. She’s been eating at every meal but I think she isn’t chewing properly in her excitement and it’s causing her food to get stuck in her esophagus.

She has regurgitated a small portion of her breakfast this morning and I noticed it was completely unchewed and was likely just sitting like a lump in her throat where the esophagus narrows. It seems painful for her as she whines for a bit before she gets it up.

I do just want to emphasize that this is regurgitation and not vomiting. I’ve dealt with this her whole life and was informed by the surgeon who did her surgery that she would likely have continued issues with regurgitation every once in a while for the rest of her life because of the esophagus narrowing where the stitches In her throat were placed. I’m an expert now on when she needs to regurgitate and can usually tell just by looking at her that she’s got some food sitting in her throat that needs to come out.

I know I talked about it before, but I just wanted to make sure to not worry anyone here into thinking she’s vomiting a lot when she isn’t.

Further side effects I’ve noticed are:
She seems very tired and is spending most of her time cat napping (but she is responsive to noise and other stimuli)

She’s a bit more thirsty than usual but on her steroid pill packet, it did say increased thirst could be a side effect

Basically I’m just wondering….has anyone here had their cat on an antibiotic/steroid/anti-nausea combo? And if so, how did they act?

I can’t seem to stop myself from thinking the worst every time I look at her.
 

BellaBlue82

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Aw, I'm sorry Tosie is having a hard time eating. Sounds like she's so hungry that she forgets to chew, poor baby girl!

From my experience with Sadie, she slept A LOT for the first few months while her body recovered and started generating RBCs again. She was on antibiotics, steroids, Cerenia, B12, gosh you name it I feel like she was on it lol. But that's normal for her to be extremely tired right now - even with a blood transfusion. Her body is working overtime to get those RBCs going again. As long as she's alert and focuses on you when you are with her.
Hang in there, give little Tosie extra kitty kisses! ❤
 
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anxiousvesper

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Aw, I'm sorry Tosie is having a hard time eating. Sounds like she's so hungry that she forgets to chew, poor baby girl!

From my experience with Sadie, she slept A LOT for the first few months while her body recovered and started generating RBCs again. She was on antibiotics, steroids, Cerenia, B12, gosh you name it I feel like she was on it lol. But that's normal for her to be extremely tired right now - even with a blood transfusion. Her body is working overtime to get those RBCs going again. As long as she's alert and focuses on you when you are with her.
Hang in there, give little Tosie extra kitty kisses! ❤
I swear this thread is a blessing, this has helped me so much. I’ve never had a cat be on steroids before so I’ve been unsure of how she’d act. After her surgery two years ago she was on a whole pharmacy of painkillers (they had to crack my baby’s ribcage in order to do the procedure at all😢) and I was told very clearly that she would be exhausted for about a month while her body healed.

I probably should have figured this would make her sleepy too but hindsight is 20/20 as they say😅 she’s doing very well now! I’ve squished up her wet food in the tiniest pieces possible and organized it into tiny bite sized hills on her plate so she really has to move around and get situated to eat the whole thing. It’s worked so far! No more regurgitation AND she ate an entire plate of food!!!!

Her mild fever from yesterday is also gone, and her heart rate is down a whopping 40-50 beats!!!! She was holding steady at 210-220 bpm at the vets, even while resting. She was 170 this afternoon🥲 her respiratory rate was also smack dab in mid-range at 24 breaths per minute so I couldn’t be more pleased.

She’s drinking well, cat napping, purring and has peed today also! If we can get her to make some little poops today I’ll be on the moon:)
 
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anxiousvesper

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Last update for today:

Tosie is doing amazing! She’s eaten so well all day and had a ton of treats! We just took her temperature and it’s gone from 39.2 this morning (which was already normal) all the way down to 38.8 which is just AMAZING!!!!

Her heart rate is hovering around 170-174 beats per minute which I’m so happy about I could cry tbh, I didn’t think I’d get to see it that low again. And her breathing rate is right in range just like before.

She’s been resting lots today but is still very alert and has even explored the house a bit. She has also peed twice today and POOOOPED!!! YAY POOP!!! She didn’t poop yesterday and her meds can cause constipation so we were a bit worried we’d have to take her back in for some laxatives but turns out she didn’t need any!!

Here’s hoping that my little girl stays on this upward path so she can start getting back to normal❤
 
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anxiousvesper

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Tosie is hospitalized. Her hematocrit got worse. Down to 11.9 now. She is undergoing a bone marrow biopsy today to determine if her marrow is producing rbc or not. The vets are now thinking it’s probably autoimmune but can’t say for sure until these results are back.

I really did think she was getting better.
 
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anxiousvesper

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My baby Tosie survived her bone marrow procedure. The vets did say that they had a very difficult time getting her to wake up from the anesthesia but she is awake now at least.
Her hematocrit is now lower than the 11.9 that had her admitted today. She has a fever again as well as both rapid heart and respiratory rates.

She is currently undergoing her 2 transfusion in 6 days. I’m very scared you guys. I feel so helpless
 

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I'm so sorry, this has to be so scary and so frustrating. Do they know how long it will take to get the biopsy results back?
 
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anxiousvesper

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UPDATE:

MY BABY GIRL IS COMING HOME!!!

Her hematocrit is 18% and she has been out of the oxygen chamber and thriving!! Her respiratory rate is nice and low and her heart rate is in perfect range:) her fever is also gone🥰

She will be on Cyclosporine, Prednisolone, Cerenia, b12 injections and a second anti-nausea if needed:)

She will have her blood redrawn next week
 
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