Hi everyone;
I’ll try to give you the coles notes version, since this is loooong.
I have a 7 year old ragdoll boy who was in perfect health until November of last year (2016). He got suddenly ill, vomiting, and long story short he ended up needing surgery and a bowel resection. The surgeon said that a “ligament” had wrapped itself around Clancy’s bowel. (He said it was the weirdest thing he’d ever seen.) Clancy also had a liver biopsy because the surgeon suspected some kind of liver disease, but results came back normal.
Anyway, after a month of healing from the surgery, Clancy started to throw up his food. I figured out that somehow the resection made his digestion very sensitive (scar tissue maybe?) and that he now can only eat small amounts at one time. I altered his food accordingly. That, plus daily laxatone, fixed the problem.
Fast-forward two weeks ago, when he just stopped eating and pooping (but wasn’t throwing up). After a week of this he ended up in the emergency hospital for the weekend. Blood work was unremarkable, but the x-rays showed slight constipation and possibly gas. Clancy had a enema and was put on IV pain meds, an appetite stimulant, pepcid, and fluids. They x-rayed him again after his poop, and detected “gas" or something kind of “odd." The hospital recommended ultrasound, but unfortunately it’s not in the budget. We came home and there was really no improvement.
I finally asked for a consult with a radiologist to have a look at the blood work and rads. A long shot, but I figured the radiologist might see something the vets didn’t. My vet sent the file with xrays to the radiologist’s office on Monday morning and waited. After not hearing word and seeing Clancy’s condition not improve, I decided to put him down this morning (Thursday). I have a mobile vet and arranged for her to come over.
Just as my vet was about to sedate Clancy for euthanasia, the phone rang. It was the radiologist (talk about an 11th-hour reprieve). She called to say that she couldn’t open the file my vet sent her. We got the emerg hospital to send the file directly and 10 minutes later the radiologist phoned us back.
The radiologist thought that the xray showed effusion, or fluid buildup, and suggested that Clancy might have a mild case of pancreatitis. The blood test was normal for that measure, but acc. to the radiologist, sometimes that happens. Anyhow, she suggested we try a few days of prednisone to see if that would help.
So Clancy narrowly missed going to kitty heaven, at least until Monday.
Pray that he does well on the prednisone!
I’ll try to give you the coles notes version, since this is loooong.
I have a 7 year old ragdoll boy who was in perfect health until November of last year (2016). He got suddenly ill, vomiting, and long story short he ended up needing surgery and a bowel resection. The surgeon said that a “ligament” had wrapped itself around Clancy’s bowel. (He said it was the weirdest thing he’d ever seen.) Clancy also had a liver biopsy because the surgeon suspected some kind of liver disease, but results came back normal.
Anyway, after a month of healing from the surgery, Clancy started to throw up his food. I figured out that somehow the resection made his digestion very sensitive (scar tissue maybe?) and that he now can only eat small amounts at one time. I altered his food accordingly. That, plus daily laxatone, fixed the problem.
Fast-forward two weeks ago, when he just stopped eating and pooping (but wasn’t throwing up). After a week of this he ended up in the emergency hospital for the weekend. Blood work was unremarkable, but the x-rays showed slight constipation and possibly gas. Clancy had a enema and was put on IV pain meds, an appetite stimulant, pepcid, and fluids. They x-rayed him again after his poop, and detected “gas" or something kind of “odd." The hospital recommended ultrasound, but unfortunately it’s not in the budget. We came home and there was really no improvement.
I finally asked for a consult with a radiologist to have a look at the blood work and rads. A long shot, but I figured the radiologist might see something the vets didn’t. My vet sent the file with xrays to the radiologist’s office on Monday morning and waited. After not hearing word and seeing Clancy’s condition not improve, I decided to put him down this morning (Thursday). I have a mobile vet and arranged for her to come over.
Just as my vet was about to sedate Clancy for euthanasia, the phone rang. It was the radiologist (talk about an 11th-hour reprieve). She called to say that she couldn’t open the file my vet sent her. We got the emerg hospital to send the file directly and 10 minutes later the radiologist phoned us back.
The radiologist thought that the xray showed effusion, or fluid buildup, and suggested that Clancy might have a mild case of pancreatitis. The blood test was normal for that measure, but acc. to the radiologist, sometimes that happens. Anyhow, she suggested we try a few days of prednisone to see if that would help.
So Clancy narrowly missed going to kitty heaven, at least until Monday.
Pray that he does well on the prednisone!
Yay. Excellent. 
to you both!
