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- Feb 21, 2017
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Hey everyone,
My cat Socks is a tuxedo male neutered almost 16 year old cat. He started isolating on January 1st and we took him to the vet on January 13th. They told us that he has a low red blood cell count and also experiencing arthritis. To help with the red blood cells they prescribed epogen and to help with the arthritis they gave him a solensia injection. The next day he started having diarrhea, we brushed it off because I looked up solensia side effects and one of them was diarrhea. After a couple weeks of this he started being afraid of the litter box and associating it with pain which is when I contacted the vet again on 1/25 and they told us to add fortiflora to his food which I did right away but it didn’t help. They also asked to increase the epogen dose a little and I also did that. But still no progress so I contacted the vet again on 2/9. By this point it was like daily multiple times a day diarrhea outside the litter box event. We were cleaning up carpets and cleaning his butt pretty much at least 3 times a day. This is when the vet told us that since he’s so old we should take him to the emergency room to help with the diarrhea and we did so right away. They gave him fluids and also 6 days worth of metronidazole. They also asked us to give him half kidney food and half GI biome diet. We did that and for 6 days his diarrhea was better. He had mainly solid poops and he was still avoiding the litter box although it was much easier to clean as it wasn’t diarrhea. But then the diarrhea came back in full force. He had a vet appointment on 2/15 to check his red blood cells and his red blood cells are definitely coming back thanks to the epogen. By this point the diarrhea wasn’t really that bad so the vet said to give it time and it should get better again. He also said that if it gets too bad that they would give him a steroid injection. I contacted the vet on 2/18 again because the diarrhea was getting worse and they told us to try some multi benefit hills dry food to add fiber into his diet. They also gave us 6 weekly b12 injections and tylosin to give daily. I tried giving the tylosin with chicken broth, wet food, syringe in mouth. All resulted in him gagging and spitting it all out right away. I told the vet about this the next day and brought him in again to get the steroid. They told us to add more litter boxes and gave him a Dexamethasone shot. The diarrhea was once again better for about 6 days but on the 7th day it started up again. I called the vet to ask how long the shot was supposed to last and they told us it should’ve lasted longer than a week. Then they wrote him a prescription for oral 5 mg prednisolone and once again the diarrhea got better. This brings us to today, about 5 days of prednisolone and the diarrhea is back, he did have some solid poops today so that’s still a win but he just had explosive diarrhea while sitting in my lap. We also really started noticing yesterday but he’s also very bloated in the stomach. He’s less than 7 lbs so at first I just thought the bloating had to do with him being so small and his stomach bulging out but it seems to be painful because today after the diarrhea explosion we were cleaning him and he made a lot of painful noises along with biting me, he’s never done that before either so I’m just very concerned. My question really is to ask if anyone has had a similar experience and if you ever figured out a way to help with the diarrhea, he feels very embarrassed every time it happens and then we have to clean him too since it’s hard for him to do so himself. It’s just been such a miserable experience for him and I hate every moment of it and it just feels like the vets have not helped us at all with any of it. We’ve taken him to three different doctors at two different animal hospitals. I don’t trust the vets anymore as we’ve thrown hundreds of dollars and our baby is still in pain and suffering. I just want to know if I’m getting the right care and if there’s anything else anyone knows that we could do? I’m taking him to the vet again tomorrow of course but I just want to go into with a plan this time if possible, with something that will actually work and help him. Please also if there is nothing that can possibly help anymore, I would just like to know that too so I can stop trying to solve it thinking it’ll be over somehow. Note: he has had kidney disease since he was 13 and has been on a kidney diet. We have changed nothing about his diet before the diarrhea started and have had him on a variety of kidney diet foods (Royal canin, hills, and Purina). He also stopped isolating once we started in the epogen. We did not give him the solensia shot again since we wanted to get the diarrhea under control first but it’s supposed to be a monthly shot.
My cat Socks is a tuxedo male neutered almost 16 year old cat. He started isolating on January 1st and we took him to the vet on January 13th. They told us that he has a low red blood cell count and also experiencing arthritis. To help with the red blood cells they prescribed epogen and to help with the arthritis they gave him a solensia injection. The next day he started having diarrhea, we brushed it off because I looked up solensia side effects and one of them was diarrhea. After a couple weeks of this he started being afraid of the litter box and associating it with pain which is when I contacted the vet again on 1/25 and they told us to add fortiflora to his food which I did right away but it didn’t help. They also asked to increase the epogen dose a little and I also did that. But still no progress so I contacted the vet again on 2/9. By this point it was like daily multiple times a day diarrhea outside the litter box event. We were cleaning up carpets and cleaning his butt pretty much at least 3 times a day. This is when the vet told us that since he’s so old we should take him to the emergency room to help with the diarrhea and we did so right away. They gave him fluids and also 6 days worth of metronidazole. They also asked us to give him half kidney food and half GI biome diet. We did that and for 6 days his diarrhea was better. He had mainly solid poops and he was still avoiding the litter box although it was much easier to clean as it wasn’t diarrhea. But then the diarrhea came back in full force. He had a vet appointment on 2/15 to check his red blood cells and his red blood cells are definitely coming back thanks to the epogen. By this point the diarrhea wasn’t really that bad so the vet said to give it time and it should get better again. He also said that if it gets too bad that they would give him a steroid injection. I contacted the vet on 2/18 again because the diarrhea was getting worse and they told us to try some multi benefit hills dry food to add fiber into his diet. They also gave us 6 weekly b12 injections and tylosin to give daily. I tried giving the tylosin with chicken broth, wet food, syringe in mouth. All resulted in him gagging and spitting it all out right away. I told the vet about this the next day and brought him in again to get the steroid. They told us to add more litter boxes and gave him a Dexamethasone shot. The diarrhea was once again better for about 6 days but on the 7th day it started up again. I called the vet to ask how long the shot was supposed to last and they told us it should’ve lasted longer than a week. Then they wrote him a prescription for oral 5 mg prednisolone and once again the diarrhea got better. This brings us to today, about 5 days of prednisolone and the diarrhea is back, he did have some solid poops today so that’s still a win but he just had explosive diarrhea while sitting in my lap. We also really started noticing yesterday but he’s also very bloated in the stomach. He’s less than 7 lbs so at first I just thought the bloating had to do with him being so small and his stomach bulging out but it seems to be painful because today after the diarrhea explosion we were cleaning him and he made a lot of painful noises along with biting me, he’s never done that before either so I’m just very concerned. My question really is to ask if anyone has had a similar experience and if you ever figured out a way to help with the diarrhea, he feels very embarrassed every time it happens and then we have to clean him too since it’s hard for him to do so himself. It’s just been such a miserable experience for him and I hate every moment of it and it just feels like the vets have not helped us at all with any of it. We’ve taken him to three different doctors at two different animal hospitals. I don’t trust the vets anymore as we’ve thrown hundreds of dollars and our baby is still in pain and suffering. I just want to know if I’m getting the right care and if there’s anything else anyone knows that we could do? I’m taking him to the vet again tomorrow of course but I just want to go into with a plan this time if possible, with something that will actually work and help him. Please also if there is nothing that can possibly help anymore, I would just like to know that too so I can stop trying to solve it thinking it’ll be over somehow. Note: he has had kidney disease since he was 13 and has been on a kidney diet. We have changed nothing about his diet before the diarrhea started and have had him on a variety of kidney diet foods (Royal canin, hills, and Purina). He also stopped isolating once we started in the epogen. We did not give him the solensia shot again since we wanted to get the diarrhea under control first but it’s supposed to be a monthly shot.
I am so glad you got the answers you needed to make the decision, hard as it is to make, so his passing was peaceful and comfortable. I am so, so sorry for your loss.
