My sweet Buddy has had a terrible summer. He had allergies and respiratory issues which eventually in September led to him not wanting to eat, so the antibiotics began. I'll shorten things... things went up and down for over three weeks, but I did not realize the amount of food he was NOT eating. I was measuring but had nothing to compare it with I guess. Antibiotics cause GI upset and a host of other stuff. Well, on IV fluids every few days my sweet boy would perk up and eat a bit more. Then he'd fall back. His doctor then decided we would go every other day on fluids to keep him hydrated and more on an even keel, get him started eating, and hopefully off the antibiotics soon. Between his fluids last tuesday and bringing him in thursday he had a setback. He no longer perked up, he ate nothing. (I'd been supplementing him with Nutri-cal the whole time). Dr Tom looked at him thursday and noticed that his swollen left lymph node had not gone down as expected - it got firmer, and about the size of one of those bigger marbles. He looked in Buddy's mouth, then with the lighted thing and Bud's whole throat was red and sore.
Doc had told promised me weeks ago that he would never play "hero" and think if he couldn't fix something then nobody could. He knows how much Buddy means to me, especially after my sweet lady died nearly 21 months ago. Buddy is 11. Well, he told me he was referring me to a colleague that he trusted, and reminded me about our hero talk. He went right in the back and I could hear him on the phone. Drove right from the vet to a strange town and walked in with Budbud and they knew we were coming. Immediately this doctor did not like that he had been on antibiotics for so long and thought his sore throat was a bad case of thrush. She wanted to stop all antibiotics. But the lymph node on his neck - that was a problem. Of course I'm panicked this entire time, barely remember even driving there.
The other node is not inflamed, and she found no others on his body that were odd. I guess this is a good thing, but the needle biopsy she took came back as not having "lymph cells" in it (I don't understand why) but it had a high white cell count, so something is badly infected. Possibly a sinus or a tooth. Now they have to do an actual biopsy but she though, with Buddy's temperament, it could be done with a local anesthetic. Also the skull x-rays - he's a very good patient. The other x-rays that were taken a couple weeks ago were done with no sedation. See, Buddy almost died in January at the Animal Hospital. He had a reaction to the ketamine cocktail and it nearly killed him. I'm petrified of anesthesia. Well, whatever this is, is probably going to involve it. And I'm scared........
Ok, so now he's off antibiotics since thursday night, I don't know when the side effects will go away. A feeding program has begun, even though I kinda had to figure it out for myself to step into this over a 4 day period. I would imagine it is hard for a 10 pound kitty who weighs 7.8 pounds to go from eating approximately 10 to 30mL of food per day, to eating a 6 oz can (177 mL) or more in a day. He doesn't want to eat, maybe one kibble or one lick, but that's it. After 2.5 days of this step-up plan I'd imagine that his stomach feels awful, like a couple too many trips to the buffet for us. How does this work? Does it hurt? When will his strength come back? When will his appetite return?
Tomorrow will be the 4th day, approx 220mL of food - 1.25 cans. I'm using a/d at the moment, but we initially had Royal Canin Recovery RS. I was running out so I called a local vet yesterday at 5 minutes to noon and they were willing to set the food out for me to get through the weekend, and I had heard that the a/d was more palatable. Budster doesn't like anything right now. And I'd imagine he is not hungry, after his tummy had shrunken after all the days of not eating. I highly doubt he is losing weight anymore at least, and the few times he's vomited it was more like coughing up mucous. I caught it in my hand today during noon feeding (yuck) but it was just food-colored snot. I feel like I must be blowing him up like a balloon. 5 half-hour sessions a day is hard on both of us, but he is obviously worth it, he's my baby! This upcoming week scares the he!! out of me and I'm pretty much a trainwreck but trying to be positive around my sweet boy. Could anyone shed some light on any of this for me today? My mind is on nothing else, so maybe I can learn more from you guys. Thank you
Gina
my sweet man, who I want to spend many many more days on my bed in the sun~
Doc had told promised me weeks ago that he would never play "hero" and think if he couldn't fix something then nobody could. He knows how much Buddy means to me, especially after my sweet lady died nearly 21 months ago. Buddy is 11. Well, he told me he was referring me to a colleague that he trusted, and reminded me about our hero talk. He went right in the back and I could hear him on the phone. Drove right from the vet to a strange town and walked in with Budbud and they knew we were coming. Immediately this doctor did not like that he had been on antibiotics for so long and thought his sore throat was a bad case of thrush. She wanted to stop all antibiotics. But the lymph node on his neck - that was a problem. Of course I'm panicked this entire time, barely remember even driving there.
The other node is not inflamed, and she found no others on his body that were odd. I guess this is a good thing, but the needle biopsy she took came back as not having "lymph cells" in it (I don't understand why) but it had a high white cell count, so something is badly infected. Possibly a sinus or a tooth. Now they have to do an actual biopsy but she though, with Buddy's temperament, it could be done with a local anesthetic. Also the skull x-rays - he's a very good patient. The other x-rays that were taken a couple weeks ago were done with no sedation. See, Buddy almost died in January at the Animal Hospital. He had a reaction to the ketamine cocktail and it nearly killed him. I'm petrified of anesthesia. Well, whatever this is, is probably going to involve it. And I'm scared........
Ok, so now he's off antibiotics since thursday night, I don't know when the side effects will go away. A feeding program has begun, even though I kinda had to figure it out for myself to step into this over a 4 day period. I would imagine it is hard for a 10 pound kitty who weighs 7.8 pounds to go from eating approximately 10 to 30mL of food per day, to eating a 6 oz can (177 mL) or more in a day. He doesn't want to eat, maybe one kibble or one lick, but that's it. After 2.5 days of this step-up plan I'd imagine that his stomach feels awful, like a couple too many trips to the buffet for us. How does this work? Does it hurt? When will his strength come back? When will his appetite return?
Tomorrow will be the 4th day, approx 220mL of food - 1.25 cans. I'm using a/d at the moment, but we initially had Royal Canin Recovery RS. I was running out so I called a local vet yesterday at 5 minutes to noon and they were willing to set the food out for me to get through the weekend, and I had heard that the a/d was more palatable. Budster doesn't like anything right now. And I'd imagine he is not hungry, after his tummy had shrunken after all the days of not eating. I highly doubt he is losing weight anymore at least, and the few times he's vomited it was more like coughing up mucous. I caught it in my hand today during noon feeding (yuck) but it was just food-colored snot. I feel like I must be blowing him up like a balloon. 5 half-hour sessions a day is hard on both of us, but he is obviously worth it, he's my baby! This upcoming week scares the he!! out of me and I'm pretty much a trainwreck but trying to be positive around my sweet boy. Could anyone shed some light on any of this for me today? My mind is on nothing else, so maybe I can learn more from you guys. Thank you
Gina
my sweet man, who I want to spend many many more days on my bed in the sun~