Update On Lily!

[stacydc83]

Morning. No good news, again. I'm really at my whits ends here. I gave her miralax yesterday, this morning I found a few sad balls. At least its SOMETHING coming coming out, right? Yesterday I ventured out to Petsmart, and I bought a hairball paste to try. I got CatMx hairball relief gel. it has petroleum jelly, psyllium seed husk, and wild alaskan oil as the active ingredients. Normally I'd avoid jelly, but I know jelly is a good lubricating which might be what she needs. It went down real well actually, just put in my finger, in her mouth and done.
Part of me is really worried, part of me is watching her and seeing she really isn't bothered. She's eating, drinking, peeing. She walked around with me yesterday, then went out on her own when Mom was outside pulling weeds and was walking around the back yard exploring and sniffing, with out any prompting from me or her. Then she "hunted" a shirt this morning and told me all about it. Hopefully today I'll finally get a nice sized one and breathe a real sigh of relief that she's finally getting cleared out. :-\

 

[Furballsmom]

She walked around with me yesterday, then went out on her own when Mom was outside pulling weeds and was walking around the back yard exploring and sniffing, with out any prompting from me or her. Then she "hunted" a shirt this morning and told me all about it.

Wow, good for her!! Keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[stacydc83]

Morning! We finally got a little poop this morning. Lots of balls, and a small, but it was a log. All pretty hard and dark so I'm thinking this is what's been blocking her up. I gave her another finger of the hairball gel this morning. Hopefully the petroleum jelly in it will move everything else out. I'll actually follow the directions this time, and do it for about a week to help clean her out. And then switch back to the pumpkin and egg since from what I've read. Long term petroleum jelly isn't good bc it can block the absorption of nutrients? I called chewey the other day, and asked if they we discontinuing gnc cat supplements and she said they were just out of stock. So thats good i hope. Hopefully soon they will have it again.
We will try to get our daily walk around the house soon, its still pretty chilly this morning. I'll update again soon, hopefully with even better news.

 

[Furballsmom]

I'll update again soon, hopefully with even better news.

 

[stacydc83]

Hi! It's been awhile since I've posted. Nothing new or exciting going on. I've got two mad kitties right now though. I finally put the revolution on them this morning. Lily really isn't mad, it doesn't bother her. Zoe on the other hand, runs around the house, hides, and growls after its done.
I found some GNC cat hairball stuff hidden at Petsmart yesterday, it was on a bottom shelf the last that they had left, so I bought a big bag of the hairball treats that she likes, and then decided to try the petroleum free gnc hairball gel. I just gave her some of the gel a few minutes ago.
No new poop news, still hard balls every few days, maybe the GNC gel will work better. I haven't seen a hairball in a long time, which is concerning, because I know she's got wads of hair in her. Hopefully all the things I've bought, tried, the pumpkin/egg, the gel, the petroleum gel, will start moving things out for her. We will get it right. I try to get her to drink more but you know Lily, she's stubborn as a mule!
Chewey finally restocked their GNC products, only small bags though. So I got more hip & joint. So between the big bag of GNC hairball chewable treats, and what I have left of the hip and joint, and the bag coming from chewey, we should be set for a little while.

Oh, we finally got those poop balls that were hanging from Lily's butt for weeks off. We basically held her down and cut them out and cut some butt hair out too to hopefully make things less messy. Man does that make her mad!
Really nothing has been going on. I'm bored out of my mind, its been a month since I've worked. Driving the girls crazy with me being here ALL the time. I'm trying to talk myself out of a frivolous spending spree, I found a laptop on best buy's website that I REALLY want, but I don't need. I've gotten into the Sims 4 to help pass the time, its got a better graphics card and more ram, but the game runs fine on this one, so I look at it every day, add to cart, and then cancel. Because I really don't need it! I'm just bored! LOL

 

[Furballsmom]

Zoe on the other hand, runs around the house, hides, and growls after its done.

This is quite a reaction. I think if it were me I would try to find something else for her, or even nothing if at all possible.

we finally got those poop balls that were hanging from Lily's butt for weeks

Good for you!

 

[stacydc83]

This is quite a reaction. I think if it were me I would try to find something else for her, or even nothing if at all possible.

That's just Zoe being Zoe. She gets mad at the fact that she's being held against her will, and then "escapes". She was over it very quickly, and growled because I had held her and was poking her with a toy to distract her from licking. She's the fiestiest cat I've ever had let me tell you! I only use revolution in the summer months. I kinda want to use the revolution plus, the one for the ticks, but that one does scare me after what I've read, so I downgraded to the original Revolution.
Lily's doing pretty good this morning, right now she's eating a late breakfast of the friskies extra gravy, Mom had gone to feed them early this morning and when she fed Zoe, Lily was napping somewhere. So extra special breakfast for Lily. And we got poop this morning! A pretty decent one for once! I'll give her a break from the GNC hair ball gel today. She went out and walked around the back a bit on her own so far today too. Since its actually going to be warm today, we will try to walk more, by kicking her out the front door and making our way around the house, maybe even more than once! I might go out today, our local Petco has sucked lately on keeping my go-to foods in stock, No bff tuna and duck in weeks, and even their soulistic is a little low. And I know with the current times, your not to supposed to be out just to be out, but it really aggravates me, at my particular Petco, none of the other Petco's do this, but at mine, they have an associate sitting at the door, and everytime I go in, I'm asked what I'm doing there, what I need. it just really urks me. What do you think I'm getting, food for myself? to hang out? I don't know why it bothers me so much but it really does.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Is it possible to order what you want on-line?

 

[stacydc83]

Is it possible to order what you want on-line?

I've ordered from Petco once. Their shipping was like 10 dollars though. When the actual food was 7 something for the packet of wet. I still haven't ventured out to the other petcos in other counties. We still have some dilly dally which is the canned version of tuna and duck. They like that one "sometimes "
Lily got a slow walk around the house today. Right now she's napping next to me on the screened in porch

She got some hair ball gel again today. Hoping to see some good poop again in the morning. And she got a good drink from her shower a little while ago. And she "hunted " a blanket while I was at walmart earlier so she must not be feeling too bad today

 

[stacydc83]

So..she got, is in progress of a haircut. Her chest/mane was actually really easy and she didn't mind. Stomach hair... yeah not so much. I started on her stomach when she was sleeping and got a few chunks of hair till she realized what i was doing, and starting growling and protesting. Yes it looks like a 5 year old got hold of scissors I'm not good at hair cutting, let alone a cats but as long as I tell her she looks beautiful its ok right? She just has so much hair! I want some of it gone for the summer.
She finally had a decent poop this morning, bigger than the balls I've been getting for weeks now. I've been altering between hairball treats and hair ball gels. Maybe give pumpkin/egg tomorrow. But no real news or great progress with poop in awhile now. We will get there.

 

[Furballsmom]

as long as I tell her she looks beautiful its ok right?

Absolutely and thanks so much for the update!!

 

[stacydc83]

Hi! It's been quite awhile since I've done an update on Lily. So I figured today would be a good day to do one, since we went to the vet today. She was showing signs of a UTI (constantly peeing drops, licking excessively down there, and drops of blood) so off to the vet we went. They couldn't get a urinalysis from her, but they prescribed us an antibiotic. Hopefully this will clear everything up, and no further testing will be needed. And WOW that was an expensive antibiotic, more than I've ever had to spend on myself for an antibiotic. $80 for this week, and then I'll get the second week, next week for another $80, so $160 antibiotic, phew!
Her weight was REALLY high this time, 19.25, but I don't think its completely correct. She hasn't pooped in a couple days, I'm assuming from her regular constipation, and plus it probably hurts to strain to poop so she's probably backed up again And I think the UTI has bloated her out too. So I'm REALLY hoping these antibiotics do the job.
About 3 weeks ago, I'd ordered catlax off Chewy, and I think I like that stuff. It goes down her easily and I was still getting balls out of her, but it was almost every day while I was giving her her the cat lax. I stopped earlier this week, when I noticed the peeing issue, so once this is cleared, I'll go back to catlax, and mix it up some days with pumpkin, and I had also bought some cranberry powder for cats, and mix that with pumpkin.
I was hoping they would give her a sanitary cut, because they did say that having balls of poop stuck to her butt can cause a UTI. But they said by her mood she was in today, and extremely sensitive on her back end, there was no way they would be able to shave her today. I can bring her back in a few weeks if I want, to do it, but OMG you have no idea how hard Lily fought this time to get her there. We could not get her in through the carrier door, so we tried taking the top off and sticking her in and covering it back up, but as we were trying to put the top back on she head butted through the side and escaped, so the 3rd or 4th attempt, I kept my body on it while Mom put the screws in. She was SO MAD, and fought us so hard. I get it though, she wasn't feeling good, and it scared her. Normally Lily is the sweet one at the vet, and Zoe is the hard one to handle, but they told me that Lily was VERY angry with them this time. My poor girl

 

[daftcat75]

Can you tip your carrier on end and drop her down through the front door? I never liked trying to top load a cat into those carriers with all those plastic screws and hope they don't push the gate out the front. I like my soft carrier for Krista with a big top zipper. But then she's pretty easy to load into a carrier.

After months of struggling with Krista's poop nonsense, I discovered almost by accident that it was indeed a constipation reaction mediated by inflammation caused by the fish flakes I was wrapping her pred pill in every night. She came down with an ear infection and needed surgery and activity restriction. I knew we wouldn't be doing our nightly pred routine on the kitchen counter. So as much as she doesn't like the transdermal wet willy in the ear, I converted her over to that. Her poop issues cleared right up. Until the antibiotic souped her poops up. So what is Lily eating as it may certainly be the cause of her constipation?

Krista used to put up such a fuss at the vet's. Actually she probably still does but most of her recent visits were sedation required or relatively hands-off (let her out and see how she's moving since her surgery.) Her old vet used to give her a puff of gas to sedate her but not straight up put her out. Maybe you can ask about that. It's not a full anesthesia, but it does add an hour or two to the visit to make sure she's awake enough again to not hurt herself when she comes home.

Another vet recommend and even gave us a prescription for gabapentin to give before vet visits to calm her down. But she had a nystagmus (eyes darting) reaction to it one time at the vet's office. She also had bupe in her at the time. I just haven't brought myself to testing it again with her with just the gabapentin at home.

 

[daftcat75]

Honestly, I'm kind of proud of Krista's grumpiness at the vets. Through whatever else is bothering her, when I hear her yelling and growling at the techs and docs, I know she's still got plenty of fight left in her.

 

[WMM201]

Poor Lily. My cat has recently had some poop issues, due to apparently arthritis pain in her hip and back. She isn't wanting to go daily, and so now it's more Miralax. The poop is soft, but at least something is happening. I hope Lily's UTI clears up quickly. All that stress must be making the peeing situation more difficult. I am going to look up catlax on Chewy, thanks to this post! And like daftcat75 suggested, try one of the softer carriers with a zipper. The less fussing you have to do to get it closed, the better for everyone involved.

 

[stacydc83]

daftcat75 Oh yeah, we tried loading her from the top too, she kept pushing her feet out and made it impossible. I looked at those soft carriers, I almost bought it while she was in the exam room, but they looked too small for her big butt. not one size fits all! And I think your right, it very well could be the fish, I don't know though. I just know when I found it, the tuna & chicken/or duck, I was ecstatic that they both actually cleared their plate pretty well, when I couldn't get them to eat any other wet food. Its worth a shot though, let Zoe have it, but maybe try for a week with Lily getting just stuff like gravy lovers and see if there is ANY improvement.
We just failed miserably with the first dose of antibiotics, they prescribed 2 ML's for her, and most of it went on her, some in MY mouth and all over mom too, maybe a quarter of it actually got in her. Hopefully tomorrow it'll go down smoother. It's got to be because she's so miserable that shes this uncooperative, she's never this Fiesty and fighting us.

 

[daftcat75]

2 mL is a huge amount. Krista would never go for that. I have a hard enough time just squirting 0.1 mL of bupe in her and that doesn't even need to go down the hatch.

Can you have it compounded into something more concentrated that you could mix with food or a treat? Which antibiotic was Lily prescribed?

One bright side of Krista's severe weight loss is that her antibiotic dose was very small. 1/4 of a pill of marbofloxacin. I crushed it into her food. If she minded and if she was spitting it out, her appetite and her poops didn't show it. She's much happier, as are her poops, since we stopped the antibiotics this week.

 

[stacydc83]

Morning! So, we're gonna make an attempt at the antibiotics again this morning, hopefully it'll go better than it did last night. Its got to, last night we barely got any in her. I tried grabbing her a little while ago and she snuck her big butt under the couch to where I can't grab her. Hopefully we'll get her out, because I gotta head to work soon! She sure is cranky, but can you blame her?
Also do you know if its safe to give miralax, or pumpkin while on antibiotics? the lack of poop is concerning me now, I get it, I'm sure it hurts even more to strain with the UTI, but she really needs to poop!
*edit-update* we got most of the antibiotic down yaye! Followed by a few treats and a hairball treat. Then I got her to take a few licks of the tikicat pumpkin Wheatgrass, so that's a little more hydration. Just watched her go into her litter box again too, but thats OK, she's gonna start peeing normally again soon

 

[daftcat75]

The antibiotic itself will likely loosen her stools. Give that a chance first before you add something that could make it worse.

 

[stacydc83]

Well no real update, nothing great anyway. I can't tell if she's definitely getting better or not. she's only had 3 full doses, (morning and night) She's still peeing a lot, but not constantly, still finding little pee balls in the litter box, but I'm not finding droplets of blood in random places anymore either so thats a definite good sign? And she's not obsessively licking her area as much. Still no poop, I think I saw a rockhard ball yesterday. This infection has made her constipation so much worse I gave her a little pumpkin this morning, and a little pumpkin and cocoa nut oil. Hopefully there will be some movement. Poor baby has to be miserable, hurts to pee, constipated. I've read so much different input on the antibiotic, and UTI's. Some websites say it only takes 12-24 hours for improvement to start after antibiotics, some sayat least 5 days. I think the its clavomox, and she gets 2 MLs each dose(because she's so big). I just want my girl to feel better She's sleeping a lot, but I guess thats good, her body healing. She's eating normal and asks for treats so there is hope. I wanted to give her miralax, but I know that draws fluids to her colon and you need extra water, so that worries me bc I'm trying so hard to get extra water in her. I actually got her to drink some water from a bowl though, just once though, but it was the first time ever. (She only gets water from her "showers")
oh, and editing to add. The smell coming from her is still pretty bad, but not as bad, i think because she's not licking and keeping her area soaked. How do I clean it and get the smell of her once I'm allowed to get closer again, when its not so sensitive.