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Post by shadowlark on Apr 22, 2014 21:20:43 GMT
Thanks, I was hoping too.
Clinic just called and the have her on IV but just the solution, no actual meds in it, and she's already eaten an entire can of food. And hasn't thrown up yet. They want to send her home today. Our regular vet is away this week so this is a sub vet, and I just don't think she gets how sick Winky can get. Like, her numbers were still at 27 which is super high, and great she's on fluids getting her system flushed and eating, but what happens when we bring her home and she's not getting flushed. Are we just going to have to take her back in a few days? We decided they would keep her overnight and before they leave they will take her off the fluids and see if she keeps her food down. But still, I think if our regular vet was there, he would just agree with me about keeping her longer and trying to get her numbers down.
Don't get me wrong, I WANT her at home, but it's stressful for me to see her going downhill and I think she picks up on that stress, and I think it's more stressful for her to have to go back and forth all the time. She's settled there now, so why not just keep her for a few days and try to get her numbers down so we're not having to go back again next week. Ugh, I hate when our regular vet is away! (Not to mention I'll have to probably pay full price cause the sub vet won't know regular vet gives us a huge discount all the time! Last time it was a 30% discount!)
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Post by horselady on Apr 23, 2014 2:33:27 GMT
Poor Winky and poor you for going thru this, is it possible to leave a shunt in her and you can give her the liquid. ?
and what if it is the food that is causing her all these problems. ?
Hope you can get to the bottom of all this and find a solution so you and she does not have to go thru all this.
wishing you well.
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Post by shadowlark on Apr 23, 2014 2:41:18 GMT
I don't think we could do the IV fluids, but could definitely try doing sub-cutaneous. That should help a little. We're going to try a different food when she comes home. They gave her D/m which is a diabetic food and said it could be better, or i/D which is gastrointestinal food, so that should definitely help. But she's already on a good food - it's called Hill z/d and is a hydrolyzed protein which is supposed to be easily digestible. But we can try the others and see. I'm happy she was eating, but she still looked "off" to me when I went to visit. The vets (who have never met her before) thought she looked ok, but I can see something is off. Like, she didn't jump right up when I called her name, she wasn't pushing against the door to get out, she didn't purr the whole time I was there. I opted to leave her there over night, just cause I think it would be less stressful then home tonight and possible back tomorrow if she's still off. I'm hoping I'm just being super paranoid/stressed/didn't get enough sleep last night, but I had a horrible feeling when I left her. I've never felt such a feeling when leaving a cat at the vet overnight, just this overwhelming feeling that something bad was going to happen. Fingers crossed I'm wrong!  |
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Terry
Junior Member
Central Illinois, USA
Posts: 1,466 
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Post by Terry on Apr 23, 2014 3:38:09 GMT
I'm so sorry to hear that she's back at the vet's office again. I can only imagine how stressful this must be for you and poor Winky. I sure hope she is much improved by tomorrow.
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Post by shadowlark on Apr 25, 2014 0:04:26 GMT
Well, she came home last night. She ate a bit last night, but not much but I wasn't too worried as she'd been munching on food all day at the vet. We kept her in the bedroom with us last night with the door closed, and she came to visit on the bed for a bit, but spent most of the night under the bed.
This morning she ate most of her breakfast, but it took about 4 hours for her to finish, when it usually takes about 10-15 minutes. She was out on her favorite chair for a bit, but is now back under the bed. Not a good sign as she only goes under the bed when she doesn't feel well. Sub vet just called and her pancreas number is back up to 50. So we're to see if she eats and acts normally, and if not, bring her back and they'll hook her back up on IVs but give her actual meds this time.
So now I have 2 feelings - mostly I'm worried about her cause she's definitely not acting herself. But I'm also ticked off cause if they had just listened to me when I took her Tuesday, she would still be there hooked up to meds and getting better, not at home getting worse. I have a feeling she will have to go back again. Luckily our regular vet is back Monday. But until then I have to deal with these sub vets who just don't seem to get it.
My other concern is, with all this back and forth, it makes it hard to see how long she can do well at home. If they had kept her until her numbers were in a good range, we could reset the clock so to speak and begin counting how long it takes for her to get sick again. Now we have to wait again. We want to know how long she can expect to do well at home, as if she is having to go in every month for a week, that's just not fair to her and we may have to consider euthanasia. But if she can go 3 or 4 months like she had been, then her quality of life is still pretty decent.
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Valhallanite
Junior Member
Dutchess County, New York
Posts: 826
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Post by Valhallanite on Apr 25, 2014 0:31:06 GMT
What a cute little cat. I sure hope she feels better.
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Post by shadowlark on Apr 25, 2014 16:14:32 GMT
She's back at the vet. I am going to insist she stay over the weekend, on IV, with meds. Regular vet is back Monday. She looked so miserable this morning. I barely slept last night as I was up every hour to check on her. This morning she barely ate, and when she saw me coming with the carrier, she just lay down in defeat, when usually she would bolt away and hide behind something. I can't wait until our regular vet is back and I can tell him how the sub vets completely screwed up, didn't listen when I told them what the treatment plan we'd set was, changed her food when that can cause problems, had her on an IV for all of 8 hours with no meds actually given, then sent home before the test results were back, etc etc etc. She's on IV now, getting meds. Just ticks me off that after spending $1200 in the past week, we're basically back at square one because of all the screw ups. |
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mistersmom
Junior Member
Abita Springs, LA
Posts: 3,749
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Post by mistersmom on Apr 25, 2014 16:24:18 GMT
Poor Winky and poor you for having to go through all this undue stress. If the vet had just listened to you... I would definitely tell your regular vet what happened and also about adjusting the charges. Get your vet's cell number for emergencies next time he is out of town and have the sub talk to your regular vet directly if needed.
Praying for you and Winky. She looks like such a sweet, loveable thing. So sad she is having these problems.
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Post by shadowlark on Apr 25, 2014 16:39:11 GMT
I'm sure our vet will work something out with the bill. He is always giving us discounts. And when Crackerjack died, he wouldn't take any payment for her care (about $1000) and he paid for the cremation and ceramic paw print. It's just aggravating. Next time he's out of town I will definitely make sure he leaves specific instructions! He's in the UK right now - maybe he ran into red! LOL I'll update after we visit tonight  |
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Post by diamondgirl on Apr 25, 2014 19:19:33 GMT
Thank goodness your regular vet will back in a couple days. I wonder why the sub vet didn't just read Winky's chart? If she has had this before, and improved with a specific treatment, wouldn't that treatment be in her chart? I hope she gets to feeling better soon.
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mistersmom
Junior Member
Abita Springs, LA
Posts: 3,749
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Post by mistersmom on Apr 28, 2014 14:44:08 GMT
Just wondering how Winky is today?
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Post by shadowlark on Apr 28, 2014 20:20:32 GMT
Well, we went to see her on Saturday and she was off the IV again. I was pissed! I was about ready to just scoop her up and take her somewhere else. The vet had called earlier Saturday to say she was concerned that Winky hadn't pooped and would we ok X-rays. So we did and while we were visiting she showed us the X-rays with poor Winky's belly full of poop! She was soooo constipated. All the poops looked really hard (we've had constipated cats before so know how to read X-rays for that!). The vet had given her a laxative, so hopefully she started pooping soon after! But of course, that upset me more cause if they had just listened to me to begin with, she would have been on the IV the whole week, not on for a few hours then off the rest of the week. Pancreatitis causes dehydration, so no wonder if her numbers were so bad she got so dehydrated her poops got too dry to move through her! Poor girl. She's suffering cause of this stupid vet.
Haven't heard from them yet today. Our vet is back today so I'm sure he will take care of her. We are going to visit her later, so we'll see how she is then.
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Post by shadowlark on Apr 29, 2014 1:43:58 GMT
Just got back from visiting my girl. She looks MUCH better! Why? Because our vet is back!!! He asked what had been going on and we told him the whole story and he said he would look into it more. I told him he's never allowed to go on vacation again!
Anyway, he was back yesterday, so since yesterday Winky has been on IV, getting meds, she pooped (Yay!) and she looks so much better already. She started purring as soon as I called her name. She's in a bottom, double kennel (cause the vet tech girls all love her so gave her the condo kennel!), so I sat on the ground and she climbed into my lap and we had a nice cuddle. Big difference from last week when I visited and she purred for a bit and then went and lay in the corner.
Our vet looked less than impressed when we told him they had changed her food. At least since Friday she's back on her food since I insisted when I took her back in. He is going to call an animal nutritionist tomorrow and discuss Winky with the nutritionist to see if there is a better food that he doesn't know about. But if we do change it, at least it will be done slowly so she can adjust.
He is going to keep her for the week. On Thursday we'll pull blood to do the Spec fPli test again, just to see how low it's gone. But he says she might have to stay up to 2 weeks as he doesn't want to send her home until she has a normal number (and wasn't happy that the sub vets had just kept sending her home). When she DOES come home, we're going to start giving fluids at home, maybe twice a week to see if that helps maintain her longer.
I am SOOOO happy he's back!!!!
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mistersmom
Junior Member
Abita Springs, LA
Posts: 3,749
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Post by mistersmom on Apr 29, 2014 12:13:20 GMT
I'm so glad to hear your vet is back and winky is doing better! I hate to hear she is going to have to stay another 2 weeks but if that is what is best for her, than it needs to be done.
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Post by shadowlark on Apr 29, 2014 18:25:38 GMT
Yeah it sucks she'll have to stay, but they are really good about me visiting her. They just let me go stay in the back with her for as long as I like. It's nice she's in a bottom kennel and can crawl into my lap I usually stay for about an hour...I hate leaving, cause she looks so sad when I close the kennel door, and she watches me the whole time I'm walking away. Breaks my heart but I know it's for the best! |
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Post by shadowlark on May 8, 2014 8:03:49 GMT
Winky is FINALLY home! Went to visit her and our vet said she could come home for at least the next little while. They want to rest her veins from having IVs 24/7 for the past 12 days. Pulled more blood so should see how her numbers are on Friday. The blood we pulled Saturday showed she was only down to 30, so hopefully it's come down more from there. Got some new meds and fluids to give her at home to help her out as well.
She was pretty confused when we got home and it was to the new bungalow! We moved the other cats on the weekend, so at least her friends were all here. Opened the carrier and she went and had a pee, then had a good look around. She ate all her dinner, so that was a bonus, and then curled up on the couch for most of the night. She's under the bed right now as I don't think she's quite sure of everything, but she'll be ok. Fingers crossed bloodwork comes back OK!
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Terry
Junior Member
Central Illinois, USA
Posts: 1,466
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Post by Terry on May 8, 2014 12:12:01 GMT
I'm so glad she's back home again! Hopefully she'll settle in quickly and her numbers will be down. Poor thing sure has had a rough time lately. I'm sure she's happy to be back with you, though! |
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mistersmom
Junior Member
Abita Springs, LA
Posts: 3,749
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Post by mistersmom on May 8, 2014 12:12:36 GMT
YAY!!!!! So glad to hear Winky is doing so much better. I'm sure she will adapt to her new home quickly.
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mistersmom
Junior Member
Abita Springs, LA
Posts: 3,749
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Post by mistersmom on May 23, 2014 17:57:20 GMT
Hey Shadow - how's Winky doing?
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Post by shadowlark on May 23, 2014 21:39:26 GMT
Well, there's good news & bad news. The bad news was, just after we brought her home, we got the final test results and her numbers had gone back up to 50 even though she was on IV still when they drew blood. Our vet spoke with the internal medicine specialist who said we were doing all we could, our treatment plan (food, meds, fluids) was what she would have recommended, and there was a possibility that she had necrotizing pancreatitis, basically meaning parts of her pancreas have died and can't be fixed. So it's unlikely we will ever get her numbers back to normal range. Having said that - she is doing pretty well, all things considered. We've started giving her 4 smaller meals/day, every 6 hours, instead of 2 larger ones twice/day, and she seems to like that. She HATES getting her sub-q fluids, but we've been able to do them on schedule (about every 3 days). We were even able to find special hypoallergenic cat treats that are compatible with her food so she can have treats again - she's loving that! The first week or so after she came home, she stayed under the bed, but I think that was more we hadn't moved over her favorite chair yet and she wasn't too sure of the new house. But since then she's been out and about more, cuddling on the couch and is back to sleeping on the bed with us at night - purring away as she falls asleep. She even had a go with the laser pointer where she was running around as though she was a kitten again! Haven't seen her move like that in years!! So, basically, we're just in maintenance mode now. We don't know how long she has - could be a month, could be years, there's no way to tell. They could do a biopsy or even surgery to remove the dead parts of the pancreas, but the risk of infection is high so our vet advises against it. So, for now, we're just enjoying our time with her and keeping our fingers crossed that we still have lots of time left. |
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