Dr. Slade was back in town the other day to see Dolly, Edison and Nosey. Dolly's been underweight for some time now. I'm sure I've blogged about how difficult it is to get certain meds in her. She gets her thyroid meds in her food. As long as we put it in something juicy, she eats it all. Bco her low weight and consistent diarrhea, the doctor thinks she has IBD. Every cat and their third cousin twice removed seems to get IBD these days. There is definitely an increase in the rate of diagnosis wrt IBD, but I forget what the stats are. Anyway, we're going on the assumption that she has IBD; she's never been scoped and that's the only way to get a definitive diagnosis (although I suppose it's possible that the particular intestinal biopsies taken might be clear of disease). I don't think Dr. Slade's too keen on Dolly getting scoped. I'm unsure as to why; maybe bc she's such a freakin' basket case. Dolly, that is; not Dr. Slade.
She hadn't seen Dolly since last fall, thanks to Dolly being such an elusive patient. Kevin and I had such a time confining her Monday night for Tuesday morning
's vet appointment. I was on the verge of tears, it was so frustrating. I got scratched up a little, not too badly, but she bit Kevin's hand. The little bitch. (Relax; I don't really mean that.) I don't drink (much), yet I would not have refused a stiff drink after finally confining her in the kitchen. Maybe I should have had a stiff drink before trying to confine her. Dolly has maintained her weight since her last vet visit, which is very good news for her. We have transdermal flagyl for her, but getting that on her is about as easy as confining her. At this most recent visit, we decided to try keeping Dolly in the kitchen, which would make it easier to medicate her. If she has the entire house in which to run away from us, she will make use of the entire house iot run away from us. She's easier to corner if she's in one room. This picture is of Dolly on the kitchen counter. I know, I know, it's gross, but.... Those are her and Nosey's meds to the right. Some of them. Nosey's ABs have to be refrigerated. Oy.
So far, I've been able to get the flagyl in her ear every day. She's figured out that she's a sitting duck while she's eating so if I come near her while she's eating she freaks out and runs away. I'm learning to just hang out in the kitchen ever so nonchalantly, 
minding my own business, leafing through a book or the paper, munching on an apple, petting her over and over again (which she demands), with nary a thought of medicating any kitties in my mind...and then scruff her and medicate her. The doctor also shaved her belly in case we find that it's easier to get it on her belly skin. Here she is on the dishwasher. The cats were confined in the kitchen for a short while some time ago. I think the floors were getting done. I forget. But Dolly made the dishwasher her own and she's returned to that perch. That's good bc she's kind of vulnerable to snatching when she's up there.
She's always been a somewhat demanding cat. When she wants attention or food, she meows on and on and on and on until somebody gets off their butt and does something about it. Now that she's in the kitchen - anytime we go in there, she's always meowing at us about one thing or another. She's become a bossy little thing.
I felt kind of bad about confining her, but I think she's doing better and adjusted faster than I expected. I think she eats more now that she's in there, probably bc it's handier to have her in the kitchen to give her fresh eats. Eating more is good for her. She's a very tidy cat, personal grooming-wise, but she is such a slob when she eats. No manners whatsoever. Bits of food everywhere. That's not so great...having bits of cat food all over the counter. And fur. But if she gets her meds and they help her, she may just end up being our kitchen kitty. And she's safe from Clara, who caused her no end of worry.
Edison got some shots. The doctor thought he looked good, like he was growing well. He's almost 4 lb. now...he doubled his weight since last time! He's still too young to get reliable test results, so he'll get tested when he gets neutered at 6 months. She wants him to stay separated from the other cats until he gets a clean bill of health from the test results. Edison seems interested in the other cats and I think he likes other cats (many cats don't care for other cats), so I would like to integrate him in with the others. But I'd always worry that he had some contagious disease and that I was exposing the others to it. Like they need more health problems.
Nosey. We're very concerned about our little NoseyCat. He continues to lose weight. He's had some days here and there when he's been kind of punk, not interested in eating, subdued. Wrt his unknown nasal problem, he goes through periods of less or more congested. Right now, he's in a more congested phase with more nasal discharge. She put him on antibiotics to tamper down on the nose problem and he does seem to be a little better already wrt that.
That may be the least of his problems. Or, since no one's been able to figure out exactly what is his basic nose problem, it may be the root of all his problems. His weight loss is our main concern right now. IBD often responds to prednisone, e.g., Clara, who was eventually weaned off prednisone. Nosey's weight loss indicates that he's not responding to the prednisone. Sometimes IBD leads to cancer; that may be the case. Right now, our choices are:
- Give him chlorambucil, a chemo drug. Symptomatically speaking, indications are that he probably has cancer. If he has lymphoma, this would be the drug to use. Wrt other likely cancers, there really aren't any treatments. Lymphoma is the most common cancer in cats, so, if it's cancer, it's likely that it's lymphoma. Longtime readers may recall that the late, great Archibald had lymphoma. The main side effect is a lowered white cell count; he'd stay on ABs for that.
- Bring him back to Dr. Straus for re-evaluation. Dr. Straus examines cats for just this kind of stuff day in and day out, so he's got a lot more experience examining, searching for and feeling intestinal abnormalities in tactile exams. I'd want to see what Dr. Straus would suggest as the next step, but I'm guessing it'll be another endoscopy. We'll at least go with seeing Dr. Straus again; we'll decide about next steps after getting more details from him.
Right now, Nosey's curled up at the bottom of the bed, looking as cute as can be. Nosey has the good fortune to be a very attractive, endearing cat; this renders everything he does - even sleeping! - adorable. He's been eating better for the last couple of weeks, so that's very encouraging. We weigh him again this weekend; I hope to see a gain. I don't like the idea of Nosey getting cancer. He's only 7.5 yo. And he's such a sweetheart. I know, I know, all kinds of creatures get cancer no matter how sweet or nasty they are. But he's so young! And he's such a buddy! And he's always been kind of a spoiled baby, getting coddled all the time; I don't want him to be ill and suffer. We've lost three cats to illness; I really wish at least one of these guys could just live a long, healthy life and die naturally and peacefully when their ticker poops out one day while they're sleeping.
Speaking of sleep, for some reason, I'm freakin' exhausted. Toodles.
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