Thankful Thursday (Carmine Update)

Hi everyone, it's mes, Carmine!  Yous gets to hear from mes twice this week.

Today mes and the Mom and Lita are very thankful.  

On Tuesday mes had my ultrasound.  My friends who said it wouldn't hurt were right!  But theys did shave my tummy.  Now my tummy is naked!

We were supposed to see Dr. W for the ultrasound, but hims broke hims foot, so wes saw Dr. T instead.  

When wes gotted into the exam room, Dr. T's assistant gotted my weight.  Mes lost 7 ounces in the past two weeks, so nows mes weighs 9 pounds 3 ounces.  That really upset the Mom.  

The nice lady said mes is very handsome and a good boy!  Mes knew that, of course, but it is nice to hear.  Hers took my file with all the notes and blood work Dr. Stabby sent over for Dr. T to look at.  

Whiles wes waited, mes shook very hard cause mes was SO scared!  The Mom remembered that once they took my blood pressure at Dr. Stabby's and mes kept trying to crawl under the towel theys had put on the table for mes.  So the Mom finally got the brilliant idea of putting a towel over mes.  Hers covered mes all the way up so mes couldn't even see out, MOL.  Hers kept hers hand on mes so mes would know hers was still there.  After a few minutes, mes calmed down and stopped shaking.  The Mom says hers is glad that hers knows how to help mes stay calm at the vet nows.

Dr. T came in and asked the Mom a bunch of questions.  Hers also said mes is very handsome and good kitty!  Hers purritoed mes up and took mes to the back to has my ultrasound where theys shaved my tummy.

When mes came back, Dr. T immediately told the Mom there is NO indication of cancer in my tummy!  The Mom was VERY HAPPY about that!!

Nows I will let the Mom tell you about the results.  Thank yous all for all the continued purrs and prayers.  Mes loves yous all!

The Mom here: I am thrilled  that Carmine does not have cancer - that was my biggest fear going into this.

The vet said she thinks Carmine has chronic pancreatitis.  She said the only way to know for certain is to do a biopsy on Carmine, but neither the vets nor I want Carmine to endure that.  So we are taking the "practical" approach and treating it as chronic pancreatitis.  She also said Carmine's bile duct is dilated, but I'm not sure what that means exactly in regards to clinical significance.

She told me to stop Carmine's Budesonide and restart his Prednislone.  We had a long discussion about Carmine's history with Prednisolone and how I think that lowering it to 2.5mg a day is what made everything crash.  We are trying him at 10mg a day for a week and going from there.

We also talked about Carmine's eating habits.  Carmine gets very excited about his wet food dinner and breakfast, but when it's put down for him, he either sniffs it and walks away or takes a few bites and walks away - even food he usually loves.  The vet thinks that nausea may be a factor here, and I agree.  So we are trying him on Cerenia for that.  It is also an anti-inflammatory and works to reduce GI pain.

She suggested we switch Carmine from Cyproheptadine to Mirtazapine for his appetite, but when we told her how Carmine reacted to the Mirtazapine, she agreed that staying on the Cypro was the best thing to do for him.

VRCC had a tree in their waiting room.

Dr. T is going to check in with us in a week.  She was VERY helpful, kind, and patient.  She listened to all of our concerns and answered all of our questions.

I seriously hope this new course of treatment works for Carmine.  Of course we want him on as little Prednisolone as possible, but for now, we need to get him stable and put weight back on him.  He has had two doses of Cerenia so far, but he is still eating very little.  I'm hoping it just takes a few days to kick in.

I called our regular vet to ask her if a/d would be appropriate right now for Carmine so we can get some weight on him.  We will see what she says.  I am incredibly concerned about how much weight he's lost.

Thank you again to all who have donated to Carmine's tests - this would not have been possible without you!  Thank you to all who are purring and praying and sending good thoughts to Carmine as well.  We love you all and are very lucky to have you in our lives!

(Not Quite) Wordless Wednesday

Hi everyone, it's mes again, Carmine!  The Mom said mes could post again today.  What a lucky mancat mes is!  

Yesterday, mes ate almost all my breaky.  It took some convincing for mes to eat my dinner last night, but mes finally ate some of it.  Later on, mes had a little snack, too.  Lita sure is happy the Mom is feeding mes extra snacks because sometimes hers gets to have one, too!  Mes is hanging out in my pink cube right nows.  The Mom says hers will feed me some breaky soon.  

In this photo, mes is hanging out in the Mom's wheelchair.  It doesn't come out very often - only when the Mom goes somewhere hers knows hers will have to stand or walk a lot (which hurts hers).  The Mom went to a cat show on Sunday and took hers wheelchair with hers so hers could enjoy the show without as much pain.  Mes thinks the chair is pretty comfy!  

The Mom will tell you all about the cat show next week and show yous some photos hers took, but hers wants to give a quick update about mes today, so mes will turn it over to the Mom now.  Thank you all so much for purring and praying for mes.  Mes is lucky to has so many pawesome friends who care about mes!

The Mom here: I called Dr. Stabby yesterday to check in with her and to see how she wanted to proceed with Carmine's treatment this week (we see her next Tuesday).  She told me to lower Carmine's Prednisolone dose to 2.5mg again for three days.  However, we also decided to start the Budesonide at the same time.  Hopefully starting the new medication while titrating him off the Prednisolone will help him not feel so bad.  Carmine received his first dose of Budesonide last night.  I will keep you all posted on his progress.

Thank you for purring and praying for my sweet Carmine.  We really appreciate it!!

It's a Mancatly Tuesday

Hi everyone, it's mes, Carmine.

Mes has an update to share with yous about how mes has been feeling lately, but first, mes wants to show yous my cool new Haunted House!  Wes won this Haunted House Scratcher from Truffle, Brulee, and Mom Paula at Sweet Purrfections.  Thank you, friends, for having the pawesome giveaway!!  Mes really loves hanging out in my new house.

The Mom took mes back to Dr. Stabby last week.  Doesn't hers realize mes is sick of that place?!  

The Mom put mes on the scale, and mes lost more weight - 1.5 ounces in a week.  Mes is down to 9 pounds, 12 ounces.  

Then Dr. Stabby came in and said wes has to change things because the Prednisolone isn't working for mes.  So hers called in some Budesonide for mes - whatever that is.  

Dr. Stabby told the Mom to keep giving me weekly B12 injections and to start to decrease my Pred dose.  Mes was supposed to start my new medicine over the weekend, but that did not happen, and mes will let the Mom tell yous why.

The Mom here: There's been a lot going on with poor Carmine since his vet visit last week.  Dr. Stabby finally gave me the "go ahead" for an appetite stimulant for Carmine.  I picked up his Cyproheptadine on Friday and gave him one on Saturday.  He ate really well that day.  Since then, his appetite has been up and down.

We were supposed to start Carmine on his Budesonide on Friday when I picked it up.  I had lowered his Pred dose from 5mg to 2.5mg like Dr. Stabby told me to, but on Thursday, I noticed Carmine was doing very poorly.

Carmine was refusing to eat almost everything, and he was spending hours in the pink cube.  Now I don't mind if he wants to be in the pink cube, but he hasn't been in it much since he stopped grieving Jewel so hard.  The whole thing felt very ominous.

So I called the vet on Friday.  Of course she was on vacation (it never fails).  The vet tech told me to raise Carmine's Pred dose back to 5mg for the weekend and not start his Budesonide.  I have to talk to Dr. Stabby later today to see what she wants me to do about the medication switch.

Carmine has spent most of the weekend in the pink cube.  He is a little more social than he was a few days ago, but I can tell he is not feeling well.  I am pretty worried that he seems to be getting worse as time goes on.  I'm hoping and praying the Budesonide will help him feel better.  If it doesn't help, we are going to need to run some tests.

Mancat Monday

Hi everyone, it's mes, Carmine!

Mes bets yous can guess where mes is going in my carrier.  That's right, the Mom made mes go see Dr. Stabby again.  

They wanted to check my weight since mes keeps losing.  The Mom put mes on the scale, and it said mes weighs 9 pounds, 14 ounces.  The Mom was NOT happy about that at all because mes lost 5 more ounces in the two weeks since mes saw Dr. Stabby.  

Dr. Stabby came in to feel my tummy, and mes kept trying to get away from hers!  Mes was not happy about something, but Dr. Stabby couldn't figure out what exactly.  Mes is usually a ragdoll at the Stabby Place so seeing mes trying to get away really worries the Mom.  

Now mes will let the Mom tell yous about what the plans are.  
The Mom here: Carmine's continued weight loss is very worrisome to me and our vet.  The higher dose of Prednisolone clearly did not help Carmine.  So we decided to lower his Pred dose back down to 5mg a day.  We will likely get him off of it all together and change him to Budesonide if he has lost any more weight this week.  He will go back tomorrow for another weight check.

The vet thinks it would be wise to get blood work with a GI panel done on Carmine as well as a tummy ultrasound.  These two things together are *very* expensive, and if we need to go that route, I am going to have to set up a fundraiser for Carmine as I don't have those kinds of funds at my disposal on my fixed income.  I think it would be wise to get these tests done, especially seeing as Carmine reacted when the vet was trying to feel his tummy.  I am really worried about him.

We are more or less starting from scratch again.  The vet gave me some Prozyme to put on Carmine's food to see if he might have Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency, but since it didn't help the first time around (over a year ago), I'm not too hopeful that this will solve the problem.  The vet also wonders about pancreatitis, but she and I both think that if he had this, the Prednisolone would be helping him, so this is unlikely.

As some of you saw on Facebook yesterday, Carmine ate nearly all of his breakfast the other morning.  Carmine will eat a lot one day and then he'll hardly eat anything for the next several days, and the cycle repeats.  I don't understand why this is.

The vet FINALLY gave me permission to give Carmine Cyproheptadine for his appetite if we need to.  I need to go pick up his prescription at the store so we have it on hand for him.

Your continued purrs and prayers are much appreciated.  I will keep you updated on Carmine's condition.