Thankful Thursday and a Tylan Update

Hi everyone!

The Mom here with another update on Tylan. 

It's been about a week and a half since Tylan came home from the hospital. The first few days were pretty rough as he did not want to eat much. After talking to Tylan's Internal Medicine (IM) vet, we decided to raise his Zofran dose, and that does seem to be making him feel better as he is now eating more. 

He went back to the hospital on Monday to have labs done for his Internal Medicine specialist. 

When he came home from the hospital, Tylan's creatinine was 5.8. On Monday, his creatinine was 6.1. His IM vet warned me that his creatinine would go up once he was off the IV fluids, so I wasn't surprised to see it go up a bit. I was surprised that it didn't go up more than it did. I am thankful that, for now, he is holding relatively stable. His creatinine isn't good by any means - he is now in end-stage kidney disease, but I truly am grateful that he is doing better than he was before he was hospitalized.

Do you know what else I'm thankful for? PET INSURANCE! 

Tylan's hospital bill (for 5 days) was nearly $6,500.  His insurance is reimbursing me at 90%, which means I'll be out hundreds, not thousands, of dollars. I am so thankful I decided to get pet insurance for Tylan when I adopted him six years ago. It has been a real blessing and has helped me tremendously with the costs of his care.

That's all we have today. We are joining Angel Brian's Thankful Thursday blog hop. Please let us know something you are thankful for today in the comments; we love hearing from you!

I'll continue to keep you all posted on how Tylan is doing. Thank you all so much again for all the love and support you have been and continue to give us.

 

Thankful Thursday on a Friday Plus an Update on Tylan

 

Tylan sits on his nest of blankets in his kennel at the hospital on Sunday night.

Hi everyone,

The Mom here with another update on Tylan.

Tylan spent last Thursday through this Monday in the hospital receiving IV fluids, antibiotics, anti-nausea medication, and an appetite stimulant. I visited him every day, and he was always happy to see me and never wanted me to leave him. It was heartbreaking for me to leave him each night. 

Tylan's kidney values were tested daily. He entered the hospital with a creatinine of 12.1 and a BUN of 140. Upon discharge on Monday afternoon, his creatinine was 5.8 and BUN was 74. These values are much improved, but they are still too high. Sadly, he is in end-stage (stage 4) kidney disease now. I am still in shock over how fast he went from stage 2 to end-stage. I am thankful that the IV fluids and medications bought us a little more time together.

Tylan's Hospitalization So Far

Tylan in his kennel in the hospital. They put a lot of soft blankets in there for him to snuggle up in. 

Hi everyone! The Mom here today. I thought you all might like an update on how Tylan is faring.

On Thursday, when he was admitted to the hospital, his creatinine and BUN were incredibly high - 12.1 and 140, respectively. 

In the wee hours on Friday, I called to check on Tylan, and his overnight vet tech told me he had eaten half a can of k/d! He had hardly been eating anything here at home, so I was both shocked and pleased. She told me he was sleeping at the time and he had been sleeping for a couple of hours. I was glad that he felt safe enough to get some rest. He needed it.

On Friday morning, Tylan's Internal Medicine vet called me (yes, she works at the hospital I took him to - I chose this hospital partly for that reason). She told me his creatinine had only gone down to 11.5. She sounded doubtful that they could get his creatinine much lower and began talking about quality of life. 

Needless to say, my mind was reeling. I was in shock. Numb. This had all happened so fast. I just couldn't believe it.

I visited Tylan on Friday night. He was obviously happy to see me, but he looked so small and weak. He wanted me to hold him forever. I held him for a while and talked to him. He was quite fascinated by the IV/infusion machine on the top of his cage that is constantly running. 

Tylan Urgently Needs Purrs and Prayers

 

I'm giving Tylan a hug good night before I leave him in good hands at the hospital.

As many of you know, Tylan has been really strugging since the beginning of December, 2024. At that time, his labs confirmed that he was having an acute bout of pancreatitis (he has chronic pancreatitis that flares every little bit). We also found out at that time that he had gone from stage 2 kidney disease (where he’d been stable for 3 years) to mid stage 3 kidney disease.

At the end of December, 2024, Tylan continued to struggle with his pancreatitis, and his labs showed that he had moved into late stage 3 kidney disease. Given that there were only 3 weeks between his two sets of labs, I was disturbed by the increase in his kidney values. But the veterinarians at his clinic didn’t seem too concerned about it. At that time, we decided to put him on subcutaneous fluids every other day and to get him through his acute bout of pancreatitis and start him on a renal diet once he felt better.

On December 30, 2024, Tylan was feeling so crummy that in lieu of acupuncture, his vet took blood work and an x-ray (to see if he was constipated as I hadn’t seen him poop lately). Tylan WAS, in fact, pretty constipated. Long story short, he ended up going back to the vet on January 2 to have an enema because the lactulose and miralax weren’t relieving the constipation.

Tylan had been eating less at the end of December as well. We all hoped that the constipation was the key – relieve the constipation and he might want to eat more.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

Carmine's Hospital Trip

If you get grossed out easily, I would read the short version of this story. If you'd like a more detailed account of what occurred, you can read the detailed version.

Short Version:
On Saturday night/Sunday morning, Carmine was having litterbox issues.  I was afraid he had a UTI or that his prescription diet c/d stopped working and his crystals were back, so we took him to the vet hospital.  It turned out not to be his Feline Lower  Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD), but something else, which could have also turned out badly if we didn't get it fixed.  Carmine is okay now, and we will be taking him to the vet in a few weeks to make sure the problem does not reoccur.



Detailed Version: 
On Saturday night/Sunday morning, I noticed Carmine running back and forth between the two litterboxes.  I went to watch and see what he was doing, and found him squatting in the box grunting.  He'd then get out and go to the other box and do the same thing.  My first thought was that he was having a urinary tract infection or that his prescription c/d diet had failed suddenly (he's been on it for three years) and that he had developed crystals in his urine again.  I was afraid he was obstructed, so I woke up one of my roommates and we went to the vet hospital.

At the hospital, I told them about his Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease and they took him to examine him.  The vet came out and said he was not obstructed, so that was definitely a relief!  But she said he could have a urinary tract infection or he could be constipated.  So, they took an x-ray of him to see what they could find.

The vet came out to get us a little while later (and she was carrying my baby boy around!) and brought us back to show us the x-ray.  She said she did not see any crystals in his bladder and it did not look like he was constipated, either.

Then she asked me if I had ever had a pet with anal sac problems and I told her I hadn't.  She took us over to show us what she had gotten out of Carmine's.  She said that they were nearly full and about to rupture, which would have caused an abscess and an icky infection.  She was a little puzzled as to why his were full, though, because he isn't on a low-fiber diet.

She informed us that it will take about a month for the sacs to fill up again (if they fill up again), so we are going to take Carmine to his regular vet shortly and see if he is having any problems with them.  Some people have to regularly express their dog's anal sacs, so if this is not a one-time thing for Carmine, it looks like it will be safe to do at home.  I'm going to ask the vet what the best thing to do is, of course.  If she feels it would be better to bring him in every month to have her do it, then I will do that.  It doesn't seem too complicated though, so maybe she can teach us how to do it so Carmine won't have to endure a vet trip every month.  I'm also going to ask her if more fiber in his diet would be beneficial.

I'm hoping this was just a one-time thing, but we will deal with what comes.  Carmine is totally worth it!!  He is feeling a lot better now :)