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Lucy is still acting very perky and normal, but now has soft stool even on
12.5 mg/day of pred and is not eating normally again, though with encouragement
will eat an almost normal amount (a whole jar of baby food once a day plus some
turkey mush and sometimes a few bites of raw food). I decided to force-feed her
raw food today, in case she is getting worse because the baby food does not
agree with her, and she is incredibly easy to force-feed and does not really
seem to mind it (I do it with my finger-- just put a lump of raw food in her
mouth and she swallows it). She had gained almost half a pound over the
last week, but lost it again in the last two days.
So please send her some prayers, energy, etc. if you can. I had
made another appointment at Red Bank for last Friday and canceled it when she
started gaining weight. She went below 8 pounds today, which she has done on
occasion and usually gains it back in a day or two. I have decided that if at
any point she stays below 8 pounds, that is when I will take her on the 2 hour
car ride to Red Bank to see the internist. I do not want to stress her,
but I do not want to let her start wasting away either.
A friend has a cat with low grade lymphoma, not in his intestines but in
other organs, who is doing incredibly well on leukeran and pred (knock on wood)
-- down to one leukeran pill per week and only 2.5 mg/day of pred and frisky and
gaining weight. If Lucy has developed lymphoma in her intestines from IBD,
it is probably low-grade or her symptoms and decline would be worse. I
have been afraid of leukeran because it suppresses the immune system and some
cats get really tired on it, but Max's success thus far (knock on wood again)
with it has made me think that if she really does not get better soon and start
gaining some weight back maybe I should see if she needs it. She has been
hovering around 8 pounds, sometimes going up to 8.5 and sometimes, like today,
dipping a bit below 8 pounds. Which is not a terrible weight, but her normal
weight used to be 9.5 pounds.
Thanks,
Michelle
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