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
