Hi everyone! First, I'd like to say thank you for all of your support and suggestions. I'm sure over the past few emails you noticed my frustration building at Luke's primary vet and towards his current treatment. I'm a couple days behind in my emails, but I wanted to send out an update and let all of you know what's up. After the ultrasound and the specialist's course to decrease Luke's Dex (steroid), I felt really uneasy. Especially with the expensive diagnostic tests that might not tell us anything. Neither the specialist OR Luke's primary vet were making me feel comfortable with Luke's treatment. So, I packed Luke up in the car for a road trip. Today we went to see our Leukemia cat's vet, an hour drive one way, but totally worth it. Luke's new primary is a cat clinic, and his doctor is wonderful... She'l!
l take as much time as you need to make sure that you understand and check everything with the kitty. I was always happy with her when we took Samantha there (our FeLV+). I was originally worried that Luke wouldn't take well to the trip, but on the way up he just slept. (It was on the way home that he screamed his head off because he was hungry again). Rescue remedy definitely helped. His old primary vet and the specialist are out of the picture for now. Of course, his diagnosis is uncertain, but we have decided to see what we can do to make him feel better as our primary focus. Luke is currently on Dexamethazone (sp?) a steroid, .25mg twice a day, and cyproheptadine (appetite stimulant) 2mg twice a day. He's eating a LOT, but is very lethargic and seems to be quite uncomfortable. He gets (and EATS) a whole can of hills a/d in the morning and a whole can of lick your chops lamb in the evening with solid gold catz N flocke!
n lamb dry to munch on throughout the day. We're also supplementing him with 1.25cc of pet-tinic twice a day, 1/4 tsp of barley cat twice a day, and 0.5ml of vetri-dmg twice a day. His food & supplements are staying the same, but over the next two weeks, Luke will be gradually switching to prednisone instead of the dex. First dex in the morning and pred (5mg) at night for two weeks, then 5mg of pred twice a day. We're going to stop the cyproheptadine because we think THAT is what is making him so uncomfortable - as long as he still eats. He will be getting AMOXICILLIN! 100mg twice a day for two weeks, then we'll go from there. (FINALLY!) Lastly, he'll get 1/2 tab of over the counter Pepsid AC once a day at night. I want to see him feel better. At this point, I can deal with not knowing what this is, I just want HIM happy and comfortable, as much as possible. The vet explained why the other vets are so hung!
up on dry FIP - because luke's globulin levels went up on the blood tests. She said that surely doesn't mean FIP, just doesn't rule it out and makes it a candidate. It's very possible that Luke had an infection of some sort and his kidneys are enlarged from scar tissue, among a gizillion other possibilities. Hopefully some of this will help him...
Sorry to be so long winded,
Genie & Luke
& the crew of 7
- Re: Luke officially has a new vet and new treatment FeLVMomOfSeven
