Over the course of the last 5 weeks, we have become experts in "pilling" Smokey and analyzing any product that comes out of him. I know, I know - TMI! But seriously, it's sad that most of our daily conversations surround...how much did Smokey eat? How many stools did he have? What were the consistency of his stools? Did you take a picture of them to send to the vet? We even have an Excel document where we log all of this craziness! It's just too much to remember & report on without some kind of tracking system. (OCD Lisa talking here! LOL!)
When we're tracking all of this every day, we really started to notice even the smallest differences in his behavior, the way he's eating, etc. He seems to have a bit more energy lately and has been more affectionate also - similar to prior to his health status deteriorating this past January. He also seemed a bit heavier. However, his GI status seemed to have plateaued meaning that his stooling has not been favorable - better than this past Jan/Feb but no where near where we need & want him to be. So we were hopeful for the visit but also knew that there were some changes to be made.
Wednesday morning (ADA Vet Visit Day) arrived. I dosed Smokey with some gabapentin (which is basically Neurontin for cats) to relax him a bit. He's received this med a few times prior to his visits and it seems to work. Little did I know that I was going to be tested today. So after i scooted him in his carrier and lugged him down to the car all while participating in a conference call, we were on our way. Half way there (about 10 min from home) I noticed an unpleasant smell in the car that didn't seem to go away. So I pulled over only to find that Smokey had an accident!!!! So we turned around and headed home so I could clean him up. "Cleaning up" a cat by ones self isn't an easy feat and I wasn't terribly successful. We ended up arriving at the vet appointment about 30 min late, but at least we got there...even though I felt like this.
So long story short - Smokey has gained 5 oz. We had hoped for more, but it's still a step in the right direction. The vet also mentioned that his abdomen seems less inflamed upon exam and that his muscle mass is much better. All good things. She did agree with us, since we send her the weekly logs with pics, that he GI status had plateaued a bit though, and it was time to make some additional changes. So it looks like we're adding another type food into his diet. He's already on Royal Canin GI Fiber Response, and we'll be slowing adding Royal Canin GI High Energy (dry & wet). Thankfully both cats love this food, so this should be an easy change. We're also switching up his meds a bit. He'll remain on his weekly Vitamin B12 injections & daily steroids. We'll be adding his probiotic back into the regimen and also adding chlorambucil (a maintenance chemo med) at a very low dose. The vet had spoken to us a bit about this at a previous visit, so we weren't too freaked out when she mentioned it. Apparantly moderate to severe irritable bowel disease (IBD) and lymphoma can exhibit similar symptoms and also be treated similarly. We are opting not to perform the endoscopy with bowel biopsies at this time, which is the only way to diagnose the lymphoma. Regardless of the outcome of the endoscopy, the treatment is the same. We just didn't want to put Smokey through all of that. So he'll be starting the med next week and receive it 3x/week.
Fingers crossed for this guy! We've made some baby steps and are headed in the right direction! Here's a pic of him sitting on my lap "helping me work". (Disregard the mess on the desk behind him.) Love him!
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