Life of the Lintee Bean

Once again life has gotten in the way of my writing. Seems I’ve been doing a LOT of writing about Studley lately – and apparently Studley likes having the spotlight shown upon him as yet again he’s “inspired” a post.

It started on Saturday, pretty innocuously.  Studley didn’t eat breakfast.  At the time, I thought little of it.  I’d walked toward him to give him his pill, and he ran away.  When he didn’t come back and eat, I figured he was just nervous about pilling, and it wouldn’t hurt him to skip a meal.  (I did get him later, napping, for the medication.)

However, he seemed fairly lethargic throughout the day.  Around 4:00 p.m. he vomited.  By evening, he wasn’t interested in dinner and was drinking a lot of water (highly unusual, especially for a cat on an all-wet diet).  In fact, at one point, he just lay by the water dish with his head over it – and that was enough to convince me a visit to the emergency vet was warranted.

So,  Saturday evening it was off to the emergency vet.  Fortunately, they weren’t crazy busy, and I knew one of the assistants working.  An initial exam showed Studley to be dehydrated and we’d start with bloodwork and x-rays.  The bloodworkresults (elevated Lipase levels) indicated pancreatitis. 

 Latifah had chronic pancreatitis, so honestly I wasn’t particularly alarmed – though I was a bit perplexed.  I know pancreatitis and diabetesoften go hand-in-hand.  Latifah was diabetic.  Studley is not.  Then again, since over 90% of pancreatitiscases have no known cause, and there’s no “treatment” per se, just supportive care, in my opinion it really boils down to the fact that we really don’t know much at all about inflammation of the pancreas.  Hopefully some fluids and pain medications and anti-nausea medication and Studley would be right as rain again, and back home with us.

Unfortunately, Sunday didn’t show much of an improvement.  Studley wasn’t eating on his own, though I’d provided lots of his favorite canned foods and freeze-dried treats.  He was being syringe-fed to prevent hepatic lipidosis(fatty liver disease)  – a condition that develops in cats with insufficient protein intake.  He also wasn’t urinating, though since he was not blocked (a urinary catheter proving it), it was tallied up to being shy and stressed.  He developed a temperature and was cooled by fan and misting with water, which I’m sure didn’t help his stress level.

Monday morning came and I transferred my big boy to my regular vet’s office.  He spent the day and got more  syringe-feeding and medication – but bloodwork showed little improvement.  The veterinarian and I talked, and we decided to have Studley spend the night at home – to see if he’d start eating again in more familiar surroundings.  I told Studley if he was very brave and ate on his own, he could stay home.  I gave him an appetite stimulant and antacid, per vet’s instructions, at 11 p.m. and syringe fed him 20 cc’s of canned food.  I gave him a couple hours of time without me hovering over him while I slept, then got up around 2:30 a.m. to check on him.  To my delight, he ventured out of his carrier (where he’d been hanging out) and to the bowl of stinky tuna… but only ate a couple bites.  He did urinate – a LOT.  We cuddled for a while, and I tried to give him some space again when he seemed tired of that.

The next course of action was to drive him to a 24/7 emergency/specialty center.  This would eliminate the shuttling back-and-forth of my typical emergency and regular vet clinics, as well as give Studley access to specialists and other tests.  We arrived around 7:00.  Studley was checked in and broke my heart when he cried – not understanding why he was being left at the vet’s AGAIN.

The internal medicine specialist performed an ultrasound, confirming pancreatitis.  He also suspects IBD, due to visible thickening of the intestinal walls.  Studley hasn’t shown any classic symptoms of IBD (diarrhea, vomiting, etc.) but he’s also on the ultimate IBD diet, a homemade raw dietthat’s eliminated the symptoms in my other cats with IBD.

So, where do we stand?  The specialist will continue antacids, anti-nausea medications, pain medications, and antibiotics – changing the type of medications in a few cases.  He’ll give Studley a plasma transfusion, which he feels is indicated due to the presence of fluid in the abdomen and noticeable aggravation of the fat surrounding the pancreas.  He also felt we should fast Studley for a day, to give the pancreas time to calm down and stop secreting digestive enzymes.  We can’t fast long, due to the risk of hepatic lipidosis, but at this time Studley’s liver looks normal.  Thank goodness for Care Credit – which will enable me to pay this all off over time, interest deferred.

Hopefully, tomorrow we’ll have better news.  In the meantime, warm thoughts and well wishes for my boy are greatly appreciated.

All I want for Christmas...