Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Okay, not sure WHERE to put this, as we will not be doing amp...just looking for some support 🙂 16 year old diabetic cat ("fair/good" control PIZ, 4.5U 2xday). Otherwise 100% healthy, hale and hearty (vet said she looked half her age).
Several lumps--had been there w/ no change in condition from at least a year. Finally had aspirate at most recent fructosamine check--confirmed as MCT. Immediate histamine response. Thought it was controlled. Brought her home.A week's worth of borderline anorexia and other wierd behaviours.
After a week of ups and downs...she went into hypoglycemic shock)even though she had eaten, and we had lowered insulin). I was fortunate enough to be working at home, and on a whim, went down to see what she was up to.
Which, apparently, was lapsing into a coma and seizing.
Since then, we have stabilized her etc etc. Our concern is if we can't figure out what caused the anorexia, we can't get it under control. No eating=no diabetic control.
I guess I am just looking for information, experiences, input, etc. She is almost 17 (even though it pains me to say that, and that she has always acted the youngest of all our cats). She is diabetic. We decided we weren't going to attempt tumor removal, as that would be too much of a stress, Her recent bloodwork and urine were all normal. We are focused on palliative care--but don't want to throw baby out w/ bathwater. Obv, there is no real question. And there's way more to this story and what is going on... but I am happy to chat you all up, since I know who wondeeful you
all are!
"Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."
-Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
"May I recommend serenity to you? A life that is burdened with expectations is a heavy life. Its fruit is sorrow and disappointment. Learn to be one with the joy of the moment."
-Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
Oh my gosh Megan! I saw you were in here the other day sharing your wisdom, thank you so much for that. But I'm really sorry about your kitty. What's her name? What a lucky thing you were home when she had her medical crisis. Yikes! What did you do? I'm not sure what I would have done in that instance.
Other than asking if you'd tried something like Cerenia with her, I have no idea what to suggest. I'm hoping that our members who have had the honor of caring for geriatric animals will be able to give you better insight. But I will say that I know for sure that you are a GREAT pet parent and will no doubt give her all the love and care that she needs to have more quality days ahead.
Chat us up, we're here and ready!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
What a rotten ordeal! So sorry you are going through this. Unfortunately, or fortunately, you've had a lot of practice with geriatrics!
No advice in my tool box, just want to say itsq ALWAYS good to see Sam's avatar and to hear from you. Not the best circumstances, but still.....
We've got some brilliant kitty minds on hear who can maybe help out.
The "WISDOM OF SAM" is often referred to here. He taught us so much on so many levels through his spectacular human!!! 🙂 🙂
Will be watching for feedback and updates.
Lots of love always
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
Hey Megan,
I'm sorry you are dealing with all this- what's your girl's name?
You might remember quad-pug Tani- Maggie's younger sister. Tani was my only experience with dealing with geriatric pets. Tani had multiple medical issues including recurring MCTs. Like you I decided not to take the tumors off after a bit- she was just getting too old and her other issues were more pressing. Besides the last time I took tumors off (with just a punch and a couple stitches) several more popped up before the path report came back!
I don't know if mast cell works the same in cats as it does in dogs- but here are a couple ideas on the anorexia from my experience with the Pug Girls.
When ever we messed with a tumor, even if we just aspirated it, the dogs were put on benadryl and pepcid, both to head off the effects of the histamines released. The benedryl helped with the general allergic reactions and the pepcid helped protect the stomach from ulcers. If she isn't on pepcid or something like it she may be having stomach issues due to ulcers. Cerenia was another med to help coat the stomach that our oncologist suggested but I never used it.
The second thing I can think of is that there is internal spread of the mast cell cancer.
Another reason for the anorexia could be kidney failure which I think can happen with diabetes. You didn't mention blood work or labs but with the crash she had they were probably done?
I think your decision not to treat the MCTs is a good one. As I said I quit worrying about Tani's MCT's- I had pleanty to keep me busy as it sounds like you do with your cat.
Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
I’m sorry your dealing with both mast cell & diabetes ! That was very scary and lucky you were home to help her.
When you say palliative care what do you mean by palliative is she on meds ?
When a cats stops eating in our experience it is time to look further. Loss of appetite and losing weight are red flags with cats.
That indicates more is going on & it’s possible the mast cell is internal? I know it is common for mast cell to be in the spleen but that is all I know, Kerren is the mast cell expert!
Is she vomiting or have diarrhea or just not eating?
I haven’t had a diabetic cat, I do not know how to advice to try to help her to eat. If you are restricted on foods but you can warm foods, switch foods if you can the smellier the foods seem to get past the not wanting to eat. If your not feeding wet food try wet food.
You can syringe feed her too. But all that depends on something underlying causing the anorexia, they can give appetite stimulants and personally I didn’t have a good experience with those in a elder kitty. That was just our experience in one kitty. I did better stimulating the senses with warming food, adding toppers on the food. Roasting chicken & fishy foods.
I’m sorry your dealing with this and hope you can get kitty eating and make her comfortable. I understand not taking off the mast cells but believe you may be able to add meds in to make her comfortable, cernia is a great anti-nausea med and it is shown to reduce inflammation in cats. We have used that on IBD kitty a few times. It is only used short term, I’m sorry I cant remember why now?
Best of luck and hope something helps and you have more quality days ahead. Let us know how she is doing!
Holly & Purrkins❤️
Her appetite was 100% normal until the initial aspiration. She enjoyed eating, was active, had gained back the weight she had lost before she was discovered as diabetic. She looked and acted like a cat half her age.
Oddly, most of the other MCTs ulcerated following the test on the 1st one. She was given both an antihistimine and prilosec with the aspirate, and we had her taking cyproheptadine in the week in between. No abnormal/excessive vomiting--just anorexia/inappetance.
Chest masses came back as fluid-filled cysts; abdomen clear. Small biliary masses (benign) and a couple of pancreatic cysts, and adrenal cysts. None were suspected to be cause of anorexia or indicate progression of the cancer internally. Kidneys are small-ish, but functioning well and no real signs of significant CKD.
Bloodwork/urine normal; no infections, etc.
She came home this week, and for the most part has been eating almost normally. We resumed PIZ yesterday AM, 2u b.i.d. So far, no change in appetite or activity level. Urinating normally.
I am hoping she continues eating; if so, we will gradually titer back up to at least 4u doses. If she does not eat, we'll probably add in a steroid, whcih I am loathe to do b/c it just complicates the diabetes control.
MCTs are simialr but different in dogs v. cats... cats tend to be less aggressive, but harder to detect/diagnose/treat...they are generally more diffuse so removal is more difficult, and more likely to have become widespread before they are caught than in dogs.
The hardest part is realizing her age, I guess. I never even thought of her as a senior, let alone geriatric, b/c she has been so hale and hearty and full of saltiness. 🙂
"Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."
-Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
"May I recommend serenity to you? A life that is burdened with expectations is a heavy life. Its fruit is sorrow and disappointment. Learn to be one with the joy of the moment."
-Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
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