Friday, July 6, 2018

Katharine-NO Pancreatitis but Still Struggling

Update on Katharine: NO pancreatitis. PPL came in at .09. Reference range is 0-3.5 for normal pancreas. Reference range increases up to 5.4 for severity. Despite calls to the neurologist from the vet and myself, they have yet to respond. So, we continue to give the med that may be causing her to be sick-phenobarbital. It is a drug that cannot be stopped. It must be weaned. But it also needs to be replaced with something else to keep seizures at bay.

We are hand feeding her. 3ml of baby food sweet potato now once a day just in case she might get diarrhea. It's also a good source of potassium-much needed since she's not eating; much needed by the body as it regulates the heart beat (ions of sodium, calcium, potassium cause the heart to beat;) and potassium is much needed for the kidneys to function.

We are also hand feeding her 186ml of a 5.5 oz can of AD (162.5ml) mixed with 24ml of water, using a 3ml syringe. That comes out to 62 syringes of food. If we do ten feedings of six syringes, we can get about 186 calories into her. So far, she's keeping it down. The Pepcid has taken care of the stomach acid we saw Tuesday and Wednesday.
She is not yet eating on her own but is sniffing food. We gave her tuna today and elevated it by using a large bowl inverted to create a stand. Elevating the food helps because a cat that is sick or has stomach acid will experience it more if they bend over to eat their food. Elevating it allows the food to be more a standing height for the cat, hopefully avoiding any stomach acid or reflux.

Here is an article from IDEXX about pancreatitis. It's a very good discussion paper.



http://www.idexx.de/pdf/de_de/smallanimal/education/client-education/feline_pancreatitis_roundtable_discussion_us.pdf

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