Thankful Thursday (Carmine Update)

Hi everyone, it's mes, Carmine!  Yous gets to hear from mes twice this week.

Today mes and the Mom and Lita are very thankful.  

On Tuesday mes had my ultrasound.  My friends who said it wouldn't hurt were right!  But theys did shave my tummy.  Now my tummy is naked!

We were supposed to see Dr. W for the ultrasound, but hims broke hims foot, so wes saw Dr. T instead.  

When wes gotted into the exam room, Dr. T's assistant gotted my weight.  Mes lost 7 ounces in the past two weeks, so nows mes weighs 9 pounds 3 ounces.  That really upset the Mom.  

The nice lady said mes is very handsome and a good boy!  Mes knew that, of course, but it is nice to hear.  Hers took my file with all the notes and blood work Dr. Stabby sent over for Dr. T to look at.  

Whiles wes waited, mes shook very hard cause mes was SO scared!  The Mom remembered that once they took my blood pressure at Dr. Stabby's and mes kept trying to crawl under the towel theys had put on the table for mes.  So the Mom finally got the brilliant idea of putting a towel over mes.  Hers covered mes all the way up so mes couldn't even see out, MOL.  Hers kept hers hand on mes so mes would know hers was still there.  After a few minutes, mes calmed down and stopped shaking.  The Mom says hers is glad that hers knows how to help mes stay calm at the vet nows.

Dr. T came in and asked the Mom a bunch of questions.  Hers also said mes is very handsome and good kitty!  Hers purritoed mes up and took mes to the back to has my ultrasound where theys shaved my tummy.

When mes came back, Dr. T immediately told the Mom there is NO indication of cancer in my tummy!  The Mom was VERY HAPPY about that!!

Nows I will let the Mom tell you about the results.  Thank yous all for all the continued purrs and prayers.  Mes loves yous all!

The Mom here: I am thrilled  that Carmine does not have cancer - that was my biggest fear going into this.

The vet said she thinks Carmine has chronic pancreatitis.  She said the only way to know for certain is to do a biopsy on Carmine, but neither the vets nor I want Carmine to endure that.  So we are taking the "practical" approach and treating it as chronic pancreatitis.  She also said Carmine's bile duct is dilated, but I'm not sure what that means exactly in regards to clinical significance.

She told me to stop Carmine's Budesonide and restart his Prednislone.  We had a long discussion about Carmine's history with Prednisolone and how I think that lowering it to 2.5mg a day is what made everything crash.  We are trying him at 10mg a day for a week and going from there.

We also talked about Carmine's eating habits.  Carmine gets very excited about his wet food dinner and breakfast, but when it's put down for him, he either sniffs it and walks away or takes a few bites and walks away - even food he usually loves.  The vet thinks that nausea may be a factor here, and I agree.  So we are trying him on Cerenia for that.  It is also an anti-inflammatory and works to reduce GI pain.

She suggested we switch Carmine from Cyproheptadine to Mirtazapine for his appetite, but when we told her how Carmine reacted to the Mirtazapine, she agreed that staying on the Cypro was the best thing to do for him.

VRCC had a tree in their waiting room.

Dr. T is going to check in with us in a week.  She was VERY helpful, kind, and patient.  She listened to all of our concerns and answered all of our questions.

I seriously hope this new course of treatment works for Carmine.  Of course we want him on as little Prednisolone as possible, but for now, we need to get him stable and put weight back on him.  He has had two doses of Cerenia so far, but he is still eating very little.  I'm hoping it just takes a few days to kick in.

I called our regular vet to ask her if a/d would be appropriate right now for Carmine so we can get some weight on him.  We will see what she says.  I am incredibly concerned about how much weight he's lost.

Thank you again to all who have donated to Carmine's tests - this would not have been possible without you!  Thank you to all who are purring and praying and sending good thoughts to Carmine as well.  We love you all and are very lucky to have you in our lives!