Fingers crossed for Schmoo please..

[SuzynCora]

Hi Helen.
We've been having a bit of a tough time with other things, which is why I've not been online.
Cora's heart rate is high, it went bonkers at first then seemed to settle, but I do have to check her respiratory rate every day.  Apparently it should never be higher than 40/minute, and she is thin, so she gets monthly check ups at the vet now.
If you don't get any sense after the holiday, I'd go the specialist route.  It cost me a fortune, but it was worth it, and I can highly recommend the woman we saw, you can have her details if you want.  They only did what was absolutely necessary, because of the way she is.  Difficult, bad tempered, stressed etc
Can you break Vidalta in half?  You're not supposed to with Felimazole, but I did, and gave her half a tablet a day.  I read somewhere that it's OK so long as you don't ingest any yourself.
Prednisolone tastes vile, by the way, so hide it well!

[HelenD]

Hey Suzy!

I've been wondering how you and Cora have been getting on, glad to hear she's doing ok now :D

Interesting to hear she's on pred tho, sounding more & more like our girls do have something similar going on! Our problem is there's no way we could ultrasound without sedation (she's a right wiggler LOL) but they don't want to sedate because of the blood results.....!

We tried taking her off vidalta completely a few months ago but her heart rate went bonkers and her weight plummeted, which is why we are only pilling every other day.

Hopefully we will hear back from the vets after the bank hols but I think we are leaning towards trying the steroids to start with at the moment. I will ask about urine testing too as they haven't mentioned that.

Thanks for all the advice though ladies!

[SuzynCora]

Hi Helen.
Cora and I have everything crossed for you and Schmoo.
I think an ultrasound of her liver sounds like a good idea, although Cora's was inconclusive, and I know we thought Schmoo and Cora had a similar liver problem.  It might be an idea to get them to check her heart at the same time.
Cora is also hyper T, as well as having a heart problem, found when they did the liver ultrasound.
I don't know if it will help, but this is what we did:
We took her off the Felimazole which she was on for the hyper T, as in some cats it can irritate liver problems (not sure if Vidalta does the same), and now she is on 1/2 prednisolone twice a day for her liver, and Fortekor for her heart. The Fortekor not only protects her heart but also her kidneys, but her thyroid is doing it's own thing.  She has been on this regime since January now, and seems fine, certainly much better than she was last year.
Her liver and kidney levels went up in February, and I was told I may not have her for much longer, but they have gone back down, although they are still higher than normal. 
Good luck, we will be thinking of you     
 

[Amanda (mad4moggies)]

Would your vets be able to do a liver ultrasound? It could be done whilst Schmoo is conscious and may give them further information. If they cannot do it then they can refer you to a specialist as an out patient.

The only other thing to consider is the increasing kidney enzymes. Reducing the Vidalta may cause these levels to increase further as hyperthroidism can mask the signs of kidney disease. Hyper t can actually improve kidney functionby increasing the blood flow to the kidneys. Have they carried out any urine tests to confirm if she has kidney issues?

[Liz]

Well thats another 2 of the list

The Toxoplasmosis result takes about 2 weeks to come back and can also show high FIP titres so antibiotics are a good way forward

keeping all paws crossed here xx

[HelenD]

Morning!

Well we heard back yesterday - good news is that she has not got FIV or FELV, so thats one less thing to worry about! Phew...!

However we are still in a vicious circle with everything else. They now want us to drop her Vidalta to one every other day, as her levels are dropping probably due to the issues with the liver (which are not helped by her being on Vidalta - chicken/egg anyone  ?!!)

But in terms of the op they still arent really sure. They talked to the specialist referral people again and we have a few options but we are still confused as to whats best.

Firstly they need to wait a couple of weeks regardless so she has a while on the new 48hr vidalta dosing to get the T4 back up.

But then it seems it down to us what we do - we can do the op regardless that the liver is still not good, meaning the op is more risky and she'll be kept in longer (not good as she gets stressed at the vets and hasnt stayed away from home ever before...)

Or they are saying we can try a course of Prednisolone, to try and calm the liver and also help the teeth a bit, so I presume that the op risks go down?

I've gone back and asked them some more questions about the steroids, so will see how we get on when they reply :/

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

Thinking about you and Schmoo today Helen.  Have everything crossed that some light can be shed on this for you both.   

[HelenD]

Aaw thank you all so much, it's just so confusing to know what's best at the moment. I know the vets have consulted with a specialist before on her case so it must be that it's just complicated, it's just so disheartening to keep having setbacks :/

Hopefull we will get the FIV FELV results tomorrow and we can go from there.

Thanks so much for the kind words though 

[Tiggy's Mum]

Hope you can get things stabilised for her and she can go ahead and have her dental 

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

Sending tons of positive thoughts for you and Schmoo.

It can be so tough to know whether something's being missed or whether things are just way more complex than we bargain for.   Is it worth asking for twenty minutes on top of your next visit to go through everything with the Vet and to ask them if there's anything they may have overlooked?  I think if you have a good relationship with your vet (and it sounds as if you do) this should be a question you can ask without them taking offence.

It's so worrying.   

[funkiechicken]

  sending Schmoo and you hugs 

Hope they find a solution quickly  it does seem to be one thing after another, with little or no let up 
xx

[angelinajolly]

  

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Sending lots of good vibes and its a real problerm with vets cos you just never know 

[HelenD]

Well after a looong running struggle with HyperT and an undiagnosed Liver issue - we thought we were finally getting somewhere.

Schmoo has had iffy teeth for quite a while, but after her last checkup spotted possible stomatitis (they dont get long to look LOL!) we were about to take the plunge to get Schmoo booked in for a dental - probable complete extraction.

But - we just had the results back from her latest bloods, and her T4 is a bit low (despite us dropping her med dose about a month ago for the same reason), her kidney levels have crept up and her liver ones are still really high

And now they want to run additional tests for FIV/FELV?!?!:(

It just seems neverending at the moment! We just think we are finally getting somewhere and then one of her results goes bananas and we are back to square one. They are now saying again that they arent sure about operating given the latest results - but I really dont know how much longer we can leave it :/

Dont get me wrong I love our vets - they are so nice and have been so good this whole time - but we just dont seem to be getting anywhere. I dont know wether her case is just super complicated and they cant figure it out, or if they are missing things that should really have been picked up before? :/ I really wish we could just get something for definite...


Sorry - rant over, I just want our girl to be happy and healthy.....