From: kathrynw%radian@natinst.com (Kathryn Whitworth)
Subject: Re: cat vomiting hasn't stopped... any ideas?
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 22:36:34 GMT
Organization: Radian Corporation, Austin, Texas


My orange neutered tabby, Casey, has been vomiting -- actually, regurgitating --
for most of his seven years.  WHen X-rays didn't show anything, he was
diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome and put on a maintenance dose of
prednisone (maintenance is abt 0.2 mg every other day, except when we can
get away with using it less often).

Wednesday night when I got home, Casey looked awful:  hunched up, squinting,
third eyelid up, some abdominable tenderness.  He has a history of FUS, so
even though he wasn't acting like he needn't to pee but couldn't, I got
worried.  We went to the emergency animal clinic and had him examined and
X-rayed.  His bladder wasn;t distended (thank Bast!) but his digestive tract
was totally empty.  Vet gave him a shot of smooth-muscle relaxant, analgesic,
and antibiotic, and I brought him on home.

Thursday morning, he looked a little better, but I decided I wanted my
regular vet to keep an eye on him.  We still didn't know quite what was
wrong, you see, and Casey isn't real clear abt when he's just not feeling
very good, or extremely sick.  So they watched him, ran a blood chemistry
(nothing unusual), offered him food and water, but he wasn't interested.
They thought he might have an upper respiratory illness, but there was
clearly more than that going on.

So they did another X-ray of his digestive tract, using a dye this time.
The dye showed something in his stomach.  

We agreed that they should open him up and take a look.

Friday, they did the surgery.  They removed a large hairball (I still don't
know how a cat who puked as much as Casey could possibly have had a hair-
ball, but there it was).  They also discovered that his pylorus (the 
passage between his stomach and his intestines) was narrow, and fixed that.
They biopsied his intestines (thickened walls indicated Irritable Bowel
Syndrome) and his liver, which appeared fatty.  We're still waiting for
results of the biopsies.

Even on Friday, he looked better, and perked up some during my visit.
Saturday, still better, though he was still on fluids (had been since
Thursday night).  Today, Sunday, when I went to visit, he was moving
around; but he'd spiked a fever and still wasn't eating.  When I got
there, he was being forcefed, which he did not like at all.

Anyway, Casey got an overnight pass and I brought him home.  He was very
glad to be back, and all the other animals were glad to see him!  We
hope he'll start eating on his own now.  If things don't go well, I'll
call his vet tonight; but I have a febrifuge and the rest of the gruel
if Casey doesn't cooperate and/or gets feverish again.

He goes back to the vet in the morning for continued observation, as there
won't be anyone to watch him.

I don't even want to know what all of this is going to cost.  (:-(

I wish now that when we had Casey anethesized last year for teeth cleaning,
that I'd asked them -- or they'd thought -- of doing an endoscopy just to
see what was going on and if there was some apparent physical reason for
the continued puking.  Maybe it would have saved him some discomfort.
Maybe not:  we still don't know what the results on his liver will show.

That last bit is really the point of all this:  that I should have requested
an endoscopy when he was previously under anesthetic.  Others of you who
have cats with similar problems might consider doing so if the circum-
stances arise.

I'm still worried about Casey, of course; I will be until he's all better.
He's such a sweet, dear, cat, so patient with all the things people do to
him; doesn't use his teeth or claws in anger; very loving.  Send good
thoughts his way, please; we'd be devastated to lose him . . . 

Kathryn Roth Whitworth
   
From: barryf@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Barry Fowler)
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 22:05:55 GMT
Subject: Re: ants in the catfood
Organization: HP Colorado Computer Mfg. Operation