Well I guess the good thoughts worked! We could not get in to see HER vet till 5:45...we could have seen another in the practice...but since her condition has been so long and drawn and since her vet is so familiar with her I wanted him to see her. I seen this morning when I got up she seemed less lethargic and was being extremely lovey all night long...although she had not been to the litter box or food dish once.

My Husband did take her to the bathroom sink a few times during the night to give her a drink and she was able to hold it down. This morning I had to give her the pred because I just could not suddenly miss 2 days in a row. She held that down okay...but still wouldn't eat.

Well she went to the vet and after hearing all I had to say he said he suspected it was just upper GI upset from the pred and he put her on a drug that is both to calm her stomach and induce her appetite.

We did speak about the possibility of cats catching 24 hour bugs kinda like people do and he told me the text books say no but many years in practice tell him otherwise. Actually we have a rather nasty stomach virus going around the NJ area and he said he has seen cats coming in who's owners have had this virus and he suspected the cats were picking up the virus from thier owners. Since Tiny is on the pred and her immune system is suppressed he said who knows...she could have caught something like that...but no fever or other signs it was an infection of any sort.
He said more likely she got a stomach upset from the pred and then regurging all that stomach acid really had her irritated and that was setting off the stomach spasms. My having stopped the pred for a day and upping her dose of the carefate gave her tummy a chance to calm down and that was probably why the vomiting stopped last night.

So anyhow...as I said she had not eaten all day. When we got home I told my husband to take her out of her carrier and give her right to me so I could give her that tummy pill. Well first she peeded all over me to tell me how she felt about having gone to the vet (so much for not visiting the litter box...who needs one when you have a mommy who needs peeing on?????) and then I got the pill into her, put her on the floor and her face was in the food bowl in under 2 seconds. LOL! She didn't even give the pill time to work.

As for her being on pred long term....I know I've done alot of reading on the subject and have been assured by more then one vet it's okay and that cats tolerate steroids long term much better then people and dogs do. The only thing I worry about...and who knows...I may be way off base here....is I know cats are pretty prone to cancers and I have to wonder if keeping a cat's immune system suppressed long term will up the possibility of something like that happening. I guess considering her condition I don't have a choice though.

I did ask the doc and he did advise me to every now and then just try to lower her dose to the normal maintenance dose (she's on double that now)...and he said who knows...she was very young with an immune system that was not totally developed when this all began...maybe at some point this will pass...that isn't not totally imposable....although improbable.

So I guess I can hope and in the meantime I just have to try to shrug off my concerns about the pred I guess.

Good talking to you and thanks for the emotional support when I needed it!
Deb
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Deb
owned by Booger and Tiny Dancer and the mom of the late, great Kakel

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