My housemate took care of my cat, Cat Five, during my trip to PA and New England in Oct. When I got back, her dry cat food feeder was pretty full – I thought my housemate might have refilled it while I was gone. But a few days later it was just as full – Five wasn’t eating very much. Uh oh. The litterbox use showed a similar decline.
Other than the not-eating, she looked fine. Her coat is good, her eyes are good, she was still eating treats, still drinking. At first I thought that maybe she was expressing her dislike for a different type of kibble, and just kept an eye on her for a few days. I offered her some table scraps but instead of licking the plate clean as before, she nibbled then walked off. I broke out the tuna, again she would nibble but not eat heartily as before.
On Friday we went to the vet. The senior vet has been my vet for over 20 years. She was my horse vet when I first moved to this part of the SF Bay Area, and later she bought a small animal hospital – today most of her horse practice is covered by assistants and she mostly stays in the clinic doing small animals, but she also still does horses occasionally. Five was seen by her assistant vet, Alicia. (Alicia’s sister, Kimberly, was the gal who leased Breeze and who competed with him up to Prelim.)
Five’s vital signs are all normal (pulse was ~125, respiration 66, temp 99.7, weight 9.6 lbs), teeth normal (small amounts of plaque, but not enough to put her off eating), eyes normal. On palpation everything felt normal with just a tiny bit of complaint when palpating the kidneys. The vet explained that they have a term for this condition – ADR which stands for Ain’t Doin’ Right. This is a standard term, taught and used at vet school!
With no obvious reason found to account for her reduced appetite, blood tests were up next. They had a 4-test combo test that they send out for $145, which is about 35% off the price to have those 4 tests done in-house, so I went with the combo test. Here are the test results.
Alicia says the results indicate liver disease. She recommended Clavamox (antibiotic), Prednisilone (steroid), and Ursodiol which is a bile acid produced by the liver and stored in the gall bladder.
The Clavamox is pricy. They had some Ursodiol and some Prednisilone that had been previously prescribed to other clients for pets that later died. The clients brought the unused medication back into the vet’s office, and they keep it on hand to dispense (at no charge) to clients who can’t afford medication. Yeah, great news for this starving artist!
Since the vet visit on Friday, Five’s appetite has picked up some. All along her energy level has been good, but today it’s even higher than usual. Since she’s looking good, eating better, and the WBC was normal, I’m holding off on the Clavamox, and waiting to see if she continues to improve with just the Prednisilone (which should increase her appetite) and Ursodiol.
Please send healing vibes for Five, and money vibes for me (the first vet visit plus tests put a $200 ding into my wallet).
