"tivoglio" wrote in message
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On Aug 24, 5:17 pm, "Bill Graham" wrote:
"tivoglio" wrote in message

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This will be a rather long post, so please bear with me since I want
to describe everything.

In November 2008, I found a neutered male long-haired Himalayan
wandering around my front yard. He was friendly and had a green flea
collar on. It was raining, so I took him in and gave him some food and
water. Three days later, it stopped raining, and I posted his picture
around the neighborhood and in the newspaper and at a nearby
veterinary clinic. Three weeks later, I thought that he had been
abandoned, so I planned to keep him since I had lost my cat, aged 16,
a few years earlier. We had bonded, and he’s a wonderful, wonderful
cat. Just then, I received a call from a home about two blocks away,
and they described him to a “T” and asked that I bring him back, which
I did, rather tearfully. They told me that they had been given the cat
by her mother, and had kept him for only about 9 months. They knew
nothing about his history, but they said he liked to drink from the
toilet and preferred the bathtub if the lone litterbox was dirty. They
also let him outside, which in this neighborhood, is asking for a
quick death due to reckless traffic and roaming strays. Well, an hour
later, they called and said that he wasn’t happy and asked if I would
like to keep him. Yes! I covered the two blocks in 60 seconds, and
he’s been with me ever since.

The small home that gave him to me housed three large dogs and four
other cats, and my cat, who I’ve named Magic, had a nasty flea
infestation and also an intolerance for other cats and dogs. I took
him to my veterinarian for a checkup and flea treatment, and the fleas
were gone. He also passed his physical, (the vet approximated his age
at around 4, and he weighs 11 pounds) tested negative for everything,
and Christmas of 2008 found us both happy. I kept him inside my small
one-bedroom house and coaxed him out of his bad elimination and
drinking habits. In May, 2009, he started vomiting continuously one
night, and just when I thought he wouldn’t stop, he did, and I noticed
what looked like a piece of a rubber band in the last residue. Aha, I
thought, he swallowed a rubber band and it played havoc on his
digestive tract. I thought I was correct, since he thrived throughout
the summer and fall of 2009, but then the wheels came off in October
2009.

He started vomiting so badly one night that he wouldn’t stop and I
called the emergency vet at 5 AM and took him in. The doctor said that
he could see nothing serious, said it was probably acute gastritis,
and gave him an anti-nausea shot and I took him home. Two days later,
he started again and I let it go on for a day, then rushed him to
another emergency vet, where they did extensive tests, X-rays, blood
tests, everything. He was jaundiced, and the doctor said it was either
hepatic lipidosis or cholangeal hepatitis. She was leaning towards the
hepatitis. She gave him an injection of Baytril and subcutaneous
hydration. I then took him to my regular vet, who said his liver
values had returned to normal. He prescribed 5 mg prednisolone to
control any inflammation, and five days of Baytril to eliminate any
bacteria. Magic was then OK until the last week of February, when
history repeated. Same treatment, same Baytril and prednisolone, and
some famotadine to control any nausea. The prednisolone dosage was
gradually lessened over time to 2.5 mg every three days. The vet also
noticed a piece of tapeworm (could this have been the “rubber band” I
saw a year earlier?) and gave him a worming treatment. He also
mentioned that Magic had mild nystagmus and that might cause some
nausea. Magic was good until early June, when he again flared up. The
treatments were the same, and this time the doctor prescribed a diet
of Hill’s I/D and Fortiflora. He likes the I/D but the Fortiflora is a
hit-and-miss affair.

Now it is the end of August, and I’m bracing for another bout, which
seems to occur every three months, and he’s been sleeping an awful lot
during the day. A friend of mine checked with a holistic vet in Ithaca
and he said that I should get Paws’n’Claws natural cat litter…! Well,
I read that ammonia can aggravate a cat’s liver, so I installed that
litter. I’ll try anything. Magic eats with his paws, flips out each
kernel of food onto the floor before he eats it. He also paws his
water dish until it splashes, and then he drinks. This gets pieces of
litter and dirt into his water, so I change that 4 times a day. He
loves to eat grass, but the vet suggested that I shouldn’t allow him
to do that, so I grow oat grass indoors and let him nibble a very
small amount every few days. He constantly begs to be let outdoors,
and I let him out while I walk beside him to make sure he doesn’t eat
grass. Currently, he’s on a 5mg capsule of prednisolone every three
days, and 2.5 mg of famotadine every day.

So there you have the story of Magic. I took an outdoor cat and kept
him indoors and he’s bored. He loves people. Where he could have
picked up hepatitis is beyond me. Maybe he had it all the while, but I
doubt it. Maybe he just has hairballs, but I brush him twice a day,
use a Furminator every few days, and I have never seen hairballs in
his stool or vomit. Maybe he does have gastritis and the vomiting just
makes his liver act up. On his current course, he will either bankrupt
me or reach a manageable plateau of maintenance. I live alone on
Social Security, so my resources aren’t inexhaustible. But I refuse to
give up on him, so I thought I’d post this story and ask if anyone had
any suggestions. Maybe there’s something I haven’t tried, something
simple. We need help.

I'm not a vet, so anything I say is just coming from my common sense. To
me,
it sounds like some kind of parasitic problem. I would try different
deworming medications, if they are available......

Hi. Magic has been dewormed extensively. I boarded him at the vet a
few weekends, and part of the routine for boarding is a 'parasite
purge'. Also, when the vet found the tapeworm piece, poor Magic got
dewormed again. Thanks for the reply. Even though you're not a vet,
sometimes the range of experience with the things that work will trump
textbook solutions.

Well, If the vets can't find the problem, I suppose anyone's guess is
welcome. I know that I've had cats die on me that the vets either couldn't
or wouldn't fix. Like many doctors today, some of them are money oriented,
and they just kiss off problems if they figure they will be losers
financially. It certainly is worth trying different vets if you are in an
area where that is feasible. I used to live in Northern California, and the
UC Davis vet school was the best available in that area.