Magic the beautiful guy

tivoglio wrote:

One concern with me is whether or not Magic will eat the z/d. He
appears to like the i/d, at least the dry stuff, but when I try to
feed him a little canned i/d, he just licks the moisture out of it and
leaves it. Does Will eat both canned and dry, or just one?

Will gets dry only. If I worked at it for a while, I might be able to
get him to eat some gooshy food, but Heidi absolutely wouldn't do it, so
I stick with dry for both of them. Neither of them is wild about the
z/d, but they both eat it fairly well.


I've actually heard of triaditis. I downloaded an article about it,
but when I got to the prognosis part, I felt a little ill myself. It
said that over half the cats who have it survive less than a year -
but maybe that's only if they don't receive treatment.

I think that triaditis is often a speculative diagnosis because the only
way to rule in the IBD part with any certainty is with exploratory
surgery and biopsy. Usually that's not done until the problem has
proved quite severe or intractable and the vet is wondering whether
there is any lymphoma involved. So maybe the short survival time is
measured from that point of definitive diagnosis. I know a lot of cats
can have some of the symptoms for years before the condition is
diagnosed. Will has had recurring bouts of pancreatitis for about four
years, and his IBD is still merely presumed. He's 17 years old and we
won't be doing any exploratory surgery.


The only time Magic had jaundice was early on, when the attacks
continued for two days and he wouldn't eat and became dehydrated. I
never let that happen again, but when he has a bout, his liver values
really spike.

Will's AST and ALT go into the stratosphere and remain high sometimes
even once he seems to be feeling pretty good again. I've got him on
Denamarin, which is a liver support supplement, but I've been thinking
that he perhaps should be on Ursodiol, which from my reading seems a
better choice for cholangitis. Those are some things to talk over with
your vet.


Does Will take anything like prednisolone? The vet told me that it
staves off inflammation and, unlike humans, cats can tolerate steroids
indefinitely.

We haven't yet put him on the pred, but it's been discussed as the next
option. It's true that cats tolerate systemic corticosteroids better
than humans or dogs do, though certainly not true that they can take
them indefinitely without risk. It's just that the risk from the pred
is smaller than the risk from continued inflammation of the bowel or
liver.


Also, does Will have a maniacal cravnng for grass?

When he gets a chance at an outdoor jaunt, he heads for the grass first
thing. But he's pretty toothless, so I don't have to worry about his
ingesting very much. And I'm not too concerned about possible
parasites.
--

Wayne M.