Kenzie's ultrasound

(Gandalf



What food, specifically, are you feeding to Will?

He's on the Hill's Z/D dry -- and he eats it fairly well. From what I
hear, I may be lucky in that respect, as some cats don't find it all
that attractive. I'm pretty sure that Royal Canin makes a hydrolyzed
formula, too, and there are probably a couple other brands.

Many thanks!

Purrs and prayers for both Will and Kenzie to stay well for a long time.
They love their hoomins.
Love,
Kyla

~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^

"Life without cats would be only marginally worth living."
-TC, and the unmercifully, relentlessly, sweet calico kitty, Kenzie.

Every day is a treasure with Kenzie; I try to treat them that way. There
will only be so many, and then there will never, ever, be any more.

How you behave towards cats here below determines your status in Heaven.
- Robert Heinlein

On 22/10/2010 8:32 AM, Gandalf wrote:
I just now got back from Kenzie's ultra sound; I was there for 2 1/2
hours.

No wonder it's so expensive: two vets, and two vet techs. Not ALL the
time I was there, but when they were working on her.

The ultrasound did not show any abnormalities in Kenzie's liver, which
is very good news.

And, no visible signs of a tumor, either.

The 'ultrasound vet' did see an enlarged lymph node in Kenzie's
abdomem...which by itself yields little information.

They did do some fine needle biopsies, which will be sent out today
(Thursday) and the results SHOULD come back on Monday... unless the
pathology lab is really busy

My vet said there is a fairly common syndrome in older cats; I can't
remember the name, because of my lack of sleep, and the pain from my
injuries. It begins with tri----

Basically, it's an inflammation of the pancreas, gall bladder, and the
liver, which are all very close together; a cat's physiology is
significantly different from a human's, in that respect.

And, I think I remember that the gall bladder, which connects to the
liver, also shares a duct with the pancreas. I KNOW that's not how it is
in human anatomy.

Anyways, what can happen is that if one of the three organ gets
irritated or inflamed, it tends to spread to the other organs, causing
more inflammation.

Unlike in humans, a cat with pancreatitis does NOT display elevated
amylase levels, as humans do.

This make it harder to diagnose exactly what is going on.

If the liver biopsies come back essentially normal (no active disease,
like hepatic lipidosis), then that is the way they conclude a cat has
that tri--- syndrome.

There isn't really any way to 'cure' it: no magic drug. But with diet,
and some other meds, they can 'manage' it, and help it to improve.

My vet was very pleased to hear that Kenzie is eating much better than
she was exactly a month ago.

She wasn't very well eating then, and had lost 12 ounces in 6 weeks:
that's RAPID weight loss for a cat.

She said that eating better means Kenzie is probably FEELING better.

And her weight is exactly the same as 6 weeks ago. I think she lost some
weight, and then gained it back, because it took about two week for me
to see food start disappearing from her food bowl with any speed at all.
For a long time, Kenzie was eating almost nothing.

This is also very good

Part of that may be due to the prednisone Kenzie is getting for her
eosinophilic granuloma: it also helps to reduce inflammation in this
syndrome I can't remember the proper name of.

Prednisone tends to stimulate the appetite, and I'm giving her an
appetite stimulant, too.

The vet said the wort thing for this syndrome is for a cat to stop
eating, or eat way less than normal: it makes the inflammation to the
pancreas, gall bladder, and liver worse...and when it gets worse, cats
tend not to want to eat...a vicious cycle which we seem to have already
broken, which is also good for Kenzie.

My vet also said Kenzie's lesion on her lip, the eosinophilic granuloma,
looks significantly better than it did 6 weeks ago.

So: no really bad news at all.

One enlarged lymph node isn't really a reliable indicator of anything;
most likely, it's a response to the inflammation, since Kenzie has no
sign of an infection.

No tumor, as I had feared. At least no visible tumor, and Kenzie's liver
enzymes have been elevated for about a year now, slowly getting worse,
so that makes a hepatic tumor very unlikely: they tend to grow pretty
fast.

All in all, MUCH more good news, and really no bad news.

I cannot thank all my RPCA friends enough for your kindness, and your
generosity to make all of this possible.

All we need is a 'good' report from the pathologist, and then my vet can
start treating Kenzie for the inflammation syndrome I'm too burned out
to remember the name of.

This would be the 'best' diagnosis, given what's going on, so I would
really appreciate purrs for this to be the case.

Thank you all so much

Here's purring that it was a truly *spectacular* BCT, and that the only
'treatment' Kenzie will need for a long time to come is lots of
scritches and luvvins.

Yowie

On Oct 21, 5:32*pm, ingold1234[at]yahoo[dot]com (Gandalf) wrote:
I just now got back from Kenzie's ultra sound; I was there for 2 1/2
hours.
snip

The ultrasound did not show any abnormalities in Kenzie's liver, which
is very good news.

And, no visible signs of a tumor, either.

snip

That's excellent news Gandalf. I'm so glad to hear it. I hope the
biopsy comes back with good news too. Purrs for you and Kenzie.

Debbie B.