Purrs for Omar (long)

Was hoping not to need to ask for purrs but I think it could only help...

Omar, my 5-year-old orange buddy, has IBD, but recently in the past 6 weeks
or so began drinking excessively and I took him in and had two extensive
(and the word that rhymes with it, too) blood panels done within a week of
each other and based on his test results we know he does not have
hyperthyroidism or diabetes. His appetite has lessened over the last week
and his weight (if the scales are correct) shows he's lost about 3/4
lb.since the second set of blood tests earlier in May. My vet wanted me to
take him to have the internal medicine specialist do an ultrasound on his
kidneys, which I did yesterday. His kidneys appear okay but both his
adrenal glands were enlarged and they re-ran an electrolyte panel which
indicated that his sodium was low and his potassium was up, so were the ALT
liver enzymes. So today they called me in and wanted to run an ACTH test
(think I got the letters right) to try and determine if it is Addison's
disease (which apparently is much rarer in cats than in dogs).

The poor boycat had to have blood drawn 3 times in 1-1/2 hours and he was
really unhappy (as was I). The first vet tech who was holding him down so
that the vet could draw blood was saying, "Stop it, Omar!" in an unkind
voice to him over and over again; I got p*ssed off and said that yelling at
him was not going to make him any more cooperative. My vet apologized and I
asked to have another vet tech for the subsequent blood draws. She came in
with the same vet tech again the next time and I just held Omar down (and
didn't let the tech handle him and no one said anything - we got it done
okay) while the vet tried to find a vein (which is hard with Omar); the last
draw a different vet tech that I knew was more sympathetic held Omar and it
all went okay. He and I were ready to go home.

Meanwhile, the internal medicine specialist wanted me to start Omar on 10
mg/prednisone tonight (from what I've been reading, corticosteriods are what
you treat with for Addison's) even before we got the bloodwork back; I did
it and hope it was the right thing to do -- I know the prednisone will
probably help with the IBD and help stimulate his appetite, too; the not
eating much part also worries me.

If you've read this far in my wordy ramblings, many thanks.
Will keep ya'll posted.
Christine

Purrs and purr-ayers are on the way that all goes well for Omar, and that
whatever's causing his symptoms is easily treated.

FWIW, my friend had a dog with Addison's. He was a black standard poodle
named Dazi (pronounced "daisy"), and he was one of the most terrific
creatures to ever grace the earth with his presence. )

He also lived to be 15 years old, which would've been quite an age for a
standard poodle to reach even WITHOUT the Addison's disease. My friend was
absolutely religious about making sure he was properly medicated, and as a
result, you wouldn't have been able to guess, just from looking at him,
that he was sick and on daily meds.

So if it's Addisons, may Omar have the same great results to being treated
as Dazi did. He took his daily pill(s) and thanks to that, he lived a
fabulously spoiled, and otherwise healthy, life.

Donna, Captain, and Stanley

in article , Christine Burel at
wrote on 5/28/05 8:11 PM:

Was hoping not to need to ask for purrs but I think it could only help...

Omar, my 5-year-old orange buddy, has IBD, but recently in the past 6 weeks
or so began drinking excessively and I took him in and had two extensive
(and the word that rhymes with it, too) blood panels done within a week of
each other and based on his test results we know he does not have
hyperthyroidism or diabetes. His appetite has lessened over the last week
and his weight (if the scales are correct) shows he's lost about 3/4
lb.since the second set of blood tests earlier in May. My vet wanted me to
take him to have the internal medicine specialist do an ultrasound on his
kidneys, which I did yesterday. His kidneys appear okay but both his
adrenal glands were enlarged and they re-ran an electrolyte panel which
indicated that his sodium was low and his potassium was up, so were the ALT
liver enzymes. So today they called me in and wanted to run an ACTH test
(think I got the letters right) to try and determine if it is Addison's
disease (which apparently is much rarer in cats than in dogs).

The poor boycat had to have blood drawn 3 times in 1-1/2 hours and he was
really unhappy (as was I). The first vet tech who was holding him down so
that the vet could draw blood was saying, "Stop it, Omar!" in an unkind
voice to him over and over again; I got p*ssed off and said that yelling at
him was not going to make him any more cooperative. My vet apologized and I
asked to have another vet tech for the subsequent blood draws. She came in
with the same vet tech again the next time and I just held Omar down (and
didn't let the tech handle him and no one said anything - we got it done
okay) while the vet tried to find a vein (which is hard with Omar); the last
draw a different vet tech that I knew was more sympathetic held Omar and it
all went okay. He and I were ready to go home.

Meanwhile, the internal medicine specialist wanted me to start Omar on 10
mg/prednisone tonight (from what I've been reading, corticosteriods are what
you treat with for Addison's) even before we got the bloodwork back; I did
it and hope it was the right thing to do -- I know the prednisone will
probably help with the IBD and help stimulate his appetite, too; the not
eating much part also worries me.

If you've read this far in my wordy ramblings, many thanks.
Will keep ya'll posted.
Christine


Poor Omar! and Poor you! Mega healing purrs that you can find out what this
is and it is treatable.

Christine B wrote:

--------------------snip---------------------
If you've read this far in my wordy ramblings, many thanks.
Will keep ya'll posted.

Poor little man!! Bad enough being sick without all those people
sticking holes in him. This seems like one of those rare times when
it might not be much better if poor Omar could tell you where it hurt.
I hope things work out his way and we're also purring for you as well,
Christine.

--
Regards and Purrs,
O J

Christine Burel wrote:

If you've read this far in my wordy ramblings, many thanks.
Will keep ya'll posted.

Please do. We will be purring hard for Omar. Poor boy, I hope he won't
have to go through much more testing.

--
Marina, Frank and Mere. In loving memory of Nikki.
marina (dot) kurten (at) pp (dot) inet (dot) fi
Pics at http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frankiennikki/
and http://community.webshots.com/user/frankiennikki

In article , "Christine Burel"
wrote:

Was hoping not to need to ask for purrs but I think it could only help...

Omar, my 5-year-old orange buddy, has IBD, but recently in the past 6
weeks
or so began drinking excessively and I took him in and had two extensive
(and the word that rhymes with it, too) blood panels done within a week
of
each other and based on his test results we know he does not have
hyperthyroidism or diabetes. His appetite has lessened over the last
week
and his weight (if the scales are correct) shows he's lost about 3/4
lb.since the second set of blood tests earlier in May. My vet wanted me
to
take him to have the internal medicine specialist do an ultrasound on his
kidneys, which I did yesterday. His kidneys appear okay but both his
adrenal glands were enlarged and they re-ran an electrolyte panel which
indicated that his sodium was low and his potassium was up, so were the
ALT
liver enzymes. So today they called me in and wanted to run an ACTH test
(think I got the letters right) to try and determine if it is Addison's
disease (which apparently is much rarer in cats than in dogs).

ACTH: Adrenalocorticotropic hormone. You spelled it right, and now you
know why it's abbreviated!
..

Meanwhile, the internal medicine specialist wanted me to start Omar on 10
mg/prednisone tonight (from what I've been reading, corticosteriods are
what
you treat with for Addison's) even before we got the bloodwork back; I
did
it and hope it was the right thing to do -- I know the prednisone will
probably help with the IBD and help stimulate his appetite, too; the not
eating much part also worries me.

That sounds like good sound medicine. Yes, elevated potassium with
enlarged adrenals fits. There might be some later tweaking of the
specific corticosteroid, to something that would retain more sodium.

Both from Addison's itself and the corticosteroids, there can be mood
swings. OTOH, John F. Kennedy had Addison's throughout his term, and we
didn't know as much about treating it as we do now.

In article ,
wrote:

Christine B wrote:

--------------------snip---------------------
If you've read this far in my wordy ramblings, many thanks.
Will keep ya'll posted.

Poor little man!! Bad enough being sick without all those people
sticking holes in him. This seems like one of those rare times when
it might not be much better if poor Omar could tell you where it hurt.
I hope things work out his way and we're also purring for you as well,
Christine.

Purrs again. Unfortunately, this is one case where the blood tests and
the imaging (ultrasound or CT) is the only way to make the diagnosis.
The good news is that it's quite treatable.

"Christine Burel" wrote in message
...
Was hoping not to need to ask for purrs but I think it could only help...

Omar, my 5-year-old orange buddy, has IBD, but recently in the past 6
weeks
or so began drinking excessively and I took him in and had two extensive
(and the word that rhymes with it, too) blood panels done within a week of
each other and based on his test results we know he does not have
hyperthyroidism or diabetes. His appetite has lessened over the last
week
and his weight (if the scales are correct) shows he's lost about 3/4
lb.since the second set of blood tests earlier in May.

Christine - lots of purrs for Omar and you. I hope that you get a diagnosis
ASAP and please let us know what happens.

Susan M
Otis and Chester

On Sat, 28 May 2005 19:11:12 -0600, "Christine Burel"
yodeled:

Was hoping not to need to ask for purrs but I think it could only help...

Omar, my 5-year-old orange buddy, has IBD, but recently in the past 6 weeks
or so began drinking excessively and I took him in and had two extensive
(snip)

Poor sweet Omar! Purrs for all his innards to work properly.
Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com

"Howard C. Berkowitz" wrote in message
...
In article , "Christine Burel"
wrote:

Was hoping not to need to ask for purrs but I think it could only
help...

Omar, my 5-year-old orange buddy, has IBD, but recently in the past 6
weeks
or so began drinking excessively and I took him in and had two extensive
(and the word that rhymes with it, too) blood panels done within a week
of
each other and based on his test results we know he does not have
hyperthyroidism or diabetes. His appetite has lessened over the last
week
and his weight (if the scales are correct) shows he's lost about 3/4
lb.since the second set of blood tests earlier in May. My vet wanted me
to
take him to have the internal medicine specialist do an ultrasound on
his
kidneys, which I did yesterday. His kidneys appear okay but both his
adrenal glands were enlarged and they re-ran an electrolyte panel which
indicated that his sodium was low and his potassium was up, so were the
ALT
liver enzymes. So today they called me in and wanted to run an ACTH
test
(think I got the letters right) to try and determine if it is Addison's
disease (which apparently is much rarer in cats than in dogs).

ACTH: Adrenalocorticotropic hormone. You spelled it right, and now you
know why it's abbreviated!
.

Meanwhile, the internal medicine specialist wanted me to start Omar on
10
mg/prednisone tonight (from what I've been reading, corticosteriods are
what
you treat with for Addison's) even before we got the bloodwork back; I
did
it and hope it was the right thing to do -- I know the prednisone will
probably help with the IBD and help stimulate his appetite, too; the not
eating much part also worries me.

That sounds like good sound medicine. Yes, elevated potassium with
enlarged adrenals fits. There might be some later tweaking of the
specific corticosteroid, to something that would retain more sodium.

Both from Addison's itself and the corticosteroids, there can be mood
swings. OTOH, John F. Kennedy had Addison's throughout his term, and we
didn't know as much about treating it as we do now.

Thanks, Howard, that is reassuring to hear from you. You know I spent a
long time online reading today, earlier before the vet called and asked me
to come in, and I read all sorts of stuff about adrenal gland issues, some
of which, like Cushings were kinda downers -- I appreciate the info and the
support.
Christine