CatBanter

CatBanter (http://www.catbanter.com/index.php)
-   Cat health & behaviour (http://www.catbanter.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5)
-   -   Anemia and Kidney Trouble (http://www.catbanter.com/showthread.php?t=79138)

PegNDerek Caldwell Ott April 1st 07 06:16 PM

Anemia and Kidney Trouble
 

Our oldest "son", Amaretto, has been at the Vet's office/Hospital
since very early Friday morning. Amaretto is almost 16 years old and a
seal-point Siamese. The Vet came to our home to check out both cats on
Tuesday--routine 6 month check up, but we were worried about Amaretto
even before that point, since he has been having occasional night
yeowls, episodes of "missing the litter box", and his blood sugar has
been dropping. He has been diabetic for almost 10 years and has been
on PZI insulin for the last two years--8 years on Humulin Lente. Dr.
Spitz, our wonderful vet, drew blood and urine samples from both cats,
and gave them both a physical exam. He called us (with great alarm)
on Thursday to say that Amaretto needed to be hospitalized immediately
for Kidney trouble. The blood/urine report at that time was:
BUN: 7.0 (normal range is 0.6 to 2.4)
Creatinine: 137 (normal range is 14 to 36)
Phosphorus: 9.7 (normal range is 2.4 to 8.2)
Hematocrit: 34%
Urine Density: 1.014

Amaretto has been given IV fluids and his values have been improving
somewhat:
BUN/Saturday: 5.7
BUN/Sunday (today): 5.4
Creatinine/Saturday: 119
Creatinine/Sunday (today): 98
He had an ultrasound on his kidney area on Friday, the results of
which we will get on Monday. He had a seizure yesterday and Dr. Sptiz
was not hopeful in his telephone call to us yesterday afternoon. But
this morning, Amaretto seems much better, according to Dr. Spitz's
phone call to us just moments ago. Amaretto really is a litle
fighter!!!! He is now sitting up in his cage, pacing around glaring
at everyone (normal for him), eating voraciously, and had a "session"
with his hippo this morning--we had him neutered a bit to late, and he
has a certain...ehem...fondness for this particular stuffed animal
toy!

Dr. Spitz discussed his treatment thoroughly with us, and we decided
to keep Amaretto hospitalized for now to continue the IV fluids. We
expect to bring him home on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on what
the ultra-sound results are. However, Dr. Spitz says that Amaretto is
clearly showing signs of anemia on top of everything else. We know we
are going to have to give him subcutaneous fluids at home for the
kidney trouble, and that is not a problem for us. We are very used to
using needles on our cat given his long-standing diabetes--we have
been home testing his blood sugar twice a day for years. The
treatment Dr. Spitz recommends for the anemia is called Eepogen (our
apologies for a probable incorrect spelling), which is delivered by
injection three times a week, with the hope that the shots can be
reduced to twice or once a week. However, Dr. Spitz needs blood
samples every two weeks to monitor the success of the medication. Our
vet is an exceptionally good sport and very supportive of us--he will
come to our home to draw any necessary blood samples--but is there a
way for us to avoid this? Is there a way to "home test" for anemia?
Perhaps we could draw the necessary blood samples and take them to the
vet for testing?? How difficult is it to draw blood from the leg? Our
concern is doubled by the fact that even Dr. Spitz has to sedate
Amaretto to draw blood, and sedation every two weeks seems to us to be
more than Amaretto might be able to tolerate with all of his other
medical problems.

Any opinions or ideas would be most helpful--and we are grateful to
all!! TIA!!

PegNDerek


Scientists' say intelligent life sprang
from the sea.
Really intelligent life returns to the sea
every now and then."




All times are GMT +1. The time now is 08:35 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
CatBanter.com