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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." |
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