Jasper, diarrhea, an odd update 9-28-08

[jenluckenbach]

You might remember how last year we went through a bout of extremely persistant diarrhea with Jasper. And how he insisited on using our bed as his potty.

Well, 2 weeks ago it started again. :(

Found 1 soft poop on our bed (which immediately prompted me to cover the bed in plastic every day, as I had last year). Good thing too, because the next day, poop again.....same place.

So we started Jasper on the prednisone (one of the things that seemed to help last time.) But unfortunately, it is still not helping 100%.

So I left an update for my vet (she was out of the office today). Hopefully she'll have some idea of what else we can try to control this.

At least his appetite is still good (last year he lost 2 pounds before he began to recover) and I know that he is drinking well.

SIGH.......

Added 2-26-09 : Jasper's diarrhea has returned. And on the bed, of course. so here we go again. :rolleyes:

The vet felt he'd have flare ups. See more post 21.

[Catty1]

Jen - this has likely been mentioned to you before, but Starr had bad problems, and the holistic vet that krazyaboutkatz used for him did use prednisone, but also some other things that really helped him!

You might want to PM her for the details.

Get well {{{hugs}}} to Jasper.:love:

[krazyaboutkatz]

Jen, I'm so sorry to hear this.:( Yes, like Candace has said, my holistic vet has helped Starr quiet a bit but he had severe problems and hopefully Jasper's aren't as bad.

Starr is still eating a grain free diet and is now taking 1/2 of a pred pill once a week. I really don't even think this is doing that much for him at this point. He has to have his herbal supplements every day or else he'll have diarrhea almost right away. I mix half of them with his wet and a little dry food mixture in the morning and then the other half in the evening. He's on Primal Defense Powder by Garden Of Life and he gets 1 scoop full a day. He'll need to be on this for the rest of his life.

He's also still on GI-Encap capsules by Thorne Research. He gets one capsule a day which I pull apart and then add the powder inside to the Primal Defense Powder. I don't know if he'll need to be on this for the rest of his life but my holistic vet said to keep giving him this for quite a while before and after we eventually wean him off of the pred completely. You can buy both of these herbal supplements online or through a holistic vet.

My main problem right now with him is that he isn't as hungry now as he was when he was on a higher dosage of pred so now he's pickier about what he eats. He doesn't like eating his herbal supplement mixture so I have to sit with him and hold the bowl to make sure he eats at least most of it.

He still has some bouts of diarrhea from time to time and occasional accidents on my carpet but nothing like he used to. He also received acupunture treatments from my holistic vet and these really helped him a lot. He goes back to see her in Sept. and will most likely receive another one then. We may also decide that it's time to stop the pred too.

Sorry for rambling so much about him.:o I sure hope that your vet will be able to help Jasper and that his is an easy case to figure out and to treat. Lots of prayers and positive thoughts are being sent his way. Please continue to keep us updated about him.

[catmandu]

POOR JASPER,:o I THINK THAT HES THE LAST KITTY WHO WOULD WANT TO MAKE HIS MEEOWMIE CROSS WITH HIM.:(
JASPERS :love: LUCKY THAT YOU ARE UNDERSTANDING JEN, :cool: AS MANY CATS WOULD BE DISCIPLINED HARSHLY FOR THIS.
WE PRAY THE WHITE COATS CAN HELP.:love:

[jenluckenbach]

Today we will try Jasper on a new medication. Cyclosporine (Like Mr Meow has been taking). It is something we had not tried last year when he had this problem. So, wish us luck.

[krazyaboutkatz]

Jen, I sure hope that his new medicine will help him. Lots of prayers and positive thoughts are being his way.

[jazzcat]

Oh no! I hope the new med does the trick. Poor Jasper!

[krazyaboutkatz]

Jen, how is Jasper doing? I sure hope that this new medication is helping him.

[Medusa]

Hoping that Jasper is feeling better this morning.....

[jenluckenbach]

So far, so good, but it is too early to tell for certain.

[kb2yjx]

We are all sending prayers that the new med will help Jasper(and you, too!!).

[jenluckenbach]

Sorry that I forgot to update earlier.

So far, very good. But he is still getting the medicine EVERY day. The real test will be when we start to decrease it.

[krazyaboutkatz]

Thanks for the update. Hopefully things will continue to go well for him.:)

I'm having to change Starr's diet a bit because he's also been having issues again.

[jazzcat]

Fingers crossed everything stays "firm" when the meds decrease.

KAK - sorry to hear Starr's having issues again. :(

[jenluckenbach]

Thanks for the update. Hopefully things will continue to go well for him.:)

I'm having to change Starr's diet a bit because he's also been having issues again.

How much pred is Starr on now?? I know your hope is to get him OFF the pred, but in reality, that may never be possible.

You could also ask about cyclosporine as an option. Less damaging side effects as I understand it.

[krazyaboutkatz]

KAK - sorry to hear Starr's having issues again. :(


How much pred is Starr on now?? I know your hope is to get him OFF the pred, but in reality, that may never be possible.

You could also ask about cyclosporine as an option. Less damaging side effects as I understand it.

Thanks for your concerns. Starr is currently only taking 2.5mg of pred once a week. So I cut the 5mg tablet in half and crush it up in his food and I give this to him every Mon. morning.

I think that new dry food,Taste Of The Wild, just didn't agree with him even though I was still only mixing it 50/50 with the Innova Evo. My holistic vet told me to fast him for 24 hours to give his tummy a rest which I did. Now he's eating Turkey and Chicken baby food. Tonight I'll start mixing in his probiotic and other herbal powder into it. I give him 4 small helpings which is 1 jar a day. I'll do this for about 4 days or so. So far so good.:)

Now since he's on a very low dose of pred, I can finally try a raw diet out on him. I'm going to start slowly and I'll see how it goes. I'll most likely be doing a rotation diet which means that he'll get raw, canned food, and dry food. I'll probably stick to Chicken and Lamb for the raw diet part. Of course my other cats will also have to be put on this same diet unless one of them refuses to eat the raw. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Sorry to hog your thread Jen.:o

[jenluckenbach]

Catching up with Jasper's story. As of Sept 6th, the diarrhea was back, on and off. By the 13th I gave up on the cyclosporine and restarted him on the pred. It took 3 days of 5mg of the pred to stop the problem pooping.

for now, we are just going to continue the dose of 1 full 5mg pill per day (since 1/2 a pill was ineffective last time).

I know pred (a steroid) isn't always the best choice but hey, if it works!!! My Amber had daily pred for YEARS before her teeth needed to come out (stomatitis cat #1) and she never had any bad after effcts.

So, Jasper is doing well, for now, with the help of the pred.

[katslady]

Hope everything goes well. Good luck. katslady

[jenluckenbach]

Jasper has been back to pooping on the bed. For 3 days in a row. The poops are good, firm and formed.......but the behavior something is upsetting him. :confused:

So the pred is keeping the diarrhea away, but something is still not quite right. :confused:

[Medusa]

Oh no! I sure hope it's nothing serious, Jen. When I read things like this, of course, I think of Puddy and her odd behavior. Prayers going up that all will be well.

[jenluckenbach]

Jasper's diarrhea has returned. And on the bed, of course. so here we go again. :rolleyes:

The vet felt he'd have flare ups.

So we'll be going back to the higher doses of pred. and covering the bed with plastic every day until it is under control again.

Up to now Jasper's been doing so well! He's been eating Innova Evo dry food (which I had hoped was helping). And I have been slowly reducing his daily pred dose (over MONTHS). But............ARGH!!!

So here we go again.

[krazyaboutkatz]

Jen, I'm sorry to hear this:( but I sure can relate to what you're going through. I had to give up the hope of weaning Starr off of the pred completely. He's still taking one 5mg pred tablet every morning as well as one 1/4 of a tablet of 10mg generic prozac every morning. I now give these to him in part of a pill pocket and he now actually begs for his pills.:)

I've been through so much with him that I'm now afraid to reduce his doseage. Sometimes he'll still poop outside of the box but at least now his stools are firm or semi-firm. He's also still eating the Innova Evo dry as well as some turkey or chicken baby food mixed with some probiotics and a GI Encap pill. He's now a happy cat but he's a fat cat. He goes in for his annual exam on March 8th so hopefully he'll receive a clean bill of health.

Hopefully you'll be able to get Jasper back on track. A vet that I talked to said that most cats with IBD need to be on pred for life and if you can get them down to 1/2 of a 5mg pill every other day then that's probably the best you'll be able to do. She also said that some cats do very well with the depo shots. I know how frustrating this disease can be so please try to hang in there. I'll keep Jasper in my thoughts and prayers.

[jenluckenbach]

I actually was weaning him off slowly. In Nov. I went from 5mg (1 tablet) per day to 5mg one day and 2.5mg (1/2 tablet) every other day. After 2 weeks I went to 1/2 tablet every day.
Then at the begining of Feb I went to 1/2 tablet one day and 1/4 tablet every other day.

And I am very scared to try a depo shot again. He got horribly sick the first time we tried one. I was sure he was going to die.


Well, we'll see how today goes.

[Medusa]

No advice, Jen, just prayers that Jasper will improve quickly. :love:

[Lizzie]

These fosters really keep us on the hop, don't they?

In regard to depo shots instead of pred. When my foster, Rainbow Sherbert, was recently diagnosed with asthma, the shelter vet mentioned we could use depo since Sherbert is still rather feral, but prednilisone was much better for her if I could manage it. So, it seems that keeping up with the pred is better for Jasper.

I had to spread plastic on my bed, with two soft covers over it for years so that my Ginger could do what she will, whenever she forgot herself, during those last years of her long life. It's a trial, but it becomes routine, as you know. Right now I have to sleep with small towels spread either side of my pillow because an elderly foster called Alexander (hyperthyroid, heart murmur, chronic URI, etc.) tends to have very soft poops, likes to sleep near my head, and leaves smears on the sheets. I figure living with this stuff, though always keeping things as clean as possible, improves our immune system!

[kittykatharine]

I hope sweet Jasper is continuing to do well on the new medication. He went through a lot last year when he wasn't feeling well. I am thinking about him and keep us updated on his progress. :love::love::love:

[jenluckenbach]

Thank you for thinking about Jasper. :)

He has had NO other incident since I returned to the higher dose of pred.

I feel very fortunate that we caught it right away!