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

[jenluckenbach]

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

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.

[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!