Friday cat blogging: early edition
Thursday, May 14 2009
I am glad to report some progress in the fight against FLyPS: Stripes the cat seems to be doing better.
Last weekend we noticed she was running away from her food; she would take a bite, which hurt, thus scaring her, so she hid. From her food. It was almost hilarious, except that it was so sad. On Monday we took her into the vet, and the vet agreed we have to try something new. So…
My cat is on prednisone.
Anyone with IBD will recognize how ironic this is, but the rest of you can trust me: this is very ironic. I’ve been on prednisone in the past, and I hate it. Now my cat is taking it. Fortunately, cat prednisone is just as cheap as human prednisone.
The vet gave us 5mg for her twice a day; for a ten-pound cat, this is equivalent to roughly 130mg a day for a person my size (assuming linear equivalence, which is probably wrong). By comparison, at 40 mg I get “suicidal ideation” – so no telling what Stripes is going through. She’s already showing the pred appetite – hoovering up as much wet food as we can put down, stealing the other cat’s kibble, licking stains on the dining room carpet, etc. If she ends up with moon face, you’ll definitely see a picture of that here. Of course, some of the other side effects are neglible in cats; I don’t think we would notice if she started growing extra hair, unless it was on her eyeballs.
I also convinced the vet to give her pain meds to help her eat. When I suggested it, the vet said they would make Stripes lethargic. “We won’t let her drive,” I promised, which was good enough for the vet, but only for a few days’ worth of meds.
All of this adds up to progress: Stripes is eating again, and no longer scared of her food. We take her back in next week to see if the inflammation and ulceration show any signs of decrease, though I’m pretty sure she’s feeling better.
Of course, kitties can’t stay on prednisone forever; we’ll taper her off it over the next two weeks. If her FLyPS comes back, we’ll have to consider more drastic measures – removing teeth, laser therapy, interferon, etc – in which case either Stripes or my savings account is going to have to be put down. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the steroids will work for her.
In the meantime, this is Stripes, showing she has what it takes to LICKSTRONG.
