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Dooley still challenged
- Thread starter John Popp
- Start date
Carykd7kau
Reincarnated cat Moderator
I know John. But I am going to speak the wellness into existence. No negative comments. Dooley is doing well and progressing nicely. The quiet of the sisters' home will do him a world of good. It will also give you a bit of a break John. That way you can keep a positive mental outlook. Positive. Keep the faith my friend.
John Popp
Site Supporter
Dooley continues to do well on his reduced protein food and Meds. He's not much liking being confined to a single, albeit large, room. The way he tries to escape leads me to believe he thinks his brothers nearby and we have decided against bringing his brother over for a visit.
Yesterday the environmental people were out again to gather some more air samples. They are doing them inside and out with some more sophisticated equipment, results are due back Monday.
I'm anxious to work out the details of getting him back on a modified raw diet. The Vet said she would help us work out the details and there's lots that can be done to increase the quality of protein despite it being reduced.
Yesterday the environmental people were out again to gather some more air samples. They are doing them inside and out with some more sophisticated equipment, results are due back Monday.
I'm anxious to work out the details of getting him back on a modified raw diet. The Vet said she would help us work out the details and there's lots that can be done to increase the quality of protein despite it being reduced.
.
John Popp
Site Supporter
Currently Dooley is on an anticonvulsant, Keppra, Lactulose to flush out toxins and Amoxicillin. Oddly one of the biggest contributing factors to the acute episodes was Dooley feeling better and really chowing down on rabbit and goat, two high protein meats (around 80% protein each). Chicken thighs which used to make up half the boys diets clocked in at about 30% protein.
Since January we have reduced the amount of chicken the boys ate and eventually just stooped feeding it as they weren't eating much of it. The end result is we increased the amount of protein they were eating by nearly 50%. Add in the other factors, the Orbee ball, multiple times anesthesised getting re-casted, high pollen counts, other Meds dealing with his asthma/bronchial issues and you just have a mess.
Currently he is doing well and I needed to take his wheel down as he was going at it too hard. He's not liking his food much, and is constantly grumbling at me although everyone else gets a pass. I'm hopeful his condition can be managed medically although surgery may be necessary. Still a long way from figuring that out.
Since January we have reduced the amount of chicken the boys ate and eventually just stooped feeding it as they weren't eating much of it. The end result is we increased the amount of protein they were eating by nearly 50%. Add in the other factors, the Orbee ball, multiple times anesthesised getting re-casted, high pollen counts, other Meds dealing with his asthma/bronchial issues and you just have a mess.
Currently he is doing well and I needed to take his wheel down as he was going at it too hard. He's not liking his food much, and is constantly grumbling at me although everyone else gets a pass. I'm hopeful his condition can be managed medically although surgery may be necessary. Still a long way from figuring that out.
Last edited:
DChap
Site Supporter
Wow that really is a mess. I don't know if I missed your explanation but how did the high protein diet contribute to his breathing issues? The other factors make sense to me. And what type of surgery would possibly help? I hope he continues to improve and doesn't need it. Kinaya eats mainly chicken and because she is a panter I've always been wary about a cat wheel for her. Praying that Dooley gets better and can have his bro visit him soon. I'm sure Dino misses him terribly.
John Popp
Site Supporter
Sorry Della, I haven't really laid it all out.
First off, Dooley has asthma and we've known that for about a year. In itself it hasn't been much of an issue until this year around when the pollen starts flying. The first really nice day with the windows open is when Dooley first starts getting sick. It's also the same day he gets his Orbee ball, and about 30 days into having the lower protein chicken meals go from half his diet to just a third.
Dooley goes to the emergency vet, receives a steroid shot, goes under oxygen and is home the same evening. The following weekend the breathing issues come up again, we take Dooley to the Specialist who cared for Dino when the boys had Bordetella, she does full panel blood tests and a trach wash which comes up unremarkable.
This is also when the Specialist mentions that some number is elevated and she would like him to go in for a bile acid test in 3 or 4 weeks, there may be a possible liver shunt, his heart is proportionately large and his liver is proportionately small. She didn't find either of the organ sizes particularly relevant as long as they were functioning properly.
My apologies but this is where I start getting sleep deprived from multiple work trips, sleeping with Dooley in his safe room and the multiple emergency room visits.
As it had appeared Dooley responded well to both the steroid shot and oxygen, Dooley went to see the cardiologist so we could get him on some sort of low dose steroid regimen to prevent the acute incidents. The cardiologist finds some abnormalities in Dooley's heart shape but nothing noteworthy and his heart was functioning fine.
However there is still some concern as they are noting heart size variants from X-ray to X-ray. In part a large part of the X-ray differences is quality of the equipment where the one at the emergency hospital is low contrast and over exposed while the X-rays at the specialist hospital have far better contrast and proper exposure.
Cue the major event, 3 or 4 days back home from the last episode, Dooley regains his appetite voraciously eating about 10ozs rabbit/goat growling at Dino and going to eat his food as well. About 4 hours later, he has his last meal of the day eating at the same pace and shortly after here comes the symptoms again. He gets the steroid shot and gets much worse within the hour and off to the emergency vet at midnight.
They start conversing with the other hospital, it appears Dooley has a seizure and possibly a cardiac event and the specialist sees the X-rays noting he has a full stomach asks them to pull a. bile acid test. Dooley is stable late afternoon, I transfer him to the other hospital where he's under much better care, he gets an ultrasound of his liver and just as the IM vet originally suspected Dooley has a liver shunt.
At that point everything makes sense and Dooley's asthma just covered the trail with each X-ray revealing a bronchial pattern with a cat that couldn't breath. However the shortness of breath and high respitory rate wasn't wholly from a restricted airway, it was from the need to get oxygen into the blood overwhelmed with toxins.
So that's where we sit and I'm loaded with guilt thinking we might have got out in front of this quicker if we opted for the hour drive to the specialist ER as opposed to the one that was closest, just 5 minutes away. In hindsight, once we were in the system at the larger hospital we should have been making all our trips there, just didn't know what we were chasing.
First off, Dooley has asthma and we've known that for about a year. In itself it hasn't been much of an issue until this year around when the pollen starts flying. The first really nice day with the windows open is when Dooley first starts getting sick. It's also the same day he gets his Orbee ball, and about 30 days into having the lower protein chicken meals go from half his diet to just a third.
Dooley goes to the emergency vet, receives a steroid shot, goes under oxygen and is home the same evening. The following weekend the breathing issues come up again, we take Dooley to the Specialist who cared for Dino when the boys had Bordetella, she does full panel blood tests and a trach wash which comes up unremarkable.
This is also when the Specialist mentions that some number is elevated and she would like him to go in for a bile acid test in 3 or 4 weeks, there may be a possible liver shunt, his heart is proportionately large and his liver is proportionately small. She didn't find either of the organ sizes particularly relevant as long as they were functioning properly.
My apologies but this is where I start getting sleep deprived from multiple work trips, sleeping with Dooley in his safe room and the multiple emergency room visits.
As it had appeared Dooley responded well to both the steroid shot and oxygen, Dooley went to see the cardiologist so we could get him on some sort of low dose steroid regimen to prevent the acute incidents. The cardiologist finds some abnormalities in Dooley's heart shape but nothing noteworthy and his heart was functioning fine.
However there is still some concern as they are noting heart size variants from X-ray to X-ray. In part a large part of the X-ray differences is quality of the equipment where the one at the emergency hospital is low contrast and over exposed while the X-rays at the specialist hospital have far better contrast and proper exposure.
Cue the major event, 3 or 4 days back home from the last episode, Dooley regains his appetite voraciously eating about 10ozs rabbit/goat growling at Dino and going to eat his food as well. About 4 hours later, he has his last meal of the day eating at the same pace and shortly after here comes the symptoms again. He gets the steroid shot and gets much worse within the hour and off to the emergency vet at midnight.
They start conversing with the other hospital, it appears Dooley has a seizure and possibly a cardiac event and the specialist sees the X-rays noting he has a full stomach asks them to pull a. bile acid test. Dooley is stable late afternoon, I transfer him to the other hospital where he's under much better care, he gets an ultrasound of his liver and just as the IM vet originally suspected Dooley has a liver shunt.
At that point everything makes sense and Dooley's asthma just covered the trail with each X-ray revealing a bronchial pattern with a cat that couldn't breath. However the shortness of breath and high respitory rate wasn't wholly from a restricted airway, it was from the need to get oxygen into the blood overwhelmed with toxins.
So that's where we sit and I'm loaded with guilt thinking we might have got out in front of this quicker if we opted for the hour drive to the specialist ER as opposed to the one that was closest, just 5 minutes away. In hindsight, once we were in the system at the larger hospital we should have been making all our trips there, just didn't know what we were chasing.