Rafiki

[Rafiki]

Back to the vet we go again.....

Rafiki had an eye irritation a month or so ago so while she was at the vet, we had blood work done. Well, her liver enzymes are elevated again. They gave her a shot of anti-inflammatory and we brought her back for a recheck 2 weeks later - the values have climbed.

Jammu had been fine but when we did his annual in March, his liver values were up. The vet gave him a shot of Convenia because that is what turned things around for Rafiki back in November. His values improved for the next couple of months just to elevate again August. He has been on Denamarin and has not been rechecked.

My internal medicine guy is in Italy on vacation so tomorrow Rafiki will see another IM specialist at the same facility. She suggested 2 courses of action. The first was to give Rafiki 2 different antibiotics for a couple of weeks hoping that the cocktail would kill whatever is causing this. I am hesitant about this because my baby has had so many antibiotics in the past 14 months that I am afraid of producing a super-bug. The other suggestion was to mildly sedate her and do an ultrasound and a needle biopsy on the gallbladder to get a bile sample to culture. We have chosen this option so that we will hopefully know what bacteria is causing all of this and what antibiotic to try.

So please pray for my girl that all goes well and that we finally determine what has caused all of these issues.

 

[Carykd7kau]

Oh Linda. Praying like a mad man. for the sweetie. ( and you too...)

 

[DumaLove]

Sending healing thoughts for Rafiki, and hope you get some answers!! I think you made the right choice.

 

[WitchyWoman]

Hugs Linda. Sending healing thoughts for Rafiki.

 

[Patti]

Poor Rafiki! I hope the biopsy will give you some answers!

 

[Rafiki]

Rafiki is back from the vet. Poor baby was the most scared I have ever seen her. She has lost .1 oz since her last visit but then again she was fasted for this one. This new vet and her technician both declared her a sweetheart. They did not need to sedate her so poor baby girl was starved for no reason. They shaved her belly and did a guided ultrasound to do the needle biopsy on the gallbladder. The bile sample will be cultured and I should have results early next week.

She also did a focused ultrasound to look at her organs. The spleen is a bit enlarged as well as a couple of lymph nodes. The small intestine is thickened where it joins the large intestine (and Jammu has the same thing). The vet thinks that all is related but not sure what it is. We were never able to rule out small cell lymphoma last year and she was not able to get a biopsy of the lymph nodes this year either but since Jammu is having issues as well .... this is one of the few times I can be glad that both cats are "sick"! She seems to think that it is more environmental like food or something. Again, these 2 cats share everything (except for Rafiki's chicken!) so anything that one has the other is most likely exposed to.

Hopefully the bile culture will point to a bacterial infection that we can treat. If it comes back negative, we will retrieve the liver biopsy from last July and have it retested and see if we get any more clues.

 

[Patti]

I can't imagine how overwhelmed you must be having to deal once again with something that you can't identify. I hope the culture will give you some answers - are they doing any pathology studies on it as well?

 

[Rafiki]

Right now the plan is to simply do a culture on the bile sample. Fingers crossed that it does not come back negative! I have had the lymphoma conversation so many times at this point that I am numb. I keep thinking that if her blood work was completely normal in December and if Jammu now has elevated enzymes now that it HAS to be either from the food or environment and it cannot be cancer.

Rafiki seems to be somewhat back to normal tonight. I fed her breakfast at 11 am yesterday so I wasn't totally surprised when I could only get her to eat half of her dinner but this morning it was a real struggle to get her to eat as well. And, the minute she had enough (only about 2 oz), she ran under the bed in the spare bedroom. It brutally reminded of all the nights I slept on the floor when she cowered under the bed when she was so deathly ill last year. Tonight I fed her quail, her favorite, and she demolished it. She was also back in the catio this evening. Every time she washes her shaved little belly, I get the major stink-eye but hopefully she has forgiven me and I will get my snuggle-buddy back tonight.

 

[Patti]

A shaved belly is not something that quickly goes away - you may be getting the stink-eye for some time to come...

 

[Rafiki]

And worse yet.....I LOVE the shaved belly. It is so soft and warm. I just want to rub that wittle velvetine rabbit belly. Yup, many stink-eyes in my near future.