Thursday, August 16, 2012

Updates: Mojito, Rumi, Fennec, me

So Fennec had his one-year-old vet checkup. He's enormous. Well, that I already knew. But I hadn't known his actual weight. 

He's 18.7 pounds. Yowza! Lynxie, who stayed with The Ex-Husband, was quite large, and he weighed 14.

I've been lectured to play with Fennec a lot more, and to try to figure out a way that the other two cats can get to the food whenever they want, but that he would be limited to twice a day.

All three cats are in this photo (Rumi totally camouflaged except for one pink ear--can you see him?). Fennec outweighs the other two put together.

Fennec: [Surely I can't be that big. I'm the baby of the family!]


A piece of good news: I had Mojito's lump tested and it is a benign fatty tumor. No need for treatment unless it gets so big it interferes with his movement. 

-----

Another piece of good news: the physical therapist that I found trained in the special head movements to treat my BPPV was very good, and the treatment worked! No more world tilted crazily and spinning, at least for now.

-----

I discontinued the meds Rumi was on because he seemed to be getting so much worse. He got to the point where he didn't move or eat for over two days. I managed to get him to drink some water twice, that was it. I literally was checking many times a day to see if he was still breathing. He lost another half pound in the last two weeks, bringing him down to 7.5 lbs. when he should be (and used to be) at least 10. He is skeletal and fragile, and was very weak.

I discontinued the meds, and after some 30 hours, he is once again alert, moving around, playing, eating, and acting happy again. That's a huge step in the right direction.

I brought him to a different specialist, who did some more blood work, and again nothing unusual showed up in his blood tests. The new specialist wants to do another ultrasound, too, sort of a mini-ultrasound of just Rumi's intestines. (This specialist was surprised to hear that Rumi seemed to have a bad reaction to the meds that I quit giving him, but hey, my instincts proved right.)

We're dealing with three hypotheses now: 1) IBD; 2) FIP; 3) cancer [small-cell lymphoma]. The cancer would be rare for a cat as young as he is, but still possible. Rumi may have to go under anesthesia for a scope biopsy, or exploratory intestinal surgery. I hope we don't have to do anything that drastic. We'll know more after the next ultrasound.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

5 comments:

Shelley Smart said...

Glad to hear you are feeling better and not dizzy! You have a wonderful brood there and I pray they all hang around for a long time. Good instincts on Rumi's meds and hope the new specialist can work miracles. Hugs to all of you.

loriann signori said...

Good decision to stop the meds. It doesn't help if you need to be so miserable you fade away. FIP has a simple blood test. We lost Kinzo's twin to FIP. How old is Rumi? Normally it strikes in the first two years. Some can make it through. Kinz had it in a milder form and made it. Hang in there. You are an amazing Mama.

Jala Pfaff said...

Thank you, Shelley and Loriann. Hugs of thanks to both of you.
Loriann, I'm so sorry you had to experience FIP. Rumi first got symptoms at about 1.5 or 2 years, so yeah, that's one reason FIP is suspected. If he has FIP, it is dry form, not wet form. But from what I understand, all forms of FIP are fatal. The blood test is for all three coronaviruses, so it's common to get a false positive on that. But as far as I have learned, there is no test specifically for FIP. Many cats test positive from having been exposed to corona viruses, but not all cats who are positive have FIP.

loriann signori said...

Hi Jala,
It's soooo hard to care for our fur family since they do not speak and complain in detail about their symptoms. We just guess and test. Hard. I am so sorry that you have to go through this hell. Rumi is lucky to have you and his family.
You are right about FIP. Boo had wet FIP and had all the signs. He died quickly. We did all we could but they said we could only help make him comfortable. His sister had an antibody titer for FIP in her blood. She could have developed it fully but never did. If I remember well 2 years was the point of safety.
What symptoms did Rumi show?

Jala Pfaff said...

Hi Loriann,
I agree, it is so hard--all we can do is test and guess. We always know when they're not feeling well, but we sometimes can't figure out why.
From what I've learned, wet FIP causes death more quickly than dry--but both are sooner or later (within weeks or months, usually) fatal.
Rumi has had just the one symptom: unexplained weight loss, starting maybe 9 months ago (?). He hasn't had any of the vomiting or diarrhea that often accompanies the weight loss.