Thank you and an explanation/update
Jun. 23rd, 2011 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimeThank you everyone for the good wishes sent! My older bullie, Nublu, seems to be on the mend now and sends sincere tail-wags and bodily contortions of gratefulness to you all! So do I (only with perhaps less of the contortions-ness).
Nublu is approaching nine years old, and about two years ago he began having digestive issues. Partly they were quite clearly related to decreased intestinal absorption (large intestine, it seemed), and responded satisfactorily to a change in diet. Partly, though, he had symptoms of gastric irritation which I could not find a reason for (x-rays with and without contrast showed nothing out of the ordinary, except minor spondylosis etc etc). To make matters more worrying, coinciding with the gastric signs (which came and went in bouts) was a skin tumor, that was initially cytologically diagnosed as a mast cell (those are not good, though common and may due to their release of histamin give also gastric symptoms). I took the tumor off with as wide margins as I could, and pathology said it was actually a histiocytoma - a much better diagnosis, as it's benign and not likely to give metastases. But as the occasional bouts of gastric irritation (gas, nausea, pain after meals, reflux) still appeared, I was getting paranoid that maybe the histology was incorrectly interpreted and maybe I was dealing with a metastasis from a mast cell tumor. This spring, after for a quite long ok period, gastric symptoms returned, so I scheduled a gastroscopy with a friend working in the Uni clinic and some more workup. Before we could get to that, though, Nublu's condition took an abrupt turn to the worse and last Wednesday night he showed rather clear symptoms of intestinal blockage. So I called friends and said, we need to do an exploratory laparatomy - cut him open -, being half prepared to find something that could necessitate putting him down. Happily for everyone concerned, we discovered that Nublu had just been keeping up the reputation of his breed as the models for chronic gastric foreign body - he had two peach pits that he had carried about for a considerable time (maybe for the whole 1 -2 years) in his stomach, and for some reason, one of them had decided just now to move into small intestine, hence the blockage sings. Let me tell you, I'm much happier seeing a foreign body instead of a pyloric tumor or a mast cell metastasis in the spleen, for example:) We did see that his kidneys had changes in shape and size, which is not good, but, otoh, he's no spring chicken and so far has no kidney failure -- he might develop it, or he might live his life with still enough glomerules left to function:). Now a week has passed from the surgery, and he's been steadily getting better - trying to roll in shit while walking, having good appetite and taking his usual share of the bed. My younger bullie, Nosu, who was very careful with him during the first, bad days, has been initiating play these last two days, so it seems she also senses he's on the mend.
So, again, thank you everyone for your support - and also, happy (belated) Solstice/Midsummer/ head Jaanipäeva!
Nublu is approaching nine years old, and about two years ago he began having digestive issues. Partly they were quite clearly related to decreased intestinal absorption (large intestine, it seemed), and responded satisfactorily to a change in diet. Partly, though, he had symptoms of gastric irritation which I could not find a reason for (x-rays with and without contrast showed nothing out of the ordinary, except minor spondylosis etc etc). To make matters more worrying, coinciding with the gastric signs (which came and went in bouts) was a skin tumor, that was initially cytologically diagnosed as a mast cell (those are not good, though common and may due to their release of histamin give also gastric symptoms). I took the tumor off with as wide margins as I could, and pathology said it was actually a histiocytoma - a much better diagnosis, as it's benign and not likely to give metastases. But as the occasional bouts of gastric irritation (gas, nausea, pain after meals, reflux) still appeared, I was getting paranoid that maybe the histology was incorrectly interpreted and maybe I was dealing with a metastasis from a mast cell tumor. This spring, after for a quite long ok period, gastric symptoms returned, so I scheduled a gastroscopy with a friend working in the Uni clinic and some more workup. Before we could get to that, though, Nublu's condition took an abrupt turn to the worse and last Wednesday night he showed rather clear symptoms of intestinal blockage. So I called friends and said, we need to do an exploratory laparatomy - cut him open -, being half prepared to find something that could necessitate putting him down. Happily for everyone concerned, we discovered that Nublu had just been keeping up the reputation of his breed as the models for chronic gastric foreign body - he had two peach pits that he had carried about for a considerable time (maybe for the whole 1 -2 years) in his stomach, and for some reason, one of them had decided just now to move into small intestine, hence the blockage sings. Let me tell you, I'm much happier seeing a foreign body instead of a pyloric tumor or a mast cell metastasis in the spleen, for example:) We did see that his kidneys had changes in shape and size, which is not good, but, otoh, he's no spring chicken and so far has no kidney failure -- he might develop it, or he might live his life with still enough glomerules left to function:). Now a week has passed from the surgery, and he's been steadily getting better - trying to roll in shit while walking, having good appetite and taking his usual share of the bed. My younger bullie, Nosu, who was very careful with him during the first, bad days, has been initiating play these last two days, so it seems she also senses he's on the mend.
So, again, thank you everyone for your support - and also, happy (belated) Solstice/Midsummer/ head Jaanipäeva!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-23 05:09 pm (UTC)You put my worries over my cat's tooth in perspective. *g*
Are you a veterinarian?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-23 05:15 pm (UTC)Also, kitteh teeth problems are nothing to sneeze at, beleive me, I know.
Yes, I'm a vet (but treating your own pets comes with extra emotional issues, so I'm glad I have good colleagues to ask for help). I used to work in the Uni clinic a while back, now I'm doing mixed small animal practice in a small private clinic - and trying to pursue special interest in veterinary dentistry:)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-23 05:30 pm (UTC)Can you tell me how I might know if her tooth was hurting her?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-23 05:42 pm (UTC)With teeth, what one can do is a) examine kitten under sedation and do an x-ray - if there are changes in tooth (resorptive lesions, periapical changes, change of colour, increased mobility ...), pain is high in the list of possibilities. Or one can do (what we do here often, as owners are loath to have their pets sedated, also for economic reasons) - do an awake exam as much as the cat allows, ask for history, do a short course of painkillers (meloxicam mostly) - if that changes things (and we have no reason to think the pain was of skeletal origin, for example, or from somewhere else), we think it's most probably the tooth and take it out. Often you'll only know for sure after, when the tooth is gone and the animal changes for the better.
For example, my eldest cat, now 14, had tooth resorption (FORL-feline odontoclastic resorptive lesions was the older term) in one tooht appr 2 years ago. As I have three cats, it took some time to notice that she was eating less, and spitting more kibble out into the drinking water, and also grooming herself less and sitting more hunched by herself. Then I looked in her mouth (which is in surprisingly good condition overall) and first saw nothing, then noticed that one of the resorptive-lesion-damage-teeth had inflamed gingiva around it, and she resented me touching that side of the mouth. Put her under sedation, probed the tooth - bingo, lesion (sometimes you only see them on x-ray, if they've yet not progressed over the edge of gingiva, they start with roots - but then they're usually not peainful, yet). Did an x-ray (to see the type of resorption), took the tooth out, gave some painkillers, she's been as right as rain afterwards, had remarkable change in behaviour just after removal and painkillers - and mostly I could see retroactively how pain ahd affected her before.
So, to make long story short, it is often difficult to be sure if the animal is in pain and if, where is the pain coming from. But that is also the reason why vets nowadays are mostly trained to err on the side of caution - better assume worse pain than there might be, because they don't talk and are very good at hiding pain.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-23 05:52 pm (UTC)Really, you've helped.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-23 05:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-23 05:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-23 05:43 pm (UTC)It's exhausting, always. But so far, so good, plus now I've managed to actually sleep at nights, so yay:)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-26 01:27 pm (UTC)Aw hon. I was away and didn't see any of this until now. I'm glad to hear things worked out (peach pits?) for the better. Good luck and good health to you, doggies, and kittens, all around.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-28 06:52 pm (UTC)I've been bone deep tired these last weeks, so no online, but *knockonwood* things seem to be going ok for now. Have to leave for a week on a conference on Saturday (friend will take care of dogs), to Vienna ... Mostly, I'd like to sleep for a week:), but no can do.
I hope everything is Ok at your end.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-28 06:56 pm (UTC)You'll sleep conference nights, and when you come back. And you'll feel much better and nicer for it. All's well on my end, no worries, knockonwood.