Of New Tricks, Subcut And Kidney Damage (Vincent’s Stories)

Getting ready for breakfast this morning.

Vincent’s menu – what will he be willing to eat today?

No…

Do you want Ginger’s food, Vincent?

Not really…

So, nothing was right for Vincent this morning.

I didn’t want to force-feed him since he had eaten yesterday evening. Will try to refrain from force-feeding unless absolutely necessary since he could do without the stress.

He went back to the landing.

After a few minutes, I decided to try something else…a new technique.

Since Avoderm has lost its “value” as an food option, there was nothing to lose by using it as an “appetiser”, to kick start Vincent into eating.

I figured he cannot smell the food, so there is nothing to induce him to eat.

So, I used Avoderm and force-fed a bit of it, with the hope that the actual tasting and eating of the food might serve as an inducement for him to eat by himself.

It worked!

I had the raw meat all ready and yes, Vincent ate by himself after I force-fed him the Avoderm. Now, this a new technique…how long can it last, though?

I was so happy Vincent almost finished this whole container of raw meat!

Next, it was time to go to the vet’s.

Vincent was given subcut (he cooperated fully, and even purred during the process). The treatment plan is to give him subcut on every third day. This frequency may be increased if need be.

His antibiotics will be changed to Baytril. Since he has already been on Clavomox for 21 days and his ulcers and flu had not improved, we decided to try Baytril now as Baytril covers some of the aerobic bacteria (usually bacteria in the mouth is aerobic). Baytril is less broad-spectrum than Clavomox, but it does cover some bacteria which the former does not. Let’s see if this helps. Moreover, only a quarter tablet (very tiny) is needed per day and it’s just once a day.

A blood morphology (with blood from an ear prick) was done and it was a relief to know that it’s most likely not leukemia at this point in time. There was presence of some young cells, but also some old ones. If it’s leukemia, there would be presence of many, many young cells.

It’s almost confirmed now that Vincent’s main issue is kidney damage. From the readings of his creatinine and urea, there’s perhaps 75% kidney damage.

Below are the readings (the ones in brackets is the normal range; the first reading is the one taken on 18th July and the second one is from 6th Sept).

Urea (5-14): 34.1 to 29.8
Creatinine (60-190): 159 to 294
Inorganic phosphate (0.9-2.3): 2.4 to 2.6

Chronic kidney damage would also explain the lack of appetite, the weight loss and the mouth ulcers. It more of less explains all the symptoms that we can see.

To address this condition, we will be doing the following:

Subcut every third day, from home, is possible.

We did subcut for Rosie last year, but Rosie was very cooperative. Let’s hope Vincent will cooperate as well.

We are starting Vincent on Azodyl as well. This supplement helps with the breaking down of the urea. Epakitine is no longer available in Malaysia now, but there will be a new product coming out soon, which does the job of Epakitine.

Home.

Vincent urinated in the car on the way to the vet’s and the urine was very clear and not even smelly. Of course that’s not a good sign – it points towards kidney damage as well, and this just further confirms the diagnosis.

Source: https://myanimalcare.org/2018/09/09/of-new-tricks-subcut-and..

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