Tilly has pancreatitis again

[alanc]

She has had her feeding tube removed and should be coming home this evening.

[booktigger]

Great news

[fjm]

Wonderful news - give her a gentle scritch from us.

[alanc]

Thanks, folks. She is home, a bit subdued, but getting a lot of fuss!

[Lilith]

Welcome back Tilly!

[alanc]

And she is eating! Hooray!

[Mayday21]

Heaps of fusses to Miss Tilly. Glad she’s home - she will too. Keep up the eating Miss Tilly. Vivian & the famous five from Oz.

[fjm]

I am so happy for you both! I am sure she will soon relax back into home routine and begin to recover her bounce.

[Antonio]

Welcome back to your kingdom, Tilly!
I'm sure that the home air that you are breathing will help a lot!

[alanc]

Thanks, Folks, Tilly appreciates your good wishes. She is certainly happier at home (spent the last two nights being cuddled on my bed), she is still eating, not as enthusiastically as I would like, but i think her throat must still be sore from the tube. Poor girl looks like a patchwork quilt with her shaven tummy, backside, throat and forelegs!
Edited to add: she is also back to pooing logs and not the bloody diarrhea of last week (hence the shaven bum).

[booktigger]

Well, at least she will be cooler with the warm weather!!

[Lilith]

Ouch! Cool haircut indeed ...

I forget, what is her breed, Norwegian Forest or Maine Coodle?

Ohhh the logs! The veggies will be shaking in their roots!

[alanc]

Hi Lillith, She is a Maine Coon and she has cheered up a lot these last few days, gradually eating more, to. She is wanting to go out, but I am not letting her yet.
Anyway, here is a piccy, carefully posed not to show her shaven bits and you are right, Booktigger, she is definitely finding it cooler (and I won't have to worry about fur tangles on her tummy for months)!

[Lilith]

Aww, lovely to see her, she's looking very well, considering she gave you (and us) such a fright. Stay well now, Madam Tilly!

[Apples_mummy]

Hello,im new here and was just searching for posts related to pancreatitis as my 5 year old girl Apple has it and i came across this post. How is Tilly doing? What medication does she have when she has a flare up? What do you feed her? Apple is currently recovering from her 6th flare up since being diagnosed in novemeber last year. She had an ultrasound 5 weeks ago and she was also found to have an inflammed bile duct, bile sludge in her gallbladder and a cyst on a bile duct. She has been on antibiotics now for 4 weeks. It would be interesting to know how you treat Tilly for pancreatitis. Thankyou for reading x

[alanc]

Hi and welcome. Now she is back to normal, Tilly has no medication at all and eats normally (well, normally for her). (She mainly eats Gourmet Gold Fish paste, Thrive Chicken and Liver and Sheba Meat cuts, plus Lilly's Kitchen dry and Royal Canin Maine Coon Dry kibble (that's to keep her teeth clean).) All the medication she got was when she was at the vets, mainly re-hydration and antibiotics. I keep her well brushed and combed to keep her loose fur under control as I believe in her case it was fur balls that caused the initial flare up. That she has large shaven patches at the moment after her scans and treatment is a bonus! If I had to get medication down her, that would just add to her stress levels (and mine). Hope Apple improves soon, Pancreatitis is a nasty disease for a cat. It seems to be becoming more common - I had never heard of it in 35 years of cat ownership until Tilly had a bout of it at New Year 2016.

[Apples_mummy]

How often does Tilly have flare ups of it? Apple is fed on Royal Canin moderate calorie and Hills ID biscuits. Iv just bought some Kattovit Gastro as i think shes fed up of eating the same flavoured food all the time. When she has a flare the vets inject her with Cerenia and i take home Tramadol amd famotodine to treat her. This is the first time iv uses this selection of meds and its worked extremely well and Apple hasnt refused food this time, altho its been tuna in springwater iv fed her as she wont eat normal food for a few days x

[booktigger]

Sorry to hear about Apple, is it called Triaditis when it affects the bile ducts? Surprised at the choice of Tramadol, as that is an incredibly strong painkiller. You might want to speak to the vet if she has only eaten tuna for a few days, it can affect their liver.

[alanc]

Tilly had her first bout over New Year 2016, when she was hospitalized. She had a minor bout at the start of October last year, not sure what the vets gave her, but it worked. This latest bout has been much worse, although it started no different from any of the others.
The Thrive Chicken and Liver (also Chicken and Turkey and Ocean Fish) are a consequence of her first bout as they are what I used to persuade her to start eating. The main worry has always been that she becomes dehydrated very quickly when she stops eating for a few days and Thrive is decidedly wet. Main initial treatment has been to put her on a drip to re-hydrate her.

[Apples_mummy]

My vets dont seem too concerned at what she eats during a flare up, just as long as she eats something wet due to dehydration. They do offer to give her fluids and tube feed after 3 days if she refuses to eat anything. The tramadol was suggested by a GI surgeon that looked at her blood results and scans. She was only on it for 4 days and has been ok since i took her off it. I work very closely with my vets and speak to them regularly regarding Apples care. She bounces back very quickly after a flare up.
They termed it as cholangitis as her liver seemed fine x

[Antonio]

I've been away from home for a while, so I missed some posts.

@Apples_mummy,
like booktigger said, Tramadol is a real strong painkiller and in some cats it might give a bad reaction.
My cat Pallina was given a shot of Tramadol a few months ago during what it seemed to be a pancreatitis flare up, but she looked like stoned for over 24h. I was terribly scared, she looked like she didn't know where she was, she didn't recognise us and didn't want to eat or doing anything, including using the litter.
The vet had prepared three more syringes that I should have given Pallina in the foloowing days, but when I called the clinic that very night, they told me to get rid of those syringes and wait for the side effects to fade, it took about 36 hours!!!

In the last few days I think that Pallina has having a new flare up, she's not eating the amount of food she should, and she's a little slower and sleepier.
Luckily we have a booked appointment on next Friday, so the vet will be able to assess what's going on!

Best of luck to Apple!

[Apples_mummy]

Ahh im sorry to hear Pallina is poorly. How is she doing today? Apples doing ok lately. Been off all meds since 3 days into her last flare up and eating well. We are all struggling with the heat in the UK at the moment as we arent used to having such continuous hot weather lol. I have fans all over the house for my girls xx

[alanc]

Sorry to hear Paulina is having more trouble, Antonio. How did she get on at the vets? Tilly is doing well, no relapses and eating well in spite of the heat.

[Antonio]

@Apples_mummy, @alanc,
Pallina has been hospitalized last night... she wasn't fine at all, she was eating less and less, yesterday she was clearly in pain or discomfort, she vomited twice.
At the vet she peed yellow.
Her bilirubines are very high, and all liver levels are way over the max limits. She waas put on meds a few weeks ago, but it doesn't seem they did work.
Anyway, this is Tilly's thread, I will discuss my issues in a separate thread.
Thanks for asking

[Lilith]

Antonio - so sorry to hear about Pallina - all the very very best!

[booktigger]

Fingers crossed for Pallina

[alanc]

Sorry to hear that Pallina is so poorly. Hope she recovers as Tilly did. Tilly says you are welcome to take over her thread, as she doesn't need it anymore.

[Mayday21]

Hi folks ... haven’t disappeared. Antonio can’t see a separate post from you ... thinking of you atm .... Vivian.