cellio | if only they could talk

Erik (one of my cats) has had high calcium levels in his blood for at least 3.5 years. (That's when we discovered the problem as a side-effect of something else.) So he now gets regular blood work as part of his exams, just to check on things. We've pretty much eliminated all external causes of high calcium (cancer, hyperthyroid, etc), leaving "idiopathic" -- some cats are like that.

However, high calcium combined with another measure that I'm currently blanking on can indicate kidney problems. There's a magic number (the product of the two), and for three years he was staying slightly below that magic number.

He's now getting twice-annual checkups (at the vet's suggestion), and at his latest one last week that number rose above the threshhold.

It could be a fluke, so that's the first thing to try. Specifically, he had an anomolous reading on something else (a liver enzyme) that happened once before and was knocked down with antibiotics, so the plan is to finish the current round of drugs and then test again (with a delay for a vacation, but that's life). Maybe the number will be normal again and we'll just add one more mystery to his medical record.

But if it's not, there's the question of whether we are looking at the very early stages of a kidney problem -- which is treatable in those early stages, at least, but still. The treatment apparently involves a lifetime supply of prednizone, which does not bring me joy. (The conversation went something like this: "So what do we do if that number is still high?" "Prednizone." "How does an acute course of drugs help a chronic condition?" "You are making a faulty assumption." "Oh.")

Erik seems perfectly healthy in all other ways -- in particular, his weight has been stable for the last year and a half, and last week's urine test showed no problems. I do not believe my vet is scamming me (if I did, I'd have bolted). Perhaps she's over-cautious, perhaps she's seeing problems that aren't really there -- or, perhaps, I have been blessed with a very early warning of something that can be dealt with now. I just wish I knew which.

No decisions for a few weeks, so maybe in and around Pennsic I can learn more about this.

It's a pity that Erik can't just tell me how he's feeling. :-)

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that what he can tell you can't be interpreted as precisely as would be helpful

That too, yes. :-)

And then there are the challenges introduced by having multiple cats. Overall levels of input and output are normal, but do I actually know that the division among cats hasn't changed? Well no; I'm banking on the notion that if, say, Erik were drinking less water than usual, the other cats wouldn't simultaneously start drinking more to make up the difference. Isolating cats is just impractical.

He's a really sweet cat.

He sure is. Has your furniture now been cat-hair-enhanced? :-)

I like your icon.

If he can have a normal, functioning life, giving him prednizone every day isn't that bad. Although from what you mentioned here, it doesn't seem quite clear that he can't have a normal, functioning life without it.

That is the question, yes. If prednizone is what it takes to give him a normal functioning life, prednizone is is what he'll get; I'm not going to cut corners in pet care. On the other hand, it would be nice to have some degree of confidence that it's actually necessary to ply him with drugs before doing so.

Are you already feeding the low-ash, low-magnesium cat food that is supposed to help prevent FUS (Feline Urinary Syndrome)?

Yup. The vet put him on a special diet when we first discovered the high calcium. I can't keep him from also eating some of the other cats' food, but I watch him eat good-sized doses of his special food, so if he also does a little grazing that probably doesn't hurt anything. (And the vet knows about this.)

Hope it turns out to be an anomalous reading. Although a pill a day isn't so bad if it maintains good health.

Although a pill a day isn't so bad

Allow me to explain the problem more clearly. :-)

But yeah, if a pill a day is what it takes to keep him healthy, a pill a day is what it will be. And so far, grinding up the antibiotics and mixing them in with canned cat food seems to be working. I have not yet found anything I can wrap a (whole) pill in that he can't just eat the good parts from.

That link was hilarious! I never tried the putting the cat in the crook of the left air. Minerva would have never sat still for that! I jumped right to #6 but without the ruler. It usually worked pretty well.

Neither Ripper nor Minerva would eat a whole pill in food. I always ended up having to put it in the mouth. Once I got the hang of it, it wasn't too bad. Minerva gave me a painful puncture wound once when she got the tip of my finger with the end of her claw. Aside from that incident, I was usually able to even give pills to "don't touch me" Minerva. When she was small I did try sticking her head in the arm of a lab coat and wrapping the rest of the coat around her to keep her from scratching. She usually managed to work a paw loose and was really mad, so I gave up on that. The between-the-knees worked for me.

Wonderful link. :) If it's any consolation, practice does make perfect. However, there's a slightly different technique you may want to try. After you've pinched his cheeks to open his mouth, toss the pill down his gullet, blow air down his nose and let go. If you do it right, the air will cause him to sneeze and swallow. I've given pills to my folks dog this way without problems. A country vet taught it to me.
-- Dagonell

Thanks! I had no idea you could make a cat sneeze; I'll have to try that.

Hope he's okay, whatever happens. Sounds like he will be :)

He is a sweet cat!

I think he'll be ok one way or the other. It's just frustrating to have this much vagueness. :-)

1) Prednisone is cheap.
2) You can get it as a liquid and mix it with tuna juice.

Thanks. The liquid option is especially useful to know about!

My aversion to superfluous drugs is closer to "helping to build SuperBug in your lifetime!" than it is to cost, though obviously I'm happier with lower maintenance costs than higher ones.

Prednisone's a steroid, not an antibiotic. It alone won't build superbug, although it can increase the frequency and extent of fungal infections. However, it will raise his calcium levels if used long term...but I'm also not certain what the vet is trying to do. I'll assume for the moment that he knows what he's talking about and not question further.

It alone won't build superbug,

Thanks for the info. That was just a placeholder for "long-term drug use can sometimes change physiologies in ways that might not be good in other ways, so be careful". :-)

Before we adopt any treatment plan, the vet knows I'll want to hear a fairly thorough explanation of what's going on, what the treatment will do to help, and what could go wrong. She mentioned this as a direction we might have to go, not a recommendation (yet), so there's plenty of time to hammer out the questions. I didn't know about that effect on calcium, though, so I'm curious and will make sure we talk about it. Thanks for the help.

Glad to be able to help. It sounds like you're on top of the situation.

if only they could talk

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two pharmacologic thoughts

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