I last updated you on Allegra’s various health issues in April. Quite a few of you have asked me over the last few months how she’s doing, and it’s (past) time for another update. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate how much all of you care about my girl!
Chronic diarrhea
We’ve made significant progress in addressing Allegra’s chronic diarrhea, which has been an issue for the past two years. She has had low grade inflammatory bowel disease for several years prior to the flare up from two years ago. We started her on a fecal transplant in April. It means introducing a filtered blend of stool from a healthy donor into the recipient’s GI tract. The donor’s stool contains beneficial bacteria and fungi that can help restore a healthy balance of gut microbiota. This can be done in a minimally invasive procedure under mild sedation via an enema, endoscopy or colonoscopy, or via oral capsules.
We used AnimalBiome’s KittyBiome Gut Restore Supplement, a one-of-a-kind fecal transplant in an oral capsule that offers a convenient and safe approach to fecal transplants that can be done at home. The capsules contain species-specific bacterial cells in the form of carefully screened, cryoprotected, freeze-dried donor stool. The capsules cannot be opened and mixed with food or treats, they need to be given whole. Thankfully, Allegra is easy to pill. Since she is super sensitive to any medication or supplement changes, we started out giving her a capsule every third day, then every other day.
Unfortunately, she didn’t do well with it. Her stool quality deteriorated rather than improved. We spaced the capsules further apart, only giving her a capsule every four or five days. When we still didn’t see any improvement and after another couple of weeks, we decided to stop. Instead, we started her on Animal Biome’s Gut Maintenance Plus capsules. She gets one capsule a day mixed in with her food.
After a couple of weeks on the GMP, we started to see some marked improvement. She went from loose stools two or three times a day to loose stools once a day. Eventually, we started seeing formed stool. Every cat parent who has ever had a cat with GI issues knows the joy of finally seeing formed poop in the litter box! For the most part, she now has a bowel movement once a day. Most days, it’s mostly formed. Some days, it’s more of a pudding consistency, but it’s still a considerable improvement.
We retested her microbiome about a month ago, and the results were fantastic. No evidence of bad bacteria, and her good bacteria are much more balanced.
Hyperthyroidism
Allegra was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism in January of 2021. She is being treated with methimazole (brand names: Tapazole®, Felimazole®.) She’s tolerating it well, and her thyroid values have remained stable. Despite her stable lab values, she continued to lose weight, and Dr. Tasi noticed a slightly elevated heart rate during her exam in April. Because of that, and her thyroid values being on the slightly higher end of normal, Dr. Tasi had me increase Allegra’s methimazole dose.
Increased appetite
Allegra had been losing an alarming amount of weight over the past year, and her appetite had been hit or miss for quite some time. Then about two months ago, her weight stabilized at around eight pounds. Her appetite went back to normal. She finishes her meals again, and as of her last weigh in a couple of weeks ago, she had actually gained back some weight. Needless to say, that’s a huge relief.
Increased water consumption
Unfortunately, she presented us with a new and worrisome symptom. About a month ago, she started drinking massive amounts of water. Everything else was great, but this was not good. We were concerned that she may have become diabetic since she’s been on low doses of prednisolone, a steroid, for several years to control her IBD.
Both Dr. Tasi and then her tech were out of town for a combined three weeks. I didn’t want to take Allegra to another vet, but I was worried. Diabetes in an healthy cat is probably not an emergency, but in a senior cat with as many health issues as Allegra is dealing with, it could become a crisis. So I bought a glucometer so I could at least get a reading on her blood sugar level. Thankfully, she had no issues with me pricking her ear to get a tiny little drop of blood, and much to my relief, her blood sugar was normal.
At the first opportunity, Dr. Tasi and her tech came to draw labs. We managed to get blood and urine from her (thank you, Gabapentin!) Her lab values were all perfectly normal. Her urine was slightly dilute, but not enough to worry Dr. Tasi. Her RenalTech® was positive, which is an indicator that she is likely to develop chronic kidney disease over the next two years, but since her actual kidney values are all in the normal range, we’re not too concerned about that at this time.
Dr. Tasi doesn’t have an explanation why Allegra is drinking more water. We both feel that her normal lab values and the positive trajectory of her overall symptoms, combined with the fact that she’s happy and content, don’t require anything from us at this point except continuing what we’re doing, and letting her enjoy her life.
Taking it one day at a time
The fact that Allegra is not diabetic, that her kidneys are in good shape, and that she is eating well is such a relief. Hopefully, that will continue for a long time yet. And when it doesn’t, we’ll make decisions as we go.
I’ve said it before: caring for a senior cat with multiple health issues is not for the faint of heart. Every day, I have to remind myself that I can’t control any of this. I have my moments when I think about what it’s going to be like when things decline, but I pull myself back from those dark thoughts as quickly as I can. All I can do is enjoy each and every day we have together. Every day with Allegra is a gift. I don’t want to waste any of this precious time with sadness and worry about what’s to come.
Ingrid, I am happy to hear that Allegra is doing better. It is not easy dealing with our cats’ health issues, and senior kitties can be especially difficult. Sending you and Allegra hugs and healing thoughts & prayers.
My 18 year old gwen was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism a few months ago. This is after she was diagnosed with CKD March of 2023 (after I saw her drinking more water but the bloodwork was all normal and I insisted that there WAS something wrong with her so they checked again 2 weeks later and then it showed up) and has been on fluids every other day since then. Oh and when she was 8 she went into heart failure from a hypertrophic cardiomyopothy but since then with care from a cardiologist at VVS in Charlottesville and meds (only on pimobenden twice a day now) her heard is the least of her worries she said when she saw her in June. I am giving gwen the oral methimazol and she takes is so well. I know how it feels when they just dont seem to want to eat as much and honestly getting the hyperthyroidism under control really helped her improve.
Also no she does not eat any of the food the vet recommends I basically lie and say she is but shes not shes eating good quality canned food (stopped tollerating the raw) and clearly that is benefiting her greatly 🙂 I hope just like with Gwen you have many more years with Allegra 🙂
It sounds like Gwen is doing well despite all her challenges. Here’s to many more years with her!
Thank you, Ingrid for the update.
It is great to hear how well Allegra is doing.
I am so impressed with all of your efforts on her behalf.
I wish you both well in the coming months and years.
Thank you, Ellen!
Glad for some good news.
So glad to read that Allegra’s health is improving. Your very last sentence in your blog is something I need to memorize. Are 16 year old love kitty is struggling with a spinal cord issue in which there is no cure. That sentence is a helpful reminder.
It’s so hard to stay in the moment when they struggle. All my best to your kitty, Terry.
It’s so hard to stay in the moment when they’re struggling. All my best to your kitty, Terry!
Great job keeping your girl as healthy as possible! The work involved to accomplish that is quite stressful. I’m glad it’s going well for both of you and hope it continues that way for a very long time.
Thank you, Lisa!
<3
Right back at you, Cathy!
Praying that Allegra continues to show improvement and that any other possible health issues remain at bay. I’m guessing that you ruled against doing the Radioiodine treatment for hyperthyroidism? I have several friends who have taken their cats to Hypurrcat (DVM Peterson) in NYC with great success and medication is now no longer needed for hyperthyroidism. Not sure if there is a facility doing this in your area? The cost is about $3,000, I believe. The cat does have to remain in the clinic for 3-5 days. There is one follow-up blood test, but that test can probably be done by one’s local vet with the results sent to Peterson.
With four elderly cats, ages 14 to 18, I totally understand.
Yes, I decided against the I-131 treatment. Amber went through it in 2005 and did well with it, but Allegra would not be able to tolerate being in a cage for three days. She can barely handle being in a room with the door closed. Thankfully, she is tolerating the methimazole well.
Did you ever think about using the Assisi Loop
Silvia
We have the Assisi Lounge and use it as much as we can.
i’m glad to see all this info on supplements for kitties. I had to go down to southern California from June 6-15th and then, June 26th to July 15th this year. I hadn’t seen my elderly parents since October 2020. They were always camping 9 months out of the year. But, last Thanksgiving my Dad had to bring my mom to the hospital in the mountains and they sent her to Kaiser for a deep wound in her inner right ankle. While sleeping she dug a HOLE in her rigt ankle and her tendon was showing. She got put in a rehab for 7 months and it took that long to heal. But, this case managee said she needed to go into LTC. IDK what happened. She went into that rehab place walking (with her tendon showing) to being in a wheelchair and not wanting to eat. I went down there and saw her on June 7th. On June 13th, was her 66th anniversary and I asked her how she put up with Dad. She said “she pretended.” I’ve been on crutches now for almost a year with 4 herniated discs pain and numbness going down both legs, pain going in hip, then massive sweling in legs started happening laat November and a lady hit my car on March 14th and now pain and burning down left arm and some in right.
Well, my boyfriend calls me and tells me our formerly feral kitty, Sophie (15 years 8 years) died in her sleep on June 30th, Sophie was still feralish like her Mom,Angelique and she only let my boyfriend love on her her last two days of life. He had her privately cremated and back in a box a week before I got back on July 15th. When I got back, our bed-buddy, Logan (15 years, 4 months) had lost weight during he 17 days I was gone. My bf said he seems like he’s got a cold. He’d only been to the vets to be neutered at 4 months old and then at one year old he had a luxating patella that corrected itself. Well, a week went by and Logan was acting like his back right leg was bothering him. Next day it was fine. Then, he was walking on thw wrist of his right front leg for a day. My boyfriend said since Sophie died her soul-sister Ivy was jumping on the bed and head butting him and Logan and logan didn’t like it. He was faking these injuries. Our vet had sold her business and we would just go to ER. On August 5th we took Logan to ER and he spent 6 hours there getting checked out. Not good. The vet said he had “hypercalcimia”? that is a result of a cancerous mass in his left lung. She gave us prednisolone, antibiotic for a UTI and ointment because his cornea was scratched (probably by Dexter the serial mouser). She suggested we seen an oncologist for a CT but she already did full body xrays. There were no signs. He was like 12 lbs in early June and then on August 5th…like 6lbs. I got liquid Prednisolone 3 days before we had to send him to the Rainbow Bridge on Wednesday, August 20th. He was too be privately cremated and I swear we need a mauselum or huge China cabinet because in 2012 we had 38 cats. Now, we only have 6 and two are almost 16 years old and will not let you handle them, Two are 6 years old and one is 9 years old. Ii ended up in the hospital for the edema from August 31st to September 4th. I got a call from this Bubblng Wells place on September 2nd that Logan was ready to come home. My boyfriend got him home on Setember 3rd, and me on September 4th. I’m too heartbroken to take his box out of the blue velvet pouch and see his box. Logan would go to bed like at 9 pm. with my boyfriend herding him upstairs to bed. I always stay up too late and go to this soccer park every other night on crutches,,at 1-2:30 am to take care of some fweral cats and”owned crumbsnatcher neighbor cats”. When I would get back, Logan would come down the stairs and stare at me until I went upstairs. He watched me go up with a cane, then get crutches. Before the crutches, he would trip you on the stairs. My brother says he doesn’t think our Dad will live that long without our Mom because she spoiled him. I was cooking bre akfast, lunch dinner, loding and unloading dishwasher, vacuuming on crutches. He got himself a caretaker he pays for in late December 2024. She told us she thinks he has “sundowners dementia” and he has something. He hasn’t been diagnosed and needs something because he’s swearing, threw a cell phone at her elbow months ago. My brother said we might lose both parents by Christmas. I don’t like being negative but he may be right. My Dad is asking when I can get back down and now I have ulcers on my leg from the swelling (not diabetic) and they have all these ultrasounds scheduled and want to wrap me legs from the knees down for a month or more. This year sucks.
I’m sorry you’re dealing with so much, Tamara. All my best to you.
I am glad Allegra is doing better than she was. I will be praying she continues to improve.
Unfortunately… that can happen with senior cats. Have some of the same problems with my boys, being seniors. Our senior fur babies are so precious.
Time, age, health hits all animals & humans alike. Am happy to hear Allegra is well. Wish her continued success.
Thank you, Nancy!
I’m glad Allegra is doing a lot better. Hopefully she doesn’t develop kidney disease. It is hard with senior kitties and you are doing an amazing job as her mom.
So glad that Allegra’s doing better. You are lucky that she’s easy to pill. My Dawn is not.
Thanks for the info. My Dawn is on a special urinary diet, but she sometimes sneaks some bites of her brother’s meals. She’s had loose stools for a couple of months. I’ve delayed bringing her in because she gets extremely traumatized and because I’m not very mobile. Your article was a wake-up call for me to be more strict with what she eats, and to get her to the vet if her loose stools continue. Thank you!
All my best to your Dawn, Abby!