Update on Cooper with Hypercalcemia

At the end of July we will retest Cooper's urine and calcium, phosphorous, and PTH levels after having suspended administration of magnesium and potassium supplements.  The idea is that magnesium may be acting as a phosphorous binder and that the fact that he practically has no phosphorous could be due to more than just hypercalcemia.  If neither the PTH nor the phos have increased, then we will suspend administration of the inulin fiber he has been taking for a year now to see if that could be acting as a binder or somehow influencing the outcome of his blood chemistry.  After this time, if the phosphorous is still low, then he will return to MSU for  a fractional excretion of phosphorous from blood and urine tests.

Meanwhile, we are trying to manage the calcium with a high fiber diet by feeding him w/d by Science Diet.  We have been mixing it into his regular Fancy Feast. However, he doesn't always want to eat even his favorite food. The house next door is being worked on and any noise disturbs Cooper and prevents him from eating. I gave him an appetite stimulant this week since he had nearly stopped eating.  It helped on Monday, the first day I gave it to him.  But then his eating slowed down.  I will give him another stimulant tomorrow-it can only be given every 72 hours.  

Cooper is the larger cat up front with Myrna (HCM) and Elizabeth-in the basement

In the discharge papers from MSU, the doctor noted that she would like him to eat 7 oz. of dry food a day and 12 oz. of wet food a day.  Trouble is, he barely eats 1oz of dry and 3 oz of wet.  Some days he will eat 2-3 oz can of food per meal. But today for example, he ate 3 oz of Fancy Feast with canned tuna added over breakfast and lunch and still left some in the bowl.  That's about 2 oz devoured-one oz. per meal.  That's not good at all.