Cooper and Hypercalcemia Update

Cooper Update:

Cooper chillin' out

The vet from Michigan State, who is handling his hypercalcemia, said that we do not need to have him tested monthly for calcium and other blood chemistry levels since she is positive that his hypercalc is idiopathic. So, we won’t retest his parathyroid or his blood and urine for a few months unless it seems his condition worsens.

With more water by mouth-6ccs TID (three times a day), 3ccs of water in his food TID; with inulin fiber added to his food; and by allowing him to eat between meals when he indicates he’s hungry, we believe those are the reasons his calcium levels are beginning to decline-which is a great thing since they are too high.  The increase water helps the kidneys flush out the calcium while the fiber and the extra food helps the body bind the calcium in the gut and to excrete it.  And eating more keeps up his weight.  

We give Buprenex at .35 TID which allows him to sit more when using the litter box.  We do not know why he might feel discomfort when using the litter box but we do know that we see an increase of him standing and going in the box (but the urine actually shoots out of the box) when he has lower amounts of Buprenex.  We haven’t had his urine retested for October but since he only had crystals last time, the only way to get rid of them is to give more water which we are doing.  And we were giving him Methigel-an acidifier that will lower the PH of the urine and help get rid of and prevent crystals.

We will continue the water, the fiber, the daily vitamin paste, the Methigel, and the Buprenex.