A Cat Loses a Tooth Despite Brushing

In our house, just as one cat does well another one get sick. Last week, Baby, our seven year old cat, began going out of the box on a daily basis. So, off to the vet. No bacteria, no crystals but there is blood. And what else? She has resorption-teeth loss. She's lost one molar and is losing another. This despite twice weekly teeth brushing. 

Resorption is difficult to describe but it's when the tooth disintegrates and is reabsorbed into the gums and covered up by the gums. If the root remains, she'll need a root canal. The tooth that is disappearing will need to be removed. She had good teeth until recently. Very little tartar on the teeth. We don't know how this developed so quickly. She'll go back next week for a retest of urine and we'll schedule dental surgery at that time. For now, Clavamox 1 ml q 12; 3 ccs of H2O by mouth with each meal; Buprenex pain killer .15 ml q12. And she's eating CD or SO wet food and dry food. No Fancy Feast or other food for awhile due to the bladder issue.

Here's a link to feline dental resorptions, teeth loss that Baby is experiencing. We will need to have all the cats' teeth reexamined to see if anyone else is having the same issue. I checked and there may be one or two others but it's diff

icult to tell for sure. The only thing they all have in commons is that they drink bottled water because our water had too much chlorine. They weren't drinking enough water last year when I switched them to bottled. Could it be that cats need tap water with fluoride after all? Now I've decided to mix bottled and tap in their bowls and give tap by mouth when giving it with meds and to those who need extra water by mouth.

A picture from the Feline Dental website of a bad tooth similar to Baby's

Baby

http://www.mypetsdentist.com/site/view/113044_toothresorption.pml

Myrna's Urine PH is Normal

In the July 18 post, I noted that Myrna's urine PH was high at 7.5 when normal should be 6.5 or 6.  She no crystals or bacteria in her urine sample but she kept having out of the box issues even while on Valium. I was reluctant to increase the Valium because of the potential liver and kidney side effects since they filter the med.

I decided the issue at this point was that her PH was too high, causing a possible irritation in the bladder.  So, I began giving her a daily dose of Methigel, which is an acidifier.  It's made for cats and dogs.
http://www.1800petmeds.com/Methigel+Urinary+Acidifier-prod10470.html


After a week, I cut it back to three times a week. You can't overdue this medication especially since she's eating s/o which is a wet cat food that has acidifiers already in it.  The acidifiers are there to keep crystals from forming, crystals that could irritate the bladder and cause infection.

So, after a few weeks, by the end of August, I had her urine retested and the urine is now at 6, down from 7.5.  Since it can't go below 6 or she may have another type of crystal form if the urine is too acidic, I am now giving it to her twice a week.

Since she's been on Methigel, we have seen a more consistent box use and rarely an out of the box incident.

So, if your HCM cat goes out of the box and the urine test shows no UTI, no crystals, try Methigel once a day for a couple weeks and then cut it back over time.  If the cat's box use improves but the cat still has some issues, talk to your vet about using Valium. It's save for HCM cats.  Myrna takes 1/4 tab about 8 a.m., 1/16 at lunch, and 1/4 at bedtime at 11 p.m.  

Update Cooper's Blood Work-Hypercalcemia

This posting is rather late.  Cooper's first blood draw at MSU was in June and we had it retested in late July and these are the results:


It's been about six weeks since Cooper's last blood draw and testing at Michigan State Vet School for the hpercalcemia issue that affects him.  As a reminder, hypercalcemia is very dangerous and can lead to death because of the way it affects the kidneys and the heart specifically and the rest of the body's functioning ability in general.  He also had zero phosphorous and a zero PTH parathyroid hormone level. If the PTH remains zero while the calcium is high, then it may be due to the hypercalc telling the body it doesn't need any PTH and not due to cancer or disease.

As of August, his PTH remains at zero which, while he needs a PTH level that is normal, since the calcium is still high, that it hasn't moved at all indicates that the cause of his calcium is idiopathic-no cause-and not due to disease.  However, we still need to find ways to bring down the calcium.

His blood ion calcium was 180 and normal is 140. His calcium was down a bit from 13.7 to 12.8 which is good. His glucose is still abnormally high at 197-and norm is 150. But since his urine glucose at home is normal, they believe the blood glucose is high due to stress. And he's a very stressed out cat at the vet's.  His phosphorous was up from 1.3 to 3.5.  That's better than having it too low because if it was too low, he could develop anemia which would bring on a new set of health issues and concerns.

We have continued and done very well with giving 3ccs of water in his wet food and 3ccs of water by mouth three times a day. We have been giving him Excel vitamin paste once a day.  We discontinued the magnesium and potassium in July and that may be, along with more water in his system to help excrete calcium, why his calcium has shifted down a bit and the phosphorous has increased a bit.

However, he stopped eating the high fiber diet w/d after a week and we continue to struggle getting him to eat more than 1 oz. of food per meal. Sometimes, we are lucky and he will eat a 3 oz. can in one setting. But mostly, we've decided to feed him in between meals when he asks.  That has helped him maintain his 11 lb. and 4 oz large frame.  Today, he actually weighed 11.8, an increase of 4 oz. in the last two weeks.

Cooper

We will have his blood retested at the beginning of September to see how he is doing. If things stay the same or improve, we may not need to try other drugs like steroids yet. If they get worse, then we will need to try other drugs.  

Myrna Loy, HCM, on Aspirin, and New Blood Work

Since July, Myrna is also taking, along with her five meds and other supplements, a baby aspirin of 81 mg twice a week. She began taking this after her Juyly checkup showed an increase in heart muscle size.  The aspirin will help thing the blood and keep the platelets from sticking together and forming clots.  I set the range to dose it for Wednesdays and Saturdays. To make sure she was handling this well, we did a blood recheck last week.  She's had minor symptoms of stomach upset but no vomiting.  The only thing she did was to sort of burp but that went away after a couple weeks. So, her blood show that the BUN and Creatinine-renal values-and AST, ALT-liver values-are all normal.  The potassium level went from 4.2 to 5.1 and is now high normal instead of very low.  This neds to be monitored for possible hyperkalemia which could indicatre that she has renal issues.  Or it could be a combination of  factors but that still need monitoring because potassim levles canot be above normal. We think it's a combination of factors:

Aspirn-Aspirin effects renal blood flow and can decrease blood flow and therefore, affects glomerural filtration, and the decrease excretion of sodium and potassium.  Both her sodium and potassium levels are high normal but the sodium has always been high.  This could be a problem in the future as it could lead to water retention or edema which, for an HCM cat, isn't what we want.

Enalapril or ACE inhibitors-These effect renal blood flow and therfore effct the funciton of the filtration ability.

Spironolactone-a drug that retains potassium levels for the kidneys while acting as a diuretic.

Valium-She is taking Valium for anxiety and litterbox issues .  It's othe only thing HCM cats can take. They can't take a psychotrophic becaause they are contraindicated with Plavix.  Valiium delays the need to go and since she is excreitng less frequently, she therefore is not excreting potassium as much as she had been.

As I have said before, it's very important to understand the relationships between the different blood chemistries and to understand what is normal or not and what it all means. Check out the linked website for more information.  http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2&aid=989

The other concern is that the aspirin-and I'm not sure how-has lowered her platelet count to 135, below the low end normal that is 170.  This could lead to internal or external bleeding. We need to watch her closely for bruising or marks on her that indicate internal bleeding, for edema caused by internal bleeding, and watch any external injuries that would lead to bleeding.

We will test her blood again in November before her next  appointment.

ET-left-and Myrna Loy-right-How do they sleep that way?

What's Normal in Your Cat-Blood, Temp, etc.

http://www.cat-world.com.au/cat-facts-a-normal-vital-signs


I've posted here before about what breathing rate, temperature, blood panels ranges are normal for cats and that we need to understand and to learn them.  Here's another site (also posted to Facebook) that can help you learn more about your cat.  Take a look.

Vets Discus Vetmedin

There's a drug called Vetmedin, otherwise known as pimobendan, that some doctors-mostly overseas-prescribe to HCM cats.  Here are some links about the medication. Originally prescribed for dogs and then for congestive heart failure brought on not by HCM but by dilated cardiomyopathy.  I don't use it but many others do.  Here are the same links I had posted in July to the Facebook page "Cats with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy."

http://www.atlanticcoastvet.com/referring-veterinarians/referring-dvm-newsletter/vetmedin/

http://vetmedicine.about.com/od/diseasesandconditions/a/CW-HeartDiseasePimobendan.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimobendan

http://www.vetmedin.com/

http://www.flowertownanimalhospital.com/vetmedin.html

This Is a Face of a Killer

The face of a killer-Elizabeth Taylor-she who is not to be messed with at the vets

It's been a busy summer in our house. Since we have 7 cats and 6 see the vet during the summer, you can imagine how many times I've been to the vet. I've tried to take two at a time but it doesn't always work out. For example, I took Eliza

beth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn together. KH did fine but ET threw such a fit that she almost took out a vet tech. She hissed, clawed, tried to bite, and then clawed the woman's face-and left a mark which bled. All because she didn't like being examined. This is the cat that is usually docile and is always loving. On the way home, I stuck my finger cautiously through the cage and she rolled over as if to say "Oh, yes, please pet me." My loving Lizzie had returned.