Not again!!!
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Not again!!!
| Sat, 06-05-2004 - 1:54am |
Thursday Leo had a vet appointment to check his pheno levels and get a full panel. We do this every 6 months with him because of the potential problems with his meds. He was also going to talk about his stool problems, but that is secondary to what I am posting about really.
We spoke to the vet about Leo this evening. No all good news I am afraid. His Phenobarbital levels are perfect and his liver levels also, but he has a low white and red blood cell count, so is a bit anemic. Possibilities for this include in the order of likelihood:
- Phenobarb poisoning. It can effect not only the liver but the blood cells. We are going to lower his dosage now. This can turn out messy as he can begin to have grand-mal seizures more. But we need to see if this is the cause by lowering the levels by ½ for 14 days then retesting him. If it is the meds causing this we need to see if a lower dosage will still control the seizures, if it does not control them we need to look at other med options.
- He may have a virus now. He has been sneezing, and a bug can cause the blood cells to drop. Again, 7 to 14 days will tell this.
- If not 1 or 2 on the next set of blood panels, we need to locate the cause, as if



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Thoughts and prayers that Leo is going to be alright.
Cat,
Yes, we had it checked out. The vet said it looked like a war wound from Orion. It does not seem to be worse. I have checked it for a few days and will be giving the old crab a good check over tonight to see how it and all other parts are doing. He has started to get a lot of bumps on his ears now, hives or something like that, but he gets it every spring here and the vet said it is an allergic reaction the other year, but her have them checked out every year anyway. A few days on pred clears it up. This year I am reluctant to just give him pred for this since he gets a two day run every 2 weeks or for for his aches and pains when they get bad. The hives never seem to itch or bother him, so he can wait till he needs the pred again.
Leo sneezed 2 times over night again. I so hope it is a virus. If it is the pheno then we may have a problem since as far as I know not a lot of other meds work as well on seizures in cats and not cause even worse side effects. I cannot bring myself to just cutting his dose in half as the vet wanted. I decided to lower it by about 25% for about 4 days then the 50%, and trust me this is hard. Ever see how small a pheno pill is? Well he gets 1/2 a pill. Now he is getting 3/8 of a pill. the 50% drop will be a 1/4 of a pill. It is very hard cutting these like this. I wish I lived in Illinois for this, we used a compounding pharmacy down the road, and they used to make up the pills for him to any dose needed. If it is not the pred OR a virus, I will just be beside myself and not know what to do. I guess it is silly to assume the worst, but it is so hard to not keep thinking it after all we just went through.
(^Itchy^)
David and the CoolCyberCats
Forever in my heart
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Oh no David.
Tami Cl-Royalkitties
Tami Cl-Royalkitties
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