Beans Update 3-2-2010

I'm feeling very sad about all of this. Beans has not been doing well. He continues to be lethargic and has had trouble with his appetite. Poor guy isn't responding to the meds he is on. Today at his vet appointment we had the serious talk with the vet. Beans's blood count is back down to 12.5 (from 15 - needs to be at 30), which is close to the level of needing another blood transfusion. The sad and scary thing is that his weight is down to 10.2 pounds (loss of over 2 pounds in last 2 weeks).

The bad news is that ultimately another transfusion may not guarantee Beans all that much extra time because he has not been responding to the two immunosuppressant drugs he is taking. This is our current plan -

• abdominal ultrasound - to try to identify whether there is anything abnormal causing the IMHA (particularly something like cancer or other things that would be more difficult to treat)
• if ultrasound comes back with nothing identified, then we do the blood transfusion and start the third immune suppressant drug
• third immune suppressant drug may take some time to become effective, so we wait to see if he responds. If he doesn't, there is not much else we can do
• if ultrasound comes back identifying something else bad that is difficult to treat in addition to his IMHA, we may be facing a sad decision.
• in the meantime, to help him with his appetite and to hopefully prevent further weight loss, Beans will take an appetite stimulant/anti-nausea medicine in addition to his other pills. He is also allowed to eat anything he wants and was sent home with 2 cans of Fancy Feast (kitty crack - pretty much the fattiest, luscious food that sick cats tend to want to try to eat).

I cried in front of the doctor. I knew I would this time. He was very nice and felt so sad for me, too. I predict more tears to come, but maybe Beans will shock us all.