Hermes, Bendy's half brother

[BendyMom]

last night was horrible. Hermes, who will be 16 on 9/15, was having horrible abdominal muscle spasms and was clearly distressed. managed to get him calemd down and comfy using Butterbean's phenobarb.
was at the vet at 7:30 this morning (sent him an emal last nght).
we think he has pancreatitis. i am beyond worried.
he also has one small kidney and one enlarged kidney, just like Bendy had, with normal blood values, just like Bendy had.
He is on several meds to make him feel better. we sent some blood off for special tests to evaluate his pancreas (i don't remember what they were called).

Six Toes, the remaining half sister, seems to be chugging along okay.

it s a tense time at the Bendy hosue.

[CarolC]

Pancreatitis is miserable. Did they give you some Reglan for him? I've had two with pancreatitis and it makes all the difference. I've got one who's been on it for a year, she asks for her shot every night when it's time, sometimes she asks for it an hour early but I tell her it isn't time yet. Sometimes I will forget to watch the time and she will remind me. I wish we had tried it for her earlier, I think she was having some mild symptoms before it was really obvious, but by the time I took her to the vet, she was throwing up and not even keeping water down. She is doing great now. The Reglan started making a difference immediately, but she also sort of built up better overall health after long term Reglan, perfect weight and grooming, and most of all feeling well and happy. She was 10 the end of 2011 so she must be about 15 now. She is on small portions of DeliCat dry for breakfast and Friskies turkey and giblets canned at night, not too much. After finding something that works, the trick for us has been not to vary it. We are planning to move in the next month or so and I am kind of concerned how the stress will affect her, but she can have shots twice a day if needed, she's just been on one a day since she got past the acute stage. (If you've got Reglan, they told me it is photosensitive so store it in darkness, I keep it in a little vintage aluminum Kodak film can with a screw on lid.)

[critters]

He looks a lot like Bendy, doesn't he?

[BendyMom]

that whole family all had a similar face and build, except Ereshkigal who had a long narrow nose.

He is on Rgelan, yesterday he was getting it every 6 hours. he is also getting SQ fluids, sulcrafate, prednisone, probios, clindamycn (or wll be now that he can keep stuff down), tramadol and cerenia.

he is much improved this morning. ate some baby food overnight and kept it down. was hungry this morning, ate another jar, albeit slowly, and that is staying down. he looks much much more comfy, no strained "i am in pain" look. It's good to har your kitty has done so well on Reglan. Hey they didn't tell me it was light sensitve!!!!! thank you for that info!

he and bendy were buds. after bendy passed, hermes became buds with Bartholomew, who is 7, and I often worry what will happen with Barth when hermes passes. Barth isn't happy that Hermes is in a pen rght now but I have to make sure he doesn't hide again. I can't keep them together because Barth is a vaccuum cleaner.

[critters]

What a cute pic!

[CarolC]

Did you get your test results?

[BendyMom]

the test results did come back, most definitely pancreatitis.
he is doing better, last night he didn't want to eat and i syringe fed him. this morning he ate breakfast if I held the bowl.
he hasn't had any more painful episodes and his energy level is good. He is good about taking meds (another trait of that family).

I'm taking it day by day, I'm told improvement is slow but he will get there and can still live for years.

However, it is not his only problem. He has one very small kidney and one large kidney - just like Bendy did. Bendy had a large cyst in one kidney, taking up about a third of it. that is what killed him.
Right now Hermes' stomach is still sensitive so I can't shave and ultrasound him. When he is feeling less touchy I am going to do that. I was given an ultrasound machine of my own, and I got a book on teaching techs to use it, and my vet helped me out letting me practice with his when we were doing ultrasounds on my cats.

I can find kidneys and bladders pretty easily adn see what is normal or not wth them. I can find gut loops too and see how clogged they are (which is very useful for Butterbean). I need to read up on how to save images to a thumb drive (i know it can i just haven' read how) so I can look at Hermes' kidneys and save images to show my vet.

if you are used to doing black/white/grey pencil sketches then reading the scans isn't all that hard. however if subtle shades of grey elude you, well, that is more diffcult. but the kidneys adn bladder are the easiest by far.