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Old April 12th, 2011, 09:40 PM
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sugarcatmom sugarcatmom is offline
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Calgary, AB
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Hello to you and Fred, from a fellow Albertan and diabetic cat mom.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Minburn View Post
His appetite issue became enough of a concern that I went to the vet.
Did the vet do any blood work at all? What was the antibiotic that Fred received?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Minburn View Post
And hoping he comes back around to his mouse and gopher hunting self.
Does he eat the rodents that he hunts? If so, it's possible that he would have been getting enough thiamine from them to make up for the potential lack in the Wellness.

If you still think a thiamine deficiency might be a factor, you could either ask the vet for his thiamine levels to be tested (blood needs to be sent out to another lab) or else prescribe an injectable or oral thiamine supplement (should see an improvement within 24 hrs).

Some more info: http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm

Quote:
Initial signs of thiamin deficiency appear within 1-2 weeks of the introduction of a deficient diet and include salivation and a failure to eat despite being interested in food. Weight loss, vomiting and mild ataxia may also be apparent. This progresses to a critical stage in which there are severe neurological disturbances with impaired righting reflexes and short tonic convulsions with ventroflexion of the-neck. Mydriasis, circling, dysmetria and spinal hypersensitivity may also be observed. Eventually, there is a spasticity of all the limbs such that the cat appears to be 'walking on its toes' and there may be cardiac irregularities. The terminal stage of the disease is characterized by semi-coma, continuous crying, opisthotonos and, ultimately, death.
http://www.felipedia.org/~felipedi/w...ine_deficiency
http://books.google.ca/books?id=DtII...ciency&f=false
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