Well, seeing as I care for special needs kitties, I have decided that I'd share Maple's journey with you. Especially since this is something new for me as well. At least when it comes to my own kitties :)

I took Maple to the vet on Friday. I figured her early-stage kidney disease was likely progressing as she'd been throwing up quite a bit lately. It would happen more occasionally a couple months back, like the beginning of the year. But then when Pepcid and even Cerenia weren't having the full effect I'd been hoping for, decided to take her to the vet. I fully anticipated we'd do blood work and ultimately would be told her kidney values had worsened it. And I can handle that! I've been down the kidney disease road before.

Well, the one thing I didn't think of was I'd been more down the acute kidney failure road more than the chronic aspect of it. Basically, the vet told me her symptoms didn't quite add up to worsening kidney disease. If she was not eating then yes, it would. But, she still eats. And yes, she lost two lbs (went from 18 to 16 lbs) but I never have issues getting her to eat.

Ultimately, his thinking was more along the lines of pancreatitis. So, we tested for it (along with the regular blood tests). Sure enough, the pancreas numbers are significantly higher, and kidney values were actually pretty much the same. Said pancreatitis is really more a symptom than a diagnosis, so we have to at least see if there is anything we can find out. IBD may be a cause but Maple is almost 16, so he's thinking it may be something else at this point.

So, for now, we're planning on doing an ultrasound, which will happen in a little over two weeks. That was the first appointment we could get but for now she's holding her own. We bumped up her dosage of Cerenia (because she's a big girl!) and that has helped. Also started her on B-12 shots today.

So, for now, we wait, and make sure that her symptoms continue to stay at bay. Will write again next week and give an update.