Cat with pancreatitis?

My 13 year old Wrigley has been very ill for several days -- vomiting, not eating or drinking much. He has trouble jumping up onto furniture. He's very lethargic and let me trim his nails without clawing me to the bone.

The vet did a workup and x-rays. The only thing the bloodwork showed was an enzyme elevated that is consistent with loss of muscle mass -- which he also has. The X-rays showed a bad hip but nothing more.

She thinks he has pancreatisis. The test for it is expensive and takes 7-10 days for the results. We decided to treat him for that and see. She gave him an injection of pain meds and more fluids and some antibiotics. I'm to continue the pain meds at home.

I looked up feline pancreatitis and learned that diagnosis is hard because of the non-specific symptoms but the prognosis is generally good with "support."

Has anyone else had a cat with pancreatitis? It seems kind of weird to me but at least it's a partial answer.

The antibiotics REALLY helped for awhile--she was old though..15 at dx. Unfortunately it ended it what looked like liver/pancreatic cancer and I had to put her down. She was 17.
It was really hard watching her go through some of her episodes though..

It's so hard to watch them decline.

When Wrigs started this on Sunday it reminded me of another cat who went through renal failure. I thought Wrigs was having seizures but he calmed down a bit. Otherwise I would have taken him to Urgent Care.

The vet did say that his liver seemed a bit smaller than normal in the x-ray. Oh boy. I'm going to think positive thoughts and pray that this resolves in a few days.

bounces back soon. :hug:

He's showing some feistiness now -- could be the pain meds. He hasn't vomited since we've been home.

He was pretty sick for awhile, but he was also diabetic, which complicated things quite a bit. He recovered completely after a few weeks, though, and lived a good life for years after. He passed on from unrelated causes. :( Pancreatitis is serious but treatable.

What I read on the Internets said that a full recovery was possible.

She did very well after treatment for the initial incident (which was scary), and long-term "support" which basically consisted of a change in her daily diet, and strict control in amount and type of treats.

Good luck!

I wonder what the long term care will be. Guess we need to get over the hump first, then worry about the future. The vet is very concerned about the muscle mass loss and said she is mystified about what caused it. We'll address that once he's feeling better.