Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Serisously??

Bryce and I had quite a rough week.

As you know we don't have kids but we do have a cat that is basically treated like a kid. He gets most all of our attention and pretty much runs the show at our house. We have had him nearly as long as we've been married so you could say we're just slightly attached to him.:)

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Jack started throwing up a couple weeks ago which is really, really rare for him so after a couple of days I took him to a vet in Reno. After a physical examination the vet diagnosed Jack with gastroenteritis and sent us home with some medication that he needed once a day. So that meant that we had to take Jack with us to Tooele for Thanksgiving, which I now know was not the best idea. Cats don't do well with change and it totally stresses them out! By the time we got home Sunday night Jack was throwing up every 3 hours or so! He couldn't even keep his water down! Bryce and I got really worried so I called an emergency vet in Reno at 11:30 PM and they told me to bring him in. Bryce had to work in the morning so I put Jack in his cage and headed to Reno. I ended up getting lost, took an hour longer getting there, Bryce was calling me every 15 minutes and Jack threw up on himself in his cage! I finally got to the vet at about 2:00 AM!

Jack was really dehydrated so they had to start an IV, draw blood, and take x-rays to try to find out what was going on with him. Well. . . . it turned out to be a process of elimination on the diagnosis and by 7:30 AM they still didn't know what was wrong with him and because they're an emergency vet they close at 8:00 AM so I had to transfer my sedated kitty with an IV in his arm and a cone around his neck to a regular vet.

Well, to shorten the story a little: the vet kept Jack all day so they could rehydrate him and I finally got to take him home around 5:00 PM on Monday. They still weren't exactly sure what was wrong with Jack but the vet wanted to see how he did at home now that he was hydrated.

Poor sick kitty! Jack did OK at home (still not eating or drinking anything) until he threw up again Thursday morning when I got home at 6:00 AM from a night shift at work. I thought "oh, here we go again." I called the vet and she told me to bring him in again so they could do an ultrasound to rule out pancreatitis, which is really rare in cats his age. Keep in mind that I had just gotten home from a 12 hour night shift and had to be at work again at 6:00 PM that night too! I was exhausted!

Anyway, so after an IV, anesthesia, another blood draw and an ultrasound the vet diagnosed my poor little kitty with inflammatory bowel disease! She gave him a steroid shot and anti-nausea medication and told me I could take him home for now.

The vet is not sure yet if this is an acute thing or a chronic condition that Jack will have to take medication for, we'll know more after a couple weeks.

This is "the cone". Jack absolutely hated this thing and actually managed to push it off with his back legs while he was still slightly sedated.:)

Jack spent the 1st few traumatised days after the ER visit under the bed.:(

The only good thing we got out of this whole experience was a new pair of leg warmers for Jack!:) Check them out! Bryce and I think they're pretty funny/cute but we're pretty sure Jack's embarrassed of them. They had to shave his arms for the IVs and his belly for the ultrasound and let me tell you the whole bare belly thing is very unattractive.:)

Isn't he just a cute little poser??
So anyway, $1500 later, 3 lbs lighter and a new nick name "Flash dance Jack", our kitty is home and feeling better.
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Oh the things we go through for our children. . . . .I mean pets!:)