Thank you all for your thoughts, good wishes and prayers.
Rufus is a bit better this morning.
This diarrhea thing with him has been ongoing since the day we adopted him.........June 4, 2003. He has been tested for everything under the sun and just recently had a biopsy of the stomach, intestines, liver, jujenum, and bladder. He has had continuous enlargement of the mesenteric lymph nodes....always show up on US, and recent biopsy of a mesenteric node only showed chronic inflammation, no hyperplasia.
He has been dewormed, given many doses of flagyl, all unsuccessful.
The biopsy of the stomach showed H.Pylori and we did the 3 week course of triple antibiotics. All to no avail.
Needless to say, between the rectum and the urinary issues, the poor boy's bum practically glows in the dark. He also seems more skittish than usual.
I looked through all his mountains of tests and results and he had never had his thyroid function tested. He meets some of the symptoms..........fierce appetite with no weight gain, restless...........I hope to pursue this with my vet.
Right now I am still awaiting a copper toxicity test that we sent to the lab last week.
Rufus was exposed to 2 foods in the 5+ years that I've had him........he is 10 now.........and both of those foods tested extremely high in copper. The copper test takes about 2 weeks for an answer.
His urine probelms are also an ongoing battle. Through biopsy, he was diagnosed with Interstitial Cystitis. Half the poor boy's bladder was covered in scar tissue, some of which the vet was able to pare down a bit. It was determined that some scar tissue was the result of his bladder being lacerated, before I got him and there were also indications that his bladder had been popped. According to my vet, over aggressive attempts to express urine, can result in the bladder popping and healing with scar tissue. Some of his litter box aversions have been, I'm sure, just a result of his being so sore back there. pH is better as of this morning, it had been as high as 8
2 days ago. His needs to be between 6 and 6.5 otherwise we have major problems.
I am also having some success with his box issues by using Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract Litter mixed with the World's Best.
For all that is plaguing this poor doll, you would expect him to be the most viscious and skittish guy on the planet. We just had snuggies before and his purrs are deafening. I know he knows, I am trying so hard to help him, as is my angel vet. Four other vets before her suggested PTS or...........and this one made me totally nuts.............ABANDON AT A SHELTER
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