Bear is sending you ❤️! Poor Bear has a bit of a health scare over the past few weeks. He had been overgrooming his belly and our vet was concerned it was a health problem (rather than a mental health issue, as belly overgrooming is a common stress behavior in cats). I totally thought it was a stress thing because we’ve spent the last 6 months getting his hyperthyroidism under control, which involved a bunch of vet visits and blood draws. Even trying our hardest to do cooperative care and counter conditioning, I just thought Bear had had enough! . But our vet suggested we do a special GI blood panel, which came back with what two vets at the clinic termed “the worst values I’ve ever seen”. 😳 This led to an ultrasound that determined he had pancreatitis, cholangiohepatitis, and IBD. 🤯 This condition is called triaditis in cats. Bear needed to be hospitalized for fluids (and then we continued fluids at home for a weekend), antibiotics, anti-emetics, B12 injections, and a prescription food. . . The GREAT news is that it looks like the pancreatitis was the root cause of all this nastiness (vs. LIVER CANCER or etc.) so the RX diet and B12 injections may be the only long-term treatment he needs. But GEEZ I can’t get over how his only symptom was belly overgrooming! Thank goodness our vet urged us to do more diagnostics! She definitely saved Bear’s life! . . #triaditis #blackcatsrule #veterinarymedicine #veterinary #veterinariansrock #cooperativecare #counterconditioning #fearfree #fearfreevetvisit https://www.instagram.com/p/B85IMH4JVkz/?igshid=fdsctuhygjiz
