Also - Buddy has lost soooooooo much muscle mass - he is sooooo bony compared to his previous fine physique. He is still having to wear the 'lampshade of shame' to stop him nibbling his healing scar on his leg (very gruesome). Sleeping lots - but we are trying our best to get him moving again to rebuild his muscles.

Hi Victoria, so glad to hear that Theo is improving with help from the steroids.....,

Buddy Lovett, sorry to hear about Buddy,, there is nothing worse than seeing your cat after the barriage of tests that they do to get the diagonises,,,,,,,,,,,, Ziggy lost heaps of muscle mass, he is still quite a skinny boy...... As for the steroids, i think it was Prednisone, cannot remember the dosage. Metcalm is a painkiller and was done by his weight, i.e. 1mm for every kilo of body weight, once a day..,,,,
Fingers crossed for Buddy

Colin

Just looked up my old posts regarding Ziggy. He was on 5mg Prednisone (oral) twice a day

[attachment=0]Buddy on Cusion.jpg[/attachment
Theo's Mum: Email - just sent to you. Hope you can print it off to show your VET. x x x Thank you for the Steroid info - I will be taking your info to show to my VET in Chelmsford to get Buddy's dosage correct. He is not keen to drink his water (he used to drink plenty) - so have to up his fluid in other ways & the lack of movement slows down their bowels.

Night all.
PS: You can EDIT your previous post now & remove your email address if you would like to.

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(")_(") Meeeeeeeeeow x x "THE BENGAL BROTHERHOOD THANKS EVERYONE FOR CARING"

By the way - Buddy is a 100% House Cat - the collar was purchased after he got out for 2 hours when a baby sitter was here - on the ID disk I have had engraved his details & put that he is a DIABETIC (he is not - but I just thought it would discourage someone for trying to make him their pet) - weird but, hey worth a try.

Dear All
Buddy is on 5mg Prednisone (oral) ONCE a day. Started on 25 March 2014 - MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR recovery. Soooooooooooooooooooooo happy. The VET in Chelmsford has supplied me with 30 days worth of pills - so just wanted to let you all know that it looks like our roller coaster journey into this disease is coming to a successful and happy ending. Love to all & if anyone wants more on this subject I do have a long, medical document written by the Professor in San Diego that has carried out major studies in the disease of Polyneuropathy. YAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As Buddy is 16 months old - I have put him back on kitten food for perhaps 3 weeks - wet pouches and dry biscuits from James Wellbeloved Kitten range - as it will help him regain weight - also Tuna steak in spring water to keep him regular as he got constipated during the last 3 weeks.
PS: photo is from last year when he was up to a fine weight/muscle size x x

Cracking update! So glad to hear you have got a good vet with sensible doses and amounts of the drugs!
I hate these vets who see £ or $ signs in front of their eyes when an animal is diagnosed with a lifetime or prolonged illness!
Paws crossed and big hugs to Buddy! xx

Thanks for your good wishes Jodonut.
Think the bottle of pill steroids was about £8.
Colin - from previous posts said that his Bengal has not had to have the steroids for up to 3 years now - so really hoping that after these 30 days are up - Buddy will come off the Predislone - however, it could be a case of adjusting the amount & weening him off it slowly ??!! Not sure - but I would say that it has now been 1 week of Steroids & Buddy is 70% back to his previous self.
Looking forward to seeing a post from Victoria - Theo's owner - to see if he too is having success.


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(")_(") Meeeeeeeeeow x x

You may have missed my input to this thread, but this was my experience with Bengal polyneuropathy and the steroids. viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20740#p234188

Ahhhh - thank you very much Elaine - I have now read you experience with Steroids - I will print it off for my VET to see.
He wants Buddy to build his muscle mass up / eat loads of protein & weigh more - I have 1 months worth of Steroids - so I will bare in mind your words.
Victoria (Theo's) owner replied to an email today - he is doing sooooooooooooooooooo much better too - much more active & jumping up
Buddy even ran & galloped in the garden today.
Again - thank you so much for taking the time to think of us & share your superb knowledge - it is such a relief to communicate with someone that understands what we are going through x x x
Regards
Steph xx x x

Hello all!!
I am seem to have missed all these updates, sorry!! Just noticed one had gone into my spam email!
Yes, as Steph has said, Theo is pretty much now 90% back to how he was - running, jumping up on the settee, going up and down stairs! And is also putting weight back on!
He was doing so much better after just 1 week - a miracle!! Our vet wanted to them stop the steroids, but my opinion is to give it a month for him to put weight back on and then see what happens when we wean him off - our vet is not keen on steroids but I am not willing to put Theo through that again so soon and need him to be fully recovered before considering stopping them. He has spoken with someone who knows a little about neuropathy, who told him that there is no treatment other than treating the inflammation etc so he has taken that to mean that not treating it will mean it will go away by itself - considering he could barely walk and couldn't get in or out of the litter tray tells me things were rapidly deteriorating and he needed treatment.
Thank you all so much for your help - without this I don't know where we would be now. I am going to take Steph's document on neuropathy to our vet when we go back in a couple of weeks for an update, so he has more knowledge of this condition.
But so good to hear of the positive outcomes of you all and knowing that there is hope!!
Vicky.x

Great update Vicky & Theo.
I have taken delivery of a famous cat toy called Da Bird - from Amazon. It came in a massive box & of course Buddy had hours of fun from chewing up the cardboard - I think they like the smells & texture of the cardboard & glue???!!
Well he is like a kitten again - pouncing, jumping & even a few air acrobatics. I have a long tunnel on order to just keep him motivated to move & play (as he is our only pet - he does not have another cat to play fight with & chase up & down the stairs).
One slight problem - when he could barely walk - we let him into the garden to chew grass or put him inside the 14ft trampoline enclosure to get some air on his wound & let him watch all the birds up close. So, now guess what ?????? Yes of course he now is trying every tactic in the book to get back out there & we almost lost him when he shot behind a fence.
So, I really must fit in the time to get him back into his walking jacket & long lead - but I know he is dying to get up one of the trees & just scale the fence & BE GONE to terrorize the local moggies.
Another positive though is whenever we put his cat carrier down on the floor with the wire gate open - he dives into it & stays there for a snooze - so considering all that he has been through with biopsies / mri scans /enemas - he does not seem to traumatised (spelling) by the thought of that carrier & is still ok to go into the car. Our journeys from Chelmsford up to Newmarket were long & I thought he would be scared for life after having to be left overnight twice there.
Anyhooooooooooooooo - sending appreciative Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs to this group & celebrating this loving breed - Buddy is like the glue of my little family - diffusing lots of pre.teen rants & bickering between 3 children - he is wonderful Therapy & we could not love him anymore than we do. BENGALS ROCK - could not imagine my life without one now. x x x