4 yr old male albino, have had for 2 yrs. Eats a variety of good
quality foods, mostly Wysong kibble. Has always had a thin coat at
onset of spring and winter, then goes into a good coat. This year it
didn't, so we assume adrenal disease. Melatonin implant about five
weeks ago.

For about 2 months, he's been sleeping a lot more, playing very little,
not eating as much and/or not eating unless I hold him and make him eat
soup. Total weight loss of about 5 oz. He's now 1.6 lbs. (Has always
been slight.)

Complete blood work up and vet check done about six weeks ago. Only
thing abnormal was blood glucose at 96. Put on Prednisilone .15 mg.
Blood glucose 126 last week.

Still sleeping all the time, not playing, not eating much, etc. For
about two weeks, has had pale lips & ears and scratching way more than
is normal, even for adrenal disease. Confirmed w/ vet, bloodwork shows
nothing for anemia. Stools are normal.

Twice in the last two days, as he's eating soup, I've heard his stomach
making digestive noises. Possible this is because he's not eating
kibble on his own & only eating soup when I make him, but don't know.

For at least six months, he's had what appear to be circles under his
eyes. Don't know any other way to describe it. And the eyes seem to me
to look tired.

Shows no signs of pain that I'm aware of - no squinting, tearing of
eyes, grinding of teeth, making whimpering noises, avoiding being
handled, etc. To get him to eat more than just a teaspoon or so of
food, I have to hold him in my hands and hold the bowl of soup in front
of him, constantly moving the bowl to be in front of his mouth. Gets
soup at about 7:45 a.m., 9:15 a.m., 7:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.

Vet wants to do exploratory surgery to check out pancreas and adrenal
glands. I don't want to. Hate to put these babies under if I don't have
to. Plus, what if the only thing he finds is a right side adrenal
tumor, which he doesn't work on? Then he did surgery for nothing. Any
thoughts would be helpful.

Debbie

[P.S.] Forgot to mention that he has also been making what sounds like
sneezing noises quite a bit. Some days he'll do it 5-6 times have a few
minutes break and do it again. Other days I don't hear it at all.

[Posted in FML 6423]