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Cat Forum / Health and Behavior / January 2006Sick kitty
Any ideas what's going on with my cat??? Rescued Tom cat about 1 year ago. Approximately 5 years old. Now indoor/outdoor cat. Fine until about 3 weeks ago. Started with decreased appetite, vomiting undigested food, behavior changes. Went 5-6 days with little intake. Several visits to vet over the past 3 weeks. Blood test revealed positive FIV. ALL other blood work normal. No fever, no diaherra. He has periods of feeling well and acting normal followed by periods or days of feeling and looking ill. Ultrasound of abdomen revealed enlarged spleen. I have him on interferon, reglan, pepsid and carafate. He has not vomited but a couple of time this week and the ill episodes way out weight the feel good episodes. His appetite is good and he has not lost any weight. He does not have hairballs. I brush him several times a day and vomiting has never been a problem until 3 weeks ago. He is scheduled for a endoscopy in the morning. Any suggestions??? He seems to feel bad after eating. He weights 13 lbs and has maintained his weight over the past 3 weeks. His behavior has done a 360 degree change over the past 3 weeks. I have not changed anything in the diet. I am at wits end!!! Please help, it is killing me to watch him suffer so. > Any ideas what's going on with my cat??? Rescued Tom cat about 1 year ago. > Approximately 5 years old. Now indoor/outdoor cat. Fine until about 3 weeks [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > weeks. I have not changed anything in the diet. I am at wits end!!! Please > help, it is killing me to watch him suffer so. I'm sorry, I don't know. Hopefully, the endoscopy will shed some light on his problem and it will be easily treatable. Please let us know the results. I'll be thinking about your guy. Candace Hi Candace, Thanks for the input. We've just returned from the vet. He was not able to do the endoscopy (did not have an appropriate size light) However, he did do several xrays after giving Thumper oral contrast. He says it appears that there is some type of inflamatory progess going. Etiology unknown. He says the contrast passed through the GI tract very rapidly and there appears to be some very irritated areas in the intestines. He changed Thumpers diet and added Prednisone and Antirobe (antibiotic) to his medication regimen. He also did a TLI test (something to check pancreas function) and is calling The Vet School of Medicine in Cary, NC today for any suggestions. Thanks, Lisa >> Any ideas what's going on with my cat??? Rescued Tom cat about 1 year ago. >> Approximately 5 years old. Now indoor/outdoor cat. Fine until about 3 weeks [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > >Candace Good luck to you and your cat. You obviously care very much about him. Rhonda > Hi Candace, > Thanks for the input. We've just returned from the vet. He was not able to [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] >> >>Candace Hi Rhonda, Thanks for your thoughts and concern. My kitty is doing much better now that we have started him on some new medication. Please keep us in the thoughs and prayers! Lisa >Good luck to you and your cat. You obviously care very much about him. > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >>> >>>Candace Hi Candace, Thanks so much for the thoughtfulness. Thanks to a good vet and prayers, my Thumper kitty has made a turn around in the past 3 days. He has played and wagged his nail most of the day today. My vet deceided to hold off on the endoscopy and try and a 2 week round of Amoxicillin, Pepsid and Flagyl. I'm feeding him I/d diet (dry food) and I'm baking him a whiting (fish) each day. I hope he continues to do well!! My vet seems to think it could be a simple bad bacteria in the intestines, or it could be enteritis due to FIV postivie kitty. Keep my kitty in your thoughts!! Thanks again, Lisa >> Any ideas what's going on with my cat??? Rescued Tom cat about 1 year ago. >> Approximately 5 years old. Now indoor/outdoor cat. Fine until about 3 weeks [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > >Candace > Any ideas what's going on with my cat??? Rescued Tom cat about 1 year > ago. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > followed by periods or days of feeling and looking ill. Ultrasound of > abdomen revealed enlarged spleen. Was an ultrasound-guided needle aspirate of his spleen done? This can be useful for diagnosing conditions causing splenic enlargement in cats such as mast cell tumour and lymphoma. Needle aspirate is a relatively safe, inexpensive procedure that can be done while your cat is awake or sedated. Depending on the severity and nature of the splenic enlargement it might be worthwhile to do this prior to endoscopy. J. dvm > Depending on the severity and nature of the splenic enlargement it might > be worthwhile to do this prior to endoscopy. > > J. dvm I just realized his endoscopy was scheduled for this AM. You should discuss needle aspirate with your vet if a diagnosis is not obtained endoscopically. Good luck. J. Thanks for the input. We've just returned from the vet. He was not able to do the endoscopy (did not have an appropriate size light?) However, he did do several xrays after giving Thumper oral contrast. He says it appears that there is some type of inflamatory process going on. He says the contrast passed through the GI tract very rapidly and there appears to be some very irritated areas in the intestines. He changed Thumpers diet and added Prednisone and Antirobe (antibiotic) to his medication regimen. Thumper passed stool while at the vet clinic today and the vet said it was very foul smelling with mucus present. He also did a TLI test (something to check pancreas function) and is calling The Vet School of Medicine in Cary, NC today for any suggestions. I still would like to have the endoscopy, but the vet suggested holding off for a few days. Oh yea, the vet did do an aspirate of the spleen last week when the ultrasoud was performed. The results were lymphoidhyperplasia? Thanks, Lisa >> Any ideas what's going on with my cat??? Rescued Tom cat about 1 year >> ago. [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > >J. dvm > Thanks for the input. We've just returned from the vet. He was not able > to [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > Thanks, > Lisa That's good news about the spleen. That could just be an indicator of chronic inflammatory disease and it seems your vet is suspicious of inflammatory bowel disease. I'd suggest getting the endoscopic biopsies done as soon as possible. The use of prednisone can cause altered biopsy results which could lead to a misdiagnosis. J. dvm >>> Any ideas what's going on with my cat??? Rescued Tom cat about 1 year >>> ago. [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >> >>J. dvm Thanks again for the info, The vet that did the barium test this a.m. is not my regular vet. We went to him to get the endoscopy this morning, but he was not able to do it and did the barium studies instead. I consulted with my regular vet after getting home this PM and he also did not think the prednisone or anitrobe were good ideas at this point because after I told him about the stool, he also had the thought that it could be gairdia. I described the xrays that I viewed the AM with him and I told him that the vet stated there were area that appeared inflammed. (areas of the intestinal wall that the barium attached to) He also stated that areas of the bowl appeared inflammed. My vet stated that the prednisone would not be good if these area were ulceritive in nature. He also stated that Flagyl may be a better choice because it covered more bacterias with an anti-inflammatory property. I have only given Thumper one dose of the prednisone and antirobe. I will stop both of these medications, and start him on Flagyl tomorrow. I plan to carry the xrays from this AM to my regular vet in the AM. I think the endoscopy is going to be the answer. Thanks, Lisa >> Thanks for the input. We've just returned from the vet. He was not able >> to [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] >>> >>>J. dvm > Thanks again for the info, > The vet that did the barium test this a.m. is not my regular vet. We went [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > Thanks, > Lisa I think your regular vet made the right decision. I was a bit concerned the only reason the other vet was suggesting delaying endoscopy was because his light source wasn't working. Perhaps you could get the scoping done elsewhere. Your best bet would be to see an internal medicine specialist. Board certified internists have "Dip ACVIM" after their name. You can look for internists practicing in your area at this website: http://www.acvim.org/index.aspx?id=86 >>> Thanks for the input. We've just returned from the vet. He was not >>> able [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >>>> >>>>J. dvm Hi Dr. J. Thought I'd give you an update on my kitty. My vet did consult with a Dip ACVIM from Cary, NC and they decided to try a 2 week run of Amoxicillin, Flagyl and Pepsid, stop the reglan and carafate. Today was day 3 of this regimen, and my kitty seems to being feeling MUCH better. Today has been a great day for both of us. The Dr. from Cary said that this my fix the problem, however, if he gets worse instead of better over the next 2 weeks that he would definitely do an endoscopy. He also suggested that this may be an enteritis secondary to my kitty being FIV positive. Thanks so much for your time and concern. It's people like you that make this world a wonderful place to live! Lisa >> Thanks again for the info, >> The vet that did the barium test this a.m. is not my regular vet. We went [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >>>>> >>>>>J. dvm > Hi Dr. J. > Thought I'd give you an update on my kitty. My vet did consult with a Dip [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > place to live! > Lisa Thanks for the update. It sounds like they are treating your cat for a possible infection with helicobacter. I've had a patient with chronic vomiting respond permanently to a similar therapy. Good luck. J. >>> Thanks again for the info, >>> The vet that did the barium test this a.m. is not my regular vet. We [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] >>>>>> >>>>>>J. dvm Have you and your vet discussed FIP? FIP is a very mysterious disease. Good luck to you, this all sounds really distressing. Thanks for the info/idea. We have had so many test in the past 3 weeks that I'm not sure if he has been tested for FIP, but I will sure inquire with our vet tomorrow. He has not had any fever or respiratory symptoms and his lab studies have been WNL thus far. However, at this point I am open to any and all suggestions. The one thing that is standing out in my mind is; that I have not been able to observe his stools because he is an outdoor/indoor kitty and does not use the litter box unless he absolutely has to. The vet said he had a loose mucusy, watery-foul smelling stool while at the clininc this AM and the xrays after the barium indicated he had what appeared to be irritated areas in the intestines. I'm wonding about Giardia??? He does not look like a sick cat. It appears that he feels worse after eating. Thanks again, Lisa >Have you and your vet discussed FIP? FIP is a very mysterious disease. > Good luck to you, this all sounds really distressing.
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