Jackie's Test Results

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

dgk - 06 Jul 2004 17:08 GMT

Yikes, I had posted this to the wrong group! Well, here it is in the
right group.

Not too good I think. All chems are reasonably normal, not diabetic
for sure. Her WBC is 42, which is very high. Could be an infection,
but that isn't my feeling. Could be cancer. I think I have a rerun of
Nico, who died of IBD which turned into lymphoma. I suppose it could
just be a bad infection but she was just on antibiotics for the better
part of a month. Then again, her mouth gums are terrible.

Well, the vet is mixing up antibiotics and prednisone into an easy to
take liquid. Sure, I can barely get her mouth open to start with.
Well, it goes into her food and I try to get her to eat all of it.
Then I guess we do another CBC in a few weeks and hope that the WBC is
normal. I don't think I'm willing to put her through chemo, nor the
tests required to find out if that is what it really is.

Reply to this Message

Mary - 06 Jul 2004 17:03 GMT

>Yikes, I had posted this to the wrong group! Well, here it is in the
>right group.
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>but that isn't my feeling. Could be cancer. I think I have a rerun of
>Nico, who died of IBD which turned into lymphoma.

Ah, god, I hope not. Poor Jackie.

Reply to this Message

Karen - 06 Jul 2004 18:20 GMT

No matter what it is, you just keep her comfortable, do your best for her to
be happy and go from there. That is the best you can do and you are giving
her a REAL home. Hope that she feels much better next time. She IS better
than previously, right? SO you are doing something right.

Karen

> Yikes, I had posted this to the wrong group! Well, here it is in the
> right group.
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> normal. I don't think I'm willing to put her through chemo, nor the
> tests required to find out if that is what it really is.

Reply to this Message

Cathy Friedmann - 06 Jul 2004 18:23 GMT

Is the vet by any chance changing the antibiotic, in case an infection is at
the root of the WBC level? Sometimes where one antibiotic doesn't work,
another will. Either because a particular bacteria needs to be targeted by
"x" antibiotic, or else a stronger one is needed.

If it does turn out to be cancer - which I hope it doesn't, chemotherapy is
tolerated by cats (&dogs) much better than by people. At one point one of
my cats was thought to possibly have cancer so I started to discuss the idea
with my vet; I had decided to go ahead w/ it if the scenario fit. I know a
woman whose dog received chemo & is till in remission a couple of years
later, & on this ng Laura R.s cat Alex received chemotherapy - to his
benefit.

Cathy

Reply to this Message

dgk - 06 Jul 2004 18:38 GMT

>> Yikes, I had posted this to the wrong group! Well, here it is in the
>> right group.
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
>
>Cathy

It was a broad spectrum variety originally. It sure worked because she
did gain quite a bit of weight and clearly felt better. After we
stopped she started losing weight again. But I'll check on what we're
using this time. Not having anything to culture does make it a
guessing game.

I don't know if I want to go the chemo route. I just did that with
Nico and it wasn't a very happy scenario. Prednisone alternating with
Leukeran daily. He lived for a few more months but he wasn't a very
happy cat. If this is the same thing (IBD>Lymphoma) it is very
advanced already. Well, hopefully it is just terrible gums causing an
infection, and IBD that will respond to the prednisone. Once we can
get her weight and strength up I'll be willing to risk putting her
under so they can clean out the gums.

We'll see.

Reply to this Message

Karen - 06 Jul 2004 18:47 GMT

> >> Yikes, I had posted this to the wrong group! Well, here it is in the
> >> right group.
[quoted text clipped - 44 lines]
>
> We'll see.

Heck, doing her gums might make a huge improvement in her WBC.

Reply to this Message

Cathy Friedmann - 06 Jul 2004 18:54 GMT

> > Once we can
> > get her weight and strength up I'll be willing to risk putting her
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> Heck, doing her gums might make a huge improvement in her WBC.

Yeah, I'm still wondering about those gums, re: infection.

Cathy

Reply to this Message

dgk - 06 Jul 2004 19:17 GMT

><snipped>
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
>Cathy

My big hope is that it is the gums and originally I was warned to be
on the lookout for more infections. But this is quicker than we
expected. Still, she is just too frail to risk putting under now; she
likely would not wake up. I think I have no option but to put her back
on AB and try the Pred, and get her strength up.

Reply to this Message

MacCandace - 07 Jul 2004 02:59 GMT

<< Still, she is just too frail to risk putting under now; she
likely would not wake up. I think I have no option but to put her back
on AB and try the Pred, and get her strength up >>

When my late cat, Cory, who died in March at age 18, was 13, he got a horrible
infection (he got very ill, very high WBC). We treated it with broad spectrum
abx, he acted fine, stopped the abx, he got it again, treated with a different
broad spectrum abx again, stopped, he got it again. On and on. The vets (he
had 2 at the time) couldn't really find anything bad other than his teeth. I
was reluctant to put him under at his age. The one vet then gave him
clindamycin (trade name cleocin). He got better again. They were insistent
that he have his teeth cleaned and gums scraped so I did it, with much fear and
trepidation. He did fine and he continued with cleocin for about a month after
that. He was fine, never got that again. Gum disease can lead to so many bad
things. That could very well be what Jackie has.

Candace
(take the litter out before replying by e-mail)

See my cats:
http://photos.yahoo.com/maccandace

"One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other
than human." (Loren Eisely)

Reply to this Message

dgk - 07 Jul 2004 12:44 GMT

><< Still, she is just too frail to risk putting under now; she
>likely would not wake up. I think I have no option but to put her back
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>"One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other
>than human." (Loren Eisely)

I'll remember. Clindamycin. It's a bit weird for an infection though.
She does mostly lie around but that is her normal behavior. She
doesn't seem to be warm or act like she has a bad infection. Still, it
certainly could be the teeth. I'll speak with the vet about bringing
her out to the specialty vet for the cleaning.

Reply to this Message

zuzu22@webtv.net - 07 Jul 2004 17:45 GMT

>I suppose it could just be a bad infection
>but she was just on antibiotics for the
>better part of a month. Then again, her
>mouth gums are terrible.

It sounds like tooth and gum issues are the most likely cause of
Jackie's inactivity and difficulty eating. If the gums look bad, what's
happening underneath the gumline could be much worse. I know this is a
catch-22 situation because her health still needs to improve, but if the
gum issue isn't resolved, and done quickly, I don't think she's going to
make a lot of progress healthwise and could go the other way. If this
were my cat, I'd take the risk and have the dental done ASAP. For high
risk cats, they may only use gas anesthesia and it is very safe and a
good option for compromised kitties.

I'm in the same boat with my cat Omar, who has a serious heart ailment,
and, to make matters worse, somehow contracted a URI, possibly during
the last visit to the clinic where he gets echocardiograms. At the
regular vet they were able to do a dental xray while he was awake, and,
as I suspected, he has some deterioration in one of his canines and it
has to come out along with a smaller front tooth. I'm scared to death of
doing the dental, but to leave things as they are would be worse and
even the doctor treating his heart ailment said I should go ahead with
this so I'm treating his URI and he has an appointment for the 19th,
which should be enough time for it to clear up. Sometimes we just have
to take the risk and hope for the best. With precautions chances are
good things will be ok.

Megan

Signature

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing."

-Edmund Burke

Learn The TRUTH About Declawing
http://www.stopdeclaw.com

Zuzu's Cats Photo Album:
http://www.PictureTrail.com/zuzu22

"Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one
elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and
splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then
providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision,
raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and
material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his
way."

- W.H. Murray

Reply to this Message

dgk - 07 Jul 2004 19:27 GMT

>>I suppose it could just be a bad infection
>>but she was just on antibiotics for the
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
>
>Megan

But this is the really odd thing. Jackie has no problems eating. Well,
she is a pig with food flying all over the place, but she gets lots of
it down. They told me at the pet store that she eats a lot and she
sure does. She just doesn't gain much weight. She did for a while, she
went from 5 to 5.7 lbs in a month. She was on antibiotics at the time.
After that she dropped .3 in just about three weeks. She also has had
diarrhea since she first went on antibiotics.

I'm open to the idea of doing her teeth. I just want the antibiotics
and pred to get her better. I realize that the prednisone lowers the
immune system but we have to stop the diarrhea. Well, I'll give it a
week and see how it's going, then maybe we make a trip to the
specialists.

>"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
>nothing."
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
>- W.H. Murray

Reply to this Message