Worried about Tiger again

WEll, she is staying tomorrow, as they are hoping to do the other tests then - would be a gastroscopy, colonscopy, biopsies and possible blood tests - only prob is the insurance company are quibbling at the moment, and £1200 is slightly out of my budget with everything else she has cost so far (and i am up to 15% of the total costs on her leg now, she is over the threshold), so need to speak to them in the morning, and hope htey like my explanation of why they know nothing about it (costs for it so far are £51.75, excess is £50 and vets charge £3.85, i would be out of pocket to claim!!!). He thinks the problem is with her styfal (sp?), he has taken some samples and they hope to know if it is something simple like an infection or something more in the next couple of days, he did mark it as urgent, so there is a possibility of it being back tomorrow. he did mention it could require surgery depending on test results, but I am not sure I would put her through it, especially as the x-rays did show signs of osteo-arthritic changes in both her hips, the right one being worse (odd as she limps on the other one), cos she is going to have issues with her legs regardless.

Hope the insurance company shows some common sense. How is she coping with all this?

Thanks, me too. I dont know, as obviously she is still at the vets, I can't wait to pick her up tonight, the house is too quiet at the moment.

Spoke to the insurance company, and all they can say is 'it should be OK' but the only way to guarantee it is to do a pre-authorisation form and that will take 2-3 days, which isn't an option, I dont want her staying there any longer than she needs to. I would also need something from my vet to say she has been referred (presuming that is due to it being a different issue to the leg - which they also arent guaranteed to pay). So, it is looking like she wont be having the tests done, if it was a one off sum of £1200 and she would be fine, then I would happily pay, but a bit reluctant to pay that just for the tests (and it is only an estimate), and then more to actually treat whatever they find without a guarantee off the insurance company, especially as I have to pay the excess for the leg, and I would also like to get Molly's leg x-rayed in the next month (another £100 or so)

Well, it wasn't an issue in the end, the 'internal medicine' vet decided as it has only been going on for a month, we will just ultrasound and possible x-rays, which is a manageable amount. I have also been to my normal vet to get the history for the tummy upset, so hopefully wont be a problem now. We have some results, and a plan. The leg tests have come back, and there is a definite problem, there are some suspicious cells - now, they could be due to chronic inflammation, but these kind of cells are normally seen after years of chronic inflammation, not just a few months, so unless she had it and wasn't limping, that would be a puzzling result. But, ultimately what we are hoping for as the alternative is a tumour (he did tell me the proper name, and it escapes me at the moment, but it is a something cell tumour, possibly sickle cell tumour, although that doesn't sound quite right). We are awaiting results of the bloods done by the other vet, and if they are all fine, she needs exploratory surgery so they know exactly what it is. If it is cancer (and other factors could make it more likely), the treatment is amputation, and to be honest, I dont know if I could put her through that, she is harder to treat than Pebbles was, and I know she wouldnt tolerate cage rest, she was in a cage initially last year and went bonkers after a day, plus dealing wiht an e-collar and meds would be a lot harder than her, she is very hard to handle. If I decide not to go through with it, it fortunately is a slow growing cancer with a very low chance of moving - but if left, they dont use the leg as it is too painful, which to me would impact on quality of life. The best case scenario tummy wise is hyperthyroid, but if she is, that would delay any treatment for her leg, as they wouldnt operate until her levels were under control. In the meantime, she is still on special food, and a 5 day course of Panacur, in case of anything like guardia that normal wormers wouldnt treat. He did mention the possibility of some other meds beginning with M, but they also depend on how well she takes meds. So far, everything is looking fine with her tummy and organs, the urine sample showed good renal function, so just waiting - the thyroid results should be back by Fri, but I have a work event so can't find the results out until Mon. So still need good vibes!!

Perhaps he said mast cell tumor? And the tummy meds are probably metronidazole (Flagyl). Maybe they can email the results to you? Less waiting that way. I wish you the best possible outcome for your kitty's problems.

Defo wasn't a mast cell tumour, am sure it began with s. Sounds right for the other meds though. No point asking, as I am not in the office on Fri, wont have access to a pc till 8pmish, and with the bad couple of weeks I have had, I intend to take advantage of the free bar at teh event on Fri!! Poor baby girl Tiger has lots of fur shaved, and can't go out till she has had a checkup on Mon, so am going to have a fun weekend.

Maybe squamous cell tumor then. I understand needing the break from all this--I hope you have fun.

http://lbah.com/feline/scc.html
http://www.zzcat.com/resources/overview.htm

Thanks guys - she is back to eating me out of house and home again, which is a promising sign. She has weepy eyes this morning though, and isn't letting me do anything with them!! Keeping her in is going to be fun though, and she isn't even handleable enough to physically move her most of the time, I have to trick her with food!!

Just to send some relax enjoy yourself on Friday.

Thanks!! Molly is at the vets tonight, I hope vet just tells me I am being paranoid about her!!

sending prayers and love you you both!

It was Spindle Cell Tumour (not particularly common I dont think)- apparently if they are under the skin, they are bad, cos they sort of grow legs and spread, but in joints they are very bad, as you can't just remove the tumour, you have to remove the whole limb - and it does tend to be a painful cancer. Vet wasn't sounding very optimistic if it does turn out to be that, she agreed with my way of thinking that amputation isn't so straight forward due to the arthritis in her hips - esp in view of the fact the right hip is worse, as that is the one that would end up carrying the most, plus her temperament. She then did remind me that we could just be looking at inflammation, but she has already told the specialist that it's unlikely as it is one of my cats!!! One other puzzling thing is that nothing showed up on the x-ray, both of them would have expected something with the amount of swelling. Vet has decided that if I ever get a cat with an unexplained limp and x-rays show nothing, she is immediately doing a joint tap - if she had thought of that, she wouldn't have had to refer me. She seems happy for me to ignore the tummy issue for the moment, I am happy that cancer has been ruled out (although only in one place), and the vet has told hte specialist that while her thyroid levels were at the high end, she doesn't think it is thyroid related, partly in light of no other high values, and partly just a feeling. We shall see by Monday, and then decide about this exploratory surgery - at least the ultrasound has showed perfect abdominal organs.

Got the last of her blood test results through yesterday, it isn't what we were hoping. Rather than having a high thyroid level, she has a low one, which the vet says is down to illness somewhere in her body suppressing it - we did already know she was ill of course, they just dont know if this is related to her leg, tummy or something else entirely. A couple of other levels were slightly high/low, but he wasn't too concerned about any of those. So, her thyroid isn't the reason she is eating so much (I did a little test last night, and she had about 2 pouches plus 2 lots of dry (about 30-40g) and was still asking for food - she was funny with her first lot of dry, she left some, so I picked it up, as soon as she heard me do that, she came running back in and ate more, and did that twice until the bowl was empty, then still asked for more, I just made her wait a bit in case she was sick.). Her poos haven't been that bad - I stopped the Panacur as seh was being fussy, and I didn't know if it was the food or the meds that was doing it. I told the internal medicine vet I was happy to not give her anything for the diarrhea and see how she goes, cos I have had cancer ruled out, and he said that we can't actually rule out lymphoma, especially of the bowel, and that could explain some of her symptoms. He isn't going to put her through any more tests until we know what the situation is with her leg though, and is going to get the ortho vet to ring me today to discuss what we do next.

It's unfortunate that her appetite isn't due to anything as simple as hyperthyroidism. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that her condition is something treatable.

I know - but as my vet will say, she is one of mine!!! She didn't think it was her thyroid either. Thanks, we are going to need it I think - still not spoken to the ortho specialist to bounce my thoughts off him yet. Will ring if he hasn't got hold of me by lunch tomorrow.

Originally Posted by booktigger

Thanks!! Molly is at the vets tonight, I hope vet just tells me I am being paranoid about her!!

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PRAYING!
You are an angel mama to your babies.

Oh lord........... I am praying it is just arthritis or something..... Tiger, my thoughts and my prayers are with ya.. I know you are going through hell about this... I hope your little baby kitty will be ok. How did I miss this thread?

Please post as soon as you know something. I will be checking back daily to see how the kitty is doing...

And just a thought on the food ... Maybe she is like some people. When we hurt, we eat. Maybe her joint is more painful than anyone knows and she is eating to compensate for the pain...

Maybe when the joint is fixed, the other problems will take care of themselves.

My thoughts are with ya..

Jenn