took in a stray, with complications.

  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #21

drsmaw

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 26, 2010
Messages
15
Purraise
0
Location
Pennsylvania
I have her on pet-tinic. She's been on it since day one when I brought her in. she gets 1ml, twice a day.
The vet said that I should continue that, while bringing her in for the B shots.

I'm going to call today about the HCT.

As far as extra home care, can I help her by giving her foods rich in Iron. I read that chicken liver, or even raw liver can help. I just don't want to give her too much.

BTW, she was good last night, slept peacefully. Not too playful, but I don't expect her to be yet. She starting to observe the boy cat and follow him around. plus, they seem to be nosing at each other much more. I hope that helps also, with her knowing she has a big brother to follow around. Plus, it keeps her active by following him. Maybe he can teach her a few things too.

I'll post more as I get more, thank you all again.

LDG, if you have the time/availability, I would be grateful if you can speak to your vet. Like you said, he may be more experienced in this, any help is appreciated.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #22

drsmaw

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 26, 2010
Messages
15
Purraise
0
Location
Pennsylvania
Called the vet to ask about the HCT. I was told that they use the IDEXX system, and that the HCT was too low to register.

I was also told to look for Ferrous Sulfate to give her. Vet told me to call her when I find it, it's an over-the-counter. He said to call him when I purchase it, so that he can determine the correct dosage for her.

My vet seems very open to all my questions and has been very cooperative and educational through it.

He still said to maintain her pet-tinic, at least get her a b-complex shot once a week, and also give her the Ferrous Sulfate. He said that the soft kitty food would be best for her, since she's not touching the dry food ( even when I moisten it). He also said not to give her anything other than the kitty food, pretty much said no to giving her any type of raw liver or chicken livers ( i thought it would be helpful, oh well).

She loves to be held and touched, but hates to be kissed. She backs up her head when you get close to her nose or mouth. But... as cute as she is, she'll bow her little head and try to bump my boy cat (gotta love it). She also does her head thing with us, just doesn't like the human nose to nose or kisses. She also is not worried around loud noises or if something falls on the floor ( I assume the outside life took care of that already).

Also, right after she drank water, she was put in the litterbox and thankfully stayed in there and peed. Back to basics of litter training with her, but she seems to accept it. slowly learning and adapting.
 

ldg

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
Messages
41,310
Purraise
842
Location
Fighting for ferals in NW NJ!
I didn't get a hold of Stan today - it was a surgery day for him.

A hematocrit that is too low to register? I'm not sure I even know what that means. When our Tuxie's hematocrit was at 12, he was barely moving around, his eyes far away and unfocused, and his gums, nose, and paw pads were completely white. (Now that he's back in normal range, he's bright pink in all those places). When his hematocrit hit 7, the vet said he had maybe two days left to live - but he'd already had a transfusion, and his body rejected the attempts at another. To the flip side, when his hematocrit (last test, done a couple of months ago) hit 40, he was BRIGHT pink - we tell him he looks like Rudolph! (The Red-Nosed Reindeer.
).

But if your girl is eating (even a little!) and opening doors with a paw - and running - something just isn't making sense to me. I REALLY hope I can get a hold of Stan tomorrow!

Don't get me wrong - that she's doing so well is GREAT! I'm just really confused!

Continued vibes for Sadie!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #24

drsmaw

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 26, 2010
Messages
15
Purraise
0
Location
Pennsylvania
Right, it doesn't sound right to me also.

Thinking about this a little more, and I may be crazy. But her nose is perfectly red, almost orange. Inside her ears are bright white, teeth are gray and old looking. gums are white, as well as her skin is white also.
She's obviously malnourished from seeing those blood results, but can she be a mix breed that has white skin as a trait?

Here's a close-up of her. face looks healthy, but white around the eyes and third eyelid.
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/IMAG0068.jpg
 

ldg

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
Messages
41,310
Purraise
842
Location
Fighting for ferals in NW NJ!
Hmmm..... I can't tell from that picture at all. The white around the eyes is odd though. We have an all white kitty, and everything about her is pink. I don't think there is white skin - just unpigmented skin, which would look pink because of blood flow. If her gums are white, then I think it must be that she's very anemic. I'm going to go look back through pictures of Tuxedo to see if we can compare.
 

ldg

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
Messages
41,310
Purraise
842
Location
Fighting for ferals in NW NJ!
OK, found some interesting things going through our pictures.

First - Spooky. She's our tortie-tabby. Her nose looks like your Sadie's - this is pigmentation, that's why Sadie's is pink like it is. But notice Spooky's eyes! They look white around them, like Sadie! And her ears too!



But here's our white kitty, Flowerbelle - everything is "see through" and everything about her is pink (she only has one eye) :



...and managed to find one of Tuxedo lying next to Shelly. This was around when Tuxedo was first diagnosed with anemia. Notice how pale his nose and paw pads are - and look at how pink Shelly's nose is (you'll be able to tell which is which, but Tuxie is on the left, and Shel is on the right). I have the same picture taken a little further back, and in that one you can see how bright pink Sheldon's paw pads are:
 

ldg

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
Messages
41,310
Purraise
842
Location
Fighting for ferals in NW NJ!
I just looked at Spooky's gums - they're pigmented black, so that doesn't help. Her paw pads are too.

But I'm pretty sure Sadie's white gums would normally be pink, though at this point I'm not gonna swear to it.

But if her RBC is as low as I think it is, I'm really wondering how she's got any energy at all - and why the vet wouldn't have insisted on trying a transfusion. She seems like a little miracle girl, and I hope it keeps up!
 

ldg

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
Messages
41,310
Purraise
842
Location
Fighting for ferals in NW NJ!
OK, I don't know if you want to read about our experiences with Tuxedo, but I looked up my old threads.

This one is from April 2005: Tuxedo's not responding to treatment anymore

And this next one tracks his up/down roller-coaster progress from May through September, 2005: Please pray for Tuxie, it doesn't look like he's going to make it In this one, they tried to administer another blood transfusion and it didn't work. My next major update in that thread (apart from the 1st page) is on the 3rd page. I didn't post in the thread when the vet gave him the depomedrol, but that (I think in combo with the doxycycline) was what caused him to turn the corner.


...and my last post about Tuxie's condition was May of this year (a little longer ago than I thought LOL) - when I posted that his hematocrit hit 40.
So little guy fought from 2003 to 2010 (though was out of the danger anemic zone from 2007 on with a little setback in 2009).

After re-reading these threads, I'm wondering.... maybe you should talk to your vet about giving her doxycycline (a powerful antibiotic)?
 

addiebee

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 30, 2007
Messages
7,724
Purraise
17
Location
Michigan
You've gotten some wonderful advice from ladies who know more than me... just wanted to send vibes for Sadie! She is soooooo lucky to have found you!
 

ldg

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
Messages
41,310
Purraise
842
Location
Fighting for ferals in NW NJ!
OK, I don't have good news.
I ran through the basic numbers with my vet. The hematocrit being too low to register is not some kind of thing with a cut-off with the system. IDEXX is great equipment. With the information I gave him, he says he guesses that her PCV (packed cell volume, similar to the hematocrit just measured slightly differently) would be 6. And yes, that means her hematocrit would be about the same. He says they could run a PCV instead of a hematocrit, but if she's that anemic, they wouldn't have wanted to draw more blood to run the test differently.

If she's eating (which she is), it'll help keep her going if her bone marrow is working (I didn't read him the reticulocytes & such, he was in the middle of seeing a patient, though the only real way to know for sure is to do a bone marrow aspiration, which we did for Tuxedo - but he needed the blood transfusion to HAVE the bone marrow aspiration done).

And as long as she's eating, the pet tinic and vitamin B-12 shots might also help keep her going for a little while, but unless you spend some time figuring out WHY she's anemic... she won't keep going for very long.

NOW - if the blood is coagulated when they run the test, you can get wrong readings. However, if her gums are white, she probably is as anemic as it sounds.

If I remember the beginning of the thread correctly - she wasn't completely riddled with parasites, right? These are numbers that can result from fleas in kittens - but not usual with adult kitties.

Of course all of this is couched with the disclaimer that he hasn't seen the cat or the bloodwork information, let alone the complete blood work information (I read it to him over the phone).

But he thinks that if you want kitty to count on more than a miracle (his words, not mine), you need to consider a blood transfusion to buy her a little time while you work with your vet to figure out why she's anemic.

I told him money is a concern. (It is with us too, but we give them so much business with our rescue work, they give us discounts on what they can and they let us pay over time. Some vet practices will accept Care Credit, and you may want to consider looking into that). He said that it probably wouldn't hurt to give her doxycycline even though her white blood cell count doesn't indicate there's a problem with infection - Tuxie's didn't indicate that either, but his hematocrit went up every time he was on antibiotics. The theory is that he had some type of parasite they couldn't detect that the antibiotics killed.

But don't encourage play, try to keep her as "restful" as possible, make sure she stays hydrated (boiled chicken water (nothing added, just plain) really helps us when we have a kitty that's sick and needs to stay hydrated, though many people administer Sub-Q fluids at home), and help her eat as much as possible while you decide how to proceed.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #32

drsmaw

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 26, 2010
Messages
15
Purraise
0
Location
Pennsylvania
LDG,

Thank you sooo much for contacting your vet, I really appreciate all the help.

Sadie seems to be coming alive more and more each day, but very slowly. She's starting to meow while I am getting her food ready. She is drinking water ver good too.
Last night she jumped on the couch and took a nice long nap on my lap, purring and kneading the whole time. But yes, I am not encouraging too much play, she doesn't have the interest anyway. I am encouraging rest all the time and she accepts.
I am still considering the blood transfusion, but also getting stumped by something new everyday. She is still going #2 in her box, but only wants to pee on hard surfaces. After her nap on me last night, she jumped up ( as if going after something), ran to the kitchen and peed on the floor. She knows she has to go, but just can't make it. I'll be speaking with the vet again today about all this.
I am keeping her isolated from the other cat by keeping her in our small bathroom. She seems to pee in the shower (such a lady, lol), but only #2 in her box.
I found a worm in her stool last night, roundworm ( spaghetti looking white thing, about 2-3 inches long). So now she definitely has to be confined, while I get her de-wormed.
The only food that seems to excite her is when I am eating. she's a begger for sure.
Maybe the worms, malnutrition, and depression all grouped together is causing her too fail also.
I am beginning to see some color back around her eyes, her ears are also moving when she hears something, and she is getting stronger ( fighting her medicine, by pushing my face away- gotta love it), and she's also starting to pick her claws on the couch.
She's giving me faith, just as I've given her.
I'll update soon.
Thanks
 

hissy

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Feb 19, 2001
Messages
34,872
Purraise
76
Coming in late on this, but I would add more boxes and just give her plain clay litter. Outside kitties need large spaces to poop and pee and they don't do this just in one box very easily. There is so much that could be going wrong inside her that the vets' just can't get a hold of, which is normal unfortunately. Depending on how she lived before- would depend on what toxins she absorbed. For example, I rescued a stray years ago from a member here. The cat kept running away and wouldn't stay put, so I took her. Come to find out she had gotten into truck oil at a local truck repair shop and absorbed the oil. It was a slow toxin, brought about many puzzling symptoms and lots of tests and wasn't found until the necropsy was performed.

So it could be anything with your kitty, but definitely give her two or three more boxes and don't use any scented or fancy litter- plain clay is best.


Good luck
 

ldg

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
Messages
41,310
Purraise
842
Location
Fighting for ferals in NW NJ!
drsmaw, that is GREAT news!
The anemia could well be exposure to some kind of toxin, that is (sadly) not uncommon. Love, food, and vitamins could well turn the tide! I just know her numbers were scary low. But if she's perking up and looking pinker, something's working!


MA (hissy) is the most experienced rescuer on this site, I'd take her advice!

Do talk to your vet about treating her for the roundworm. Whenever we take in a feral, we have them treated with Revolution. It's topical, and works for fleas, flea eggs, ticks, and round worm. There are a number of other treatment options, however, and with her anemia, I really have no idea what the best course of action is.

Continued vibes for Sadie!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #35

drsmaw

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 26, 2010
Messages
15
Purraise
0
Location
Pennsylvania
Well, came home yesterday to find out she has finally used her box to pee in. a good healthy pee, thank God, finally.
Now for the bad: I gave her the dewormer 1/2cc as given by the vet. After that she wanted to be left alone ( put up a good fight against her medicine).
She just sat around the whole time. So at bedtime, I grabbed her and brought her into bed with me, which she slept with me the whole night.
This morning, she didn't move to the sound of food or anything. Very lethargic. My wife told me after awhile she got up, but was off balance for a bit and laid back down.
She was put into her cat bed and has been there since, I mean all day from 9am-current time (8:10). she is very tired, has zero desire for any food or water.
I'm keeping her warm with a blanket and a heater in the room, but she is still down and tired.
I tried to lift her head with a finger under her chin, but she just puts her head back down and tries to sleep.
How much should I be worried? Do you think she has had a horrible infestation of worms and it may be too late for a deworming to work?

thanks.
 

minouloveblue

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Feb 23, 2009
Messages
57
Purraise
1
Location
New Jersey
My feral did not take well to the deworming either. She was lethargic and slept for a day. She was fine the next day. The medication has some rather potent ingridients. I'd take her to a vet if she does not eat tomorrow. Is she drinking? Use an eye dropper if necessary. Keep her hydrated.
 

carolina

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Nov 17, 2008
Messages
14,759
Purraise
215
Location
Corinth, TX
Make sure she eats... if she doesn't force feed her - with everything that's going on with this girl, you don't want her to go without food...
Try warming up the food a bit... Baby food, Treats, maybe a little deli meat... But she has to eat...
 

stephanietx

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Dec 1, 2005
Messages
14,768
Purraise
3,489
Location
Texas
Push the water and the food, forcing her if you have to. Try fried chicken, without the skin if you have any or can get some quickly. She's gotta eat and drink.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #39

drsmaw

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 26, 2010
Messages
15
Purraise
0
Location
Pennsylvania
I got some food and water down her. More water than food. She took about 6 big things of water ( long eye droplet thing). And she took about 3 finger-fulls of soft food.
She fought me all the way on the food, but not too bad on the water.

I'm hoping for a better tomorrow.

She's so sick, poor thing, she defecated herself. But, it also shows me that she's been eating the cat litter also! I read that cats do that sometimes when they are sick to replace iron.

I have her in the bathroom, she's too sick to be around my Chloe ( 3yr old boy cat, a fatty too). I also have a heater going for her. I did have a little towel around her, but....she kinda got that messy when she pooed on herself.
So, she's nice and warm in there. but her body isn't holding much heat, sad.

I noticed her eyes are getting some weird looking spots on them, like tiny glazed speckles. I think she is failing, but not giving up hope yet.

Updating as we go here, praying.

Keep your fingers crossed, thanks.
 

booktigger

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 11, 2005
Messages
4,520
Purraise
3
Location
UK
I dont have any advice, but just wanted to send some vibes for her. I would be careful at what litter you are using if she is eating it though.
 
Top