Plushy still losing weight!

Hi Everyone, I posted about a month ago because my cat, Plushy was losing weight rapidly. He was 10 pounds in August and was 8.25 one month ago. I took him to the vet and he was given blood tests (the vet was convinced he had a hyperthyroid) but his blood work (kidney and liver functions), thyroid test, and CBC came back normal. We gave him antibiotics to try to clear up any infection he may have, but that did not help. I took a stool sample in to check for worms, but the vet said that came back negative. Plushy still eats normally (not ravenously like cats with HT) and for the most part acts normally. He uses the litter box normally, not too much, not too little. The only thing I have noticed is that he doesn't produce a lot of stool, but I guess I'm comparing it to that of our much larger (15 lb) cat, Giraffe. Since Plushy is shy, I have never thought to analyze his stool before this began so I have no idea if this is a normal amount for him.

Plushy's stool is runny, a slight yellow-brown color, and sort of stringy or mucousy. This has been going on for at least 2 weeks since that was when I first thought to look for it. I talked to a different doctor today and she said the next things to test for would be giardia and cholitis. The other vet that I saw at the same clinic said that he would test next for feline leukemia again or do x-rays. Is it possible that he tested negative for FeLV 2 years ago and he now is showing symptoms?

Has anybody had this same issue with their cat? If so, what did you find? I am having so much trouble finding anything online since his main symptoms (eating but losing weight) are so indicative of hyperthyroidism.

I have had the same gradual weight loss issue with my cat and my vet is stumped also.

The stool problem sounds like a side effect of the antibiotics; did it start before you started him on the medication?

If you had him tested for hyperthyroid, then he should have had regular bloodwork as well. How did his glucose and cholesterol count look? My cat's numbers were both high, so we're looking at a diabetes diagnosis even though his urinalysis showed only mildly dilute urine (1.036). Did you have a urine test done?

For chronic renal failure (CRF, means kidney failure), BUN and creatinine would both be high. My cat's BUN was elevated but creatinine was in normal range.

I always ask for a copy of my cats' labs so I can learn as much as I can about them. If you can get them, go ahead and post some numbers. The weight loss isn't good--hope you can get him well.

I would have the thyroid test done at an outside lab, along with another CBC, just in case...
Do your cats share their food? can you monitor how much he is eating on his own?

Thanks for all of your responses. Plushy has been off antibiotics for about 2 weeks now and diarrhea is still present. They could not do the thyroid test in house so they had it sent to a central lab. I will be sure to ask for a copy of his numbers. I have been carefully watching plushy since this started and I see him eat and drink water every day. I feed the cats hard food which they have constant access to and they share a can of soft food which they usually don't eat all at once, but graze on for an hour or two. He comes running whenever he hears the food come out and eats right away. I am still trying to get another stool sample for the giardia test so I really hope that reveals something. :/

Hi All,

I dropped off another fecal sample at the vet this morning and asked for Plushy's blood test results. They did a T4, kidney, liver, CBC, and Chem panel. Below are the results with the "norm" in parenthesis. He is low on RBC Dist width (only by 1 though, which didn't concern the vet), 1 point high on Bicarbonates (vet said this wasn't of concern either since it was very close), and low anion gap. Vet didn't mention this, but I assume this is not much of a concern either b/c his first words were "Plushy's blood results actually came back quite good." I tried to research the ones he was high or low on, but everything is in technical jargon and I'm not sure what it all means in combination. Does anybody see anything that I'm missing that could explain his weight loss?

RBC count- 8.71 (5.8-11.0)
Hemoglobin- 10.9 g/dl (8.6-16.0)
Hematocrit- 33.6% (28.0-47.0)
Mean cor volume- 38.6 fL (37.7-50)
Mean cor hemoglobin- 12.6 pg (12.3-17.2)
Mean cor hgb conc.- 32.3 g/dL (31.1-36)
RBC dist width - 16.4% (17-25) *LOW
Platelets- clumped 175-450 (160-660)
WBC count- 17.5 (3.7-20.5)
Seg neurtophils- 15.4 (88%)
Bands-0
Lymphocytes- 1.40 (8%)
Act lymphocytes - 0
Monocytes- 0.35 (2%)
Eosinophils- 0.35 (2%)
Basophils- 0
GLU- 132 mg/dL (56-153)
AST(GOT)- 33 U/L (14-54)
ALT (GPT)- 52 U/L (26-128)
ALKP- 24 U/L (14-102)
TBIL < 0.1mg/dL (0.0-0.2)
Cholesterol- 173 mg/dL (71-218)
TP- 6.9 g/dL (5.9-8.5)
ALB- 2.3 g/dL (2.3-3.9)
GLOB- 4.6 g/dL (2.6-5.1)
UreaN-21 mg/dL (18-36)
CREA- 1.6 mg/dL (0.6-2.0)
PHOS- 3.6 mg/dL (2.7-7.5)
Ca- 9.4mg/dL (8.7-11.7)
Sodium- 151 mmol/L (146-160)
K- 5.0 mmol/L (3.3-5.4)
Chloride - 117 mmol/L (110-123)
Bicarbonate- 25mmol/L (13-24) *HI
Anion gap- 14mmol/L (17-30) *LOW
GGT< 3 U/L (0-5)
A/G ratio- 0.5
T4-2.3 ug/dL (1.9-4.8)

Well giardia and colitis are negative. I am at a total loss and getting extremely frustrated.

One other question... has anyone had a false negative snap test for giardia? I read a few sources that said they weren't that accurate but the vet tech that called with the results said they are fairly accurate... I'm not sure I am convinced. It seemed like the answer since it was almost a perfect symptom match.