Help, cat sick

We have a 15 year old cat who has been losing weight at about 1/2 lb per week. She has gone from about 10 lbs to 7 1/2. Last week all her blood count numbers were normal but she wasn't really eating anything.

We got her antibiotics just in case and tried various cat foods like a/d. She was eating treats but she has stopped that as well. In the last few days she was eating tuna (not a lot, but some) but even that has pretty much stopped.

She mostly acts pretty normal, we moved at around the time this started so we thought she was stressed about that but seems pretty normal in most other ways. She is having trouble jumping up on the couch (I assume from being weak having not eaten much) She comes out to the kitchen when she hears a can opener like she wants to eat, then takes a bite or two and stops and looks at us like shes waiting to get fed.

We took her in this morning again and her blood counts are not so good. WBC is 3x normal (dont have exact numbers) and something to do with her bile is 6x normal. (I can ask for a copy of these and last weeks numbers if anyone thinks that might help out here) They are going to give her something for pain to see if thats why she isnt eating and try to get something into her and give her some B12. They don't seem to think that this rapid of a change in blood numbers is a good sign. Any ideas? They are going g to give us a opinion on an ultrasound after they spend the day with her and see how she responds, but don't think it will give us much more to go on.
Should we seek a 2nd opinion?

Definitely. Actually, based on your post, you need to start over with another vet.

What you need for a starting point are the results of a complete chemistry profile and CBC.
You absolutely have to get a copy of the results for yourself. For one thing you need to see what else is wrong besides the elevated WBC.

Important question. Did your vet do the necessary blood work to check thyroid function?

With elevated WBC you need a follow up with X-rays and an abdominal ultrasound.
Actually, doing a whole body ultrasound would make a lot of sense in this case.
B 12 and groping in the dark with this and that will not help your kitty.

They are going to give her something for pain

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PLEASE, under no circumstances go along with anything like this. Pain meds can be dangerous by themselves, even if there is a reason to use them. Without test results, you should never, ever administer any kind of pain medication.

They are going g to give us a opinion on an ultrasound after they spend the day with her and see how she responds

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To what?

I'll be honest with you, in all my life I have never ever heard of anything like this. I'm hoping that what we have here is only a gap in communication and there are some important details not included in your post. If not, my instinct, after going through an awful lot with senior and geriatric cats (15 is geriatric already) tells me there is something terribly, terribly wrong here and all I can do is encourage you to find another vet and start over. I'll be frank with you. If I were in your situation I would be scared to death and get out of there as fast as I could. Again, unless there are some details not mentioned in your post that would put everything in a totally different light.

We already have an appointment with a vet that specializes in cats in the morning.

They were today trying to see if they could get her to eat and an IV. They were able to syringe feed her and gave us some syringes to feed her as well.

We have already gotten 20cc down her this evening and are aiming for about 30-40cc more.

I have a copy of last week's and this week's numbers. Thyroid T4 was 3.2. I don't see the number on this weeks test. WBC was 34k/ul (up from 16k last week) and the vet was specifically concerned about the monocites being 4.56k/ul where normal was .15-1.7

They mostly seem of the opinion that it may be cancer and there isnt much they can do and really don't think an ultrasound will change much.

Also, I'm just wondering if all this can be a result of not eating or the not eating is a result of something else. I ask because she does something funky with her jaw, almost like someone with TMJ, it makes a weird sound, and after that she loses any interest she might have had in eating something until later.

If you want to know any other numbers let me know. I don't have a problem if the other vet comes to the same conclusions independently, but I really didn't feel comfortable with the thought of having to make such a decision just based on an elevated WBC and not much else. There were a few other numbers somewhat high and low, but these were the ones that were kinda off the charts and were really the only ones they talked about.

Also, I'm just wondering if all this can be a result of not eating or the not eating is a result of something else. I ask because she does something funky with her jaw, almost like someone with TMJ, it makes a weird sound, and after that she loses any interest she might have had in eating something until later.

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You have just mentioned something very important. The possibility of a TMJ related problem will have to be investigated first thing.

http://www.purina.com/cat/dental-hea...wProblems.aspx

PS

If I were you I would put everything else on hold (other diagnostics, etc) and go directly to a veterinary dentist with this.

Veterinary dentists:
http://www.avdc-dms.org/dms/list/dip...TOKEN=23048072

Shaddow,

An ultrasound is the way the vets did find cancer in my 12 year old kitty I lost last summer. Please be sure so your kitty doesn't suffer.

Ultrasound found well-hidden cancers in two of my cats and some other serious (treatable) problems in another one. Actually, in one cat it took several ultrasounds over time until the cancer could finally be picked up. (Nothing obvious in the blood work results and it could not be palpated either.) So I'm a big believer in ultrasounds and always urge everybody to have one done and not to try to save money by not having one done. In fact I could not possibly trust a vet who tried to talk me out of having an ultrasound done because it wouldn't change much.
There are cancers for which there are no treatments, but there are cancers that can be treated, and so the results of an ultrasound are essential in order to decide on the best possible treatment, which can make a tremendous difference for a cat.

Also, shaddow825, I want to urge you one more time to get a diagnosis for the jaw problem from a veterinary dentist ASAP. Given the serious pain such a problem can cause, don't wait with that.

Appointment is in an hour. This place has a dentistry service as well. But, if I am not satisfied with their dentistry I know the place to go. We used to use a doctor has been the president of american vet dental college and a bunch of other things along with doing all the dentistry for the local police K9 dogs.

She is fairly easy to syringe feed so I am hoping we can get her enough food to take the symptoms that are a direct result of not eating out of the equation to simplify the diagnosis.

Just one comment. A dentistry service is not the same thing as a board certified veterinary dentist. At this point I don't even know if you should allow anyone not eminently qualified to touch your cat for an oral exam. Forcing the mouth wide open, etc, can lead to more serious problems with the jaw, so I'm really worried about that. Why not just go to the specialist who knows what is all right to do and what is not with this kind of problem?

This vet wanted to do an ultrasound after feeling around her abdomen and found a growth around the intestines and did a needle biopsy and took a sample of the fluid around it to be analyzed.

How soon can you expect results?

They said next day or so depending on how busy the lab is.

At least you won't have a long wait. This growth is very bad news. I'm worried and very sad for you and your kitty.

Yes I agree. If it is malignant (which she thinks it is from the size etc) then we may just do steroids to see if her appetite will return and see if she eats on her own and hopefully give her a little bit better quality of life for the end. If in a week or so she still isn't eating, I know she wouldn't want to be fed by a syringe for her remaining days. And we really can't take the thought of putting her through that just to have the cancer take her shortly anyhow. She's pretty easy to feed but growls through the whole thing and growls at us when we pet her for a while afterwards as well and we don't want weeks or months of that to be our last memories of her either.

I completely agree. As for medications, besides steroids you can also use an appetite stimulant (Cyproheptadine) once or twice a day. We always get the transdermal form when a cat needs help with appetite, so at least administering one medication is never a problem. Hopefully it will work for your kitty and you'll be able to stop the syringe feedings.
You might also bring home new (canned) foods for her to try, she may be interested in some. If she is, that will also help.

She is on Mirtazapine for appetite every 3 days, although it's hard to get her to take it as she doesn't like the taste. I am going to mix it in her syringed food this evening to get her to take it. I have a boatload of canned foods to try.
I'll ask about the transdermal Cyproheptadine if it becomes a problem or doesn't work.

She ate a half can of tiki cat ahi tuna after the ultrasound (surprised everyone) so I bought a couple cans of that and then a variety pack of seafood flavors as she seems to eat something once or twice and gets tired of it. She also did pretty well for a while with Cat Sure liquid (till she grew tired of it!) so we are getting more of that and freezing it in an ice cube tray and melting some each day to give her.

I was afraid to spoil her and make her more picky, but at this point as an alternative to syringe feeding we can give her whatever she wants (if it means her eating on her own) in her last days.

Since she is so sick, spoiling her is the one thing you don't have to worry about. And keep in mind, when a very sick cat seems picky, it's the illness that's causing that. Pain, nausea, etc, things they are experiencing but our poor babies can't explain to us. I remember reading somewhere that just like when people are very sick, food most likely doesn't even smell good to our sick cats, and food they used to like doesn't taste/smell the same any more. I can imagine that this is true.

I really hope that your efforts to get your kitty to eat will be successful and she will start eating on her own.

Is she drinking?
Poor girl. I hope the ultrasound proves the vet wrong.

Yes, she was drinking, and the vet gave her fluids as well as she was slightly dehydrated.

Well, once she had a couple days of a decent amount of food (syringe) in her she had a brief recovery on Friday (she actually gained a little weight even). We even came home to her up on the back of the couch which she hadn't been up there in quite a while (one of her fav places) as she could barely get up on the couch for most of the last week (and couldn't at all this weekend).

We got the pathology results on Sat and they showed cancer, but we would have had to do more tests to determine anything further. We decided if she continued to improve and would start to eat on her own we would keep her comfortable in her last days.

Then on Sat and especially Sunday, she seemed to go downhill. She started to throw up her syringe feed food. She seemed to really lose her balance, was slowly moving about and then finally last night she stopped purring and didn't want to be around anyone and just kinda stared off into the distance for long periods of time. It was heart breaking especially after seeing such an improvement 2 days earlier, and then such a dramatic decline and we decided to put her to sleep this morning.

I am so sorry - but you gave her release from pain. I hope your own pain eases soon, and you'll be able to remember all your good times together. I know it won't be easy.