Hi, I just joined this forum today, I've already asked a question in the behaviour forum, but I have another question regarding my daughters cat.
She's not living with us, she's an adult, so I didn't see her cat as frequently as when she lived here. At the beginning of this week I went over to her place and Kali was out in the kitchen, where she was quite visible. I noticed that her fur, or a lot of it, was missing off the backs of her back legs, and around her tail. She also seemed extra 'lazy'. She's only four years old. I insisted we take her to the vets.
When the vet looked at her, she noticed her gums were white. Bloodwork showed her HCT at 11.7% and her HGB at 3.7% g/dL. Everything else looks to be within normal realms on her bloodwork. She said that if Kali had lost that much blood over a short period of time that she would be dead, that it must have been over an extended period of time and that her body had compensated for it, to an extent.
The vet thinks that she likely had a parasite in her blood, possibly from fleas while she was a kitten, and that stress caused it to flair into activity. Two years ago, my daughter moved from home to an apartment, got a great dane/akbash cross puppy, then moved a friend of hers in with another cat and another untrained large breed dog. This was likely the stressor. The other cat and one dog have since moved out.
They gave us prednisone to suppress her immune response as her white blood cells are destroying her red blood cells before they can mature. She is also on an oral antibiotic, doxycycline. we've been told to keep her very calm and quiet as her heart is very stressed. She said that she's seen cats seemingly begin to recover only to have their tiny hearts fail.
We're doing all we can to make her better, but she's not eating or drinking much. They gave me recovery and critical care moist food samples to try, and suggested beef broth baby food puree as well, since it's high in iron. She will lick a little off the end of your finger, and then lose interest. Any advice on getting the Kalicat back to health would be greatly appreciated.
She's not living with us, she's an adult, so I didn't see her cat as frequently as when she lived here. At the beginning of this week I went over to her place and Kali was out in the kitchen, where she was quite visible. I noticed that her fur, or a lot of it, was missing off the backs of her back legs, and around her tail. She also seemed extra 'lazy'. She's only four years old. I insisted we take her to the vets.
When the vet looked at her, she noticed her gums were white. Bloodwork showed her HCT at 11.7% and her HGB at 3.7% g/dL. Everything else looks to be within normal realms on her bloodwork. She said that if Kali had lost that much blood over a short period of time that she would be dead, that it must have been over an extended period of time and that her body had compensated for it, to an extent.
The vet thinks that she likely had a parasite in her blood, possibly from fleas while she was a kitten, and that stress caused it to flair into activity. Two years ago, my daughter moved from home to an apartment, got a great dane/akbash cross puppy, then moved a friend of hers in with another cat and another untrained large breed dog. This was likely the stressor. The other cat and one dog have since moved out.
They gave us prednisone to suppress her immune response as her white blood cells are destroying her red blood cells before they can mature. She is also on an oral antibiotic, doxycycline. we've been told to keep her very calm and quiet as her heart is very stressed. She said that she's seen cats seemingly begin to recover only to have their tiny hearts fail.
We're doing all we can to make her better, but she's not eating or drinking much. They gave me recovery and critical care moist food samples to try, and suggested beef broth baby food puree as well, since it's high in iron. She will lick a little off the end of your finger, and then lose interest. Any advice on getting the Kalicat back to health would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the feedback. 
