Possible hip dysplasia and heart problem?

Zeya has an appointment with the ENT specialist this friday! That's quicker than I thought. 

Poor baby, I'm sorry it's so stressful for her. Can you buy some harp music? That is often very calming to cats if you play it while you're driving. :nod: Do they sell the calming spray there, Feliway? Here it is also called "Comfort Zone." It is a spray that is synthetic hormones that mimic the "friendly" markers in cats' cheeks. If you spray her carrier with it the night before you have to go, this may also help. And get a t-shirt really good and sweaty! Put that in the crate with her too. :nod:

...and reward her profusely when you get home. :lol3:

Harp music? Really? I had never heard it helps. Well, I can always give it a try!

It is only 20 minutes by car though, so we'll be there rather quickly. 

Feliway is available here as well. I used it the last time I took her to the vet. I do get the impression it helps. 

Yep, most kitties find harp music very calming and soothing!

I've been playing harp music for the last few hours. At first they really listened to it. I saw their ears moving   After a while they went to sleep. I've turned it off just now, since I went crazy listening to harp all the time. Now the cats are having a go at each other.   It does seem playfull though 

:lol3: Well, maybe it'll help put Zeya to sleep,even though it's a short trip. :lol3:

burretje said:

...I went crazy listening to harp all the time...

Click to expand...

So would I!

sending good vibes for you and Zeya!

I just spoke to my vet about the hip x-rays and what bone it was that looked rough. She said it was the sacrum. I'm not sure that is the correct word. It is the bone marked with h in this picture:


The vet told me that the radiologist had said that this could cause referred pain. He was not sure about this though. I asked how we can check if she's in pain. The vet said you'd expect her to become less active if she is in pain. She also told me it was possible to try pain medication and see if this makes her walk more normal and jump better. However, she'd rather not try that now, since it might interfere with her other symptoms. 

I asked if this could cause wear at the bone. She confirmed this, but also said it is not seen often in cats. She said nothing really could be done about it now.    

Armed with this knowlegde I took Zeya on my lap just now and started feeling and pressing her back. She wriggled around a bit, but really started to get unconfortable when I reached the bottom of her back, next to the tail. This is where the sacrum is located. She even vocalized.      Poor Zeya, I hurt my little baby.     I''ll jump right back on top of this sacrum thing as soon as we've seen the ENT specialist. 

I also asked about Mya. She said we should wait for the outcome of Zeya's tests with the ENT specialist. Depending on the outcome, we can go from there and see if it also applies to Mya. 

Oh poor baby! But at least now you know what the trouble is, so that puts you on a path to help her. :rub:

Hope you get some answers at the ENT this week! :cross:

Zeya did very well at the ENT specialist today. She only hissed a few times and growled really softly. This is nothing compared to how she behaved before. I am so proud of her.

She needs to come back this wednesday. Then she'll be anesthetized and they'll examine her throat to see if she has a polyp there. If this is the problem, it can be removed right away. If this is not the problem, she'll get a CT-scan and a rhinoscopy straight away. 

Sounds like you found a GREAT place! Oh let's hope it's just a polyp they can easily take care of!!! Wouldn't that be wonderful! :cross:

Indeed! 

Today we went back to the ENT specialist for further examinations. This was a disaster to be honest. 

Zeya fought the anestetic like a mad cat. They had to give her njections three times before she was asleep. She was calm and relaxed until the second shot. Then she went balistic and bit and scratched me and scratched the vet as well. Every time they tried to apply the drip she went crazy. 

When she was finally asleep they examined her troath. No polyps were found. She has a short palate, but this could not cause her symptoms. So they prepped her for the CT. When they intubated her she went into a spasm, which caused her airway to close down. To enable her to breath again, they had to intubate her using some force. This looked very awful, poor baby. 

The head CT came back clear. Everything looked fine, so they went ahead and did a lung CT as well. This showed spots in the top of both lungs. The ENT specialist consulted with a lung specialist. They wanted to do a biopsy of the spots, but these were to small. The other option was a wash (to flush some cells out), but since she already had had a spasm, this was too dangerous. 

Now they have taken blood for further examination. I have to bring in stool as well. 

In recovery she went balistic again when they tried to remove the drip. They kept the drip in place longer than they would normally do, since she had had the spasm, and the drip could have been needed as a life line in case this happened again. She also went balistic when they tried to take her temperature. She almost flew across the cage and back. I offered to take her temperature myself and this went smoothly. She didn't even move a whisker. She was fine and friendly as long as they did not try to do things to her. But she was fine with the vets petting her, no problem at all.

She is home now and moving around like she did not have anestetics at all. She runs, plays and jumps on the table as if nothing has happened. Now she is finally sleeping. 

It was a truly horrifying day. I've been on the verge of tears several times. The upside is that now we know for sure that something is wrong. We know that the problem is in her lungs. The downside is that the biopsy and wash could not be done. Hopefully the blood and stool examination will give some answers. 

Oh no!!!! Poor Zeya! Poor Momma! I can only begin to imagine how upsetting that must have been. :rub: :rub: SUCH a shame they couldn't do the wash.

I really hope blood work will reveal something so she doesn't have to go through this again. If not... do you know if they're considering the wash?

I am sorry it wasn't a polyp or something they could treat right there and then. BUT, as you say, at least you know now there is a reason. I hope it won't be difficult to determine what it is, and I hope it will be easily treatable!

Well, I'm not sure if they still are considering it. We had a discussion whether to do it or not. I was hesistant since I had heard that Zeya's dad had severe complications with this procedure. The specialist told me it had serious risks and it might not give any results. 

We agreed to do it anyway since the anaestetics were such a disaster and she would have to go through that again if it was done later. Then she spoke to the anaesthetist, who told the ENT specialist about the spasm. I did not know this happened yet. I did see she was in panic and had severe trouble breathing, but I thought this was because they had to keep such a firm grip on her throat and head to get the drip in. So then the ENT specialist came back and told me she did not dare do the wash. I'm not sure now if it can be done later. 

I can ask when the ENT specialist calls with the results of the blood work and the stool. I'm still waiting for Zeya to use the litter box so I can bring the stool to the laboratory. 

Zeya seems so tired now. She was very active and vocal when we got home. But for the last 6 hours or so she has been sleeping most of the time. 

Well, she had a big day for sure. I expect she was excited to be home. But poor baby, her throat must hurt.

If her dad had issues, and it's so risky for potentially no useful information, I can't imagine they'd recommend it after everything that just happened. :rub:

Yes I know ... I'm just not sure if there are other options to find out what is wrong in case the bloodwork and stool are not conclusive. 

They will be testing the stool for lungworm. I cannot imagine she has that. I read it can be contracted if they eat snails... I don't think she eats those though. 

It certainly was an exhausting day. I'm tired myself as well. We've been sleeping for a couple of hours this afternoon, but I still feel like a truck ran over me. I much rather be sick myself than have something wrong with my kitties. It is far less exhausting   Zeya is sleeping on the snugglesafe now. I want one of those in human size, must be amazing. 

Do you have slugs there? They can get lung worm from eating slugs. Our feral cats almost always have lung worm; we get them treated with a shot of ivermectin when they are TNR'd. :nod:

Our kitty, Flowerbelle, was literally drowning from a horrible lung worm infestation when rescued. It was the first time the vet had seen it in this county. That was 9 years ago. It is quite common now. It often looks like asthma on an x-ray, but the fecal is how they know. :nod:

VERY treatable if that's the cause! !!!!!!

And YES! I know exactly how you feel - much easier to be us that's sick than the kitties! :lol3: :heart2:

Yes we do have slugs. Those are the snails without the house on their back, aren't they? We have lots of them here. They come out at night and when it rains. I've never seen the cats eat them though. They just walk by them. I am a member of several Dutch cat forums as well and I've never read anything about lungwurm on any of them. Not even with feral cats. So that's why I thought it was not endemic here, just like heartwurm.

I did not know the word "slug", so I called them snails. In Dutch the word is almost the same, slugs are called "nude snails". 

The strange thing is though that the x-ray was fine. It did not show anything special according to the radiologist. By now three different radiologists have seen her x-rays. Guess that's why they were surprised they did find something wrong in her lungs.

I read that lungwurm can only be found in feces in the first three months of infection. Is this not true? 

I guess I have to stop worrying and thinking about what might be causing  the spots. I drive myself crazy doing this.