Need prayers for Kattie!

My poor defectiive Kattie! I took her into the vet today because she is being a little finickier with her food. She is still eating, but not as much. She is a megacolon kittie so I thought she was backing up, or got a hair accumulation because of her shedding and over grooming. Anyways I take her in thinking it is something fairly straightforward. Well the doctor doesn't like the way her abdomen feels. He then does an fluid stick and got a small amount of what looked like pus from her abdomen. He looks at it under the microscope and says there aren't much white blood cells in itso that is good. We take an X-ray, which was pretty unremarkable, no huge fluid build up and no constipation. Her bloods looked good from August and he didn't want to stress her with more just yet. He gave her some antibiotics and we are hoping it's just an infection but he is thinking it might b early lymphoma. Needless to say I'm devastated! She is acting normal other than being pickier. She still is eating, peeing, pooping normally for her. In fact I was just thinking she was tricking me into getting her more treats. I am going to watch her and see if her appetite picks back up, if not we are going to do ultrasounds ect. I m not going to put her through exploratory if there is no hope. I'm just in shock right now and balling my eyes out. Not what I was expecting.

Well, don't panic yet .  We'll give lots of those famous TCS vibes that it IS just an infection .

Now, I don't know Kattie's background, but I DO know there are a couple of cats who have lymphoma who are either receiving chemo right now or have received it earlier this year, and they are doing well, so if it turns out that's what it is, it doesn't mean all hope if lost. 

Of course you are worried when the doctor tells you he's leaning that way, it's only natural.  Just don't automatically assume it's an immediate death sentence.  Someone else very recently had their doctor lean that way, and it was NOT that .  So just goes to show it can go either way. 

Until you get further info, just keep on loving your Kattie and give her the best life you can. 

Sending healing vibes to Kattie and peace to you. Will be looking for updates. 

Thanks guys! It's not so much if it is cancer that makes me sad, it's kinda the way the doctor presented it. He basically said if it is lymphoma then it is a death sentence and that she will start to decline and die. He said there was nothing else I could do short of an exploratory surgery. Now I know that isn't true as I was a vet tech for years. I want an ultra sound to confirm diagnosis. I want more blood work to see if anything has changed. I am not going to make her suffer, and probably won't do an exploratory if we can confirm in a lesser invasive way, but I sure as he** am not going to sit and watch her die or put her to sleep now, as she isn't acting that sick yet. He gave her antibiotics and said to hope it isn't cancer, because if it is then she won't make it through October! I appreciate the honesty, but it is like he is writing her off!
Another thing is that he doesn't know what is normal for her. She has always had a slightly bloated look to her abdomen. Has for years. He said her intestines don't look healthy but she is a mega colon kitty! So yea she isn't normal, but honestly she doesn't look like she is on deaths door either like he is making it out. Her bloods in August were so promising because there was no sign of anything other than a slight hypercalcemia. High normal is 11 at their lab, hers was 11.1. Now she has also had lactulose off and on which can raise blood calcium too so it might be nothing, but that is why I wanted to repeat bloods. She is fiesty though and didn't want to stress her with gas in case there is something going on.
I've decided to watch her closely for the next few days and if she is still not being herself, then I'm taking her to my dogs vet. Granted this vet I currently go to is a cat only vet and good with the animals, but I feel he's a little outdated and not giving me all the options. He just said exploratory. At that point I was so upset I didn't have my thinking brain working. I mean an ultrasound will show more than an X-ray. If it is lymphoma, god forbid, I'm willing to do treatments or something. My dog vet is great. She is young, but when they diagnoses his arthritic hips, she had me start extra glucosamine, adequan injections, tramadol and NSAIDs only as needed. She even offered the option of a hip replacement, even though there is no way I'm putting a 12.5 yo shepherd mix through that, she still gave me all the options. They did an NSAID panel before starting the NSAIDs and we are doing the lowest dose as needed. Just because he's old, I haven't written him off and he's doing great. I guess I just don't feel comfortable with his half diagnosis as she doesn't have all the signs of a true cancer cat.
She hasn't lost any weight.vno vomiting, she only has soft stools if I give her too much miralax. She is peeing and drinking normal and comes to us for pets and hangs out on the couch stil. She did hide under the bed after we got back from the vet for 2 hours, but right now she is on the couch chilling. I think I'm taking this hard because of the recent issues with my dog. It has finally hit home that while he's healthy, he is getting old. Now Kattie is only 8 and a half. I never really expected her to reach 16 or 17 like the really old ones, but I certainly am not ready to lose her now. Sorry for the long post guys, still kinda in shock...

Aw.... :heart3: My Lazlo is one of the kitties that has lympho. His was a "massive" mass in his stomach. Of course, fused with the wall, so inoperable. We opted to try chemo (he was given 4 weeks without it, and was VERY sick and not happy!). We figured - it can't hurt to try, and if it's too stressful, we don't need to keep it up. But with pred, an appetite stimulant (mirtazipine) and an anti-nausea med (cerenia), he started feeling better almost immediately. The chemo wasn't too hard on him at all, and he just kept feeling better and better. And we were lucky - the cancer went into complete remission. :cross: His last treatment was in January of this year. He was 9 when diagnosed.

But let's hope it's just an infection, and she responds quickly to those antibiotics! !!!!!!!!!!

Aww thanks Laurie. That gives me hope. I'm so happy your Lazlo is doing well. It's weird though she had no signs of a mass in the X-ray. Just her normal funky intestinal tract. He didn't even offer chemo which makes me angry. I think if she doesn't get better I'm going to my other vet for a second opinion. Except for the being picky, she is acting normal though. Intact she heard me drop the treat can while I was putting it away and she came running. Not acting very sick at all. She is just the sweetest kitty it pains me to think that she could have something so horrible. Did Lazlo have any abnormal readings on his bloodwork or weightloss. All the signs of lymphoma I have seen an know about are weightloss, increased thirst, urination, vomiting, lethargy ect. She really doesn't have any of that other than the not eating well and soft stools that miralax induced. So confused.

Well, his showed up first as vomiting. He had issues with hairballs, so at first we thought it was that. But then we noticed he WAS losing weight. We took him to our holistic vet to treat him for hairballs, but his bloodwork turned up anemic. The funny thing is - an x-ray in January showed nothing. In mid-July, he had four weeks to live.

What your baby is experiencing sounds much more like what BarbB's Toby has been going through. Here's a link to her thread, and how they developed a diagnosis: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/243465/toby-vomiting-and-losing-weight-fine-otherwise

Now - Toby was vomiting. Has your kitty been acting nauseous? Licking her lips? Lip smacking? Sitting in a meatloaf-like position, looking uncomfortable?

Nope no vomiting at all. One hairball weeks ago, but it was a massive hairball from grooming more. No weightloss. Also no lip smacking or any obvious signs of nausea. I have noticed she prefers a smaller kibble though which was making me think something was wrong with her mouth. I checked and all her teeth are fine and no inflammation. And she wasnt anemic on her bloods about 3 and a half weeks ago. This is why it baffles me so much. When I worked as a tech we saw a few cancer kitties but they presented by not eating at all, committing diarrhea, sometimes dehydrtated. Their hair coat was poor. They looked like sick cats. Even my husband thought nothing was wrong with her but trusted my intuition to take her in.
This evening she ate a handful of kibble and ate a bite of a weruva pouch. She then licked the gravy. I also put a pouch of whiskas chicken and gravy ( I know terrible food) and she ate almost a half pouch. That is quite a bit for one sitting so I am hopeful. I also know that I am coddling her a bit and catering to her tastes, but I want to be sure that she is still eating so we don't get other issues like hepatic lipidosis. It's just weird. Maybe I am catching something really early, I can't really tell.

Hunh. I really wonder why the vet even proposed cancer then? So odd. :scratch:

Still sending those vibes that it's an infection, and the antibiotics do the job - and quickly!

Yeah it was so odd when he said oh it is either cancer or an infection. If it is cancer she'll be dead in a few weeks. No compassion at all as I'm balling my eyes out. Another odd thing is he never took her temp because he said it was too stressful for her. Heck I took her temp and it was 101.2 so normal.
Today she ate quite a bit of both dry and canned food. Granted the canned was cheap fancy feast but I keep it on hand for these occasions.
It is so weird she is acting normal. She got up when I did and followed me out to the kitchen to wait while I fixed my birds and rabbits food. Then I fixed her food and picked her up and she ate. She is drinking and went to the bathroom and had a stool. It was soft normal which is normal for her because of the megacolon. I didn't even give her miralax yesterday.
I did call my dogs vet and actually made an appointment for Monday morning. My husband wanted to take her in today, but she has been stressed out two days in a row so I felt I could give her the weekend and see. I'm a little nervous doing that, but for the most part she is acting like normal Kattie.
I also wonder since this vet has only saw her on a few occassions aka vaccines and allergies and only about 3-4 times total, he doesn't know what normal is for her. Yes her gi tract has some thickening, but we noticed that years ago when the megacolon first became an issue. In fact her X-ray yesterday, looked much better than the X-ray I took a few years ago when she was having lots of issues. She might be starting some IBS issues I was thinking. No fluid or anything in her X-ray. She did have food in her stomach, but her intestines were empty. He was concerned with her tense tight belly. She gets that way at the vet. I palpated her at home and she is squishy and normal, there is also no pain on palpating either. She does look slightly distended to people not used to her but again she has been that way since she came to my clinic that I worked at. I fact we did a work up that came up clear. She is also blind, but that happened from the baytril we gave her for a uri. I think she had 3 doses then dilated eyes. She is my little defective one but I love her.
I'm wondering if he was zeroing in on the slightly elevated calcium and just saying boom its cancer. It was only .1 over normal not excessively high to cause alarm. Her white blood cells and reds were perfect. She did have elevated eosinophils which is a sign of inflammation, but she was flaring up with her skin allergies then too.
I'm just so worried but hoping it is something minor. Right now she is resting comfortably on my end table which is one of her favorite spots.

Well she ate both canned and dry although with a little encouragement. Seems ok otherwise.. I do think that she was stressed from the vet still. I also think she is getting annoyed that I am checking her and shoving food in front of her all the time. This weekend is going to be a long weekend of worry, but I have an appt for a second opinion on Monday at 10.

Well today she ate quite a bit and without my encouragement. She seems to be normal Kattie, but I'm also super paranoid now. I check her gums to see if she seems pale, feel her belly to make sure it's not hard ect. I think she is getting annoyed lol. Also last night I caught her playing with a toy, which she rarely does anyway because Oscar tries to play with her and she doesn't like him too much.
I'm so hoping this blows over!
Another thing that I realized is that the doctor who saw her on Thursday, gave her a steroid injection as well as antibiotics! This means if she does have cancer, it won't show accurately on a biopsy if we choose to have one done. I'm getting angrier and angrier with our treatment there. And to think that I thought he'd be really in tune to cats needs because he's a cat only vet! I think if a cat gets something more complex than a uti or uri he rights them off. I mean he encouraged the client in the room over to put their 13 yo cat to sleep because of an enlarged heart. They were given no option of work up or possible treatments. The cat wasn't showing any signs of discomfort just a little lethargic and boom put her to sleep. He was even leaning that way with me saying there was probably no hope. I would never do that to her without a better diagnosis and conformation of what's wrong. This is making me more angry. I think I'm switching Oscars records over to my dogs vet too. Too bad because his prices were reasonable.

Oh no! He sounds terrible! Put a kitty to sleep because of an enlarged heart? With no further diagnosis? That's just wrong! I'm wondering if because his prices are reasonable, he gets a large percentage of people who don't want to spend money on diagnostics - so he's just not used to pursuing anything? How terribly, terribly sad! Really - that's just heartbreaking!

And steroids impact proper diagnosis of cancer? I thought they just affected treatment with chemotherapy. I know the low dose of pred (5mg for 10 pound cat) is anti-inflammatory, not immune-suppressive, and used in conjunction with chemo. But when Laz first had the issue with anemia, and it was treated as if he had the same auto-immune disease his brother has, so he got a shot of depomedrol that was an immune-suppressive dose, it didn't prevent diagnosis of his large-cell lymphoma. :dk: But it did affect his first chemo treatment, so the oncologist broke it up into two treatments, a few days apart (when he normally would have started with the two together).

But since she's got no fever and is acting normally, I suspect you're right - he's just not familiar with her "normal" presentation. At this point, with all the observations you've made, I agree - I think you'll be better served by a different vet. :cross:

I was reading the steroid thing on a kitty site for lymphoma, forgot which one as I've been reading a lot this weekend. Anyways, it said the steroid would actually kill the cancer cells temporarily and make the biopsy have a false negative. Plus it makes it harder for a cat to respond to chemo once it is started. Not sure. As for Kattie, she continues to act pretty normal. She came up on my lap last night for her scratches and she was purring away. She is also eating with out encouragement and ate her entire dinner allotment. This morning she was demanding her breakfast. She even jumped up on the table to try and break in to a bag of dry food up there lol! Right now she is snoozing but she is a daytime sleeper and becomes more active at night. So puzzling. Still no vomiting or anything unusual.
As for the doctor, he has lots of good reviews on yelp and google. It's funny though because when we were talking about her allergies in July, I mentioned atopica, though I didn't want to put her on it, but he didn't even know what it is. Stuff like that kinda bugs me. Plus I had to push for her bloodwork in July, as he said he doesn't do it unless there is a problem, and he didn't get a urine sample, when I knew she had a full bladder. Urine can tell alot even if bloods are normal. I just don't know. I certainly hope everything is going to be ok though.

Well today is Katties second opinion appt. I am so nervous! She has been acting pretty normal all weekend. I don't know wat they are going to want to do. I really don't like stressing her out with all these vet appts, but I want to make sure she's not sick. Another thing is that my funds are getting tight as I spent close to 1000 on my dog two weeks ago, and then another 200 at the other vet for Kattie. I have pet insurance, but coming up with the upfront costs is sometimes difficult. That won't stop me from getting the best care for my animals even if it means I got cut corners else where. It just adds to the stress. Wish us luck as we will be leaving in a few hours!

:cross: Yes - better safe than sorry, and I'm sure Kattie will forgive you! :rub:

Well better news from the new vet! He says he highly doubts that it is cancer, although he says he can't totally rule it out, but it is way low on the differential diagnosis. He is concerned about her abnormal bowels and constipation issues. We need to find why she is having those issues and thinks it might be metabolic. He is angry that the other vet gave her steroids as it can mess up results, plus it stays in their system for a while. He doesn't think she is diabetic as her glucose was normal on the last blood draw a few weeks ago. It could be early adrenal gland issues due to the steroids she has had in her life. He did say that she isn't exhibiting any signs of cancer at this point and doesn't understand why this vet jumped to that conclusion. Oh and that abdominal tap the other vet did, well this vet is ninety percent sure he tapped her intestines and got stool, not pus and nothing necrotic! The description on the chart read " foul smelling brownish discharge on abdominal tap, no white blood cells found"
While my new vet was concerned reading the charts faxed over, as soon as he saw the radiograph, he was even more confident, that while she isn't normal and we should investigate, it is more than likely not cancer and she isn't terminal on his findings on the exam and what we've told him and looking at previous bloods and the X-ray. He said that as long as we watch her and she continues to be ok, he's comfortable to wait on her work up. So she will get a work up, but after the steroids have worn off, and we have more money.
If anything changes she is going back earlier so by no means am I letting it go, but I do feel better waiting and watching. He was trying to be very professional but also tryingvto imply that this other vet is a quack. He agreed even if she did have cancer, it can be dealt with. On exam here she was bright, alert, normal temp, same weight, heart and lungs fine. Coat excellent. She does have an odd abdomen, but she's had that for years and so she does not look like a typical cancer kitty and we can wait to do the work up.. As for that, we will be doing more bloods, urine, X-rays and an ultrasound. So I guess that is better news. She continues to eat drink, poop and pee and be normal, although she did go under the bed as soon as we got home. She comes out for treats though, so I think she is just mad about the vet visit.

Oh hun, I am SO SO SO glad you went for a second opinion! THIS, I like. THIS sounds reasonable! THIS sounds professional and logical!!!!


Aw... keep us apprised. And in the meantime, it sounds like she's not happy about the vet visit. But she HAS had a few here... I think she deserves those treats. :lol3:

Continued If there is something up with her adrenals, it sure sounds like you've caught it early. And maybe this vet will help set you on a path to get her abdomen sorted for her longer term health and comfort!

Well we're still about the same. I've decided to do some of the work up on her as she still isn't really bouncing back. I could be just paranoid though. We are going to do bloods and X-rays to start and go from there, hopefully in the mean time some of my insurance claims will come back. I have her scheduled for Friday because doc isn't in the office tomorrow and they are booked on Thursday already. Though the receptionist said to call thursday morning and she might be able to squeeze me in.
As for Kattie, I may just be super paranoid for her now. She is eating, but again after encouragement. I offered an 1/8 of a cup of dry natural balance, and a quarter can of blue buffalo tempting tuna grill. That flavor has never really been a favorite, but she will sometimes eat it. She did eat most of the dry after I pulled it out of the bowl and put it on my bed (that is where she eats). She also ate a few bites of whiskas chicken in gravy which is the junk food she likes. And still she will eat treats. She has always been a lazy less active cat, so activity level is about the same. She is drinking peeing and had a stool although soft from miralax this morning. No blood or mucous in it from what I could tell. Now I've been reading about this " meatloaf " position and not sure if she is doing that. She will rest in a sternal position with her feet under her as a normal position and always has, so I don't think she is in abdominal discomfort, but reading posts here has me worried. Of course she will also snooze on her side all stretched out, or curled in a ball on her cat tree so she sleeps in various positions, plus I've seen my male healthy cat relax in a sternal tucked position with no issues. I do know that a cat that rests like a bunny with all it's feet under it but not resting its abdomen on the ground is in pain, I've seen that is crf cats at work. They will even rest their heads down and touch their nose to the ground and just look sick. Kattie isn't doing any of that. She still hasn't vomited. Her abdomen is squishy after pooping though it was kinda tense before. I wonder if she has gas like my husband thinks she might.
Needless to say we will get her seen and taken care of no matter what, but I'm wondering if I'm actually seeing signs or making my self see signs. She lets me palpated her abdomen with out any protest or pain. It just baffles me. I guess til Friday I will be watching her like a hawk, and hope she gets better in the mean time.

Well just to update. This morning looks a little more promising. Kattie was curled in a ball on her cat tree when I got up. She then came down to greet me. She is actually um very gassy. I think her tummy is bothering her because of the gas. I heard it gurgling last night too. I gave her a quarter of a Pepcid tablet and although she is still gassy she ate some canned with more gusto this morning. She is still going in to get her diagnostic tests done on friday but hopefully Thursday. On a positive note my insurance claiims should be in my account tomorrow so an extra 220 dollars back from my dogs meds and Katties initial visits. We will claim the work up and only have to pay 20 percent, well we get 80 percent back.