Opinions, please? Is Flowerbelle having a mild asthma attack or a weird purr?

Nothing really to report! It was kind of cool to see a neuro do an exam, quite different than a regular vet.

We didn't chat, so I don't know about any of wonder woman's exploits. :lol3:

The decision was made to have MRIs done (which was the point of the neuro visit, to determine if if she should have CT scan or MRI).

The neuro suggested she be checked for toxo as it can cause tissue cysts.

We're doing the MRI tomorrow, and we should have toxo results back Monday or Tuesday. :rub:

...she'd never seen anything like it, and isn't willing to speculate on what it might be. She'll speculate or diagnose after the MRI (and the toxo test, even though she does think that's a long shot).

I bet it was different! Is she not a chatty person?

Let us know how everything goes! How do they do an MRI for a cat? Do they have to put her under? 

for Flowerbelle!

It wasn't that she wasn't chatty, she was very sweet. We weren't chatty, Gary was in a lot of pain.

Yes, they had to put her under.

We didn't actually see the radiologist. There was a vet who did the MRI (and met with us prior to the imaging), but the radiologist who reads the images won't be typing the report up until this afternoon. The vet who met with us said that she knows the neuro isn't in today, so we probably wouldn't hear back until Monday. But Stan is in today, so we hoped he'd get the report and call us this afternoon.

But when we went to pick her up, the anesthesiologist said there were a lot of procedures today, and the vet(s) would have the report by tomorrow morning at 10:00am at the latest. Well, neither vet is working tomorrow... so we may not hear back until Monday.

I'm sorry to hear Gary was in a lot pain.     for the both of you.

Ugh...waiting is no fun, especially over a weekend! How was Flowerbelle when she woke up?

Crazy goofy. I had to put my hand in the crate the entire ride home or she cried (which is NOT usual for her), and she rolled around, pushing her head into my hand HARD for pets. :heart2: She's sleeping it off now. :rub:

LDG said:

Crazy goofy. I had to put my hand in the crate the entire ride home or she cried (which is NOT usual for her), and she rolled around, pushing her head into my hand HARD for pets.

She's sleeping it off now.

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LOL....awww. 

Well, we got a lovely note from the vet that saw us this morning. At 4:56 the results were faxed to the two Docs. So we have to sit here all weekend knowing the results are there, wondering what they show.

She did say "Because I know Flowerbelle is clearly a very dear member of your family, I will say the report does not clearly indicate anything that would be life-threatening or that would require immediate intervention."

...which is lovely, but we were already pretty sure whatever this is, it isn't life-threatening; and as it's been going on since... whenever I started this thread a long time ago, we were already pretty sure it wasn't something that would require immediate intervention. :lol3: But as she's not the radiologist and, as she explained to us this morning, she doesn't interpret the scans or relay information about them, that was very kind of her.

Love the logic there.  

So, since we know that this isn't life-threatening or needs immediate intervention (otherwise, I'm sure an intervention would have been made back in January), you'll just have to get through the weekend knowing that this isn't life-threatening or needs immediate intervention. Wait...is this the department of the redundancy department?     Seems there are times we feel like we're running in circles, huh? 

LDG said:

She did say "Because I know Flowerbelle is clearly a very dear member of your family, I will say the report does not clearly indicate anything that would be life-threatening or that would require immediate intervention."

.

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How great to have at least a little something positive to go on till Monday and yes, very sweet of your vet to send you a note today. I am sorry about Gary and the pain he had to endure and on top of worrying about Flowerbelle. I do hope that he is better tonight. :cross: Our furkids ARE our family, for sure. I love your vet!! :heart3: I bet Flowerbelle was so happy to see you both today and I hope she is resting comfortably this evening and got a GOOD MEAL!!!!!!!! :rub: Thinking of ALL of you this weekend. For Monday... :cross:

That was really nice of the vet to send you a note. I'm glad it seems too be nothing to serious.  (but hope whatever it is will be an easy fix).  Sorry to hear Gary wasn't feeling well either.

I hope you guys have a relaxing weekend.

(Little Flowerbelle is one of a few kitties on my little kitty prayer list.)

That's funny she had the crazies when she woke up.  A few years ago when Angel had a dental cleaning & had to have a couple of extractions, he had them too, & the pain meds made him extra lovey.

I loved it!!

I started a new thread, because maybe anyone has any ideas about what this means? :lol3:

Her vet called this morning, but Gary was asleep, I was in the shower, and we missed the call. He said he could see we received a copy of the report, and if we had any questions to please call. :lol3: Well - he wasn't IN for work today, he had stopped by to check on paperwork for kitties in his care, so he wasn't there when we called back.

BUT... HIS office was able to email me up the report.

And this is it:



It sounds like she may have a middle ear infection ("there is fluid filling the entire lumen of the right tympanic bulla") despite no symptoms: but a quick search turns up the Small Animal Surgery Textbook that explains that "Middle ear disease may be an incidental finding on diagnostic imaging in cats that do not have clinical evidence of otis media.")


So... nothing abnormal is what I take away from it. Looks like we're still searching for answers. But it's no lumps, bumps, cysts or cancer, so that's good! Knock wood... :cross: :lol3:

We got a copy of the MRI results: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/265727/flowerbelles-mri-results

Looks like she may have a middle ear infection, but nothing to explain the purring problem. But at least overall that's good news!

LDG said:

So... nothing abnormal is what I take away from it. Looks like we're still searching for answers. But it's no lumps, bumps, cysts or cancer, so that's good!

Knock wood...

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That is excellent news!  So glad to hear it's nothing serious. 

From the few ultrasound reports I've seen/heard of, you really have to wait for the doctor or a medical professional to interpret them for you. I asked my vet where Poppy's inflammation was, and he said the report indicated inflammation throughout her intestinal tract, but that likely not all the areas were bad enough to trigger clinical signs and that if you ran ultrasounds on perfectly normal cats/humans, there will always be something that looks wrong.

I do like the sound of all the "no's," though! No abnormalities, no masses, no lesions! I'd say you're in for good news when doc calls back.

What I'm wondering is... could the ear infections in some way cause her strange episodes during purring? I guess we'll find out, and get a vet opinion on that on Monday. :lol3:

  Yey!  Sounds like good news!  I'm glad it's nothing serious either.     ((((HUGS))))  for you & Flowerbelle!! 

...what I've been wondering since last night is... why was the MRI of her BRAIN done? Why not her throat? I see no mention of her throat in that report. And Stan specifically told us to show the video to the radiologist.... but he wasn't there. We showed it to the vet that met with us, and said that it was the referring vet's suggestion that we show the video, because the MRI should likely cover her upper throat as well. She took all the info down, and agreed.... so why is there no mention of any of the throat structure?

I'm not usually one to break down or to complain about the cost of our cats' health care, but we've saved up for MONTHS to be able to do this. And I broke down this morning, thinking that we wasted that money looking at the wrong thing, all because the neuro may have communicated the wrong info to the MRI center. And there wouldn't be any way to correct this without spending another boatload of money, because it wouldn't be the MRI center that did anything wrong.

I'll try to remain calm and just let this go until we talk to Stan. But I'm having a really difficult time doing that.

If they scanned the wrong area I wouldn't pay for a rescan. After all, technically you entered into a contract--for $XXX, they would render services of a scan on a particular part of the body. They did not fulfill their end of the contract, so there is no reason to pay. If you paid by credit card and are unsuccessful at talking your way around this, you could deny the charges and be within good reason.

Another possibility entered my mind that maybe these are the wrong results! It seems that the majority of medical office staff are just not well organized, at the vet's and at the people doctor's office. When I asked for electronic files of Poppy's x-rays it took 3 times to get them, and the first time they sent some other cat's x-rays. They would always claim that they needed a couple of hours to prepare the file, but in the end we had to go down to the office and breathe down their backs, telling them that we had already waited days to get the x-rays. Then we made them show us the files on the computer while we were there.

Yes, but technically the neuro's office told them what to scan. So it wouldn't be the MRI center's fault.

I'll find out Stan's thoughts on all of this tomorrow.

And it is definitely Flowerbelle. Doubt they did an MRI of another white cat missing a left eye.

The MRI included the upper thoracic region. It wasn't mentioned in the report, because everything was normal.

Stan (or Gary and I) have not yet talked to the neuro, but right now, looks like this is "just Flowerbelle."

The fluid in her middle ear is not infected: they can tell that on MRI. There's nothing to do about it. Another "just Flowerbelle" thing. And no, it could not cause this purring issue.

So now it's just waiting to hear from the neuro to see if she has anything else to add.