Concerned!!

dallasstorm

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I got home Tuesday night and as always Athena was following me around. I was in the kitchen when I happen to look down at her and did a double take. Her left eye was dilated and the right one was smaller. She is 13 yrs old. She is a indoor only cat. No other pets or people to get any injury. So I am completely freaking out right now. I know that when our eyes are not dilated right there is something wrong. And being a cat with better vision than us only makes me worry more as to not know what is wrong. Problem is that financial issues are tight and Lord knows all the things I could possibly imagine they will want to test on her. I love my cat to death but why do they make it so impossible to pay for things when you need them? So I have been sick to my tummy with worry of how to pay for it and what could it possibly be. And I don't know when the last time I actually looked at her eyes to noticed something wrong. :bawling:

I don't know how to upload a pic on my post yet. So I will post the other pic on my profile as to be able to see her eyes.
 

fleabags mom

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There are several potential causes of an altered pupil size in cats, inflammation in the front region of the eye, increased pressure in the eye, scar tissue build up in the eye, medication, diseases that are focused in the iris tissue itself or tumors.

Am afraid the only way to help kitty is to get to the vet. Am sorry money is tight - it's never easy and always expensive. Costs me £40 (about $63) just to walk through the door at the vets :-(
 
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dallasstorm

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Well I have made a appt with Petsmart and it was only going to be 40.00 for the office visit, but I found a coupon online for them for a free exam and consultation. So that will at least save me the 40.00. I appreciate the info that you have given me which is some of what I read on here. And that is what worries me. It just irritates me that they have to charge so much, when I think that is wny there is a lot of stray cats and dogs in this world. Because if something goes wrong and people cant afford them, some are likely to disown them which is wrong. Vets should make it affordable to all and wouldn't have that problem. I am doing the best I can. My cat is a happy one I would like to think.

Thanks again. Will post will results.
 

molldee

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Vets needs to make money too, although I do agree that some vets are way too expensive.
 

denice

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I know vets are really expensive.  They do go to school for a long time though, it's actually harder to get into vet school than it is to medical school because there are far fewer vet schools.  I saw a survey of average salaries for different professions a while back.  Vet salaries are actually much lower than average for professions that require that much education.   Many vets also do pro bono work or work at drastically reduced prices for shelters and rescues.
 

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Hopefully eveything is okay with your kitty. I know how it can be with money being tight. A few months back when I had to take my older boy to the vets money was on the tight side at the moment. When I called for a phone consultation and set up appointment I also let them know what my money situation was at the time. I was able to post date a check and they did test that where only necessary. However if you compare what the cost of vet services are to the of medical service for people it is cheap.
 
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dallasstorm

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UPDATE:

   Athena and I spent a little over 3 hours at the Vet today. She has Horner's Syndrome. However, after looking at the dilated eye she did say that the eye looked good as far as the retina and everthing with the eye goes. So she narrowed it down to that it could possibly be due to that she has severe gum diease. She put her on a 10 day supply of antibiotics and said that after about 3-4 days of medicine if that is the reason her eye should start constricting back to normal in the light. If it don't they only other thing based off info and home life that she could possibly have a mass/tumor. Which I sure hope that is not the case.

  At Petsmart it is a Banfield Hospital and they offer pet wellness plans. I couldn't afford the Senior one as you are locked into it for a year even if something unfortunate happens to your cat and it can't be transferred to another cat. But it covered her vaccinations, they drew blood and got the antibiotics and it came out way cheaper. Spent 81.00.

  More bad news though. Some of her levels on blood work came back a little off. One being her left kidney was a little high. She said it could be that she has not drank anything in awhile but she would check it again. The worst one was her Pancreas level came back high. It was close to 200 points higher than normal. She is overweight. When weighed she was 14 lbs. She definitely wanted to check back on that when we go back the Monday after Thanksgiving. At which time she is hoping to see more of her teeth and gums. She did say that she was a good candidate to be put to sleep to have her teeth cleaned. And with the wellness plan it is covered which is good. But teeth extrations are not. I do get 15% off on any meds or services that are not covered.,

  My poor baby had a rough day. Stuck with 4 needles, temp taken and they gave her liquid antibiotics since she really has never had to take pills before. And I smelled it....it didn't smell good so I am sure that it tasted bad. She told me to put a few drops of vanilla extract in there to help with the after taste. So I am praying that her teeth is what is causing all this and nothing more. Still concerned about the Pancreas. That I will have to update y'all later on. Cause reading up on that the symptoms she is having show more to Chronic. She will vomit several times a day for a few days and then just lie around and then be normal till the next episode.

 Still worried. But at least something is getting started. I am just praying that it is nothing with a tumor or cancer.
 

fleabags mom

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Thanks for the update.. and sorry that it's a mixed bag of news. Be rooting for Athena and you and she can find things that help her.

Best wishes.
 
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dallasstorm

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Thank you very much. I think at this point she is going to start fleeing from me when I come to her with her medicine. It is a liquid and she obviously doesn't like it at all. But I know she is smart and will catch on soon and then it will be a showdown....LOL.

 But I did get to looking at her blood results and there was some things that she didn't bring up with me that seemed important. Since it read Normal? NO...Medically Relevant? YES and one was called BUN. I have what the number came up to be...not sure how high or low it is. But reading about it, it said kidney/renal failure. And it did go along with what I was telling her about her litter box situation. That there is way more urine these days than #2 and she does eat.  So not sure why that was not brought up Thursday. But on they blood work sheet I wrote questions down to it to ask her. And there is a few others that said no to the Normal...but didn't have anything in the Medically Relevant part. But still wrote down questions.

 So upsetting and frustrating. Want my baby to be ok. Again, thanks to those that have helped and responded positively. It is very appreciated!
 

barbh

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On the blood work levels did they list ranges of what each should be in, such as bun, creatine and phosphorus? With ckd kitties those levels are pretty important in determining how the kidneys are doing. Phosphorus levels will have an affect on how the cat is feeling, high phosphorus levels can make a cat not feel good making them feel nauseous and not wanting to eat. Definitly I would ask the vet about this. For good information on ckd I would recommend looking at Tanya's site http://felinecrf.org/index.htm. When I found out that my Riley had ckd I found this site to be full of invaluable information covering things that my vet did not tell me about. Definitly an increase in urine output is a sign of ckd. Also vomiting of bile or clear foamy liquid is another as ckd kitties tend to have an increase in stomach acid. With Riley I offer him food through out the day, since he doesn't eat much at one time. How is your cat's weight doing? One thing that I will urge is not to completly get tied up in the numbers, they help to know what is going on but as is said repeatedly in the ckd community you want to treat the cat and not the numbers. Some cats will act fairly normal even with highly elevated numbers while others don't. Sending you good vibes, I know how difficult it is to get this diagnoises, I was a mess when I first found out what was going on with Riley.

Also with her medication to try to make it not such a horrible experience you can try giving her, her favorite treat before and after recieving her medicine. She will probably still not be crazy about the medicine but hopefully the treats will make it a bit of a better experience.
 
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peaches08

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Elevated BUN can mean dehydration rather than CKD. Was the creatinine elevated?
 
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dallasstorm

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**UPDATE**
Sorry it has taken me awhile to get back on here. Ok no her other levels are fine so there is no concern of kidney/renal failure. He did say it could be a gland that is telling her brain to drink more but the test was expensive. But not life threatening. Next her eye is still not constricting when light is on it. The antibiotics have done great on her gums, but he wanted to go another round of them and come back and speak with the Vet that we first saw. So Dec 23rd we go back again and we are hoping that after her teeth get cleaned that might solve her eye problem. If not there is still a chance that it could be a small tumor that is just starting.

He also said that they are not concerned about her Pancreas level right now. The worry would come in when the numbers get into the middle 2000's and 3000's. So that was good. So right now the worry is her teeth and the eye. I will update more in a few weeks when I get more info.
 
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dallasstorm

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Barb....thanks for all the advice. My cat is overweight. She is 14.4 pounds. He said the vomiting is more than likely from the bacteria she is swallowing from her gums and that it is causing her tummy to not feel good. He did say her Creatine level was fine which if off would have been a concern. She is not diabetic, which is why he thought a gland going to her brain might be a more likely source going off all her lab work. But she really, really needs a teeth cleaning, so hopefully when going back we will be scheduling that next.

Trying to get Athena feeling better. I don't want my baby to be miserable.

Thanks again...as well as Peaches!
 
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dallasstorm

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**UPDATE**

Athena went back to Banfield to have her teeth cleaned. 3 of her teeth...2 on the bottom one on each side right behide her canine teeth and 1 pre molar on the top with one part left pretty much dissipated when they starting cleaning them. Then got a call that 2 other pre molars on top...one on each side had a large hole in them and needed pulling. So she came home and it had been 8 now and she still refuses to sleep. She acts like she is afraid something is going to happen if she dozes off. I have got her close but she pop back awake. They sent me home with some kitty morphine which I think I might have to give her so she can rest. She was hungry and gave her moist cat food (small can as told) and she ate it like crazy but has yet to drink anything. I know there is some things after surgery that are normal, but from the tube in her throat it might be sore cause she is swallowing hard. I feel like such a horrible parent that her teeth were this bad and she has lost 5 teeth and is in pain now. Makes me sad. I hope that she is more back to normal tomorrow. She has gained a lot of weight. 1.1 lbs since I started on this website and that is cause she has had 2 rounds of antibiotics before the teeth cleaning and the Dr said that has helped her eat better. But apparently I was feeding her too much. Ugh...again. So cutting back for my 15.1 lb baby is going to be rough for the both of us till her tummy gets use to it.

Just thought I would let everyone know what was going on. Still don't know about her dilated eye...she said this might help. We would just have to wait and see.

Hope everyone had a great New Year!!!!!
 

chenxiaoshuai

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Why don't you at least call the vet and see what might be the possibilities an what procedures may be involved? You can ask them for a cost estimate, better than vein freaked out by your guesses. The chance is it might not be as severe as you think.

I got home Tuesday night and as always Athena was following me around. I was in the kitchen when I happen to look down at her and did a double take. Her left eye was dilated and the right one was smaller. She is 13 yrs old. She is a indoor only cat. No other pets or people to get any injury. So I am completely freaking out right now. I know that when our eyes are not dilated right there is something wrong. And being a cat with better vision than us only makes me worry more as to not know what is wrong. Problem is that financial issues are tight and Lord knows all the things I could possibly imagine they will want to test on her. I love my cat to death but why do they make it so impossible to pay for things when you need them? So I have been sick to my tummy with worry of how to pay for it and what could it possibly be. And I don't know when the last time I actually looked at her eyes to noticed something wrong. :bawling:

I don't know how to upload a pic on my post yet. So I will post the other pic on my profile as to be able to see her eyes.
 
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dallasstorm

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Because as with any Dr. Vet or not they will not give you a estimate over the phone. The only thing they will tell you is how much the office visit will be but wont give you answers till they are seen. And that is old news. Read all my updates please before you start commenting on something that happened first and since has been addressed.
 
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dallasstorm

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****UPDATE****

Well I know it has been awhile since I have last posted. Things have been crazy around here. I did make a post on the New Cat Thread. Which will give you some idea of the last year of getting another kitty. However, for Athena the biggest update for her has turned out not so good, Last year in Sept/Oct I took her again to get her teeth cleaned. She got even more overweight. She weighed 17.3 lbs that day. They called me to come pick her up. The vet came out and brought me into a room and shut the door. No Athena though. Was kinda confused why as they said she I could come get her. The vet started off with that they didn't do the teeth cleaning because when they ran her blood work numbers, this number came back high, and this number came back high and this number was off and her urine number wasn't right. And then she just turned to me and said. Athena is in Stage 2b of Kidney Failure. I literally put my hands to my skull and just stared at her and said what? And proceeded to tell her that just 6 months ago all her numbers were fine. The only number that was slightly and I do mean slightly off was Athenas Creatinine. And that was just by a point or 2. How could all this just be that far off? She starting explaining some things which would coincide with things that have been going on. Her drinking a lot of water and urinating more. Throwing up. Still in denial I asked are you sure this is not diabetes. She proclaimed that they double checked it and showed me both pieces of paper that the numbers matched. And I just lost it. She handed me some tissues. This could not be happening....this is all I could think. She kept apologizing and was sorry that I had to go through this. This doesn't make you feel any better. She did give me the option that if I wanted to still have her teeth cleaned I could. She did state her gums were so bad she was afraid that she might be left without teeth. By this time she had someone go get Athena and bring her in the room with us.

Of course I had more questions. One was how will I know when the time is near. What do I need to do as far as cremation because that is what I want to do. She is the only cat that I have raised from 5 weeks old and will be 16 years old this Oct 1st. So she gave me all the info that I needed. Told me the prices of the cremation and everything for when that time comes and told me that I would know when that time is near. I feel like I wouldn't know because i love her and would be selfish and not look at it that way. She assured me that I would.

Like I said when I brought her in that day she weighed 17.3 lbs. Athena is now (and this is weighing me and then weighing her with me at home) around 9 lbs. I can feel her bones on her back and neck. You can't see them because she is a Manx and they have a triple coated fur. But it just breaks my head to see her this way. Her coat is getting dingy. She has been getting sick a lot more. She has been constipated. And can drink her bowl of water in one day and the amount that she urinates is so much. So I am thinking that she has hit Stage 4.

Going to take her to another vet other than Banfield and have them just do the necessary blood work to see where we are. And compare the bloodwork from last year till now. The vet at Banfield last year did say that her Horners Syndrome might have been due to this being a under laying problem that we just didn't know about yet. I feel like I have gone through the 5 stages as if someone told me I had kidney failure...Denial, Anger...etc...but the only one I will not get to is Acceptance. I mean I know she has it. But still hard to believe that one day I will have to put her to sleep. I know they don't live forever just like we don't. But ....it just sucks. And it don't help that Willow who just turned one (got her before I knew about this) wants to play with her and Athena just wants to be left alone. I do my best but I can't be here all the time.

Sigh.................
 
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