Cat being sick over the last few days

andym1982 said:

 
Thank you. The people in the place she's being looked after are very nice and she is already looking much better. Her reactions are back to being fast and she wanted to play with the little toy mouse I brought for her to leave in her area. She was happy to see us and started to purr and wanted cuddles, which was nice to see.

Upon talking to the staff there they informed me they are keeping her on a fluid drip to continue to rehydrate her (it seems to be working well as her nose was wet) and they're giving her cortizone to get her stronger again. That's something I'll have to give her too for some time, depending on how her body reacts and improves over a month or two. But I am just relieved to see her feeling better and to know that she's being looked after so she can recover.

Off to see her again a bit later today and I think I'll be able to have her home tomorrow night.

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Aww, this is great news. Glad to hear that she is feeling much better - Sounds like the fluids are helping her a great deal in this respect.

Continued positive vibes

hoping she is still improving

I hope so too. She does seem better than how she was Friday when we took her to the vet and definitely more hydrated. My only worry is that the vet I spoke to on the phone today was saying they can't work our the actual problem, only the fact that her anemia is being caused as a symptom of something. They tested for all virals and ran all the tests they could and found nothing. This is quite worrying to me. He also said that if she responds well to antibiotic and cortizone treatment then this is good and every week I'll take her back for monitoring to confirm her reaction to this, but if she doesn't respond to this treatment there is nothing they can do. They can't run any further tests to identify the underlying problem (as the remaining ones have to be done under anesthesia) until she is stronger and not at risk.

I have to hope and will her to respond well, it's all we can do.

I am trying to focus on the fact that she's much more herself now and the cortizone has had a positive impact as that was what the last vet gave her and she became much better each time she had it. I am hoping that this will continue and that is suggests she will respond well to this treatment.

I am picking her up after work tonight to bring her home. I can't wait to have her back with us, the place has been empty without her in it!

well...that is semi-good news, if she was in danger I doubt they would release her. when you pick her up are they going to give you anything to give her at home?

how weak is she? seems she was perfectly fine until recently...can they estimate WHEN she might be well enough for future testing? did they do any ultrasounds when her stomach was upset?

andym1982 said:

 
Thank you. Me too.

There is definitely no way she's pregnant as I was waiting for her to finish her heat cycle so I could get her sterilized, then she vomited so I took her to the vets and decided to wait until that was sorted, then she never came back into heat as she became ill. Not only that but she is a house cat and doesn't have any contact with other cats. They are going to run all bloodwork first then if they can't work out what's wrong they will probably then ask me if I want them to proceed with the ultrasound.

Yeah it's very much like what you describe. Poor kitty must feel awful and has to stay at the vets. I need to go and give her some cuddles today even if they say they're keeping her for longer. Don't get me started on moles changing - I have two and I am frightened to do anything about them (have left them for years now). Starting to think I need to take some action on them though!

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I really think she needs one, you said they found a mass...I would insist on one unless they can safely do a needle biopsy without one

I think the mass they found was due to constipation, which is ok now. They haven't said there are any more issues with this.

I will ask today whether there is anything that hasn't been done that could be done (including ultrasound), but they were very clear with me this morning that although she has improved she is still not in a state where it would be safe to perform any exams on her under anesthesia. So for that I need to wait until she has shown significant signs of improvement and a positive reaction to the antibiotics and cortizone.

Regarding her weakness... The obvious symptoms began around a month ago, but I've no proof that she wasn't experiencing the condition before then and just doing a good job of hiding it. The reason she's been improving during the month then relapsing is because the first doctor I took her to (although he got the diagnosis wrong) gave her cortizone two weeks running, to cover her for each week respectively. So this meant that it helped her condition and she seemed better. Then every time the cortizone injection ran out, she returned to being very tired and listless and not eating. This is the reason I changed vet, to get a second opinion - and the recent updates since then are all as a result of the new vet and taking her to a 24 hour clinic on this new vet's recommendation, to look after her over the weekend and try to get her back to health. Now she is once again on cortizone she is showing improvement like before.

The instructions of the new vet at the clinic are to give her cortizone every day with her food (it is either going to be liquid or tablet) and antibiotics. I'll be given these to take home tonight.

They can't estimate when she'll be well enough for future testing as they aren't even confident enough to guarantee me she'll respond to the treatment to get her well enough. I think after a weekly blood test next week or the end of this week and then continuing for the next month, they'll keep monitoring her and when her levels are at a level they consider safe they'll test her again under anesthesia.

Right now all I can do is ensure she's getting lots of food and water along with her meds and watch how she behaves closely, then hope when the vet does the blood test next it shows improvement.

she doesn't need to be sedated for an ultrasound

 "Onions, Garlic, Leeks and Chives can cause anemia and gastrointestinal upset in cats and dogs."

you are in Italy...has she eaten or gotten into any of these?

Hi, she was given an ultrasound. There's a lump in the lymph node area. They say it's most likely three possible things. The first, I made a note of the name but left the note at home today - but this is the least troubling option and they are treating her for that as a starting point, then I go back tomorrow morning for them to continue to test her and see if she has made any improvements. The second is lymphoma (not good but there's some things they can do) and third is the worst option - FIP. I know that one is the worst possible thing for her to have.

Last night we struggled to give her all the meds and pastes we were prescribed. We did manage, but had to give her the cortizone on empty stomach as she wouldn't eat anything. Overnight we noticed she did eat some freeze dried chicken treats we left for her around the room so this morning we were able to give her the cortizone with less concern as well as managing to give the other pastes to her quicker and easier. Now really it's just waiting to see if she improves between now and her visit to the vet tomorrow. She looks rough in all honesty - although for me I think she has developed a kitty cold at the same time which isn't going to help matters. If her body is responding at all to the treatment I am hoping it will start to show tonight after the first few doses of it.

Yesterday I was stressed out of my mind especially when we got her home and she wouldn't eat in addition to everything else. Today I have decided to take a different approach, of just accepting the situation for what it is and doing everything possible to help that is within my power, then the rest is down to her, the doctors, and a bit of luck. Whatever happens I need to know I've done all I can, so that's what I am focusing on.

Hi;

I am so sorry that your cat is so ill.

It is important to keep stress as low as you can for your cat. Especially if she is anemic. She has to really keep every bit of energy she has to build new cells.  I haven't seen your cat and am not a vet. You need to listen to your vet.

It is not uncommon for a cat to not want to eat when they have returned from the vet. But also not eating is very serious in a cat, especially an anemic cat, but all cats as well. They can develop hepatic lipidosis from not eating or greatly reduced eating within a couple of days. With an anemic cat it is very important they eat. So.....I don't envy you here. 

I am glad she did eat something. I have found with cats there are so many little "rules" that you have to break on a regular basis. You can never generalize with any cat. You have to walk a very thin line between all the "rules". Hope this makes sense. She needs to eat. Very important she eats. Must eat!! But.....you have to be very careful with a cat and not try to persuade them to eat to much or they can get a food aversion from being pestered about it. So you balance on the fence. You coax but don't harass. You suggest food for her but you don't pick her up and put her down by the food. You probably already know all this but I figured it wouldn't hurt to write it down anyway.

One thing I have noticed in cats is that if they feel ill after eating a certain food, be it an upset stomach, or vomiting or even cramping we don't even know about, they usually will not eat that food again for a while. So, lets say she was eating canned fancy feast when she fell ill and won't eat it now. Don't offer it to her again until she is better. Try some dry food, or try some Gerbers baby food in lamb flavor. With the baby food it is very important that you read the ingredients, and that the food only has the meat source, be it chicken, turkey, beef, or lamb, and water, cornstarch and citric acid only! Many of these baby foods on the market add seasonings and dried onion or garlic that will be very bad for your cat. The other thing I have found that helps is I don't put out large portions or big smorgasbords  for cats because it seems to turn them off of their food. I usually put out a small portion and only leave it out for 30 minutes. Before I put something else out, I pick it up. Trying to feed on different dishes helps sometimes as well.

As for syringe feeding etc. It is so hard to do that with a cat that truly doesn't want to eat. They can get very stressed and you don't want her to be getting stressed. But you did say she is eating some, so that is good.

Make sure the litter box is close to where she is hanging out. She shouldn't have to go far for anything. Like I said before she needs to conserve her strength.

Low potassium can really make them feel like crap, as well as any electrolyte imbalance. Of course to much potassium is even worse. I am sure your vet would have checked electrolytes.

Do you know any of the blood results? Did they mention if the proteins were high, like the globulin? This is often high in cats with FIP. It does not mean the cat does have FIP, it is just a thing to figure into when trying to diagnose a disease with no real for sure test that can be done that gives you a definite answer. But I have seen many cats with FIP, and kittens, have high globulin that were highly likely to have FIP. 

How old is your cat again? Lymphoma is not picky of course. I have seen cats as young as 8 months old have it and others that didn't get it or have symptoms of it until well into their old age. Often it will be more than just one lymph node involved, and ultrasound is the best for looking at all those lymph nodes. Of course it does show up in many different forms.

I did have a kitten that I adopted out once who was very anemic. Fine when I adopted him out but the owner had a friend watching for 2 weeks, I didn't know, anyway friend brought the kitten in face planting. HCT = 8. Crazy anemic. That kitten had a blood parasite called haemobartonella AKA mycoplasma AKA FIA. The treatment was blood transfusions (they get scary the second and third time) long term fairly high for a kitten, doses of prednisolone, and doxycycline in a liquid form because they can have laryngeal strictures from the pill or capsule version, also used long term with the Prednisolone eventually being gradually reduced over a couple of months. Lots of fun! The kitten did live and grew to be a very bratty slightly small kind of ADHD kitten that his adopted mom would have died for.

So, who knows maybe they don't have that as a disease over there. It is carried by fleas. It doesn't mean she has fleas, but if she had them at any point in her life. It only takes a bite.

Very important to remain calm and confident around a cat. You can be loving and compassionate and empathetic but if you have to do a treatment you do it with conviction and confidence. You have to always be the person in the room who is calm and cool in the face of fear and or danger. You don't have to be trying to react to things quickly or anything like that. Just when you do decide, lets say to give her one of her medications. Have everything out that you could possible need and take a few deep breaths and find her and give her the medication. No starting and then stopping or not thinking you are doing what you should. She will read any sign of wavering or uncertainty in your body language and energy and will also not feel secure in what you are doing. Kind of like, you aren't going to follow the guy who is screaming "FIRE!! Quick go this way...no wait go this way!!!! Ah I don't know where to go? Oh, wait...maybe I do!!!"

I hope this is making sense and I am not insulting you in any way. 

OK lets see if this post written at 3:40 am makes any sense.

Hang in there. It sounds like you are doing everything you can for your cat. It is so hard when they are ill because you wind up feeling so insecure and helpless, yet of course you can't do nothing, but you can't really do anything (other than what your vet tells you) either, and it is so hard on you and your cat and everyone involved. For that I am truly so sorry.

The sneezing could be a cold picked up because your cat has basically not enough blood cells to fight off any infection and that compounded with being on the cortisone (immune suppressor) no doubt there is going to be an ever ready opportunistic upper respiratory infection to also burden your poor kitty right now. Make sure you let the vet know first thing.

I apologize for the length of this and I am again so sorry you are going through this. 

Thank you for all the advice in your post. It helped a lot - I have already taken up much of this advice as I went and bought the baby food as you described after work and she has indeed had some of it. I also was more calm when giving her meds tonight. We have moved her litter tray near to her resting area so she doesn't have to go too far and also her food and water right next to her incase she wants it. We've got her in the main living area at the moment so she is with us all the time. Tonight at bed time she'll come in the bedroom with us along with her bed and litter tray nearby. We have a vets appointment tomorrow at 9.30am and they want to do a test which she can't eat before so she can't have any more food after midnight for this.

I will ask them about the conditions you described to me - it certainly is another possibility.

Regarding her blood test results - they said everything was too low, apart from a couple of things which were too high. I have attached the results as an image below:


It looks like her RDW and MPV are high and the rest low.

I'll be sure to mention possible cold to the vet tomorrow morning. Tomorrow he will be able to let me know if the meds have had any significant effect on improving her health.

Thank you for the support, I'll keep everyone updated.

has @catwoman707  seen this?

Just to update: she is now at the vets for more testing which they will do under anesthesia. They will be testing to find out what the problem is with the lump in her abdomen as well as running another test to evaluate likelyhood of FIP. They explained it isn't a guaranteed yes/no test but that it will help to identify if it is likely or not. Further treatment will depend on the results of the testing.

The apartment feels very lonely today with me here on my own. I am working from home so trying to do some work but can't stop thinking about FiFi and hoping she's ok.

Okay, so first off I am sorry you and your cat are having to go through all of this. Most of us here see our pets as our children, and would move mountains to make them well.

I expect that the test they are doing today will include a FCoV tier test.

This is a test to determine whether your cat has ever contracted the coronavirus.  This would rule out FIP if it is negative, but if positive, does not mean positive for fip.

It simply means, because fip would have to originate from the common coronavirus, then mutate into fip, that if your cat has never contracted corona, it's not possible for it to be fip.

FYI, most cats at some point have contracted corona, which is why if it is pos does not mean pos fip.

Hope that made sense!!

Your case is a bit tough really, even to get an instinctual feeling, although I always fear fip simply because it is so final.

Tough because your cat's blood tests don't reveal much in detail except that she is very anemic. The high RDW and MPV  can be caused by the anemia. RDW is the size of the cells, the younger/newer the cell is, the bigger it will be, and as it ages becomes smaller, so if her cells are newly made, they will be bigger, causing the elevation.

The low PLT (platelets) can be caused by a lack of production from bone marrow failure, and/or destruction in the blood from infectious, immune mediated illness.

Low PDW is a response that is immune mediated as well.

From what is very obvious, your cat is very sick. It may very well be the dry form of fip.

I certainly hope not. I'm just not able to come up with what else is going on here. The serious anemia level is stemming from something, that's for sure.

The abdominal mass will likely be an enlarged mesenteric lymph node which is why the vomiting a while back, as it causes nausea, lack of appetite, etc.

Dry fip is extremely difficult to diagnose, but despite a confirmed diagnosis, basically ruling out other causes and putting symptoms and results together usually can point in it's likelihood/not.

Was there more to the blood test results or was that it?

That was it for the original blood test. Since then, however, she has been back to the vet and they have run more tests including more bloodwork, all while she had an empty stomach for more accurate results I would presume. They also analysed the enlarged lymph node. They should get the results back this evening. Last night after her day at the vet she ate well (baby food) and drank quite a lot. In the night I heard her either eating or drinking. This morning she ate a bit of food but not much, now she is angry with me because I had to force her to take the medicine, so she won't touch the food or water at the moment and is just looking at me like I am a nasty person 

The other thing they said before was that she has some liquid in her stomach. I don't know whether that is still the case now or not but I can ask when I speak about the results to them.

The vet has said it could be Cholangitus, Lymphoma or FIP.

He is treating her for Cholangitus first, while we wait for more conclusive results. If it comes back as Lymphoma we change treatment tomorrow. If it comes back as neither we know it might well be FIP and there's nothing significant that can be done. I am fearing the worst, I have to admit. It's one of those strange situations where I'd almost be delighted to hear it's one of the first two, despite none of them being desirable. Naturally I am willing it to be Cholangitus in preference to either of the others too.

liquid in her stomach? what is her heart like?

Yes they said this can be a result of the three different things they think it might be. Her heart hasn't been flagged up as a problem, it's her fever, anemia and the underlying cause that's concerning the vet. Good news is that she at heartily last night and did do a poop today, albeit a small one. I was a bit worried this morning that she wasn't going to eat after I had to force the meds as usual, but she has just had a lap or ten of salmon and sardine cat food I found at the supermarket this morning, 100% natural, all fish. She has also drank some water.

that's encouraging! now I can go to sleep. ciao!

andym1982 said:

 
That was it for the original blood test. Since then, however, she has been back to the vet and they have run more tests including more bloodwork, all while she had an empty stomach for more accurate results I would presume. They also analysed the enlarged lymph node. They should get the results back this evening. Last night after her day at the vet she ate well (baby food) and drank quite a lot. In the night I heard her either eating or drinking. This morning she ate a bit of food but not much, now she is angry with me because I had to force her to take the medicine, so she won't touch the food or water at the moment and is just looking at me like I am a nasty person 

The other thing they said before was that she has some liquid in her stomach. I don't know whether that is still the case now or not but I can ask when I speak about the results to them.

The vet has said it could be Cholangitus, Lymphoma or FIP.

He is treating her for Cholangitus first, while we wait for more conclusive results. If it comes back as Lymphoma we change treatment tomorrow. If it comes back as neither we know it might well be FIP and there's nothing significant that can be done. I am fearing the worst, I have to admit. It's one of those strange situations where I'd almost be delighted to hear it's one of the first two, despite none of them being desirable. Naturally I am willing it to be Cholangitus in preference to either of the others too.

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I am not familiar with, nor have had any experience with Cholangitus, only that it can be helped.

I don't get the feeling it is Lymphoma, probably because of her age for one, as it would be highly unusual, but her symptoms don't fully match lymphoma all that completely.

If it is fip (of course hope with everything it is not) but if so, her symptoms would point more towards the dry form. However it is now realized that there is a 3rd type, dry, wet, and both, with lesser amts of fluid accumilation.

You know, I sit here typing and just shook my head, I hope like hell it is not fip. This is just the most cruel thing, it randomly pops up all over, and I don't know if it's because I notice cases more because I have the unfortunate experience or what but seems more popular than the statistics of it.

It's something like 0.5%-2% average, seems to me to be more about 5%. That's alot considering what it is.

Will be wondering about the results.. 

Edit-I just looked up Cholangitus, the most predominant symptom is jaundice. Yellowing of eye whites, gums, etc.

@andym1982

how is she?