I've been to four vets and no one can figure out what is wrong with my cat, please help!

franky10

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My cat Franky is 10 years old. His symptoms are weight loss hair loss especially around the neck and shoulders but also on feet. And inside of legs. Unkempt appearance, he looks like he is wasting away. He appears very weak and listless. His urine protein creatinine ratio is 1.0 so it's a bit high and his urine was the color of coca cola. His urinalysis had blood in the urine and protein loss in the urine. But his blood tests were all normal his X-rays all normal and his ultrasound of the abdomen is normal. He has a history of being blocked and had to be surgically unblocked twice but that was a year ago. The vets are puzzled as to what is wrong with him! He also is doing this very strange behavior, he keeps shaking his feet as if they were wet and he's shaking them off but they aren't wet. And he keeps twitching his tail nonstop. Also it seems that his coat is bothering him because when I pat him he kind of cowers or shys away from my pats. What is happening to my poor kitty?!? Has anyone had a similar situation? I am doing fluids and kidney diet food because of the high UPC but his bun and creatinine were normal though the vet said his kidneys were small. Please help!! All advice welcome ! :)
 

pinkdagger

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Is the kidney diet the wet or dry? If you're feeding the dry, try using a wet diet instead. The colour of the urine and small kidneys make it seem like he needs all the fluid he can get, so aside from the fluid you're already administering, give him an all-wet diet. To counteract the protein loss in urine, find other high quality, high protein wet foods and you can try rotating them with the kidney diet wet food to keep his protein from getting low. Have you seen Tanya's guide to CKD? She has a lot of useful information on her site, and while Franky may not have CKD, it may be handy stuff to give a read: http://www.felinecrf.org/which_foods.htm

Have they checked for anything neurological? The shaking of the paws, twitching, and retracting with touch could be something misfiring in his brain that is making certain nerve endings sensitive to even the lightest touch or friction. If the vets you've been to can't figure anything out, is there a vet school you can reach out to? Can't guarantee they'll have the answers, but they may be willing to try more or different diagnostics, and any information they find can help you and Franky, as well as be documented as case study for anyone else's cats who may present these symptoms.

I hope you're able to have more light shed on Franky's condition and that he can get on the mend!


Best of luck!
 
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42cattier

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I had old, 16 y. o., cat who started wasting away too and it ended badly fast, so I'm very worried about your cat. If possible, finger feed or syringe feed him as a first step, offer a canned food he agrees to eat with some water added if he drinks very little. Again, Tanya's guide to feline CKD is really good.

From what I had read online, for aging cat all symptomatically suspected main organs should be tested or at least symptomatically treated for exclusion. It could be liver in addition to kidneys, diabetes, thyroid, anything, including hair loss and twitching as allergic reaction on parasites, even if you can't find them.

Other people here may guide you through sets of symptoms usual for major organs diseases, or you may find them yourself on DVM websites. Then you can ask your vet for a test for suspected system and take future actions based on results.

Diffuse hair loss, skin twitching and shaking legs as they are wet can be not a neurological disorder, but reaction on allergy to parasites, even on single flea or demodectic mange, on eating less, on stress and pain. My present cat had half of body hair loss after not eating after URI in shelter, vaccination after it, adoption and not eating for a some time. Herbal immune support drops for months helped, but you may not have this time and with such symptoms there can be containdications. Shaking legs as if they are wet my present cat had after surgery, repeatedly, after pain management narcotic started to wear off, then it passed.

Listlessness is really bad...

If you are in US, holistic vet can be found through http://www.ahvma.org , as other members posted, sometimes this helps.

Best of luck to you both!
 
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