One of our cats, China has gotten super sick a couple months ago. China is only three years old (almost four) and was adopted from SPCA when she was 5-6 months old. We noticed that she lost a lot of weight, she was down to 4 pounds 5 ounces from a healthy 8 pound something at one point. She's been seen at several vets, I won't go into detail but her diagnosis was very delayed since we never realized how serious her condition was due to sloppy examinations and poor cat handling. We noticed that the new home we moved into was flea infested (and subsequently both of our cats) in June/July and she received two treatments of Advantage II.
She received a blood test on 11/20 which showed that she was slightly anemic, slightly high WBC count, high lymphocyte, low platelet, high BUN and slightly high Potassium. She also received an X-ray in which we found she was suffering from pleural effusion. She had an enlarged nymph node near her neck. Her liver showed slightly enlarged. There were slight irregularities within the lungs/kidneys as well though the doctor couldn't be sure what exactly it was. At this point she weighed 4 pound 15 ounces, and wouldn't eat (apart from occasional boiled chicken and temptation treats).
The following day 11/21 she received a chest tap which removed 150 cc of fluid. The fluid analysis showed a high lymphocyte count, no infectious organisms (fungal or bacterial). She tested negative for FeLV and FIV. At this point the vet suspected lymphoma or FIP. China started eating better after her chest tap, we discovered that she would take By Nature wet food which was good and she ate about 50-70g a day.
On 11/26 she received her ultrasound with FNAs of her liver, her spleen and lymph nodes. The ultrasonographist took a quick look at her heart and reported that the right side was enlarged. Her spleen, liver, several lymph nodes and pancreas were enlarged, the pancreas was nodular as well. There was a small accumulation of sand in her urinary bladder. The FNA came back showing hemophagocytic syndrome consistently. We added on a FIP titer test, which came back positive but with a relative low titer count. The ultrasonographist also performed a chest tap which removed about 60 cc of fluid.
On 12/4 she had her red-blood cell count taken and it was 5% lower than the reading on 11/20. She received another chest tap which removed 45 cc of fluid. After the chest tap she weighed 4 pounds and 6 ounces. The chest tap wasn't performed by her regular vet since she was out of town, instead the other vet (same clinic) pulled us into the clinic to basically tell us that China would be too anemic next week for a chest tap to help her, and since they had no idea what was going on with her she was implying we should euthanize her. We went home, devastated and angry. The same day they were pushing us for more tests (heartworm, another series of tests for sarcoma, blood test, which we all declined since none of it was treatable in any way).
It's 12/22 now and I feel like China is answering my Christmas wish. She's been eating 150g+ of Wellness wet food every day, her appetite is amazing. She's at 5 pounds 6 ounces today, she's gained over a full pound the past couple weeks. She is having no trouble breathing (unlike the vet predicted). She is more active, she has started coming down from her hiding spot, she has energy to torture us again, she is trilling and rubbing her head against us and the other day she was even interested in playing once again. I don't want to get my hopes up, because all the data that we have points towards the fact that she is a seriously ill and I don't know how I feel about taking her back to a vet that has clearly given up on her. We still notice irregularities with her. She stopped licking rocks and trying to eat her litter (she started this behavior when she became anemic and I'm assuming she's no longer anemic if her behavior stopped). She goes to the litter box regularly though her urine output is still very large and she occasionally (once every two days) retches like a hairball is about to come up but none have come up for a while.
So I guess my question is... is it possible that cats can spontaneously get better without any treatment?
She received a blood test on 11/20 which showed that she was slightly anemic, slightly high WBC count, high lymphocyte, low platelet, high BUN and slightly high Potassium. She also received an X-ray in which we found she was suffering from pleural effusion. She had an enlarged nymph node near her neck. Her liver showed slightly enlarged. There were slight irregularities within the lungs/kidneys as well though the doctor couldn't be sure what exactly it was. At this point she weighed 4 pound 15 ounces, and wouldn't eat (apart from occasional boiled chicken and temptation treats).
The following day 11/21 she received a chest tap which removed 150 cc of fluid. The fluid analysis showed a high lymphocyte count, no infectious organisms (fungal or bacterial). She tested negative for FeLV and FIV. At this point the vet suspected lymphoma or FIP. China started eating better after her chest tap, we discovered that she would take By Nature wet food which was good and she ate about 50-70g a day.
On 11/26 she received her ultrasound with FNAs of her liver, her spleen and lymph nodes. The ultrasonographist took a quick look at her heart and reported that the right side was enlarged. Her spleen, liver, several lymph nodes and pancreas were enlarged, the pancreas was nodular as well. There was a small accumulation of sand in her urinary bladder. The FNA came back showing hemophagocytic syndrome consistently. We added on a FIP titer test, which came back positive but with a relative low titer count. The ultrasonographist also performed a chest tap which removed about 60 cc of fluid.
On 12/4 she had her red-blood cell count taken and it was 5% lower than the reading on 11/20. She received another chest tap which removed 45 cc of fluid. After the chest tap she weighed 4 pounds and 6 ounces. The chest tap wasn't performed by her regular vet since she was out of town, instead the other vet (same clinic) pulled us into the clinic to basically tell us that China would be too anemic next week for a chest tap to help her, and since they had no idea what was going on with her she was implying we should euthanize her. We went home, devastated and angry. The same day they were pushing us for more tests (heartworm, another series of tests for sarcoma, blood test, which we all declined since none of it was treatable in any way).
It's 12/22 now and I feel like China is answering my Christmas wish. She's been eating 150g+ of Wellness wet food every day, her appetite is amazing. She's at 5 pounds 6 ounces today, she's gained over a full pound the past couple weeks. She is having no trouble breathing (unlike the vet predicted). She is more active, she has started coming down from her hiding spot, she has energy to torture us again, she is trilling and rubbing her head against us and the other day she was even interested in playing once again. I don't want to get my hopes up, because all the data that we have points towards the fact that she is a seriously ill and I don't know how I feel about taking her back to a vet that has clearly given up on her. We still notice irregularities with her. She stopped licking rocks and trying to eat her litter (she started this behavior when she became anemic and I'm assuming she's no longer anemic if her behavior stopped). She goes to the litter box regularly though her urine output is still very large and she occasionally (once every two days) retches like a hairball is about to come up but none have come up for a while.
So I guess my question is... is it possible that cats can spontaneously get better without any treatment?
