Stomitis or something similar

Hi there, I have just joined and am looking for any help of advice or  if anyone out there has a cat who has experienced similar to what my cat Arthur is going through.

I have three cats all from kittens. Arthur came first, then Thomas followed by Charlie.  Up until October all  of them were very healthy and in beautiful condition.  Following problems with Thomas' smelly pale yellow cow pats (his poos) which were mucous and blood stained I had given up on commercial produced cat food and began making my own which consisted of ground rabbit with chunks of chicken breast with added vitamins\taurine.  It took me a month to get Thomas to eat it, Arthur and Charlie took to it straight away.  But the results were worth it as Thoma' no longer is caught short with the runs and does smaller darker poos. His coat has gone from dry and constantly shedding to silky soft and hardly losing any hair.  His temperament has transformed too and he is a loving lap cat.

Anyhow in October Arthur who loves his food and weighted 6.5kg went off his food.  I took him to the vet and he has infected anal glands and a high temperature.  He was given metacam and a long lasting antibiotic.  A week later I took him back as his ear was infected - a different antibiotic this time.  Then the lesions in his mouth began and he stopped eating completely.  An exploratory was done and his throat was extremely red and he had ulcers in his mouth.  Tests were done and everything came back negative.  He also had a bad nasal discharge - yellow green.  A week later he was in the hospital as he wasn't eating or drinking.  I left him on a Monday and went to visit on the Saturday.  The change when I saw him was dramatic.  He had lost lots of weight, eating only enough to avoid a feeding tube.  He had a very sore bottom and had developed dandruff (with some dried gunk on the side of coat) but he was so pleased to see me.  I spent a couple of hours with him and left with some doubts about his treatment.  On Sunday I did the 3 hour trip again in  the pouring rain and took my cat comb with me  and some steamed chicken and my own cat food.  I groomed his  coat as due to his mouth ulcers he couldn't do it himself and he ate some steamed chicken and all my home made cat food and then I told the hospital I was taking him home.

Since bringing him home it has been a roller coaster of eating one day and then not eating.  His skin is a mess with raised dried patches and I groom him twice a day.  The hospital tests needless to say came back negative but without biopsies they diagnosed stomitis/gingivitis and recommended that all his teeth be extracted.  By this time he was 4.2kg.

Once home I got him up to 5.7kg but he has gone down to just under 5kg.  Biopsies were done  on his coat, mouth and tongue and the lab results didn't come up in favor of stomitis but vague diagnosis of other issues such as auto immune.  He then received a steroid injection that lasted 2/4 days with no spectacular improvement.  Another one  didn't do any good.  His appetite is almost non-existent.  Yesterday he has some turkey and a lot of prawns.  I am also giving his live yoghurt for his mouth and cammomkile tea on his skin.  As I have only just started it is too early to say whether these will help or not.  I also give him a dose of lysine and nutri-plus.

His nasal discharge did go away albeit he did still sneeze from time to time.  His mouth gets better than worse.  His skin is so dry and I  blame the hospital for this who did  not groom him.  He has lumps and raised ridges on his skins.  Basically he is a mess.

I was supposed to take him back to the vet today as they are now talking about x-raying him for a cancer mass.  I am not happy about this.  He has received so many drugs especially when he wasn't eating that I feel all the good bacteria in his body has been stripped.  He was on  antacids as he was throwing up until 3 days  ago.  I have stopped giving him this now he is getting live yoghurt and what food he gets is staying  down.  Today I syringe fed him liquid food and he had some ham and  quite a few prawns.  I can't get him to eat my cat food or any superior canned food.  After having more or less a clear nose the nasal discharge came back again after the second steroid injection!

If anyone has any advice or has a cat who has experienced anything like Arthur's symptoms I would be so  pleased to hear from you.  A number of people are saying I should put him down but he is such a sweet and lovely cat and I love him dearly.

Abbeylou my cat had a fever and couldn't eat because of stomatitis.  He jumped back everytime he tried to take food in his mouth and had a high fever.  He was hospitalized with an IV and the only thing I could get into him was baby food (without the onion, garlic powder).

He was finally diagnosed with bartonella.  A 3 week course of antibiotics cleared his symptoms, but it took months before his energy was back.  \

My very first reaction is how his system went out of control and his immune system went on overload.

Something had to trigger this type of immune response, random infections, including the mouth ulcers, dry/scaly skin, which are an overreactive response to something that his body did NOT like and is protesting, trying to ward off whatever evil thing he was exposed to.

It sounds like he actually began reacting to the food. It is cooked correct? If raw I would say that maybe bacteria amt was too high.

I would stop everything. Start feeding him turkey baby food, not chicken. Turkey since this will be a new protein for him.

As much as you can get him to eat, hopefully 3 jars a day. Do warm it up, it smells good to cats.

I would get him on a probiotic, not fortiflora but better, like Nexabiotic. 

From the baby food I would slowly start him on a limited ingredient diet, Blue Buffalo Basics limited ingredient turkey.

Basically you are treating this like ibd or pancreatitis, but in essence they are all about an over reacting immune response to something that doesn't agree with them.

Unless they actually suspect cancer because they felt a mass, I wouldn't think cancer would cause these kinds of random symptoms.

This is my opinion and I am not a vet. But sometimes outside experience is more practical, again, my opinion.

BTW, how old is he?

Arthur is 5 and half years old. Neither my other cats are ill. They all ate the same food and are large healthy cats with gleaming coats which is how Arthur was. The cat food I make is from the cat nutrition website and I don't skimp in the supplements .

My mentioning the food being a possible culprit was in no way meant for anything except if perhaps he was having a reaction to say, rabbit for instance. If he has never had rabbit before and was highly allergic, then it might explain this.

Just using that as an example. It sounded to me like you knew what you were doing when making their food, I don't doubt that at all.

Honestly, I can't come up with anything other than he is over reacting to something he's recently consumed or been exposed to.

His symptoms are all over the place, and I do know that his skin condition and mouth ulcers ARE caused by immune responses, so looking at the whole picture thinking it might stem from something recent in/added to his diet is all I meant

Okay. He had been on the food for a while and once I found the best formula they would all eat which was rabbit and chicken I stuck with it. Thanks for your thoughts on the mater though.

I feel for you, it's so frustrating not knowing what you are dealing with.

I'm basically going through it myself with my Krissy.

I have to say and I don't want to get my hopes up but the yoghurt is helping. I could hear him snorting as he's bunged up after the basal discharge so I got some warm water and cleaned his nose. He then went to the bedroom door as I have him in with me at nighttime. And at 5am in the morning he has lapped some gravy from packet of cat food had some turkey and some prawns. He would have more but his mouth usually overestimates what his stomach can hold down do am spreading his meals out. Followed up with syringe of live yoghurt which he seems to like but I can't get him to take it off a plate yet. His lips are the best I've seen in ages. No sign of swelling or redness. I know from having in the past used live yoghurt myself how soothing it can be. Another problem now is his bottom which is red and starting to smell. He had to have an enema twice since this all started as he didn't poo for a week on those occasions. He's going need a good clean down there so will rope my daughter in to help!

Well this sounds like a bit of good news at least! Better than remaining the same or worse, getting worse! Fingers crossed.

Sounds like due to lack of eating he is backed up.