Last week Shel isn't finishing his food. ?????
Saturday, he has no real appetite. I get some food into him - and he throws it all up.
Sunday morning, I wake up to see him looking like this. Completely white. His gums are white.
I called the vet, and given it was Sunday and his blood work wouldn't be sent to a lab until Monday anyway, we waited. Yesterday, x-ray saw some potential thickening of his bowels and they ran the HCT in-house in addition to sending his blood work out for a full Sr. panel. His HCT is 14%. He's very anemic. No surprise - he's white. But he purrs for pets, perks up when you talk to him, and his eyes light up for food, even though he doesn't eat more than a few licks on his own - so all of that is good. :rub:
Due to the x-ray, we scheduled the ultrasound for today while we waited for blood test results.
Ultrasound found nothing. Nothing at all.
BUT his blood work came back funky in one respect: we knew he had the low HCT. The only other thing off were reticulocytes. His WBC is low-end of normal, but normal. His body is making NO new red blood cells.
These clinical signs point *most likely* to either cancer in his bone marrow OR aplastic anemia. Aplastic anemia is usually not very treatable, but there definitely ARE cases in the literature where red blood cell aplasia responded to treatment with cyclosporin and steroids.
Of course... his bone marrow needs to be ABLE to work for something like that to work. :cross:
His bone marrow biopsy is scheduled for tomorrow.
Long time TSC-ers will remember that Tuxedo had an immune-mediated hemolytic anemia - that did not start out looking like IMHA as Tuxie had low reticulocytes, too. So who knows. We just have to wait for more information. The biopsy results should take 4 to 5 days.
Good thoughts and vibes that his bone marrow still works are greatly appreciated. :heart2:
Saturday, he has no real appetite. I get some food into him - and he throws it all up.
Sunday morning, I wake up to see him looking like this. Completely white. His gums are white.
I called the vet, and given it was Sunday and his blood work wouldn't be sent to a lab until Monday anyway, we waited. Yesterday, x-ray saw some potential thickening of his bowels and they ran the HCT in-house in addition to sending his blood work out for a full Sr. panel. His HCT is 14%. He's very anemic. No surprise - he's white. But he purrs for pets, perks up when you talk to him, and his eyes light up for food, even though he doesn't eat more than a few licks on his own - so all of that is good. :rub:
Due to the x-ray, we scheduled the ultrasound for today while we waited for blood test results.
Ultrasound found nothing. Nothing at all.
BUT his blood work came back funky in one respect: we knew he had the low HCT. The only other thing off were reticulocytes. His WBC is low-end of normal, but normal. His body is making NO new red blood cells.
These clinical signs point *most likely* to either cancer in his bone marrow OR aplastic anemia. Aplastic anemia is usually not very treatable, but there definitely ARE cases in the literature where red blood cell aplasia responded to treatment with cyclosporin and steroids.
Of course... his bone marrow needs to be ABLE to work for something like that to work. :cross:
His bone marrow biopsy is scheduled for tomorrow.
Long time TSC-ers will remember that Tuxedo had an immune-mediated hemolytic anemia - that did not start out looking like IMHA as Tuxie had low reticulocytes, too. So who knows. We just have to wait for more information. The biopsy results should take 4 to 5 days.
Good thoughts and vibes that his bone marrow still works are greatly appreciated. :heart2:
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