Your forums have been so helpful to me, so sorry for making my first post such a long rant.
I have a 4 and a half year old Persian, Penny. She is our beautiful princess (and knows it!). So the summer of 2014 I felt like she was acting kind of off, but we were in a new place, and she was still eating and drinking fine, so I didn't worry too much. I was, however, working extremely long hours and will continue to do so after I graduate, so I wanted to get her a companion. I know it's late in her life to do that, but she has always been good with other animals, so I wasn't too worried. We adopted Lucy, a very meek shelter cat who came from a bad situation and was very submissive. However, Lucy quickly recovered and put herself in charge, stressing Penny out even though we followed all the suggestions about introducing a new cat (separate rooms, then a screen, etc.). We got Feliway and did the best we could, but they still don't get along. Anyway, Penny gradually started losing weight. In November we realized she had lost half a pound maybe, but we attributed it to Lucy stealing her food. We started feeding them in separate rooms, but I guess Penny's appetite was shot, idk. We thought that it would pick back up when they were separated for 10 days over Christmas, but instead she lost more weight. Looking back, I obviously wish I had taken her to the vet back in November =/
In January I was getting really concerned, so I took her to the vet, who found a large growth in her abdomen. This was up there with my top five worst life experiences, because I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it. I assumed the worst, especially after her globulin levels were abnormal (associated with FIP and cancer), but they did a cell test and didn't find any cancer. The vet said it still might be cancer, but we could try antibiotics to see if it was inflammation. It wasn't. However, the growth is still the same size 4 months later, and he thinks maybe it was some kind of trauma related inflammation that she'll have for the rest of her life. Or it could be cancer. Very illuminating. He said we could do a biopsy to see if it was cancer, but because of the nature of the growth it would be basically impossible/extremely traumatizing to take out, so there's really no point in traumatizing her with a biopsy to find out.
He thought that perhaps the weight loss was unrelated and sent me to work on increasing her weight. It dropped some more initially (She started at 7.3, was at 6 for the January vet visit). At this point she was eating about 1 3 oz. can per day. In February she got a UTI so we took her to the emergency vet, where she was 5.5. She did antibiotics and it went away. She got another one a few weeks later but because I couldn't afford the emergency vet we did apple cider vinegar and again it went away. We started really committing to getting her to eat, feeding her off our fingers, buying every food we could find. She was slowly putting on ounces and increasing her appetite when she got another UTI. This coincided with a renewed loss in appetite. Knowing about hepatic lipidosis by now, I freaked out and took her to the vet. By this point the ACV had fixed her UTI, but she still wasn't eating. The vet gave me a bunch of suggestions that I already knew from here/had tried: baby food, boiled chicken, etc. He also recommended the A/D food, which had previously made her sick. Then he pretty much told me that "some cats are bad do-ers." Great. He also wrote in her chart that he thinks she will eventually develop into FIP, but he didn't tell me this directly, he just suggested it was a possibility =( =( =(
So this was super demoralizing. I decided to try the A/D food again because she still wasn't eating and I was desperate. We started it yesterday and she ate half a can off of my fingers (approx. 90 calories, she is about 5 lbs but should be 7). I bought multiple syringes since the trip to the vet last week but they all malfunctioned. I finally got the Four Paws syringe today, and was hoping to work up to 3/4 of a can. Unfortunately, her UTI is out of control so I'm having to give her ACV too (which sometimes causes nausea) and the A/D food is too much for her right now so she's throwing both up, meaning she's definitely not at 3/4 of a can.
I know I've done a million things wrong in this story and am not deserving of sympathy. However, I had to tell someone and people in real life get tired of listening to cat woes. I am gearing up to do another battle with the syringe--hopefully she'll keep it down this time.
I have a 4 and a half year old Persian, Penny. She is our beautiful princess (and knows it!). So the summer of 2014 I felt like she was acting kind of off, but we were in a new place, and she was still eating and drinking fine, so I didn't worry too much. I was, however, working extremely long hours and will continue to do so after I graduate, so I wanted to get her a companion. I know it's late in her life to do that, but she has always been good with other animals, so I wasn't too worried. We adopted Lucy, a very meek shelter cat who came from a bad situation and was very submissive. However, Lucy quickly recovered and put herself in charge, stressing Penny out even though we followed all the suggestions about introducing a new cat (separate rooms, then a screen, etc.). We got Feliway and did the best we could, but they still don't get along. Anyway, Penny gradually started losing weight. In November we realized she had lost half a pound maybe, but we attributed it to Lucy stealing her food. We started feeding them in separate rooms, but I guess Penny's appetite was shot, idk. We thought that it would pick back up when they were separated for 10 days over Christmas, but instead she lost more weight. Looking back, I obviously wish I had taken her to the vet back in November =/
In January I was getting really concerned, so I took her to the vet, who found a large growth in her abdomen. This was up there with my top five worst life experiences, because I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it. I assumed the worst, especially after her globulin levels were abnormal (associated with FIP and cancer), but they did a cell test and didn't find any cancer. The vet said it still might be cancer, but we could try antibiotics to see if it was inflammation. It wasn't. However, the growth is still the same size 4 months later, and he thinks maybe it was some kind of trauma related inflammation that she'll have for the rest of her life. Or it could be cancer. Very illuminating. He said we could do a biopsy to see if it was cancer, but because of the nature of the growth it would be basically impossible/extremely traumatizing to take out, so there's really no point in traumatizing her with a biopsy to find out.
He thought that perhaps the weight loss was unrelated and sent me to work on increasing her weight. It dropped some more initially (She started at 7.3, was at 6 for the January vet visit). At this point she was eating about 1 3 oz. can per day. In February she got a UTI so we took her to the emergency vet, where she was 5.5. She did antibiotics and it went away. She got another one a few weeks later but because I couldn't afford the emergency vet we did apple cider vinegar and again it went away. We started really committing to getting her to eat, feeding her off our fingers, buying every food we could find. She was slowly putting on ounces and increasing her appetite when she got another UTI. This coincided with a renewed loss in appetite. Knowing about hepatic lipidosis by now, I freaked out and took her to the vet. By this point the ACV had fixed her UTI, but she still wasn't eating. The vet gave me a bunch of suggestions that I already knew from here/had tried: baby food, boiled chicken, etc. He also recommended the A/D food, which had previously made her sick. Then he pretty much told me that "some cats are bad do-ers." Great. He also wrote in her chart that he thinks she will eventually develop into FIP, but he didn't tell me this directly, he just suggested it was a possibility =( =( =(
So this was super demoralizing. I decided to try the A/D food again because she still wasn't eating and I was desperate. We started it yesterday and she ate half a can off of my fingers (approx. 90 calories, she is about 5 lbs but should be 7). I bought multiple syringes since the trip to the vet last week but they all malfunctioned. I finally got the Four Paws syringe today, and was hoping to work up to 3/4 of a can. Unfortunately, her UTI is out of control so I'm having to give her ACV too (which sometimes causes nausea) and the A/D food is too much for her right now so she's throwing both up, meaning she's definitely not at 3/4 of a can.
I know I've done a million things wrong in this story and am not deserving of sympathy. However, I had to tell someone and people in real life get tired of listening to cat woes. I am gearing up to do another battle with the syringe--hopefully she'll keep it down this time.
) then I will bring up that and also the fluids. She drinks a reasonable amount of water for a mostly wet food cat, but it can't hurt to ask--I always get very nervous at the vet and chicken out. I'm also going to stop feeding them Blue Buffalo food (occasionally Penny will eat a few pieces) because I saw on the nutrition forum that a lot of cats eating that food have UTI problems. 
