Senior cat with vulva discharge

Hi all, come here hoping you guys could shine any light on my cats mysterious symptoms, as the vets seem to be at a crossroads.

About 4 months ago I fostered (with the rspca)  a cat that we suspect is around 14 years old called Lucy. I'd been looking after her in the cattery I work in for about 7 months and throughout the time she had vulva discharge. She had no other concerning symptoms, no excessive drinking, blood in urine, over licking, blood tests all normal. 

Long story short she had to come home with me or she was going to be put to sleep as there was no luck rehoming her. Since coming home she's been to the vets multiple times and with a swab they said it was an ecoli infection  but since she has been on two different lots of antibiotics but nothing seems to be touching it. 

Has anyone got any experience of this or cats not responding to antibiotics? The vets and the rspca seem to be unwilling to try much else and as it's not seemingly causing her distress I can understand but the discharge all over the house isn't something I can just accept, i'm constantly cleaning her or the carpet.

Dreamer27 said:

 
Hi all, come here hoping you guys could shine any light on my cats mysterious symptoms, as the vets seem to be at a crossroads.

About 4 months ago I fostered (with the rspca)  a cat that we suspect is around 14 years old called Lucy. I'd been looking after her in the cattery I work in for about 7 months and throughout the time she had vulva discharge. She had no other concerning symptoms, no excessive drinking, blood in urine, over licking, blood tests all normal. 

Long story short she had to come home with me or she was going to be put to sleep as there was no luck rehoming her. Since coming home she's been to the vets multiple times and with a swab they said it was an ecoli infection  but since she has been on two different lots of antibiotics but nothing seems to be touching it. 

Has anyone got any experience of this or cats not responding to antibiotics? The vets and the rspca seem to be unwilling to try much else and as it's not seemingly causing her distress I can understand but the discharge all over the house isn't something I can just accept, i'm constantly cleaning her or the carpet.

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Hi!

I'm assuming Pyometra was ruled out?  Have they done a culture and sensitivity test on the discharge to see what antibiotics would do best?  What have they tried so far?

StephenQ said:

 
Hi!

I'm assuming Pyometra was ruled out?  Have they done a culture and sensitivity test on the discharge to see what antibiotics would do best?  What have they tried so far?

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Hi Stephen, they didn't discuss the fact it could be pyometra..I ruled it out myself as her white blood cell counts have come back normal and there has been no increased drinking, plus the discharge isn't the 'right colour' and there's no smell to it. 

She's been on Synuloux and Clavaseptin, she had previously been given an antibiotic injection that worked for a couple of weeks but soon wore off. 

No culture or sensitivity tests have been done, the vet has been quite unhelpful to be honest and had to fight to get him to try another type of antibiotic but I will mention that to him next time I take her. Thank you for the suggestions, I appreciate the help as i'm feeling a bit clueless. 

Dreamer27 said:

 
Hi Stephen, they didn't discuss the fact it could be pyometra..I ruled it out myself as her white blood cell counts have come back normal and there has been no increased drinking, plus the discharge isn't the 'right colour' and there's no smell to it. 

She's been on Synuloux and Clavaseptin, she had previously been given an antibiotic injection that worked for a couple of weeks but soon wore off. 

No culture or sensitivity tests have been done, the vet has been quite unhelpful to be honest and had to fight to get him to try another type of antibiotic but I will mention that to him next time I take her. Thank you for the suggestions, I appreciate the help as i'm feeling a bit clueless. 

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OK on the pyometra.  Agreed i'd go with a culture and sensitivity test, but i'd also wonder if i was using the right vet based on what you've said.  Keep us updated!

Hi Stephen after finally getting the RSPCA worker to agree the vet I was seeing was useless we got referred to another vets who said they were confident it was Pyometra and therefore they would spay her or at least take out what had been left from an unsuccessful original spay. She went in for the op they opened her up and found she was spayed, only a suspicious growth was found which they suspect might be cancerous so they've taken a 'sample' and have sent it away from tests, which leads to my next stupid question i'm sure. 

Apart from the discharge she appears in good health, normal blood results, eating and drinking normally, normal toilet - I just wonder if she could appear in this good health with cancer? 

Dreamer27 said:

 
Hi Stephen after finally getting the RSPCA worker to agree the vet I was seeing was useless we got referred to another vets who said they were confident it was Pyometra and therefore they would spay her or at least take out what had been left from an unsuccessful original spay. She went in for the op they opened her up and found she was spayed, only a suspicious growth was found which they suspect might be cancerous so they've taken a 'sample' and have sent it away from tests, which leads to my next stupid question i'm sure. 

Apart from the discharge she appears in good health, normal blood results, eating and drinking normally, normal toilet - I just wonder if she could appear in this good health with cancer? 

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Hey,

did they remove the entire growth or just a sample?

As far as cancer and feeling ok/being in good health that's a hard question to answer. I expect most patients feel fine with early stage cancer, and then depending on the nature of the cancer, location, growth rate etc, there reaches a tipping point where you can go from feeling ok to not feeling ok fairly quickly.  On the other hand, feeling/appearing healthy is a cause to be glad, not a cause to be worried, and when faced with the unknown, i vote let's be optimistic and go with "benign growth"> :-)

In support of that, since it seems she's had some sort of symptoms for several months now, that would support a benign growth over a malignant cancer which would have probably taken her life my now.

Dreamer27 said:

 
Hi Stephen, they didn't discuss the fact it could be pyometra..I ruled it out myself as her white blood cell counts have come back normal and there has been no increased drinking, plus the discharge isn't the 'right colour' and there's no smell to it. 

She's been on Synuloux and Clavaseptin, she had previously been given an antibiotic injection that worked for a couple of weeks but soon wore off. 

No culture or sensitivity tests have been done, the vet has been quite unhelpful to be honest and had to fight to get him to try another type of antibiotic but I will mention that to him next time I take her. Thank you for the suggestions, I appreciate the help as i'm feeling a bit clueless. 

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I just went through a case of open pyrometra  in a 8 year old female cat who I was told was spay!  On a Wed I noticed vaginal discharge is was white with what looked like a tad bit of yellow in it. It had no smell. The cat was eating, drinking, playing, no excessive thirst and no fever. I called the vet on Thursday and brought her in on Friday afternoon. The vet looked at her and could see the discharge and I made the comment if she wasn't spay id be worried about pyrometra. He palpated her and said he belly felt squishy and he wanted to run some blood work. We ran blood work and her blood work came back fine. He still didn't like the way her belly felt and asked if I was willing to ultrasound her stomach, I went ahead and let him ultrasound her (this was at 3pm) by 4pm she was in the OR for emergency surgery to be spay! The ultrasound showed she was still intact and had a uterus full of yuck!

I have had this cat for many years, she never had a visable heat so had no idea she was still intact. I took the person's I got her from word she was spay. She has been to the vet for shots and check ups and no one ever questioned the fact she may be still intact.

Anyways the vet said I was lucky I knew enough to bring her in to have her checked. Because it was open and draining she did not have the normal symptoms because the infection was coming out her vagina and not staying in which is why they think she had no fever or symptoms. He said had it stopped draining it could have been deadly for her so I am lucky I took her in when I did.

I am leaning toward pyometra myself. I had  a kitty who had no fever, had no odor but had the discharge that was white, then a little beige, then blood. I got her in to the hospital, they spayed her about an hour later. I wonder if you can see if another Vet, possibly an internist, would check her over and feel her belly. I know you said she was spayed already but its awfully strange to be having this sort of thing, happening to her.Given what  a spay is. I'm not sure what would cause her to be having these issues. I've had good luck with Orbax, I don't really like my cats being on Baytril as it can rarely,but still cause blindness. Might see if they can get you Orbax for her?