The vet is stumped--huge swollen lymph nodes on my kitty--help!!

Hi there!  I have a three month old kitten by the name of Sansa and unfortunately, we've had some underlying issues with her for about a month now.  She got sick around eight weeks old and was diagnosed with a URI.  Doctor gave her amoxicillin for one week.  She got better and then got sick immediately after she was done with the course.  Took her back and they prescribed Orbax, 0.1 ml once a day for 21 days (she still has a week to go before it is finished).  

Yesterday I noticed she has HUGE swollen lymph nodes under her neck.  The size of marbles.  I took her into the vet again today and he was stumped.  He got the opinion of a second vet in the office and both were concerned.  She eats normal, drinks water, plays.  If she wasn't so cuddly, I don't think I would've ever caught the swelling, she doesn't act sick.  He recommended a feline leukemia test (which I took, she is negative), as well as a blood test and a cancer test (forgot the name--cyto something).  The C word immediately freaked me out, she is only three months old, there is no way it could be cancer.  He agrees but he has never seen this type of swelling in a kitten before.  He said it is POSSIBLE it could be another bacterial infection (he never said the name) received from fleas (she had a few when I first got her but I took care of them) and she doesn't have fleas now so he doesn't think that is the issue.  Also, he said if she did have it, Orbax is the antibiotic used to treat that infection so it should go away on its own. 

I agreed to the blood test but declined the cyto test.  I wanted to see what the blood test has to say.  

Has anyone ever dealt with this before?  Since I have brought her home from the vet, she has been acting strange--licking walls, peeing and pooping outside of her litter box and she has been drinking a ton of water.  I wish she had done all this before I took her to the vet =( 

Thanks in advance, I just want my baby to be 100% =( 

I'm so sorry to hear your baby isn't doing well! I have not personally had experience with this, hopefully someone will come along though that does. You are absolutely doing all the right things though by taking her in and getting her checked out, so you are on the right path to getting things figured out it seems.

Question - do you know if that lump was there before, or did it just come up recently (well into taking the Orbax)? 

Both those new behaviours concern me - going outside the box, and licking the walls.
Cats can lick the walls out of habit or boredom because they are strange little creatures. But it can also be because of a medical reason like a nutrient deficiency that they're trying to make up for.

Donutte said:

 
I'm so sorry to hear your baby isn't doing well! I have not personally had experience with this, hopefully someone will come along though that does. You are absolutely doing all the right things though by taking her in and getting her checked out, so you are on the right path to getting things figured out it seems.

Question - do you know if that lump was there before, or did it just come up recently (well into taking the Orbax)? 

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They were swollen when she had the URI but never this large.  They went down with the Orbax but it was still there.  But I would say sometime within this past week is when they became more enlarged.  

I hope the blood test comes back sooner rather than later.  This wait is killing me =( But she is still acting like herself so I am happy about that.