Cat Wth Vasculitis Not Improving

My cat, Billie, is 10 and was recently diagnosed with vasculitis. He's covered in scabs and hasn't eaten his kibble in a month and has been living off of canned food and baby food. The vet is treating him with Prednisone but he is not improving and in the pat couple of days he's now refusing to eat hardly anything.

I mostly need to just rant since $700 and four weeks later, my vet is trying to take a wait and see approach to cure him, but he is clearly regressing. Every week begins with me calling them and saying that he can't wait for his appointment and needs to go in ASAP.

Has anyone had experience with vasculitis for cats? Apparently it's rare, so I can't find any decent information about it. He's 10, indoors only, and an only cat, so I doubt it's FIV or anything. He hasn't been up and about in weeks and is miserable, so at this point I'm desperate for any help at all.

Also, sorry for any typos! I can't see an option to edit my post but it's 4:30 in the morning here and I haven't been able to sleep well because of this, so forgive me!

It is, apparently, EXTREMELY rare in cats.  How did your Vet end up diagnosing Billie with this issue? Are they 100% certain that's what it is, or are they going by process of elimination? 

Did you try doing food trials or eliminations (other than eliminating all dry food?)

We did have a cat here in TCS that was practically hairless due to lesions, and in the end, trying different treatments, got a good result.  I can't find the thread right now, but maybe @catwoman707 will remember, as I believe she was instrumental in helping with figuring out something that worked

Now, I want to show you something.  This is a cat who was diagnosed with Lupus, which is a different auto immune disease, but could be simsilarl.  Here is a running starting in 2012 of his ups and down, complete with pictures.  The very first post is a picture of this poor baby at his worst, and the entire thread documents (in pictures) his ups and down and what was tried to help him (foods, medications, dosages, etc.)  You might or might not find it helpful.  BTW, this is NOT the thread I spoke of above.  This is a different cat.  

 

Oops, just realized I forgot the link for Lucas, the Lupus cat .  Here it is:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/244155/photo-update-of-lucas

Thank you so much!! He was diagnosed by a pathologist via a biopsy mailed out. Our vet has had experience with one other cat who had vasculitis who randomly got better, so I think she's holding out that the same might happen for Billie.

I've read in dogs that a beef sensitivity can trigger it. Billie has IBS that's triggered by chicken, so he's been on a beef diet since August. I assume any hypersensitivity would have occurred earlier? I kind of ignored the IBS and tried him on just turkey baby food to remove other allergens to no avail.

I will read up on your suggestions when I'm on my laptop tonight! He ate a little bit this morning, so I'm hoping that maybe he might be getting his appetite back enough for me to not have to force him to eat.

sorry Billie is not well, here is some info that might help https://en.wikivet.net/Vasculitis . I hope you can get it under control

I don't have experience with vasculitis in cats, my only experience with autoimmune is in a human. I am sorry to hear Billie isn't doing well.

Have you considered a 2nd opinion from another specialist?   Or my other thought  since this is a rare condition, you might consider calling Cornell University, at their Camuti Consultation Service ---they might have additional information for you?

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/Health_Information/camuti_service.cfm

Healing vibes being sent.

How long has he been on pred?

While not an easy task, I do believe that tracking down what he is reacting/overreacting to will give the best prognosis.

As with IBD, removing any foods he has been eating over time allows his system to settle down, if you take away what his system thinks is an intruder then there won't be anymore reacting to it.

If I were in your shoes, I would eliminate all foods previously fed. Feed just a very limited diet, a single protein that is foreign to him, and limited ingredients in the food.

No grains, no fish, chicken, beef (also high up there on the allergen list) and no preservatives.

This will not only calm his IBD down, it may very well get him on the road to recovery with this vasculitis.

Give the pred time to work.

I sort of relate to vasculitis. It is alot like what happened to me. At 25 I had my 2nd daughter c-section, while in there doc found cancer so removed one tube, one ovary.

One month later I got a blood clot in to my heart, passed through to my lung.

I was put on coumadin for a year. (blood thinner)

This med is commonly very well tolerated, occasionally a person will show some mild adverse reaction to it.

Well I did, and it is SO rare that my doctor had no clue what he was seeing, and by the time he finally contacted the makers of this med and found out that this is the culprit, I have full on gangrene on all fingers and started on my palms and feet. I had been on coumadin for 5 months by then.

No I didn't lose my fingers, although it took over 2 years for them to heal and they are sensitive and ache at times, (30 yrs later) but my case was one for the books, a reaction that dramatic is extremely rare, just a handful of people throughout it's many years of history.

This is how I see vasculitis. Funny thing is I do have an autoimmune disorder too.

I believe something that the body doesn't like, but it continues and continues to come, and every so often just goes to the extreme, inflammation of the blood vessels. 

This is why I feel it's important to track down what started all of this reacting. (or over reacting!)