Feline leukemia & throwing up

Hi! My cat is throwing up daily and I would like advice from people that have experienced the same thing or have ideas. I found out last year, when Yaffa wasn’t eating, that she had feline leukemia. She is 10 years old and has always been an indoor cat so she must have had it as a baby. Last month I had her blood tested and everything came back normal.  In the past few months she has started throwing up a lot and not interested in her food. I changed her wet food from BFF, to Science Diet to Muse to keep her eating. I also recently changed her dry food from Blue Wilderness to a mix of Forza 10 -Intestinal Active (which she doesn’t like that much) and Nutromax cat (she likes a lot)

 She is continuing to throw up with each of them and then becomes uninterested in food. In the past two weeks she has started to lose hair from the top of her ear.  

The vet keeps telling me that the only thing to do is to have another sonogram and have a biopsy. Has anyone had this happen? Is there anything else I can do other than run invasive tests?

Does he suspect Lymphoma or something?  Is that why a biopsy?  I guess what I'm really saying, is WHAT does he want to biopsy?  Or is he suspecting IBD? 

Has your Vet tried giving her an anti-emetic to see if that helps with her nausea? 

Is she doing a lot of scratching around her head?  I just ask because you mention the fur on her ear.  That could be a food allergy.  Has that ever been discussed?  Does EVERY food she eats cause vomiting, or just some of them?

Thank you for your help! A year ago the ultrasound showed that her abdominal lymphnodes were enlarged. I didnt have a biopsy at the time, but they recommended I did so that I could see if she had intestinal cancer. They also found one of her kidneys to be enlarged. But after that she was fine for 9 months. Now she throws up when eating all different kinds of food. 

I actually haven't seen her scratching more than normal, which is why I cant figure out why her ear is becoming patchy. Plus it is only one ear, the other ear is fine.  Any ideas?

I would say based on what you've just shared that probably that biopsy is a good idea .  Can they do a needle biopsy?  That's not TOO invasive.  But you need to ask yourself what you would do if it comes back positive since she has FeLV.  And, of course, discuss with your Vet what her chances of survival would be with surgery, chemo, etc. 

But throwing up every day is certainly no way to live, so I would think you need to figure out what's wrong.  Vomiting every day can corrode her esophagus making eating painful. 

Otherwise you might try just offering ONE food at a time and see if anything changes.  It could be there is something in one of those foods that is upsetting her system.  I would start by offering wet food only at first, as these tend to be less "offensive" .   Maybe you could even offer her a completely different wet food, something to stir her interest.   None of my cats like ANY of the brands you mentioned above.  They do like Nutro Chunky Chicken and Duck, Soulistic and some Soulistic flavors, and even Sheba pates (chicken, and beef).

Thanks again for your advice. I have already done the tests and know that she is positive for Felv. Does that change your recommendation and advice?

eeanyc said:

 
Thanks again for your advice. I have already done the tests and know that she is positive for Felv. Does that change your recommendation and advice?

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No, I realize she has FeLV, that's why I said you would need ask yourself what you would do if the biopsy comes back positive for LYMPHOMA (and ask the Vet how well he thinks she would do with surgery, chemo, etc. in view of the fact that she has FeLV .  IF you would not treat it, then maybe it's not worth doing the biopsy in the first place.  Then if no change of  food nor added medication helps with the daily vomiting, you need to evaluate her quality of life

What is your Vet saying OTHER than biopsy....anything?

I'm going to the vet tomorrow morning and will find out more. It has been two days since she threw up! But she isn't eating a lot, like 2 ounces of wet food, down from 5 ounces from 2 months ago. Good idea about the dry food, it does seem to be harder on her stomach. I have been giving her some medicine that is supposed to increase her appetite and decrease nausea and inflammation in her stomach. But she hates taking it and usually spits it out. 

I dont think I would go through chemo with her and surgery. I just dont know how great her quality of life would be afterwards and with her lowered immune system, I dont know how well she would recover. 

eeanyc said:

 
I'm going to the vet tomorrow morning and will find out more. It has been two days since she threw up! But she isn't eating a lot, like 2 ounces of wet food, down from 5 ounces from 2 months ago. Good idea about the dry food, it does seem to be harder on her stomach. I have been giving her some medicine that is supposed to increase her appetite and decrease nausea and inflammation in her stomach. But she hates taking it and usually spits it out. 

I dont think I would go through chemo with her and surgery. I just dont know how great her quality of life would be afterwards and with her lowered immune system, I dont know how well she would recover. 

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It's great that she's eating a little better.  On that medication, my girl that I recently lost was on Mirtazapine for a year or so.  It's an appetite enhancer.  If we gave it to her orally she would throw up (I think from the stress of it) , so we got it made up into a transdermal cream and rubbed it in her ear every 3rd day.  tI worked very well.  I'm not sure what you are giving her, but if it's stressful for her to take, talk to your Vet about whether or not it might be able to be compounded into a transdermal gel or even an injectible.  We also gave our girl a shot every other for over acidity.  Used teeny tiny needles and she never even seemed to notice since we gave them to her in her scruff. 

Do talk to your Vet about everything, including WHY do a biopsy if you decide not to treat if it is Lymphoma.  Discuss all possibilities, especially her prognosis if it IS Lymphoma (with FeLV) and then go from there.   We did the same with our girl.  She had kidney disease, but also had an issue with her liver.  And she was 16.  We decided NOT to have an ultra sound of her liver to try to determine what was wrong, because we knew we would not put her thru any type of surgery or much more because she was already going thru a lot,.  We just kept an eye on her and decided when her quality of life declined, we would let her go .  But there were times when she would get down to eating only 1.5 oz a day, and I would think "this it is", then she would go back up to normal or even above normal feedings