Greetings -
I'm fairly new to this forum, and as stated in my newbie post, http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52969 I had been looking for a cat with 'low adoption fee' since we had just moved. I found what seemed to be the perfect cat - a purebred siamese that the owner was giving up due to extensive travel for work. She didn't cost me anything - I figured I must be really lucky.
As I also said in my newbie post, I would never deny the veterinary care of an animal if I thought they needed it. Well, as also mentioned, Telka had a bit of a crusty ear that didn't look like the classic ear mites. She also had a small dry spot on her nose. Not a big deal, really, but I still was going to take her into the vets for a checkup anyways. During the time that I was waiting for the checkup, I noticed she licked her paws - a lot. She was obsessive about 'cleaning' them. I decided to find out what was so special about those paws, and I discovered this crusty, icky stuff surrounding the skin where the claws retracts into. Each of her digits that were affected (not all of them are) are also inflammed. Her paw pads are very dry, cracked/scaly.
The next day we got into the vets office. As it turns out, the vet said it looked like something that she'd only seen on dogs. She gave me this stuff to soak her feet in, some antibiotics, cleaned her ear, this fatty acid liquid stuff for her food to help her skin, and we also got her some poultry toothpaste. This came to a whopping $130. Well...she was worth it, and I certainly didn't feel bad, at the time, about spending that amount on her.
I came home later and decided to look up this ailment that affected dogs. I couldn't remember exactly what she said, but I found one that seems to be the case and does sound like what the vet had said. It's called Pemphigus. And yes, it did affect a variety of dog breeds, but also - you guessed it - siamese cats. It appears in young mid adulthood (she's 3). It's an autoimmune response to her skin (meaning, her immune system has decided that the skin is no longer its friend, and has begun attacking it like it's a disease). Once this has started, it never goes away - treatment is for the rest of the cat's life. It must have a biopsy done to determine if it is pemphigus or not, and then must be put on something that suppresses the immune system. So it's best to keep the cat indoors at all times (she already is), and has to have regular blood tests the first doses until a minimal dose level can be established.
Now, with all that said, she fits into every category, even her age, and the pictures showing pemphigus look exactly like her claws. So why was I given expensive foot bath stuff and antibiotics? There wasn't even a biopsy done. I can only think that the vet must have dismissed her initial thought that it was pemphigus because she'd never seen it in a cat. The vet also said that if this treatment didn't work, the next treatment would be x-rays (on their sheet it says min. of $175.) What happened to thinking it was pemphigus?? Could she really have just dismissed it altogether without even taking a biopsy??
*le sigh* If it is pemphigus, which I'm fairly sure it is now, looking through all the information, I don't know how much it'll cost for her treatments that she'll have to be on for the rest of her life. I sometimes wonder if her owner new about this already, and this was the real reason the cat was dropped off. I don't think so - as the owner did say I could return her if it didn't work out, and she loved the cat dearly...but I may end up doing so if I find out the treatments are going to be more than I can afford in the long-term. Which will be really -really- devastating, as I lost my last cat tragically and now I've grown to love and adore this one. She's beautiful, incredibly loving, has these silly things about her like wagging her tail like a dog all the time...*sighs*
So I want to know if anyone knows about how much treatments are going to cost? I'm going to speak with the vet in the next couple of days...I'm going to try her treatments and see if anything comes of it first though.
I'm fairly new to this forum, and as stated in my newbie post, http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52969 I had been looking for a cat with 'low adoption fee' since we had just moved. I found what seemed to be the perfect cat - a purebred siamese that the owner was giving up due to extensive travel for work. She didn't cost me anything - I figured I must be really lucky.
As I also said in my newbie post, I would never deny the veterinary care of an animal if I thought they needed it. Well, as also mentioned, Telka had a bit of a crusty ear that didn't look like the classic ear mites. She also had a small dry spot on her nose. Not a big deal, really, but I still was going to take her into the vets for a checkup anyways. During the time that I was waiting for the checkup, I noticed she licked her paws - a lot. She was obsessive about 'cleaning' them. I decided to find out what was so special about those paws, and I discovered this crusty, icky stuff surrounding the skin where the claws retracts into. Each of her digits that were affected (not all of them are) are also inflammed. Her paw pads are very dry, cracked/scaly.
The next day we got into the vets office. As it turns out, the vet said it looked like something that she'd only seen on dogs. She gave me this stuff to soak her feet in, some antibiotics, cleaned her ear, this fatty acid liquid stuff for her food to help her skin, and we also got her some poultry toothpaste. This came to a whopping $130. Well...she was worth it, and I certainly didn't feel bad, at the time, about spending that amount on her.
I came home later and decided to look up this ailment that affected dogs. I couldn't remember exactly what she said, but I found one that seems to be the case and does sound like what the vet had said. It's called Pemphigus. And yes, it did affect a variety of dog breeds, but also - you guessed it - siamese cats. It appears in young mid adulthood (she's 3). It's an autoimmune response to her skin (meaning, her immune system has decided that the skin is no longer its friend, and has begun attacking it like it's a disease). Once this has started, it never goes away - treatment is for the rest of the cat's life. It must have a biopsy done to determine if it is pemphigus or not, and then must be put on something that suppresses the immune system. So it's best to keep the cat indoors at all times (she already is), and has to have regular blood tests the first doses until a minimal dose level can be established.
Now, with all that said, she fits into every category, even her age, and the pictures showing pemphigus look exactly like her claws. So why was I given expensive foot bath stuff and antibiotics? There wasn't even a biopsy done. I can only think that the vet must have dismissed her initial thought that it was pemphigus because she'd never seen it in a cat. The vet also said that if this treatment didn't work, the next treatment would be x-rays (on their sheet it says min. of $175.) What happened to thinking it was pemphigus?? Could she really have just dismissed it altogether without even taking a biopsy??
*le sigh* If it is pemphigus, which I'm fairly sure it is now, looking through all the information, I don't know how much it'll cost for her treatments that she'll have to be on for the rest of her life. I sometimes wonder if her owner new about this already, and this was the real reason the cat was dropped off. I don't think so - as the owner did say I could return her if it didn't work out, and she loved the cat dearly...but I may end up doing so if I find out the treatments are going to be more than I can afford in the long-term. Which will be really -really- devastating, as I lost my last cat tragically and now I've grown to love and adore this one. She's beautiful, incredibly loving, has these silly things about her like wagging her tail like a dog all the time...*sighs*
So I want to know if anyone knows about how much treatments are going to cost? I'm going to speak with the vet in the next couple of days...I'm going to try her treatments and see if anything comes of it first though.
