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- May 17, 2012
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Our ~8-year-old Manx cat Sophie has been experiencing health problems over the past year that are baffling our vets and worry us.
Symptoms
Tests
Thank you,
Noah & Heather
Symptoms
- She developed constipation a few years ago, which I understand is a common problem for Manx due to the foreshortened spine. We have been treating it with 1/8 tsp Miralax mixed into her wet food most nights.
- About a year ago, her back started popping, similar to the sound and feel of knuckles cracking. It started with just one pop, and has progressed to ~10 in a row along her spine (I can feel them on separate vertebrae) a few times a day, usually when she curves her body. There's no apparent pain from these pops.
- A few months ago, she started experiencing what appears to be sharp pain in her lower back. Several times a day, often a few times in a row, her eyes will go wide and she will sharply twist around to the right to bite or lick near the base of her tail stump. She will then sprint away as if something invisible is biting her, and often hide in a drawer for hours. We can usually distract her from this pain by petting her or playing with string.
- About a week ago, the vet found blood in her urine, and she has had more frequent urination since then (normally 1-2 x per day, now 3-5). The vet dismissed the possibility of a urinary tract infection because she found no elevated white blood cell counts.
Tests
- The vet tested for fleas, in case they were causing the sudden pain on her spine, but found none.
- The vet prodded her body and found good range of motion and no abnormalities, but did find two apparent sensitive or painful locations on her mid- and lower-spine, and possibly near her colon or abdomen.
- An x-ray of her spine showed nothing unusual.
- The bloodwork showed a relatively high number of red blood cells, a slightly elevated calcium, and a low neutrophil count (one of the white blood cells).
- We haven't yet done a bone marrow aspirate, abdominal ultrasound, MRI, or CT scan.
- We have been giving her 3 ml of Gabapentin squirted in her mouth once a day for about a month. It apparently is supposed to treat neurological pain, but it's not clear whether it's helping.
- We assume this is not a case of the fatal Manx syndrome, since that apparently only affects kittens up to 6 months and I believe causes spinal deformities that can be seen in an x-ray.
- The vet's current guesses include some sort of urinary tract inflammation or cancer (does not yet explain the spinal pain), bone marrow disease, or some neurological inflammation.
Thank you,
Noah & Heather