I apologize that this will be a long post, but I'm hoping someone could have some insight into what might be going on with Henrietta. She's a former feral cat I adopted about a year ago and seems to have a plethora of random symptoms that the vets either weren't concerned about or went away on their own. It's been a lot - extreme fearfulness/hyper vigilance, chronic ear/face itching with no signs of mites/bacteria/infection, constipation, "dribbles" in the litterbox with otherwise normal pee (and blood in her urinalysis without crystals or infection that points to FIC), infrequent episodes that look like hyperesthesia, very rarely a cough with head forward and no hairball, very fussy eater with a highly variable appetite.
I've always worried about her but trusted the vet and moved on with life. But for the past 3 weeks, Henry has been struggling with new symptoms and the vet can't find anything wrong. I'm at my wit's end and $2000+ into testing with an abdominal ultrasound scheduled on Thursday. I have no idea which of her past symptoms might be related and help us get closer to an answer, so wanted to see if anyone has experienced anything similar and can help connect the dots.
So basically, three weeks ago in the morning, about 10 minutes after she ate her breakfast (Fancy Feast petites chicken pate), I found her standing in the corner in the living room with her ears and tail slightly lowered, breathing a bit faster/harder than usual. When I called over to her, she started doing an unusual meow - loud, repeated, high pitched and generally painful sounding. She darted off the to bedroom to hide under the bed. Later in the day, she wouldn't eat (not even a creamy treat!) and was hissing at me when I went to pet her.
I rushed her to the emergency vet because I was so freaked out. It's tricky because the symptoms don't really point to what exactly is causing her this pain. Long story short, after chest and abdominal x-rays, full panel blood work including heart protein, urinalysis, a thorough physical, and having the results reviewed by a specialist - there was nothing "clinically significant" to note. The only things slightly out of the ordinary were:
Since she finished the antibiotics, she's had good and bad days but hasn't improved, with the same discomfort/pain recurring daily after eating. I took her to my regular vet who was also stumped and gave me GI food to try (Hills, Royal Canin and Purina - she literally will not come anywhere near any of them no matter what I try to entice her). I need her to eat something so I've gone back to giving her Fancy Feast and the Royal Canin Fibre Response GI dry food she usually only gets at night. The vet also gave me Cerenia for nausea, Omeprazine for any reflux, and Mirtazapine and Gabapentin as needed.
Still no luck. I've been feeding her meals 1-2 tsp at a time every hour or two, and elevated her dish but it's still happening. What's worse is it's not always consistent - sometimes she has her meowing in pain and hiding reaction 15-20 minutes after eating, sometimes she has one lick and does it. Sometimes her meow is loud and urgent, sometimes it's soft and strained. Tried offering all manner of different foods (high end, junky, wet, dry, stew, pate, on a plate, in a bowl, on a silicon mat, on the floor, etc.) and she won't touch them so I have no idea if diet would fix it. She's already a picky eater and I don't want to limit her options when she's barely eating what would have been half the amount she would get in a day before this.
I notice she does sometimes have a "burp" after eating - kind of looks like a hiccup, sounds like throwing up in her mouth, and she does a big gulp after. She doesn't take a vomiting posture and hasn't thrown anything up. But the vet says reflux is just a symptom and we have to find the cause.
Is it possible this is a food allergy? We've suspected it in the past with the ear itching but she wouldn't eat the hydrolyzed food and I didn't want her to starve herself since it's already hard to get her to eat enough calories. Her vet file from before I got her noted early signs of resorptive lesions which could definitely be at play, but weirdly she has this reaction only after her wet food, and is actually preferring her dry food right now. She crunches away on both sides of her mouth no problem, no dropping.
Are there any other tests you would suggest besides the ultrasound? Thanks for reading my novel (lol) and any advice for this frazzled cat mom would be appreciated more than you know!!
I've always worried about her but trusted the vet and moved on with life. But for the past 3 weeks, Henry has been struggling with new symptoms and the vet can't find anything wrong. I'm at my wit's end and $2000+ into testing with an abdominal ultrasound scheduled on Thursday. I have no idea which of her past symptoms might be related and help us get closer to an answer, so wanted to see if anyone has experienced anything similar and can help connect the dots.
So basically, three weeks ago in the morning, about 10 minutes after she ate her breakfast (Fancy Feast petites chicken pate), I found her standing in the corner in the living room with her ears and tail slightly lowered, breathing a bit faster/harder than usual. When I called over to her, she started doing an unusual meow - loud, repeated, high pitched and generally painful sounding. She darted off the to bedroom to hide under the bed. Later in the day, she wouldn't eat (not even a creamy treat!) and was hissing at me when I went to pet her.
I rushed her to the emergency vet because I was so freaked out. It's tricky because the symptoms don't really point to what exactly is causing her this pain. Long story short, after chest and abdominal x-rays, full panel blood work including heart protein, urinalysis, a thorough physical, and having the results reviewed by a specialist - there was nothing "clinically significant" to note. The only things slightly out of the ordinary were:
- Slight inflammation of her lungs
- This is what they ended up running with and gave her a 2 week course of doxycycline in case it was bronchitis. This oddly seemed to help her ear itching? But she had one of her coughing episodes on the last day of the meds which led to a probable diagnosis of asthma - however this appears unrelated to her ongoing issue of pain after eating
- Asymmetry of the kidneys. "Her right kidney seems longer than the left kidney. Currently, with the results of the urinalysis and blood work, this doesn't seem clinically significant"
- "Signs of inflammation in the fatty tissues surrounding her spleen which could be secondary to a pancreatitis (current or passed), it could also be an insignificant change"
- Potential thickening of the stomach wall
- Abnormal bony proliferation of her left hip bone, potentially associated to an ancient fracture
Since she finished the antibiotics, she's had good and bad days but hasn't improved, with the same discomfort/pain recurring daily after eating. I took her to my regular vet who was also stumped and gave me GI food to try (Hills, Royal Canin and Purina - she literally will not come anywhere near any of them no matter what I try to entice her). I need her to eat something so I've gone back to giving her Fancy Feast and the Royal Canin Fibre Response GI dry food she usually only gets at night. The vet also gave me Cerenia for nausea, Omeprazine for any reflux, and Mirtazapine and Gabapentin as needed.
Still no luck. I've been feeding her meals 1-2 tsp at a time every hour or two, and elevated her dish but it's still happening. What's worse is it's not always consistent - sometimes she has her meowing in pain and hiding reaction 15-20 minutes after eating, sometimes she has one lick and does it. Sometimes her meow is loud and urgent, sometimes it's soft and strained. Tried offering all manner of different foods (high end, junky, wet, dry, stew, pate, on a plate, in a bowl, on a silicon mat, on the floor, etc.) and she won't touch them so I have no idea if diet would fix it. She's already a picky eater and I don't want to limit her options when she's barely eating what would have been half the amount she would get in a day before this.
I notice she does sometimes have a "burp" after eating - kind of looks like a hiccup, sounds like throwing up in her mouth, and she does a big gulp after. She doesn't take a vomiting posture and hasn't thrown anything up. But the vet says reflux is just a symptom and we have to find the cause.
Is it possible this is a food allergy? We've suspected it in the past with the ear itching but she wouldn't eat the hydrolyzed food and I didn't want her to starve herself since it's already hard to get her to eat enough calories. Her vet file from before I got her noted early signs of resorptive lesions which could definitely be at play, but weirdly she has this reaction only after her wet food, and is actually preferring her dry food right now. She crunches away on both sides of her mouth no problem, no dropping.
Are there any other tests you would suggest besides the ultrasound? Thanks for reading my novel (lol) and any advice for this frazzled cat mom would be appreciated more than you know!!
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Sadie is also having some dental issues at the moment, she would eat her wet food but the moment it hit whatever sensitive area she would jerk up and run down the stairs. She would get hungry, but be weary of eating. Since she has an autoimmune disorder we have to wait for her to see a specialist to find out how bad it is, and if we absolutely need to do dental surgery. Right now she's on a course of low dose antibiotics (just in case there is any secondary tooth infection) but I also have taken to warming her wet food before she eats. Funny enough, I bought a mug warmer that has a very low setting and I'll place her can of food on it for 5 min. It's enough to warm it inside the can, and I serve it on her ceramic dish. It seems like this helps; I think the colder temp of her wet food was making things worse. The things I do for my princess 
