Cryptococcus

[missmindy]

Hi everyone,

I've posted a couple times about my kitty's eye issues and progressive uveitis that was not responding to treatment over the course of 3 months. Her eye was removed 2 weeks ago and we now have a cryptococcus diagnosis. Her only symptom was this massive eye inflammation. She has some flat, black dandruffy spots on her back, but they look nothing like the lesions that I have seen other members post. She has no other symptoms physically or neurologically. Her vets were pretty shocked with the diagnosis as I guess this fungus is not really ever seen in my part of the country-neither vet had ever seen it in a cat before mine.

So, does anyone have any experience with a kitty with cryptococcus? The treatment sounds pretty daunting and of course I'm nervous things could get worse!!

Thank you!!

 

[abyeb]

I'm sorry that you and your kitty are going through this.

What did your vet prescribe for the treatment? Anti-fungals?

 

[missmindy]

Thank you! Yes, her specialist is starting with intraconozole after getting a titer later this week. He did caution it could be lengthy and difficult to treat.

 

[DaKru]

How is kitty doing?? Is the treatment going ok?

My cat has also been diagnosed with crypto - he is on amphotericine 2x a week - we had our 2nd treatment on Monday. This is also my vets first ever case so its as much a learning curve for her as it is for me!

In a nutshell - his journey started with typical snuffles , which turned out to be the result of a terrible gall bladder infection. Gall bladder infection got better, but then the snuffles took over. A month later, he developed a bump on his nose and his eye is slightly swollen - turns out he has crypto. Which perhaps explains the bloody nasal discharge and uveitis he had earlier.

Would love to hear how your cat is doing and how she responded to the treatment!

 

[missmindy]

KeKe is doing great now. She wrapped up her daily intraconozole treatment last month. Her titer actually came back negative for the crypto, so the Dr. was pleased that it seemed to be contained to her eye. We did the meds as a precaution just to make sure nothing was brewing elsewhere. It seems like she was pretty lucky. She's been running and playing and back to her old self.

I hope your kitty responds well to his treatment-is it going ok? I never knew how troublesome and tricky fungal infections were in cats!

Edited to add that the eye removal didn't slow her down one bit. It took maybe 24 hours for her to adjust her depth perception and she was right back to normal. Cats are amazing!

 

[DaKru]

So happy to hear she is doing well and the infection didn't spread anywhere else!!

We haven't really started seeing an improvement yet - I suspect it is still a bit early as we he's only had 2 treatments so far with the last being last Thursday - so it hasn't even been a week. He has a big lesion on his left bum as well which we started treating with antifungal cream on Monday - will see how it goes!

Just wish there were more reported cases - the available information gives you no idea on how long you need tp give till you start seeing an improvement, or what is considered a serious condition! It's all so frustrating

 

[missmindy]

That was the only "good" thing about this happening-it gave my regular a vet and the eye specialist a chance to see a very abnormal presentation of this fungus and learn more about it. The specialist did tell me initially that the treatment was probably going to be 6-9 months. Once he learned it was contained to the eye, that changed. That sounded so daunting at the time! Hopefully you will see some improvement soon and won't have to have a very long course of treatment.

Best wishes to you and your kitty for continued and fast improvement!!