- Joined
- Mar 17, 2017
- Messages
- 10
- Purraise
- 3
Hello everyone! After going through a ton of testing, our 5 year old cat, Roo, was diagnosed with dry FIP this morning and my family is (obviously) very upset and have some questions about dry FIP....first though I'll give ya'll a bit of history on Roo:
Thanks for any info ya'll have!
- He was found as a small kitten (3 months?) on an airport field. We did not get him from a cattery or shelter.
- When we found him he was rough condition. Thin, weak, and his paw pads had been burned off--we think maybe from being on hot concrete at the airport?
- After two months of TLC his paw pads healed and he acted like a normal kitten. We had another 6 week old kitten (Tigger) who he played with and they became (and still are) best friends.
- Both Tigger and Roo are indoor cats.
- When he was 3 years old Roo developed a skin allergy and had a handful of 'allergy shots' to help with the itching---about 4 shots total. Other than that he has been totally healthy.
- About 8 months ago we noticed Roo wasn't feeling great. He was still eating, would still play, something just seemed 'off'. We took him to our local vet who did some blood tests and a radiograph (bloodwork came back normal) and found what he thought were disks rubbing together in Roo's spine and suggested we do laser therapy and Adequan shots...which we did. At this time Roo was around 16 lbs.
- Two months later Roo had lost weight (he was now 12 lbs). He was still eating but was very picky and his right eye looked odd. We took him back to the vet who said he had had uveitis and gave us steroid eye drops. We did this but the eye did not improve.
- One week later we took him to a different vet about his eye who said she thought he had an eye ulcer and we needed to see an animal ophthalmologist who works at an animal hospital a different city. In the meantime though, she gave us a prescription of Onsior (for inflammation) and we noticed a drastic improvement in Roo. His appetite got better, he would walk around the house and try to play. He looked like his old happy self.
- We got in to see the ophthalmologist pretty quickly and he diagnosed Roo with severe uveitis in both eyes and an ulcer with a detached retina in the right eye. He then sent us downstairs to Internal Medicine because he believed the uveitis and detached retina was being caused by something deeper in Roo's body--probably cancer.
- Now Roo has a ton of tests done. The Internal Medicine vet drew blood, did an ultrasound, aspirated his spleen, and did an echocardiogram because he heard a small heart murmur.
- The ultrasound came back showing nothing, the echocardiogram showed a mild thickening of his heart but nothing big enough to treat, and the bloodwork came back showing elevated globulins, high white blood cell count, and a low gut function. Everything else in the bloodwork (liver, kidney, metabolic, etc...was normal). He did not have the bloodwork showing whether or not Roo had a fungal infection back yet, but felt pretty sure we were dealing with a fungal infection (toxoplasmosis) and sent Roo home on Clindamycin. He also took Roo off Onsior.
- One week later Roo's appetite was worse. He would only take two or three bites of food and then walk away. He also wasn't moving around a lot. We called the Internal Medicine vet to let him know and get the rest of Roo's bloodwork results. He said the results show no fungal infection and that Roo needed an endoscopy. So we do the endoscopy.
- After the endoscopy all the vet can find is IBD. Honestly, we are thrilled because we want Roo to be okay. He sends Roo home on omeprazole, Atopica, and Prescription Diet Z/D. He also sends us with B-12 shots to give Roo once a week to help with any malabsorption.
- Three days later Roo starts walking funny. He is alert but when he gets up to walk he arches is back (like a halloween cat) and wobbles four or five steps before he lowers it. At this point he can walk but not a straight line. His appetite is now at zero (he hates the Z/D) and I am syringe feeding him A/D per vet's request.
- We alert both our local vet and the Internal Medicine vet that Roo is walking funny with vestibular looking signs and they say to watch him over the weekend.
- Over the weekend Roo's walking get's worse and by Monday he cannot walk on his own. We know his legs still work because he will reach for my mom with his front paws when he wants to be held and will push against us with his back paws to protest the syringe feeding. He just cannot stand on his own. He is still alert though and will even let us know when he needs to pee by reaching a paw in the direction of the litter pan and looking at as.
- We take him back to our local vet (as the Internal Medicine vet is now on vacation for the next two weeks) who is very concerned about these symptoms and draws more blood. The bloodwork comes back pretty much the same as before....everything is normal except for a high white blood cell count, elevated globulins, and now some mild anemia. She tells us Roo needs an MRI and sends us back to the animal hospital.
- The first Internal Medicine vet is still on vacation so Roo sees a new vet who tells us it is either FIP or lymphoma of the spine, but that the MRI will show for sure which one. She also suggests doing a spinal tap which we agree to.
- We did the MRI yesterday (Roo is still at the hospital) and it came back showing inflammation of the spine. Honestly, things start to become very fuzzy because things don't make a lot of sense. First she (the new Internal Medicine vet) says she sees two lesions on Roo's spine, but then says she's not really sure. Besides the possible two lesions and inflammation the MRI is normal...so now we are told to wait for the spinal tap results because they will definitely tell us something.
- This morning the spinal tap results come back ruling out lymphoma and showing only a diffuse inflammation. So....she's is saying this leaves only dry FIP and Roo only has a few days to live.
- Has anyone here had a cat with dry FIP?
- How did the signs manifest and how long before the cat died?
- Is there anyway this vet could have misdiagnosed Roo and be telling us FIP because she doesn't know what is wrong with him?
Thanks for any info ya'll have!