Tuffy is bleeding!!

[tom w]

AbbysMom, If I understood the vet she is thinking he has a ulcer but not sure what is causing it yet.

She told me today that the blood being so fresh and red makes her think it was not from far inside him, but last night it was much darker and thick and some was almost black. That was why at first she thought he was bleeding from his little butt being stretched from a hair ball or constipation. But since then I had him camping two weekends ago with us on his own so I could watch him closer, He never had any hard poops or any problems in those 2 1/2 days, If anything he was on the softer side. I think she is going on his past history of bleeding with bad diarea when he was so sick and just trying to think what might be going on now that might be related to before. I believe this vet really cares about Tuffy and probably all the animals she sees, I get the feeling that all the people I have talked with there really care about what they do and its not just a job. It sounds like all the girls behind the desk have pets with problems they take care of.

But,,,

I am not happy that we still don't have a real answer yet, but maybe its part my falt for maybe not understanding all she is telling me. I am starting to think maybe someone else might have a idea on whats going on, but I don't know where else to take him that is good. We have another vet close by but I wouldn't go back there if it was the last vets office on earth after what that place did to my little Peanut years ago, but that is a story I don't want to go into again.

Maybe I can ask the vet if she knows anyone who is good with such problems in cats. There were other times I didn't think she was on the right track with Tuffy but in the end she was right, so it makes it hard for me to go someplace else and maybe cause hard feelings.

The bottom line for me is to find out whats happening before I come home and find Tuffy dead from bad internal bleeding or something. I also don't want him hurting from something that is being over looked, He has been through so much and come so far and now this stuff pops up. So I guess if its hurt feelings to find out his problem than thats the way it has to be.

When my Peanut was so sick we took her to a animal hospital not far from us and the Dr there was great with me and Peanut. I will have to see if they are still there and call them, the last time I was there was about 5 or 6 years ago.

After I got home I was wondering if all the heavy duty antibiotics he was on for so long could be the cause for the bleeding now? But he has been off them for a few months now so I would think it would have showed up before now, unless he has had bleeding all along and it just took me this long to catch it happening, because if I don't see it happening he cleans up the mess he makes and himself so well I would never know it happened. I told the vet that if I don't see it happening that I wouldn't know it, so that is one of the reasons she did the test for animea again today because he was anemic before when he had the bloody diarea from the worms or whatever had before. I was going to ask her to test him agian today of anemia but that was the first thing she wanted to do so I didn't have to bring it up.

Sorry for the long rambling post, I am tired and confused what to do next with him. I think I will do some calling around tomorrow to see if I can find someone who will check him over.

We are going to be gone camping 5 days on 4th of July weekend and I can't bring him with us because one of the people staying with us has bad alergies to cats. I am going to be a basket case leaving him home if we don't have it figured out by then.

EDIT,,, I will call and ask what the word was the vet though he might have and post it.

 

[jcribbs]

Tom, go to another vet...... that's what I think. Good luck.. I sure hope a vet can find the source of the blood. Have you asked her about alergies and hay fever? That is exactly what was happening with my cat Yellow and steroids stopped the bleeding because it helped the allergies. My vet said that allergies can cause a cat to bleed rectally.

I would ask her or another vet..

 

[tom w]

I just had a talk with Tuffy's vet and we decided to do a good blood workup and see if anything shows up. She also wants a sample to do a good fecal test. She said we could also do some type of scan [I forgot which] to get a look of his insides to see if anything can be seen. She said they are not set up to do such a scan so I would have to take him someplace else to have it done. It is coccidia that she wonders if he has. She put him on the Albon for two reasons, one to kill the coccidia if he does have it,and two because it coats the digestive tract to help heal a ulcer if it happens to be that. She also said he could have irritable bowl that makes him bleed sometimes. But the fact that he is anemic again is what has her worried. I have to take him in Thurs at 2:10 so they can get a blood sample so we will know on Friday what it shows if anything.

I feel a little better now that we talked and she understands that if there are tests that should be done to do them and not worry to much about what they cost.

I wanted to let every one know who is worried about Tuffy.

 

[pat]

Thank you, this is just the kind of workup I hoped to hear about. Here's hoping for an answer that it is easily addressed and nothing too serious.

 

[AbbysMom]

I am still concerned that it took a second call to your vet for her to schedule this tests. Why didn't she schedule them right away?

 

[xocats]

I agree with Karen.
It is difficult to understand why your vet did not run all of these test in the first place.
An unknown source of rectal blood in not something to be guessing about.
Tuffy's life could be in danger.

I would not under any circumstances leave Tuffy alone over the 4th.
Do you have someone to stay with him?
If necessary find a good vet hospital with 24 hr supervision and board him there.

I know this is hard but you are Tuffy's Daddy....
Tuffy is your boy.

 

[tom w]

I wish I had the answers for you all about why she does things the way she does. I still like her allot as our vet, at least she is open to what I think and dumb questions. Because of all my health problems I know how hard it is to find a Dr who will take the time to talk and listen to what I have to say. I find allot of doctors seem to ask a couple questions and then think they have all the answers and how to fix it and send you out the door. I don't go back to that type of Dr and I would feel the same way about a vet who acted like that.

I think it might be because he had full bloodwork about 4 or 5 months ago to see how he was doing. I also think it might have something to do with when I first took him in when he was so sick she wanted to know how to go about things as far as the cost of tests and that kind of stuff, I told her to do what she thought should be done within reason because I didn't want to spend a pile of money on a cat I just found and if he was to sick to have a chance to make it. We don't have allot of extra money but we are not broke all the time, But we have been through so much with him to get him this far and I am not going to give up on him now. He is so special to me now that the money I spent on him was well worth it to save him and if it costs another $200 or $300 to find out what is going on with him now I will.

 

[tom w]

Hi, I have had Tuffy out in our motor home with his own litter box food and water since about 2:00 yesturday afternoon so I can get a sample for the vet to do a fecal exam when I take him in for blood to be drawn this afternoon, but as of a hour ago he still has not gone. He is not alone out there, I spend allot of time with him telling him he needs to go potty before he can go in the house.

I have the air conditioner on low in the motor home so it stays nice in there or else it will get to about 90 in there if the sun is out. I got up about 1:30 this morning and went out and slept with him till I came in the house at about 5:00 this morning, then I went back out at about 8:00 this morning and he was talking to me as if wondering why he is out there and we are still home.

How often should a normal cat go poopie? He has pee'd 3 times since he was out there. I realize this is not the most fun topic to bring up but I am just wondering.

 

[xocats]

It is important for us to know how often each kitty poops so that if they deviate from their normal schedule...
we become immediately aware that they could have a health problem.
My kitties poop at least once a day.
I watch that schedule closely.

If Tuffy has not pooped by the time you take him in today ...
the vet needs to know about that...
do a rectal exam and probably, because of the bleeding, an x-ray or a scan.

There is no way to get around spending money on this but if you don't ...
it could cost a lot more later or even Tuffy's life.

The cause of Tuffy's rectal bleeding needs to be found immediately.
It has gone on way to long.

 

[momof3rugratz]

Maybe it huts him to poo and he dont want to

Poor baby.

 

[tom w]

He didn't go before we went in, I will keep him in the motor home till he does for the vet to get a sample. She did another rectal exam and took some blood for a CBC, Blood chemistry [S.A.] and Feline Leukemia/fiv test. He had the leukemia test the first time I took him in when he first found me and it was negative, the vet wants to make sure it still is negative now. She is going to call me tomorrow when all the blood tests are done. She is worried why is anemic again, She didn't think the small amount of blood he looses when he does bleed shouldn't make him that anemic. When I learn more tomorrow I will post it here.

More bad news today, I think I broke some of the small bones in the side of my left wrist at about 1:30 this afternoon. I have ice on it and Yvonne is on her way home to look at it. She is a RN so I might have to go in for Xrays on it.

 

[girlsetsfiyah]

I've posted about this before and I'll tell my story again...My cat had the exact same problem. For the 3 years I first had him, on and off, he would have blood/mucous comming out of his rear. Everytime I saw it, I immediately took him to my vet, who said it was "depression" and gave me meds to put him on. Lo and behold it happens again. We go to a different vet this time. He gives me huge honking pills for diarehha to give him and sends us home. The very last time it happened, I had come home from work, to find bloody diarehha all over my house and him cowering under a table just covered in blood and feces. I went to pet him and he growled, which he NEVER does. Mind you, this is at 11 pm at night and we have to go to an emergency vet. With him wrapped in a towel in his carrier screaming in pain and me sobbing and trying to drive thru my tears, we get to the clinic. He is rushed in and looked at immediately by some of the nicest, most sincere techs I have ever met. He was so backed up and constipated that he had to recieve an emergency enema and something else injected because he was in shock. I never realized that he was backed up, he had been pooping regularly and was fine that morning before i left for work. Apparently he had so many hairballs in his stomach that they had backed him up. after a few hours in recovery I was told to switch him to a high fiber hairball food (Techni-cal) and to give him tonic-lax (laxitive) daily. $200 later we are on our way home. He's happy as can be and leeching out leftover enema juice on my car seat. I'm angry and frustrated with my vet for never suggesting these simple solutions to avoid this kind of catastrophe in the first place. my suggestion is to take him to a GOOD vet who will properly check him over and that you don't end up in the same situation I had to go thru just to get some decent advice and help. good luck!

 

[tom w]

He went poopie after he got home from the vet yesturday so I took that in for them to test this morning. The vet just called and said all his blood work was great except or the anemia. She was shocked to see how much blood was in the fecal test which explains the anemia, she said his blood work shows he is making new blood but he is loosing it faster than he can make it. She didn't see any little critters in the fecal exam but she did see little bits of intestinal lining so she thinks he has some kind of bowl infection or disease, sorry I forgot what she called it already, anyway they are making some kind of steroid med into a liquid form for him to help him heal up.

So I am glad we are least getting someplace with this but getting more meds into him don't thrill me but he has to have them. I wonder if because he is so anemic has anything to do with why he chews on all kinds of odd things?

My little sister has had bad Chrone's disease since high school, Tuffy's problems sound allot like what she went through before a good DR figured it out.

Also my wrist is swolen but I can move it and my thumb today so I guess I didn't break anything in there. It hurts to screw up while swinging a big hammer and hitting my arm instead of what I was meaning to hit.

 

[tom w]

It still is amazing to me that Tuffy can be such a nice friendly kitty even though he has been so sick and I would think he must be hurting now.

Maybe in a post I made in a different topic long ago about him acting different and always wanting to be close to me was his way of trying to tell me he was hurting.

 

[tom w]

We are going camping this weekend from Thurs till Tues. I will be taking Tuffy along to make sure he gets his meds and I can keep a eye on him. He seems to be doing good on his meds. They flavored the prednisone so he don't mind that stuff to much but he just hates the Albon. Thursday will be his last day of the Albon so he will be happy about that. His vet is going to be gone the first 3 weeks of July so I hope he does good. I need to ask the vet if she thinks this bleeding will be a problem from now on or if once he is healed it will be the end of it.

 

[satai]

Oh, I hope he is feeling better (and you too!)

 

[xocats]

I hope that you have a wonderful trip and please when you get back let us know how Tuffy is doing.

 

[tom w]

I wonder if the vet will do another fecal exam soon to see if there is still blood in it? To me that would make sense.

 

[satai]

Originally Posted by Tom W

I wonder if the vet will do another fecal exam soon to see if there is still blood in it? To me that would make sense.

Me too. Poor Tuffy

 

[tom w]

Tuffy was getting hard, dark globs by his right eye in the corner by his nose. I would clean them off but they would keep coming back. I looked at one I pulled off with a magnifying glass and it looked like the same stuff like you get when a cut scabs over. Any way since he has been on his meds this time that has also stopped and I think his eyes look brighter than before. I don't know what was going on there but I am glad to see that has cleared up also. The things by his eye seemed to start about the time I first saw the blood from his little butt.

I left the thing by his eye for the vet to see when I took him in, she didn't seem to worried about it, at least she didn't say much about it. When I first got him when he was so sick he would get allot of yellowish junk from his right eye but never dark stuff like he was this time.

I think he is doing better, he is more active and plays and runs around more again, and he wrestles with Panther and Rusty more than he was.