Anne&Muffin (GA)
Member Since 2010
Last Condo
Good morning LL. We need prayers for Muffin's brudder Kibby. 6 weeks ago, he was feeling a bit "off" so I took him to the vet (I think I wrote about it at the time in Muffin's condo). BW came back fine except for a high WBC. We put him on Zeniquin for a week, and he seemed to be feeling mostly better. I had been noticing some occasional limping at that time, and it began to get more frequent, so back to the vet we went. Dr shaved his leg from paw to elbow and found nothing other than an old small scar and a tiny red mark. Figured it was maybe some soft tissue inflammation, and put him on a short course of prednisolone. Didn't help. He then had an episode of not being able to jump onto the desk, so back we went for xrays. Had them reviewed by a radiologist, and they saw no signs of arthritis or joint deterioration, and said his organs looked good, too. He did say that he had less bone density in both of his front legs (humerus), but since it was in both legs, it shouldn't be causing limping and figured he was probably born like that. So basically, the treatment was pain meds when necessary. Over the next several days, he would have an okay day, where he would go outside for the day, and then a couple not-so-okay days where he would stay inside. The weather's getting cold, tho, so I thought it was possibly just due to that. Then, the limping was gone, but his willingness to jump up on anything was declining. He started finding ways he could "stair-step" up onto things, and while I didn't usually see how he was getting down, he obviously was. A day or 2 later, he was having trouble even stair-stepping down from the desk. So I kept him inside and he started laying in unusual places and never in his normal spots. I noticed he wasn't pooping hardly at all. He started laying by the water dish, which I didn't associate at first, as I've been sick myself, and so not as on top of this as I usually would be. Over Saturday night he drank an entire cup of water. He had peed in the LB that day, but gone into the LB overnight and produced nothing. I noticed he had peed on my bathmat. (He has a habit of peeing in my bathtub when he doesn't feel well, but he can't get into the tub now.) He's been lethargic and unwilling to walk more than a few steps, and those steps have been a little wobbly. Yesterday morning the DGD's were playing in my room, and Kibby nearly got hit with the laundry basket, and he didn't even move out of the way of the ruckus. So I took him to the ER yesterday. He had a temp of 103.2. He's dehydrated. He's in a great deal of pain somewhere in either his abdominal area or his back, or both. ER doc thought kidneys and ran BW. Only thing abnormal on the BW was high WBC. So she thought a spinal infection. Said dogs get those, but she's never seen it in a cat, and would never look for it in a cat, but with the symptoms he has and doesn't have, it would fit. So they redid xrays. Nothing abnormal. So she gave fluids, an injection of buprenorphine, and sent zeniquin home. Wanted me to follow up today at my vet to recheck temp and make sure it's coming down, and possibly give more fluids.
He did seem to be feeling a little better early this morning, as he ventured downstairs to the kitchen when he heard me feeding the other cats. I brought him back upstairs and fed him and he ate well. That's the one thing I haven't been concerned about is his appetite. He's been eating a little less than he would normally if he were capable of coming to food places and asking to be fed, but everything I've brought to him to eat, he's eaten. He's definitely eating enough. And there's no vomitting or diarhea. Then he laid down under the chair, which is one of his normal spots, so I thought things were getting better. After maybe an hour, tho, he was back in front of the water bowl.
I took him in to our vet. His temp is now 104.7. He still has extreme pain. So they are keeping him for the day, to put him on IV AB's and IV fluids to try and get his temp down. We will see where he's at this evening, and then he will either come home, or go to the ER for the night. So obviously, whatever this is, it was never resolved back in early October, and has been festering for more than 6 weeks, and no one knows what it is. They are taking blood to screen for Bartonella. This is a blood disease transmitted by fleas. Oscar has it. He was diagnosed when he was 2 or 3 months old, and was running a fever for no apparent reason. That was a little over a year ago, and back then they didn't know much about it. I was told it was very rare...so rare that there were no studies on it. Now they are studying it. Apparently it's becoming much more common and they are finding that it can do the same things as feline lukemia. It can attack all the organs in the body, and I'm thinking even bones. Dr said that maybe the density issues in Kibby's front legs are due to this. Maybe that's the infection that he's had. Those results will take 2 days to come back.
So at this point we are still waiting. I'm very worried about my sweet baby boy. So please send all the vines and prayers you can spare. So far, Oscar seems relatively unaffected by this disease. When he had his vaccines, he was wiped out for 2 or 3 days, and apparently this is one of the symptoms of it, so next year, we will split those up so he doesn't get them all at once. Dr said this is relatively easy to treat, I think, and I believe the treatment is just a prolonged course of AB's, but when Oscar was dx, they really didn't have a treatment, or know whether AB's actually worked. So I hope they've figured out more by now.
Good morning LL. We need prayers for Muffin's brudder Kibby. 6 weeks ago, he was feeling a bit "off" so I took him to the vet (I think I wrote about it at the time in Muffin's condo). BW came back fine except for a high WBC. We put him on Zeniquin for a week, and he seemed to be feeling mostly better. I had been noticing some occasional limping at that time, and it began to get more frequent, so back to the vet we went. Dr shaved his leg from paw to elbow and found nothing other than an old small scar and a tiny red mark. Figured it was maybe some soft tissue inflammation, and put him on a short course of prednisolone. Didn't help. He then had an episode of not being able to jump onto the desk, so back we went for xrays. Had them reviewed by a radiologist, and they saw no signs of arthritis or joint deterioration, and said his organs looked good, too. He did say that he had less bone density in both of his front legs (humerus), but since it was in both legs, it shouldn't be causing limping and figured he was probably born like that. So basically, the treatment was pain meds when necessary. Over the next several days, he would have an okay day, where he would go outside for the day, and then a couple not-so-okay days where he would stay inside. The weather's getting cold, tho, so I thought it was possibly just due to that. Then, the limping was gone, but his willingness to jump up on anything was declining. He started finding ways he could "stair-step" up onto things, and while I didn't usually see how he was getting down, he obviously was. A day or 2 later, he was having trouble even stair-stepping down from the desk. So I kept him inside and he started laying in unusual places and never in his normal spots. I noticed he wasn't pooping hardly at all. He started laying by the water dish, which I didn't associate at first, as I've been sick myself, and so not as on top of this as I usually would be. Over Saturday night he drank an entire cup of water. He had peed in the LB that day, but gone into the LB overnight and produced nothing. I noticed he had peed on my bathmat. (He has a habit of peeing in my bathtub when he doesn't feel well, but he can't get into the tub now.) He's been lethargic and unwilling to walk more than a few steps, and those steps have been a little wobbly. Yesterday morning the DGD's were playing in my room, and Kibby nearly got hit with the laundry basket, and he didn't even move out of the way of the ruckus. So I took him to the ER yesterday. He had a temp of 103.2. He's dehydrated. He's in a great deal of pain somewhere in either his abdominal area or his back, or both. ER doc thought kidneys and ran BW. Only thing abnormal on the BW was high WBC. So she thought a spinal infection. Said dogs get those, but she's never seen it in a cat, and would never look for it in a cat, but with the symptoms he has and doesn't have, it would fit. So they redid xrays. Nothing abnormal. So she gave fluids, an injection of buprenorphine, and sent zeniquin home. Wanted me to follow up today at my vet to recheck temp and make sure it's coming down, and possibly give more fluids.
He did seem to be feeling a little better early this morning, as he ventured downstairs to the kitchen when he heard me feeding the other cats. I brought him back upstairs and fed him and he ate well. That's the one thing I haven't been concerned about is his appetite. He's been eating a little less than he would normally if he were capable of coming to food places and asking to be fed, but everything I've brought to him to eat, he's eaten. He's definitely eating enough. And there's no vomitting or diarhea. Then he laid down under the chair, which is one of his normal spots, so I thought things were getting better. After maybe an hour, tho, he was back in front of the water bowl.
I took him in to our vet. His temp is now 104.7. He still has extreme pain. So they are keeping him for the day, to put him on IV AB's and IV fluids to try and get his temp down. We will see where he's at this evening, and then he will either come home, or go to the ER for the night. So obviously, whatever this is, it was never resolved back in early October, and has been festering for more than 6 weeks, and no one knows what it is. They are taking blood to screen for Bartonella. This is a blood disease transmitted by fleas. Oscar has it. He was diagnosed when he was 2 or 3 months old, and was running a fever for no apparent reason. That was a little over a year ago, and back then they didn't know much about it. I was told it was very rare...so rare that there were no studies on it. Now they are studying it. Apparently it's becoming much more common and they are finding that it can do the same things as feline lukemia. It can attack all the organs in the body, and I'm thinking even bones. Dr said that maybe the density issues in Kibby's front legs are due to this. Maybe that's the infection that he's had. Those results will take 2 days to come back.
So at this point we are still waiting. I'm very worried about my sweet baby boy. So please send all the vines and prayers you can spare. So far, Oscar seems relatively unaffected by this disease. When he had his vaccines, he was wiped out for 2 or 3 days, and apparently this is one of the symptoms of it, so next year, we will split those up so he doesn't get them all at once. Dr said this is relatively easy to treat, I think, and I believe the treatment is just a prolonged course of AB's, but when Oscar was dx, they really didn't have a treatment, or know whether AB's actually worked. So I hope they've figured out more by now.
