Diabetic cat with mystery illness

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amandazzle

amandazzle

Member Since 2013
Foster has been off the juice for about 18 months his glucose is being managed with food only. I test him approximately weekly and his levels are always within normal ranges. He has recently did a fructosamine test at the vets and the vet said everything looked fine.

Recently he started throwing up and acting generally unwell. As he has had pancreatitis in the past, I took him to the vet the next day. They did a blood draw and his levels were all in normal ranges (kidneys, white blood cell, etc). The vet figured it might be hyperthyroidism so they tested for that. Thyroid is fine. They sent out some tests for his pancreas and that came back normal. He was sent home with some anti nausea medicine and pain killers. He perked up and begin eating right away.

However, the vomiting and anorexia continued. I took him back and they did x-rays to look for blockages, tumors, etc. Nothing. They gave him some Pepcid AC (injectable) and some FortiFlora to encourage him to eat and get his gut bacteria back in order. He seems to have an appetite, but eats very little.

The problems continues and my house smells like vomit all the time. He has lost weight and is just a skeleton of a cat. Much of his symptoms seem to point to kidney disease, but his levels are all normal.

I am planning on taking him back to the vet again tomorrow, but I was hoping someone out there could give me some suggestions/thoughts. I have spent hours searching, but to no avail.
 
Has the vet checked his mouth and throat closely?

My civvie Anabelle in the last couple of weeks started vomiting all the time and wouldn't eat. It apparently were her teeth causing the problem ( gums were really inflamed, even though she had a dental in November). Antibiotics cleared it up for her, but it easily could of been a cracked tooth also. Why it made her vomit, I don't know. Or the antibiotics cleared up another problem that we are unaware of that was causing the problem.
She seemed fine otherwise, but just kept vomiting and refusing food even though she seemed to want to eat.

I also mentioned the throat because years ago my kitty had a bad ulceration in throat preventing her from eating and they didn't discover it until I insisted they scope her throat.

I would have them check his liver values again to make sure liver problems aren't coming into play since he has been eating well.

Good luck and let us know how it goes at the vet.
 
Some of those symptoms are characteristic for inflammatory bowel disease or intestinal lymphoma.
 
I agree with Larry on the ultrasound. My Hank was suddenly throwing up repeatedly prompting a vet visit. He didn't seem inapetant, seemed to want to eat but could not keep it down. I checked his BG...he had been OTJ for several years, and found them slightly elevated, still normal but high for him. Then checked his weight to discover he had lost 3.5+ lbs. I suspected pancreatitis though he hadn't had history with it. They did bloodwork, x-rayed to rule out obstruction, etc. Unlike your guy, cerenia didn't help him any, and his white counts were off on his labs results. On xray vet thought he saw some stool in lower intestine, but nothing else. I left wondering if we had paid all that to find out he was constipated. Ultrasound on the other hand showed masses....apparently not evident on xray. I also recommend asking if your vet can interpret ultrasounds. I ended up being referred to a specialist to diagnose the US results (done by a US tech) who wanted to repeat the ultrasound as she could not rely on a 3rd party's report and only had small digital copies she did not find helpful. I wish I had asked for referral one step sooner...would have also saved $.

This may not be what's going on with your guy, I hope not.... Your guy responded to anti-nauseau med, perked up on probiotic,etc...and was able to eat again. But this may give you a better sense of what is going on
 
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Thank you. I was wondering what an ultrasound would show that an x-ray wouldn't. With regards to lumps and obstructions.
 
I agree with BJM. I had the same issue with my oldest cat, she will be 17 this year, and has been Hyperthyroid for at least 6 years. She cried alot. She started throwing up one day and had diarrhea really bad so off to the vet, she lost weight quickly, she was/is a small cat (just a hair over 6lbs) so any weight loss was huge. Blood work didn't really show anything, so off to specialist for ultrasound, which didn't show anything. The next step was they wanted to do biopsies of her intestinal tract. She was not strong enough to do it and the thought of putting her through it based on how weak she was, well I just could not do it. So back to the vet, she said it could be either inflammatory bowel disease or intestinal lymphoma, and the same drug is used on both. So we decided to give it a try to see if it would help her. Home we go with meds, with just a couple of doses she wasn't throwing up, no diarrhea and she was eating whatever I put in front of her (which at that point was AD). She is still on the drug, Prednisonolone. She gets a small dose every other day, and her weight is now 5.11lbs compared to the 4.lbs she had dropped to. I know she will be on this the rest of her life, but we have her on the lowest dose possible that keeps her eating and slowly gaining weight. She eats Tiki Cat for the most part, and a I use a little of the canned food I feed the others to get her meds in her.

I would definitely do the ultrasound and look at inflammatory bowel disease or intestinal lymphoma.

Good luck!
 
amandazzle said:
I was wondering what an ultrasound would show that an x-ray wouldn't. With regards to lumps and obstructions.
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An xray's strong point is showing bones while soft tissue, masses and organs show as shades of gray. An ultrasound's strong point is soft tissue and shows the masses and organs much better. Ultrasound is one of the best methods for diagnosis pancreatitis and intestinal inflammatory diseases.
 
Thank you for all the replies. I really thought that Foster's biggest hurdle would be diabetes, but that hasn't been such a problem for him. Unfortunately, the ultrasound did show that he has a mass in his upper intestine. They aren't sure if it is cancerous or not, but after researching on the internet it seems that lymphoma is very likely. The benign tumors appear to be rare. :(

Since eating is such an issue for him (and now I know why) I really want to get some food into him, because he is just wasting away before my eyes. I am thinking I might try Catsure. The carbs aren't particularly high and I am hoping that a liquid diet might not cause as much problem for him while we see what is the prognosis on the mass.

He has an appetite, and he seems to be in good spirits most of the time (unless he has vomited). Anybody have any experience with tumors of the GI? I know the prognosis might be bad, but I do want to keep him pain free and nourished in the mean time.
 
So sorry about the findings :( We treat the most urgent issue first so get food into him, whatever it is, and adjust insulin accordingly. The cat milk found at PetSmart or even Walmart has been well received when we've needed cats to get some calories into them. Look for the Cat Milk, not kitten formula (though kitten formula is packed with nutrients and calories too and I've heard people have success with ailing seniors with that too).

Many healing prayers for Foster.
 
So sorry to hear the diagnosis. Did they put Foster on any type of medication to help him? Seems they would have put him on something.

I know trying to treat Foster's diabetes and put weight on him can be difficult since most of foods/treats that are high calorie are also high in carb, at least that is what I found when looking for my kitty. She is not diabetic, but I hated to feed the high carb to her, but then again I needed her to eat something. She was put on Prednisonolone and even though my vet knows how I feel about Science Diet she suggested I try the AD formula since she wasn't wanting to eat anything else. I did and she actually ate it. I got lucky that once the meds kicked in after a couple of days she did not want the AD anymore and started eating her Fancy Feast. The AD is 15.4 carbs, according to the web site, which is high but not as high as other high calorie canned food.

I agree with Melanie, feed your kitty whatever he will eat to get his weight up and adjust the insulin dose accordingly. The boy needs the food more. You might want to try the Science Diet AD, for some reasons sick kitties seem to eat that stuff. The kitten milk will be higher in calorie than the regular milk, and I have seen a milk for Senior cats at PetSmart it may be higher in calorie than the regular cat milk, worth looking at anyway.

I wish you the best of luck and send many prayers for Foster and you.
 
amandazzle said:
Thank you. I was wondering what an ultrasound would show that an x-ray wouldn't. With regards to lumps and obstructions.
Click to expand...


I'm sorry that Foster and you are going through this. I would say to get him to eat whatever he will eat right now and not worry about the diabetes. I am sending you some good energies that perhaps, this mass is benign and there's a happy news bit coming your way for him. :bighug:
 
A debulking surgery may help him be more comfortable, but surgery takes a lot of recovery and is expensive. My personal experience with chemotherapy in cats was such that I would only work to make the cat comfortable and not do more than prednisone.
 
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Try some A/D or MaxCal from the vet. You can add water and put in blender or food processor, almost like consistency you would use to syringe, but just put in dish if he is eating on his own. The vet we went to suspected lymphoma after seeing Hanks ultrasound. We got referral to an internal medicine vet who did another ultrasound and a needle biopsy ...and determined it was a primary pancreatic tumor that had metastasized, not lymphoma...though no pathplogy was done she felt strongly it was pancreatic cancer. If lymphoma I would have been prepared to give steroids and restart insulin if necessary. I hope you are able to get a clear diagnosis and direction soon. I would ask for bupe, odansetron, and fluids to have on hand in meantime....to help keep him comfortable while you sort things out. I am so sorry to hear this...I know how hard it is. Sending healing comfort
 
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