new with a problem sorry its long

[lunch's mom]

hello all. i have been searching the internet for a while now trying to figure out what the symptoms mean in my cat lunch. i've had her for about 7 years. she was a stray that i brought home late one night. originally when i took her in for her shots and to get fixed 6 years ago, the Veterinarian tested her for fiv and it came back positive so i never went through the surgery on her. she had been fine since then up until about 2 and a half months ago. (she has been to the Veterinarian countless times since everything started....my mom is an avid bird breeder and i was raised that you got your pets to the Veterinarian when needed no matter what). lunch lives with my mom so when i got the call she was sick, i was over there in a flash and took her in that same day. the vets first assumption was possibly a tumor as she had a huge growth on the side of her mouth under her tounge and hadn't been eating (mostly from the pain i would guess). so a week of antibiotics and a follow up visit later....growth was gone but she had a yeast infection in her ear so more meds for kitty and a follow up a month later just for my own sanity.

well a few days ago i get a call again....lunch seems to have gone back down hill. i went and got her and took her to the Veterinarian. she hadn't eaten in a few days. at this point i am now believing it to be complications of the fiv. well....the Veterinarian ran all sorts of tests on her. full blood workup reran the fiv testing, xrays and everything. apparently she doesn't have fiv (first one 6 yrs ago must have been a false positive). so we are clueless as to what is wrong with her now.

symptoms include:
loss of appetite (i'm having to force feed her), very lethargic, bloody stools (more like just blood clumps) dehydration (from the loss of appetite) white blood cell count is very low (other blood work seemed to come back ok)

she is on antibiotics right now and the Veterinarian pumped her with fluids to rehydrate her. a lot of stuff has been ruled out since she is an indoor cat and comes into contact with no other animals or outside environments (we have been living with the thought she had fiv). the dr ruled out Panleukopenia.

follow up visit is for tuesday but if she gets any worse she is going to the ER. i am at a complete loss. she is in a great hands with my Veterinarian but i'm curious if it sounds like anything anyone else has been through.

[latergatorj]

I'm sorry to hear about poor lunch's deteriation.

A question, what is her weight like? Have you tried offering different types of foods? I had a cat that would like one type of food for awhile, and then later she would refuse it and i'd have to search for something else she'd eat.

The bloody stool- from my experience, tends to be a symptom of irritable bowel.

Did you have a complete workup done on her blood and stool? Were the results normal?

[lunch's mom]

they did a complete work up on her blood. only thing that was notable on it was her white blood cell count was extremely low. she seems to have gotten worse since the visit today. i have her in our bathroom right now as she seems to be "leaking" a bloody and clear gel type mixture from her backend. she also threw up twice. i think the vomitting may be a mixture of having medication and not eating. i managed to get some soy milk in her with a syringe and she has kept it down going on an hour now which is good but when she did vomit it had small specks of blood. hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. if not off to the ER

[latergatorj]

I think you need to call your Veterinarian immediately.

Time, and illness- moves much faster in cats than in humans because of how small they are.

If your cat is leaking blood and is throwing up blood- that means there is soemthign seriously wrong.

[lunch's mom]

i am well aware how fast it moves and i have been in contact with the Veterinarian as well as taken her back in. they still have no idea what is wrong, they've run more tests than i can count. she is now on iv fluids ever 4 hours as well as antibiotics. they just can't seem to find what is going on. she has another appointment on tuesday providing everything starts going up, if not then it'll be sooner. i'll keep you posted as things move forward.

[bitterrootbullies]

I had a cat that had a large growth in her mouth as well. We removed as much of it as we could during surgery, and biopsied. It turned out to be squamous cell carcinoma. Unfortunately there is no treatment and the tumor was unable to be completely removed because it had already probably spread into her jaw. She died a few months later, she became unable to eat despite being hungry and one day did eat but immediately threw it all up along with a lot of blood.
I had to let her go that day because she was starving to death.

If you cat is stable enough to be put under anesthesia, I would strongly recommend having the mass biopsied. If it is the same thing, there is unfortunately nothing you can do but make her as comfortable as possible. It may be that she is too sick for surgery, but I would talk to your Veterinarian about it to get their opinion.


I'm sorry
amanda samantha sydney murphy foster kipling (and BC RIP)

[bitterrootbullies]

Originally Posted by bitterrootbullies

I had a cat that had a large growth in her mouth as well. We removed as much of it as we could during surgery, and biopsied. It turned out to be squamous cell carcinoma. Unfortunately there is no treatment and the tumor was unable to be completely removed because it had already probably spread into her jaw. She died a few months later, she became unable to eat despite being hungry and one day did eat but immediately threw it all up along with a lot of blood.
I had to let her go that day because she was starving to death.

If you cat is stable enough to be put under anesthesia, I would strongly recommend having the mass biopsied. If it is the same thing, there is unfortunately nothing you can do but make her as comfortable as possible. It may be that she is too sick for surgery, but I would talk to your Veterinarian about it to get their opinion.


I'm sorry
amanda samantha sydney murphy foster kipling (and BC RIP)

Just some additional information on my cat BC's progress.
The mass never came back in her mouth, but apparently had spread to her intestinal tract or throat which is why she couldn't eat. Likely, that is what has now happend to your cat even though the mass in her mouth is gone.

[latergatorj]

I hope your Veterinarian is able to figure out what's going on.

Hang in there.

[lunch's mom]

thank you for that information. she goes back tomorrow. she has actually improved some. she is still pretty weak from not eating. i believe this to be a seperate incident from the growth that had been in her mouth because then she wanted to eat but couldn't, now she has zero interest in it. the blood from both ends has stopped and last night there was actually some liquidy stool which i hadn't seen in about 2 weeks. she is using the literbox to pee. i have been pumping iv fluids into her at least 4 times a day and tube feeding her each time and she had 2 types of meds the dr was trying to get results from and it looks like something is working. exporatory surgery is the next step.....we shall see tomorrow

[Tucker'sMom]

My thoughts are with you...I hope all goes well.