PANDI'S STORY
I have been writing Pandi’s story as I could not find enough information or photos of what to expect during her diagnosis and treatment. I hope that it may be useful to other cat owners to have something to use as reference if their cat is ever unfortunate enough to contract this dreadful disease “Feline Cryptococcosis”.
Her journey started 19th April 2012.
April 19th - We noticed that Pandi was slightly lame in her right rear leg and on inspection I saw that there were a couple of small lumps on the scruff of her neck and also at the base of her spine. Andy took her to Richard our vet, as I suspected she had been attacked by our feisty little cat Misty who she did not get along with. Richard ran blood tests. Half the results came back that afternoon but we need to wait to get the full results.
April 24th - The results were in and reported that she had liver problems. As Pandi was 14 we agreed it was not really worth sending her to a specialist to have a scan. Richard suggested we try her on a two week course of the antibiotic Noroclav 50mg.
May 8th – The course of antibiotics had not helped although she was no longer lame the small lumps had spread and were now on her face, legs, tail and upper body. Her nose had swollen and she was sneezing badly and blood was visible.
It was with a heavy heart we booked her in to be euthanized the following Saturday
May 12th – The day had come Pandi looked terrible, her sneezing had increased and there were bloody clumps of hair everywhere as she was scratching the scabs off constantly. I was starting to feel selfish and guilty about having left her this long, she was very unresponsive and eating only with a lot of coaxing and then only her favourite foods.
I said my goodbyes and sat in the carpark holding our two dogs while Andy
took her into the clinic.
To my amazement Andy returned with Pandi and word from Richard that he thought he knew what she might have and that he wanted to try and save her! Even Richard was stumped for a while. In his twenty odd years as a vet he had only ever seen a couple of other similar cases. He thought it may be Feline Leprosy and asked for her to be returned on Monday for biopsies and more blood tests.
May 14th – By the time Monday rolled round it was inconceivable just how many more lesions had developed and how they had grown, 3 biopsies were taken and we took Pandi home to wait for the results.
May 16th – Pandi was not looking good and started smelling like road kill. I was starting to think we would loose her before a treatment had been prescribed. She was very weak and had to be carried to the toilet. She remained curled up and almost lifeless all day. I was coaxing her to eat and found that by putting the food on a raised platform she could manage a few mouthfuls without the constant sneezing that happened if she lowered her head. Large clumps of bloody sticky scabby hair littered her bedding and the surrounding area.
The results came back negative to Leprosy but positive to another rare fungal disease Cryptococcosis. Richard got in touch with the Cryptococcosis specialist in Sydney and was advised it could be treated with special tailor made tablets. We were told the treatment takes about 18 months and decided that we owed it to Pandi to give it a go. We were worried that she was in pain but assured that she wasn’t, the lesions would be itchy but not painful which was a relief as we couldn’t bear for her to be in pain for that period of time.
I have been writing Pandi’s story as I could not find enough information or photos of what to expect during her diagnosis and treatment. I hope that it may be useful to other cat owners to have something to use as reference if their cat is ever unfortunate enough to contract this dreadful disease “Feline Cryptococcosis”.
Her journey started 19th April 2012.
April 19th - We noticed that Pandi was slightly lame in her right rear leg and on inspection I saw that there were a couple of small lumps on the scruff of her neck and also at the base of her spine. Andy took her to Richard our vet, as I suspected she had been attacked by our feisty little cat Misty who she did not get along with. Richard ran blood tests. Half the results came back that afternoon but we need to wait to get the full results.
April 24th - The results were in and reported that she had liver problems. As Pandi was 14 we agreed it was not really worth sending her to a specialist to have a scan. Richard suggested we try her on a two week course of the antibiotic Noroclav 50mg.
May 8th – The course of antibiotics had not helped although she was no longer lame the small lumps had spread and were now on her face, legs, tail and upper body. Her nose had swollen and she was sneezing badly and blood was visible.
It was with a heavy heart we booked her in to be euthanized the following Saturday
May 12th – The day had come Pandi looked terrible, her sneezing had increased and there were bloody clumps of hair everywhere as she was scratching the scabs off constantly. I was starting to feel selfish and guilty about having left her this long, she was very unresponsive and eating only with a lot of coaxing and then only her favourite foods.
I said my goodbyes and sat in the carpark holding our two dogs while Andy
took her into the clinic.
To my amazement Andy returned with Pandi and word from Richard that he thought he knew what she might have and that he wanted to try and save her! Even Richard was stumped for a while. In his twenty odd years as a vet he had only ever seen a couple of other similar cases. He thought it may be Feline Leprosy and asked for her to be returned on Monday for biopsies and more blood tests.
May 14th – By the time Monday rolled round it was inconceivable just how many more lesions had developed and how they had grown, 3 biopsies were taken and we took Pandi home to wait for the results.
May 16th – Pandi was not looking good and started smelling like road kill. I was starting to think we would loose her before a treatment had been prescribed. She was very weak and had to be carried to the toilet. She remained curled up and almost lifeless all day. I was coaxing her to eat and found that by putting the food on a raised platform she could manage a few mouthfuls without the constant sneezing that happened if she lowered her head. Large clumps of bloody sticky scabby hair littered her bedding and the surrounding area.
The results came back negative to Leprosy but positive to another rare fungal disease Cryptococcosis. Richard got in touch with the Cryptococcosis specialist in Sydney and was advised it could be treated with special tailor made tablets. We were told the treatment takes about 18 months and decided that we owed it to Pandi to give it a go. We were worried that she was in pain but assured that she wasn’t, the lesions would be itchy but not painful which was a relief as we couldn’t bear for her to be in pain for that period of time.
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