Anemia Questions

[BaxterSaysMeoww]

Hello!

I’m so happy I found this board! I’ve kinda been going crazy these past couple months looking for answers or people with similar experiences.

I have an 11 month old kitten named Sabrina. Back in February I noticed that she was eating the litter, throughout the day she would just stop by for a quick snack and I would constantly have stop her. Not long after she started that she began scratching and licking herself constantly. It would never stop unless I was holding her or she was sleeping. It got to the point that my crazy, non stop playing kitten couldn’t concentrate on anything else except that.

I started Googling and realized some of the things she was doing pointed to anemia, so I checked her gums as well and it seemed pale to me so I called the vet and they took her in that day.

They gave me some antibiotics and flea medication and said she doesn’t look anemic. I kept saying she definitely didn’t have fleas but we used the treatment and got a flea comb and checked all over the house for signs of fleas.. there was none.

They also did bloodwork that day as well and the next day when the vet called me, she said she had to keep double checking because she couldn’t believe the results were my cats results, her RBC count was super super low. So treatment began.

The vet said that no, it in fact was not fleas. They said that her body was attacking and killing her RBC’s. We’ve done every test they are capable of and still don’t know why that’s happening.

They prescribed her prednisolone. We started off at 5mg a day and it wasn’t helping her symptoms and barely raising her RBC count as seen through bloodwork. So it was raised to 10mg a day, one in the morning and one at night.

We eventually got her RBC back to full and the vet seemed as happy as I was. Now we are in the process of weaning her off the steroid. Every two weeks we do a blood test and if the RBC count looks good then we drop the dose down. She’s currently down to one pill a day, 5mg. This happened after a blood test last week and they said everything looked good.

My big question is I guess.. is this even gonna work? Are we just treating this with a bandaid and if her test results keep showing the Rcount looks normal and the vet eventually says no more steroid at all, won’t she just go back to being anemic and sick again? Can cats just fix their self and become not anemic with just some steroid help? We still don’t know the underlying cause, is her body suddenly going to say ‘okay, don’t kill the RBC’s anymore!’

She is acting normal. Her appetite for awhile was insane but now that she’s down to just 5mg it seems to have kinda balanced itself out, she isn’t constantly crying for food anymore but still eats normally when given food.

The steroid helped treat all the symptoms but it can’t fix the problem so I’m just confused I guess. She’s a normal happy kitten again, although ever since this first started she never regained any interest in playing. She’ll play a little but not like you would expect a kitten to.

I’ve read through some posts on the boards a bit but was just hoping someone with some similar experience could give their advice.

Sorry this is so long, just wanted to make sure I got all the details out.

Thanks!

 

[di and bob]

I did a little research and it said the bentonite in clumping litters is toxic and can cause anemia in cats. It is extremely lucky she didn't get a bowel blockage from the swelling litter in her intestine. She may have pica and there is really not a lot you can do. Chang to a non-clumping litter or one that is food-based like wheat or corn. She can outgrow this. are you feeding her enough? Cats under one-year-old need as much as they can eat several times a day. Steroid use can decrease the appetite too. The scratching could be an allergic reaction to something she ate (litter?) or something else. One thing is for sure if her RBC did go back up her marrow is not affected yet and she will make new RBC's every few months. This iS fixable, change her litter. Many cats develop pica, especially kittens, so you are not alone. Please keep us informed!

 

[BlackCatOp]

Awww! Poor baby! Sounds like the vet is treating her for immune mediated hemolytic anemia. This most commonly occurs in dogs. And yes, eventually the pred can be tapered down and eliminated. I would confirm with your vet about what disease/syndrome they are actually treating. If IMHA, there is usually more to the treatment than just pred.

 

[BaxterSaysMeoww]

I did a little research and it said the bentonite in clumping litters is toxic and can cause anemia in cats. It is extremely lucky she didn't get a bowel blockage from the swelling litter in her intestine. She may have pica and there is really not a lot you can do. Chang to a non-clumping litter or one that is food-based like wheat or corn. She can outgrow this. are you feeding her enough? Cats under one-year-old need as much as they can eat several times a day. Steroid use can decrease the appetite too. The scratching could be an allergic reaction to something she ate (litter?) or something else. One thing is for sure if her RBC did go back up her marrow is not affected yet and she will make new RBC's every few months. This iS fixable, change her litter. Many cats develop pica, especially kittens, so you are not alone. Please keep us informed!

The first step I took after her diagnosis was change to a corn based litter and yes, I was lucky for no blockage, that was definitely a worry. Since the change I haven’t caught her eating it at all so that’s since stopped.

Once her appetite went crazy I couldn’t leave a bowl of food out anymore because she would eat it all within minutes, a couple times she made herself sick so the vet said create a feeding schedule and when she would cry in between meals just give a few treats, which I’ve been following as well.

We think the scratching seemed like an allergy thing as well, it very well could’ve been the litter from when she started eating it.

 

[BaxterSaysMeoww]

Awww! Poor baby! Sounds like the vet is treating her for immune mediated hemolytic anemia. This most commonly occurs in dogs. And yes, eventually the pred can be tapered down and eliminated. I would confirm with your vet about what disease/syndrome they are actually treating. If IMHA, there is usually more to the treatment than just pred.

I believe that’s what it is as well, and the vet may have even said that herself, honestly we’ve been to the vet so many times since February that I can’t even remember everything said anymore. They did say however that she may need to see a specialist but it’s referral only and they haven’t referred us yet. We were ready to go and start with that but I think they are waiting to see what happens after she comes off the steroids completely. She goes back for a blood test next week so we’ll see how her RBC is doing after the dosage drop again.

I’ve been watching her super closely and so far she hasn’t shown any signs of how she acted before so I’m remaining positive but also concerned that once she drops the steroid altogether that the problem will just return again.

 

[di and bob]

Think positive, I really doubt it. They do produce more red blood cells. If it starts dropping just keep her on the lowest dose possible for longer and step it down in 6-12 months. I had a cat on prednisone for almost three years and he was fine. Have blood tests run every 6 months to check kidney function.

 

[BaxterSaysMeoww]

Think positive, I really doubt it. They do produce more red blood cells. If it starts dropping just keep her on the lowest dose possible for longer and step it down in 6-12 months. I had a cat on prednisone for almost three years and he was fine. Have blood tests run every 6 months to check kidney function.

I’m definitely trying to stay positive! We haven’t gotten any bad news in awhile, only good so I’ve been positive but also constantly on the watch for any returning symptoms, which I haven’t seen either so that’s good, I know!

I worried about long term use of the steroid but my vet seems to be handling the dosing well so I just go with what they recommend. It would obviously be great to not have her on it, and maybe that will be possible one day but for now I just take it two weeks at a time and wait for the results. It’s good to know though that a cat can be fine on it for years though.