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- Mar 17, 2012
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I'm new and came across this forum in my never ending research of auto-immune disorders and would like some thoughts. I have a 9 year old cat that was diagnosed 2 years ago with an auto-immune disease. The vet does not know which one unless we do bone marrow testing, which we may do this summer. Max is currently in remission and doing really well.
One of things that has puzzled me concerning his illness is the bleeding from his mouth. He doesn't cough it up but rather blood would just drip from his mouth. The vet said that it seemed to be seeping from his gums around a certain tooth. It was explained to me that because he was so anemic, his blood couldn't clot, therefore it would just drip out. However, he never would bleed from any other area. For example, I started him on a different flea medication during the last time he was very ill (he has a SEVERE flea allergy), the hair at the application site fell out (I was warned when using this flea medication that it was a possible side effect). While he was scratching the area, he scratched himself with a claw. The wound clotted just fine. He never bled from any injection site, nothing. He would ONLY bleed from that area of the mouth. I would think that if his platelet count was so low that he'd would just seep out blood, why wouldn't any sort of abrasion just bleed uncontrollably? That has always bothered and confused me. The vet didn't really give an explanation when I asked. When he would eat, I could tell he had difficulty chewing. I mentioned all of this to the vet and he said that he couldn't see anything wrong with that tooth and even IF we wanted to pull it anyway, Max would have likely bled to death at that time. He bled from his mouth 2 years ago, and he bled from his mouth when he relapsed in November. It's always the same area.
When Max first became ill, he required an emergency transfusion right from the start and was put on Prednisone. His recovery was slow but steady. When he relapsed in November, he wasn't anemic enough at first to require a transfusion. He was just started on Pred. He never, at that point, responded to medication. The vet, just kept upping the dose, trying desperately, to suppress what was causing the bleeding. The highest dose that he was on was 20mg a day, when the normal high dose is only 10mg. Instead of improving, he just got progressively worse. Eventually, he did require another transfusion. After that transfusion, he started responding and now is, again, in remission. However, this time Max will be on a maintenance dose of Pred. for the rest of his life.
The vet is convinced that Max has an auto-immune disease. I accept it but part of me wonders if its not something else. That is the reason why I have pretty much decided to have the bone marrow testing done. I will have a definitive answer, yes or no, that Max has an auto-immune disease. If the results don't show anything, then it will force my vet to consider other ideas. I don't want people to think that I don't trust my vet. I do trust him and his knowledge. He has been great to us and has gone above and beyond for Max. He knows we don't have a lot of money and has worked with us not only in payment plans, but I know for a fact that he doesn't charge us for a lot of things that he should.
Even though Max is doing well now, I haven't stopped researching and looking everywhere I can for information about a cat that has symptoms similar to Max. I haven't really gotten anywhere with it, so if anyone has any thoughts, please share!
One of things that has puzzled me concerning his illness is the bleeding from his mouth. He doesn't cough it up but rather blood would just drip from his mouth. The vet said that it seemed to be seeping from his gums around a certain tooth. It was explained to me that because he was so anemic, his blood couldn't clot, therefore it would just drip out. However, he never would bleed from any other area. For example, I started him on a different flea medication during the last time he was very ill (he has a SEVERE flea allergy), the hair at the application site fell out (I was warned when using this flea medication that it was a possible side effect). While he was scratching the area, he scratched himself with a claw. The wound clotted just fine. He never bled from any injection site, nothing. He would ONLY bleed from that area of the mouth. I would think that if his platelet count was so low that he'd would just seep out blood, why wouldn't any sort of abrasion just bleed uncontrollably? That has always bothered and confused me. The vet didn't really give an explanation when I asked. When he would eat, I could tell he had difficulty chewing. I mentioned all of this to the vet and he said that he couldn't see anything wrong with that tooth and even IF we wanted to pull it anyway, Max would have likely bled to death at that time. He bled from his mouth 2 years ago, and he bled from his mouth when he relapsed in November. It's always the same area.
When Max first became ill, he required an emergency transfusion right from the start and was put on Prednisone. His recovery was slow but steady. When he relapsed in November, he wasn't anemic enough at first to require a transfusion. He was just started on Pred. He never, at that point, responded to medication. The vet, just kept upping the dose, trying desperately, to suppress what was causing the bleeding. The highest dose that he was on was 20mg a day, when the normal high dose is only 10mg. Instead of improving, he just got progressively worse. Eventually, he did require another transfusion. After that transfusion, he started responding and now is, again, in remission. However, this time Max will be on a maintenance dose of Pred. for the rest of his life.
The vet is convinced that Max has an auto-immune disease. I accept it but part of me wonders if its not something else. That is the reason why I have pretty much decided to have the bone marrow testing done. I will have a definitive answer, yes or no, that Max has an auto-immune disease. If the results don't show anything, then it will force my vet to consider other ideas. I don't want people to think that I don't trust my vet. I do trust him and his knowledge. He has been great to us and has gone above and beyond for Max. He knows we don't have a lot of money and has worked with us not only in payment plans, but I know for a fact that he doesn't charge us for a lot of things that he should.
Even though Max is doing well now, I haven't stopped researching and looking everywhere I can for information about a cat that has symptoms similar to Max. I haven't really gotten anywhere with it, so if anyone has any thoughts, please share!