My kitty Rexy is now a senior cat at 15 years old. She came from a no-kill rescue. An entire group of cats was rescued from a crack house that was shut down, and there was all sorts of inbreeding so they were never a healthy group of cats. In fact, all of her relative cats have died many years ago. She is probably one of the last surviving ones.
The history is that Rexy is asthmatic (been on flovent for ~ 3 years now) and has a mid-grade heart murmur that has been very stable over the years. She's had a few serious lung infections related to her asthma that have been resolved with antibiotics etc. I have a wonderful vet team that I work with (a great vet at a clinic and an at-home vet). So Rexy is under careful vet care. I am also very meticulous in taking care of my cats.
I have a baby scale at home so I have a meticulous record of her weight since about 2008 or so. Gradually over the years, there has been weight loss. Nothing alarming or sudden, but very consistent. In particular, when her lungs cause her troubles, she loses weight and she never seems to gain it back. She has lost about 1 pound between fall 2010 to fall 2012, and then in the past year and a bit, she has gradually lost another 1 pound. I do bloodwork on all of my senior cats annually. Her bloodwork was last done 5 months ago and came back just fine. Her coat in the past year has become quite greasy and not very good (it always had this tendency). I will redo bloodwork in the next week I think (she has lost about 6 ounces of weight since last bloodwork done 5 months ago). Two vets looked at her at different points this summer, and nothing alarming seemed to be going on.
As of today, unless something has changed in her bloodwork, her blood and body functions (poop and peeing etc.) are all normal. No vomiting. No anemia. A weak appetite overall which is the obvious reason for weight loss. She can still jump and has strength. Up until now, I attributed the weight loss to aging badly and weaker organs (asthma in particular). I've just started her on a probiotic in case the repeated antibiotics have caused tummy issues.
But she seems to be doing worse in the past while (the past few months), and as much as I hate to write it, I wonder if there could be cancer and am just confused what else is going on. There is no organ to target for further examination, her lymphnodes are fine. Rexy gets very very stressed/frightened (trembles a lot and vomits/dry heaves in car) at the vet clinic so the last thing I want to do is untargetted aimless testing and really upset her.
What do I do? I am meticulous in vet care and have had her looked at several times this summer. She seemed to stabilize a bit after her bloodwork/vet visits this summer, but she's once again she has lost a few more ounces over the fall. Something is not right, I can just tell looking at her. Sometimes, this happens before a lung infection breaks out, so we could try an antibiotic. I will take her to the vet for a recheck and redo bloodwork (hopefully they can fit me in tomorrow) but unless something shows up in her vet exam, I just do not know what else to do.
Thoughts? What does one do in such situations?
The history is that Rexy is asthmatic (been on flovent for ~ 3 years now) and has a mid-grade heart murmur that has been very stable over the years. She's had a few serious lung infections related to her asthma that have been resolved with antibiotics etc. I have a wonderful vet team that I work with (a great vet at a clinic and an at-home vet). So Rexy is under careful vet care. I am also very meticulous in taking care of my cats.
I have a baby scale at home so I have a meticulous record of her weight since about 2008 or so. Gradually over the years, there has been weight loss. Nothing alarming or sudden, but very consistent. In particular, when her lungs cause her troubles, she loses weight and she never seems to gain it back. She has lost about 1 pound between fall 2010 to fall 2012, and then in the past year and a bit, she has gradually lost another 1 pound. I do bloodwork on all of my senior cats annually. Her bloodwork was last done 5 months ago and came back just fine. Her coat in the past year has become quite greasy and not very good (it always had this tendency). I will redo bloodwork in the next week I think (she has lost about 6 ounces of weight since last bloodwork done 5 months ago). Two vets looked at her at different points this summer, and nothing alarming seemed to be going on.
As of today, unless something has changed in her bloodwork, her blood and body functions (poop and peeing etc.) are all normal. No vomiting. No anemia. A weak appetite overall which is the obvious reason for weight loss. She can still jump and has strength. Up until now, I attributed the weight loss to aging badly and weaker organs (asthma in particular). I've just started her on a probiotic in case the repeated antibiotics have caused tummy issues.
But she seems to be doing worse in the past while (the past few months), and as much as I hate to write it, I wonder if there could be cancer and am just confused what else is going on. There is no organ to target for further examination, her lymphnodes are fine. Rexy gets very very stressed/frightened (trembles a lot and vomits/dry heaves in car) at the vet clinic so the last thing I want to do is untargetted aimless testing and really upset her.
What do I do? I am meticulous in vet care and have had her looked at several times this summer. She seemed to stabilize a bit after her bloodwork/vet visits this summer, but she's once again she has lost a few more ounces over the fall. Something is not right, I can just tell looking at her. Sometimes, this happens before a lung infection breaks out, so we could try an antibiotic. I will take her to the vet for a recheck and redo bloodwork (hopefully they can fit me in tomorrow) but unless something shows up in her vet exam, I just do not know what else to do.
Thoughts? What does one do in such situations?
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