Fluid build up problem after Dental surgery

[an6elsan]

I hope everyone had a great start for the new year! Thank you to the admins for adding me in this group. I feel compelled to share our cat's story for awareness and to hopefully get more information of similar experiences as we are at a loss on what to do. Our cat's name is Duncan and even though he's an older cat (roughly 14-15 years) he didn't have any health issues and always have a big appetite. I've never had a cat as sweet as this little boy. He loves cuddles and would always sleep on top of my head no matter where I sleep. He's the best comfort companion. And he was absolutely fine 2 months ago but all of a sudden we're going through this nightmare. It all started on November 3rd when he had his dental surgery because of a broken tooth. But the vet also took most of his other teeth out in the process. During the first week after the surgery, he wouldn't eat nor drink so he started to get dehydrated and constipated. We took him back to the vet and they gave him subcutaneous fluid and prescribed a stool softener. In the 2nd week, he still wasn't defecating and still wouldn't eat or drink. So they gave him another subcutaneous fluid and did an enema to ease the constipation. Before Thanksgiving, we took him to a different vet and they put him on IV fluids overnight to address dehydration and prescribed Miralax. He's always been a fat cat so when we felt the bones from his spine but noticed his belly is getting bigger and distended that's when started to get really alarmed. On Monday after Thanksgiving, we brought him to a different vet and they did an x-ray and discovered the fluid build up in his abdomen. The vet did an abdominocentesis and recommended to get him an ultrasound as they couldn't determine what's going on inside him with just the x-ray alone. We brought him to a specialty vet hospital and the doctor assured us that his heart, kidney, liver, lungs seem to be healthy and yet he still continues to build up fluid in his abdomen and chest. They did another tap to his abdomen and also started to extract the fluid from his chest. After a week, we noticed that his belly is still growing big and his breathing is getting heavier so we brought him to the vet again for another fluid extraction. Their lab analyzed some sample from the fluid and found nothing abnormal and so ascite is ruled out since they didn't find any heart or kidney problem either. Three local vets in Orlando already looked at him and still could not identify what's wrong or how to treat him. The last vet recommended we get a CT scan from University of Florida as they allegedly our best chance for Duncan. On Christmas eve, we rushed him to the ER because he had difficulty breathing and the local vet gave him oxygen but was not able to help him any further as his case was very strange for them too. And so we drove him to UF which was 2 hours from Orlando and he's been admitted there for 1 week. They did another ultrasound, CT scans, multiple x-ray and blood work on him and they couldn't proved us a conclusive and definitive answer on how we can treat him. His latest vet alluded that it could be a feline coronavirus so she recommended that we look into getting a black market medicine from a Facebook FIP warrior group. Although they have not confirmed yet that he is indeed positive with coronavirus. They also couldn't confirm or point to cancer being the cause of the fluid build up. The doctors are just as frustrated as we are in trying to find out what's going on inside him and we don't want him to go through open surgery just for diagnosis purposes. If anyone has a similar experience with their pet, we would love to hear it. We also want to hear more info about FIP treatment. Anything to help cure our sweet little boy.

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi. When you say Coronavirus positive test, fo you mean the corona titer? Because most cats are positive to some degree like 0 to 400 is positive but still considered normal.

You have him at a University and it is important that you discuss any questions with the specialists there. They will know the most.
When you said he was normal prior to the procedure, there are things that don’t show up on routine bloodwork and radiographs. Do you know if they did dental radiographs after the extractions?
Do you know what pain meds they used?
How long was he under?
How long did they keep him there?

But, even answers to this won’t help now. I would imagine he has hepatic libidos is from prolonged not eatlng and having been a hefty cat before. Do you remember them saying that to you?
I have known of a cat that was okay and had a dental procedure done maybe without the highest quality of medical care, and had to be put to sleep 2 weeks later due to cancer. Kind of like the stress woke up the sleeping giant.

I have also known of one cat that had multiple extractions and got the best of medical care but died at the hospital 3 days later with no warning signs. That cat did have a multitude of health problems prior to the dental.

I have had more exposure than most to cats so the fact that I have known these two is still an extremely Low percentage. Of course that doesn’t help the cats involved.

I am so sorry your cat is so I’ll, I do want to applaud you getting him to the university.

 

[silent meowlook]

There is a Facebook group called fip warriors

 

[an6elsan]

Hi. When you say Coronavirus positive test, fo you mean the corona titer? Because most cats are positive to some degree like 0 to 400 is positive but still considered normal.

You have him at a University and it is important that you discuss any questions with the specialists there. They will know the most.
When you said he was normal prior to the procedure, there are things that don’t show up on routine bloodwork and radiographs. Do you know if they did dental radiographs after the extractions?
Do you know what pain meds they used?
How long was he under?
How long did they keep him there?

But, even answers to this won’t help now. I would imagine he has hepatic libidos is from prolonged not eatlng and having been a hefty cat before. Do you remember them saying that to you?
I have known of a cat that was okay and had a dental procedure done maybe without the highest quality of medical care, and had to be put to sleep 2 weeks later due to cancer. Kind of like the stress woke up the sleeping giant.

I have also known of one cat that had multiple extractions and got the best of medical care but died at the hospital 3 days later with no warning signs. That cat did have a multitude of health problems prior to the dental.

I have had more exposure than most to cats so the fact that I have known these two is still an extremely Low percentage. Of course that doesn’t help the cats involved.

I am so sorry your cat is so I’ll, I do want to applaud you getting him to the university.

Thank you S silent meowlook for the quick response and sharing all the info and experiences you know of! Our Duncan was on buprenorphine @ 0.15 ml for two weeks after his dental surgery. The vets didn't say if this has caused him to be dehydrated and constipated in the first place. His pain medication was changed to gabapentin @1.1 ml after his first abdominocentesis and thoracentesis procedures. All the local vets say that the ultrasound results don't show congenital heart disease as the cause of the fluid build up. The vets from the UF small animal hospital could not find a definitive result either that shows he has some sort of cancer. They are testing next week for toxoplasmosis but the vet said it is very unlikely as the cause either. We're just hoping that it's the Feline coronavirus (FIP) as we have a better fighting chance to help him as compared to cancer.

 

[fionasmom]

Welcome to The Cat Site to you and Duncan! I am sorry that this is what brought you here though. I have nothing constructive to add as it seems that everything is on the table and you have gotten him to a university hospital. Please keep us posted.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. I am guessing that I missed where one of these vets ran the actual RT-PCR test? If positive, FIP is confirmed; but as much as 30% of test results can come back with a false negative where FIP is active.

I presume you have already accessed these web site links?
Diagnosing FIP | Tests for Feline Infectious Peritonitis | FIP Treatment
FIP Warriors

Wish I could be of more help, but the FIP Warriors is your best bet, along with UF.