Hello!
I have an anemic kitten that is around 10 months. Our cat is usually really playful, energetic, and otherwise a normal cat except that when she goes outside she'll eat and lick as many dirt and rocks as she can until we grab her and bring her back inside.
Several months ago she was teething and for some reason had excessive bleeding from the gums because of that. We took her to the vet and we got a blood test where the vet confirmed that she was anemic. Our cat ended up recovering and was fine for several months until she started getting a white nose/gums again an started eating/licking rocks and dirt (strangely, she hasn't been bleeding at all like the first time). We took her to the vet again and the vet said we should get another blood test done, but I asked her what the point was because we already knew she was anemic. From what I understand the vet said that the blood test is just to confirm whether or not a cat has anemia, but doesn't address the underlying cause. But I've since looked up feline blood tests and I saw some websites that said a complete blood test can usually identify the underlying cause of anemia, or at least pinpoint which organ is the cause.
So my question is this: Will a complete blood test be able to help the vet know what the underlying cause of anemia is, or is it just an assessment of whether or not the cat has anemia?
Any help and advice would be much appreciated. We love our cat so much and we want her to be in the best shape possible. She loves going outside with us and it breaks our heart that we haven't been able to take her out these last few weeks. If this helps, below is a more complete list of her history, but my main question is in bold above.
-at around 4 months she started bleeding a ton from her gums during the teething process. She became very lethargic and couldn't really move around. We took her to the vet to confirm anemia, but she recovered well
-at around 6 months, the exact same thing happened again as above. This time though, we didn't take her to the vet since we knew what we were expecting
-since then she hasn't had any issues since she's fully teethed now. However, at about 9 months she started eating rocks/dirt/litter so we took her to the vet again. Instead of doing a blood test (for reasons stated above) we did a feline leukemia test, which came back negative
-she has not been vaccinated because when we were about to get her vaccinated she started bleeding from the gums. We were suggested to not vaccinate while she was going through all these things to allow her body to recover
-she lives with another cat who is up to date on vaccinations, follows the same diet as the anemic cat and has no health issues whatsoever
-our anemic cat is very friendly and energetic. There is really no indication that there's something wrong with her except for the pale gums/nose and the rock-licking.
I have an anemic kitten that is around 10 months. Our cat is usually really playful, energetic, and otherwise a normal cat except that when she goes outside she'll eat and lick as many dirt and rocks as she can until we grab her and bring her back inside.
Several months ago she was teething and for some reason had excessive bleeding from the gums because of that. We took her to the vet and we got a blood test where the vet confirmed that she was anemic. Our cat ended up recovering and was fine for several months until she started getting a white nose/gums again an started eating/licking rocks and dirt (strangely, she hasn't been bleeding at all like the first time). We took her to the vet again and the vet said we should get another blood test done, but I asked her what the point was because we already knew she was anemic. From what I understand the vet said that the blood test is just to confirm whether or not a cat has anemia, but doesn't address the underlying cause. But I've since looked up feline blood tests and I saw some websites that said a complete blood test can usually identify the underlying cause of anemia, or at least pinpoint which organ is the cause.
So my question is this: Will a complete blood test be able to help the vet know what the underlying cause of anemia is, or is it just an assessment of whether or not the cat has anemia?
Any help and advice would be much appreciated. We love our cat so much and we want her to be in the best shape possible. She loves going outside with us and it breaks our heart that we haven't been able to take her out these last few weeks. If this helps, below is a more complete list of her history, but my main question is in bold above.
-at around 4 months she started bleeding a ton from her gums during the teething process. She became very lethargic and couldn't really move around. We took her to the vet to confirm anemia, but she recovered well
-at around 6 months, the exact same thing happened again as above. This time though, we didn't take her to the vet since we knew what we were expecting
-since then she hasn't had any issues since she's fully teethed now. However, at about 9 months she started eating rocks/dirt/litter so we took her to the vet again. Instead of doing a blood test (for reasons stated above) we did a feline leukemia test, which came back negative
-she has not been vaccinated because when we were about to get her vaccinated she started bleeding from the gums. We were suggested to not vaccinate while she was going through all these things to allow her body to recover
-she lives with another cat who is up to date on vaccinations, follows the same diet as the anemic cat and has no health issues whatsoever
-our anemic cat is very friendly and energetic. There is really no indication that there's something wrong with her except for the pale gums/nose and the rock-licking.
