Help? My vet has me freaking out.

[hanimal]

I have 4 cats, all indoor, spayed/neutered and vaccines up to date.

I am worried about my cat Apollo, a 4 year old male Tabby. Exclusively indoor, never been outside. So last Saturday I noticed he was lethargic and not acting himself, we took him to the vet that evening ( an Emergency vet, not our primary) who diagnosed a UTI,( fever, lethargy) gave him penicillin shot, prednisone shot and 5 days of clavamox drops.

Gave him these drops up until Friday morning, noticed every time we gave him his clavamox drops ( after he ate ) he seemed nauseous ( sitting very still, hiding). He continued to eat and drink and use the litterbox as usual ( urinating and BM). But I was still worried that he wasnt bouncing back, he seemed a good deal better this morning, yelling at me for his breakfast but I didnt feed him before the vet at 8:45am. Took him to our primary vet this morning.

So we get in and she checks him out and says he had a slight fever, but she couldnt "feel anything" so no blockages, but she noticed he was down about a pound and a half from his yearly checkup ( ironically a year ago today) so she wanted to do some blood work.

After the most terrifying half hour of my life she came back in and said his " *hemoglobs were slightly low) I said "Meaning..?" she replied "He's anaemic." I asked why? is  he bleeding somewhere? ( I work in the human medical field, with the elderly, so I hear anemia in anyone other than a woman of childbearing age, I think internal bleed. I know its not for lack of nutrition as Apollo eats likes a pig)she said she didnt know, could simply be because of the penicillin or an infection which is slowly getting better..perhaps a bladder infection.." She shows me a piece of paper with several graph style marks,( and the "low values" where just on the top side of low if you understand me) I said will he be ok? are those bad? she said they are a bit low  but that it wasnt anything terrifying or terribly bad, just low red blood cells that seemed to "clump"  when she looked at them under microscope she also said he probably had a bad reaction to clavamox and would note in his chart not to give him that one again.She said he had a slight fever and high glucose but because he hadnt eaten and was very stressed right now, that probably caused that.

So she proceeded to say she was going to give him an iron shot and a long lasting antiobiotic as she seemed to think there "could be inflammation".

I said "Is he going to be ok?" She said " I dont see any reason why he wouldnt be BUT.." and here is where I freak out " I want him back in in the next few days to repeat his blood screen because if he doesnt improve we could be looking at an autoimmune disease" I said " what? like what?" she said "Oh like leaukemia or Fiv something like that" Cue kitty mom meltdown. I said " How? he had all those vaccinations, the shelter we got him from tested him for both ( and the subsequent cats we adopted all tested negative for felv/fiv) and hes never been exposed? She said, "Well, we will see. Nothing to sit up worrying about".  Im thinking " Really? you just told me my 4 year old cat could have felv or fiv or autoimmune issues and your telling me not to worry???"

Then I asked her about his weight loss she replied " a pound and a half to a pound...I mean, I dont know what could be causing that, could be that he has been feeling crappy, and was picking at his food this past week" ( which to be fair ive only really noticed he was a bit thinner this past week) and then she said  also a good bowel movement could also see a change if the last time you brought him in he had not yet had his bowel movement..what is that saying? Im one good bowel movement away from a new closet?" she laughed. She interspersed terrifying me with laughing. I said " ok what should we look for?" she said " Look for him to get progressively better and we will re run his tests Tuesday, I want to see him this week. If he doesn't get better im on call so let me know." ( today is Saturday)" She gave him his shots and sent us on our way.

My husband was with me and thinks I took it wrong. As I am now in full freak out mode and googling "cats with anemia " was not a good idea.

We get him home and open his carrier and he runs out and walks to the kitchen to yell at me. I gave him wet food and he tucked in with gusto, then went to the cat snacks and took some of them, and then my husband bought him a new water fountain and he drunk from that. Went and urinated and had a small bowel movement and spent the rest of today napping on my bed.

Went to check on him and he got up and followed me to the kitchen to feed him his dinner ( wet food) he ate that and a few snacks, went to pee and is now laying down again.

Not as much energy as this morning. So Im like " Oh no hes not getting better! shes going to diagnose him with something catastrophic!"  So..basically, what would you take from that vet visit? Am I being over emotional and silly? Anyone had similar experiences? Im so worried about my Apollo, its been a HELL of a week and now Im terrified of Tuesdays next blood screen.

 

[iluvcats3]

Your vet is just keeping in mind other problems it could be and being careful.  Your kitty is probably fine.  That said, I have had kitties with leukemia many years ago, and also one had lymphoma in the marrow (I think that's what it was) and it does just come out of nowhere.  But I've had a LOT of kitties, and with young cats like yours, it's almost always an infection, injury, stress etc. It really sounds like your vet is covering all the bases. I totally get the freaking out thing. I had a young cat with a bad tooth last year, and I was freaking out about it because a few years ago, a bad tooth in one of my old kitties turned out to be caused by mouth cancer, and that kitty died. But my young Mamacat, it was just a bad tooth. She is a happy little tamed feral house cat now.  She probably broke that tooth on the cage when I trapped her and it took awhile to go bad.

 

[hexiesfriend]

Sounds like Vet speak for "I don't know what's wrong with your cat but it could be something or nothing" this is also cya speak. I think if she really thought he was bleeding internally she would have sent you to a vet that would ultrasound him or she would have taken an X-ray herself. Also his blood test was slightly low, not real low. I have had 2 cats now with very bad anemia one from liver cancer and one from a type of blood cancer and you don't get slightly low, you get very very low and your cat will look very pale and very weak. Your cat is 4 so he has age on his side. And it sounds like the vet visit actually perked him up and he is eating more. It's not fun having a UTI, and it looks like, an upset stomach from all the meds. I would not be too alarmed unless your cat turns very lathargic and stops eating or stops peeeing that's when you know your cats in trouble. He will bounce back try not to worry.

 

[hanimal]

Thank you so much. He ate some more wet food and more snacks and just jumped up on my couch and is sitting watching me type this. He is still not himself ( his favorite activity is tussling with his just as large ( 13lb before weight loss) brother and he is letting Aries dominate the toys in favor of sitting on my lap) but I hope his blood screen is ok. Yes she did say "slightly" low because I probed her on it. I freak out when they are sick as they are my babies. I will keep you posted on Apollo's progress ( and i pray it is progress).

 

[cataan]

Here is something I always do after my friend (i.e. cat) died last year and the vet noted that he was very dehydrated:  I add an equivalent amount of water to the wet food I give my cats.  So, if I give each cat 1/2 of a can for a meal, I fill the can with water and pour half into one bowl and half into the other bowl.  It looks like a moat of water around a pile of food, and the cats slurp it up.  I do this at breakfast and dinner to make sure they stay hydrated.  It takes 10 seconds to do it, costs nothing, and the cats like the taste more than plain water from a bowl.  Even better, cats that prefer water from a faucet and refuse to drink from a bowl will slurp it up because it's part of the food.

 

[forrestmeows]

Try not to freak out. It could be something fairly minor. You don't know yet. Don't pre-diagnose your baby with a horrible condition. Making yourself sick won't do either one of you any good.

I periodically weigh my babies by getting on the scale with them and then subtracting my weight. It helps me to make sure they are not losing or gaining too much weight since it could indicate a health issue.

Anemia (you indicated slight anemia) can be caused by many things. It could be something like parasites, such as giardia.

I will pray that it's nothing serious. Try to stay calm. It's better for you and your fur babies.

 

[hanimal]

Update on Apollo:

Thursdays Vet visit went well. His repeated CBC showed the anaemic values were gone and all his results came back normal. He was still not eating much Wednesday so we went and bought kitten food ( wet) and I had no sooner as opened the can than he jumped up on the bench meowing for it. Ate the entire can. I added some water too as suggested and he has been happy eating the moist kitten food 2-3 times a day.As a result he is using the bathroom normally. He had gained .2 lbs in 5 days and had no fever. Still lethargic but she deduced from the values returning to normal, and his appetite returning his lethargy and probably off values where due to the penicillin shot given to him at the ER, reinforced by the reaction to clavamox ( amoxicillian ). She said she is going to note he is a "cillian" allergic cat. She has no idea what the original problem was, as the tests came back negative for infection, any of the diseases she screened him for and she could not feel or see any evidence of inflammation. her only thought was it could have been a bladder infection or something that passed relatively quickly and his reactions where a combo of meds and stress. He is still weak and sleepy and she said give it another week or so for the convenia to wear off and he should get more active. He ran up the stairs today so thats a good sign, and its been one week so about the right time for the shot to reach its half life. She said the penicillan shot will last about 4 weeks so not to expect him to be 100% untl it's all gone. We were very lucky he did not have a more severe reaction. Than You so much for being my support during the past week or two of hellishness. 

 

[hexiesfriend]

Thank goodness your kitty is ok!!!

 

[forrestmeows]

Yay! That's fantastic news!

 

[hanimal]

Sadly, we were premature in our joy. Apollo started being lethargic again and rushed him to the vet, after he urinated everywhere, a dark orange. The vet came back with the worst possible diagnosis...FIP. He is 4 years old. She did an ultrasound and there was some fluid in his abdomen. It was yellow. She wavered back and forth for two hours, did blood test after blood test and showed that, other than he has no protein in the fluid ( which would cnfirm 100% it is FIP) he has all the other signs. She said she is 70% sure it is FIP. she wasnt comfortable euthanising him because he was eating and there was no protein so she gave him a steroid shot and said that if in 2 days he isnt better, or he goes farther downhill, we must put him to sleep on Thursday. He is at home now, quarantined but in his own bed, and we will see, but in my heart, I know this is the end. Im beyond devastated. I couldnt bring myself to put him down tonight as she said he was showing no signs in pain and she was 100% but my husband and I both know the end is coming, but at least we can say we did EVERYTHING we could for him. Hes stille ating an drinking, but very weak and tired. Apparently, due to his age ( 4 years) and indoor only life, she said the risk of FIP was about 1 in 5000. Sadly those odds do nothing to improve the sadness I feel, and he isnt even gone yet.   

 

[hanimal]

sorry typo, she wasnt 100% sure and that was why she didnt want to recommend immediate euthanasia.

 

[forrestmeows]

I'm so sorry Hanimal!  That's awful. I hope that someone who's knowledge about FIP can chime in and give you some advice.  

Sending hugs to you and Apollo.  

 

[posiepurrs]

Here is a website where you can learn about FIP (it is NOT contagious), but I have to warn you some of the photos on the site are graphic so if you are squeamish it may be better to avoid it.

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/fip.html

 

[hanimal]

Apollo was put to sleep today peacefully in his Daddy's arms. He was just 4. I dont know if his story or symptoms can help anyone but I asked Apollo to give me a sign on Monday night if he was ready to go, he did, he stopped eating. He was not in a lot of pain, but FIP was indeed the diagnosis. I am devastated. Fly high baby boy, mummy will miss you forever. 

 

[hexiesfriend]

I'm sorry....

 

[forrestmeows]

I'm so very sorry Hanimal.  I was extremely saddened to read this.  

I know that you had Apollo's best interests at heart.  You did everything you could for him!