Hobbes is sick and I don't know what to do

[calvinand]

I'm new to this site and just want to reach out to see if anyone has similar experiences with their cat/ kitten as me. 

I got my male tabby mix Hobbes from a shelter back in February 2017. He has been periodically sick pretty much the entire time I've owned him. It started off with him just being lethargic to having a fairly nasty case of parasites. Once that was cleared up he started exhibiting alarming symptoms almost all at once.  

After getting him to the vet last week he had a high fever, had not eaten in a couple of days. They treated him, addressed the immediate sickness and he has been diagnosed with Anemia. 
 

Now the main problem lies in the fact that he is generally exhibiting signs of FIP, which is both alarming and heart-breaking. He was given medication to help his appetite and metacam for the fever, as well as anti-inflammatories. 

He was almost 100% for the first few days, but now he's developed a kind of tremor-like shuddering when he tries to sleep. He is also back to being uncharacteristically lethargic and non-responsive to toys. 

I know some cats just aren't playful, and I know he is pretty sick. 

I suppose I'm just inquiring if anyone else has had an issue similar to this, and any advice I can get to engage him better and figure out what's wrong.

Thanks guys

 

[Primula]

This will push your post to the top now so I hope someone will come along & help you with regard to FIP, about which I know nothing.

 

[kashmir64]

The shuttering bothers me.  Has he been checked for a heart murmur?  Also, how old is he and did the vet tell you which parasite?  If it's Coccidia or Giardia then the cleanup of feces is different as is the medication, and reinfection can occur in both.  In the case of Giardia, it is transferrable to both humans and other pets.  Coccidia is species specific.

 

[calvinand]

He is 7 months old. 

I took him to the vets yesterday again because he was barely moving. Once again he had a fever, about 103. 

But this ultrasound, the second one in a week, indicated that he has no fluids built up by his organs. What little fluid there was around his kidneys has decreased since last week. 

He is also still eating (or wanting to eat). Hobbes has become quite dependant on me and usually prefers to eat while I'm around (which is fine I can control his food intake that way). 

These are good signs pointing in the opposite direction of FIP. However, with that virus, it's still too early to tell, and barely diagnosable anyways. 

Once again his Red blood Cell count was super low. It has risen 2% since last week, at 20%. Which is still terrible but at least something is working. 

Now the vet wants to give him antibiotics to fight Mycoplasma haemofelis. It's a parasite that destroys the cat's red blood cells. This is definitely a possibility since he did come from a shelter, and he did fight off a nasty bout of worms already back in February/ March. 

What does anyone think? Could that be a correlation? Or am I just giving a vet money to keep diagnosing my ailing cat with bs?

 

[calvinand]

Thank you!