Mila, my 7.5 year old persian suddenly collapsed, went limp and recovered what happened

Joe_Danger1337

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She is going to the vets tomorrow it's 12:51AM now.
If you all remember me from another topic we found a stray 3 week old kitten on June 20th, my three persians (Mom Mila and her kids) accepted it just fine, but the ktiten, Spaska proved to be more than Mila could handle as it targets and harasses her non stop. She still loves it and they eat together and all.

Earlier Spaska woke Mila up by jumping on her neck and then started chasing her around when Mila suddenly collapsed, completely limp/numb, non responsive, Spaska didn't realize anything had happened so she jumped on her neck. Upon picking Mila up we took notice of her eyes, she was following us with her eyes but was otherwise completely unresponsive for 30 minutes or more, we were sure she was dying. She didn't go stuff, rather limp. This happened a month or so ago too when a sudden noise from he neighbors scared her as Spaska was, again chasing her around.

Both times, then and now upon coming out of it, Mila went and ate, A LOT

She had major health issues over the summer after suffering a heat stroke and she is still taking therapy for her white blood cells and thrombocytes which were at an exceptionally low number both, but she was responding to therapy just fine. She eats well, is playful at times as much as a 7.5 year old persian can be.
Her last vet visit was on August 21st and the vet said she was responding to therapy perfectly, her heart, lungs, kidnesy, everything was excellent.

Vets in my country aren't as up to date as vets in the 1st world, but mine are doing their best.
What could be the issue here? Is this something that could kill Mila if it happens again? I wouldn't want to rehome Spaska she is an amazing kitten.
 
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Joe_Danger1337

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What I did notice is that after Mila came to, her heart started pounding and racing, I could feel it through her entire body as I was holding her.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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We are not Vets here. Even though the Vets in your country may not be quite up to date, you really should discuss this with them.

Hoping everything is ok with Mila :vibes: :vibes: :vibes: :vibes:
 
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Joe_Danger1337

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I'm well aware people here aren't vets but someone might have a similar experience
I'm honestly psychologically completely broken now
I don't know what to expect, google has zero info on this or anything similar for that matter
 

crystal dawn

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I'm sorry to say that since this is linked to the newest edition as she's been chasing Mila around both times this has happened then you'll need to separate them for a while. if you have a trusted friend that could take one for some time to let Mila rest and also to see if it happens without her being chased, that would be great. As it sounds like she's being chased by the kitten and fainting.
 
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Joe_Danger1337

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Absolutely nobody I know would be willing to take Spaska
We've had issues with her behavior towards Mila before and I've tried re-homing her multiple times as much as I hate the idea to no avail. I wnat a good home for her and I can't find anyone able to provide the type of home we provide to our cats. Many people in my country keep cats as pets but they don't take proper care of them. The few people I could trust already have one or multiple cats and can't take Spaska in.

I don't know what to do, all I know is I'm going to spiral down a serious depression hole at this point because I've had nothing but stress with poor Mila's health for months now and my cats are my life.
I've never been depressed in my life, but I can see it coming on big time because every time things get better and I relax bad stuff immediately happens and it knocks me down, been happening for months on end nonstop.
 
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Joe_Danger1337

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I've been reading all night, even watched a youtube video.
It seems we're dealing with what is known as acute collapse in cats.
It can get triggered by irregular heart rate, arrhythmia or tachycardia I'm going to butcher the spelling on each and everyone of those but I don't care.

So basically as long as Mila performs tasks that increase her heartrate like in this case play fighting with Spaska or trying to get away from Spaska, we're running the risk of her dying on the spot.

Acute Collapse in Cats - Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, Recovery, Management, Cost

Acute collapse is a rare but serious symptom in cats that occurs when a cat becomes suddenly weak and faints or collapses. This is not the same thing as lying down; acute collapse is similar to a person passing out, and is characterized by weakness and disorientation. Collapse may also be preceded by vomiting, diarrhea, or panting. In most cases, cats will collapse for one minute or less and may return to normal quickly. However, it is unwise to delay treatment based on this fact, as acute collapse may be a sign of a serious condition and can also cause sudden death.
Out of the listed symptoms Mila only had
Weakness or unsteadiness
Signs of anxiety and/or confusion
I don't want to give Spaska away
she is an amazing kitten but if it comes to that I'm going to be adopting her out in the UK probably, there's an agency that handles that kinda stuff here, it costs 100 euros for the process
Finding her a good home locally has proven impossible over the past 3 months
 

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Based on that article, acute collapse is usually the result of a heart condition. What kind of tests did your vet run on Mila to say her heart is fine? There are other conditions that might cause such a collapse - seizures, even diabetes. Excitement can trigger these conditions, but many are treatable and could help prevent future ones or at least reduce their effect. I think you need to talk to your vet about what conditions could have caused these incidents and what tests could be run to help identify the issue.

What kind of therapy is Mila on? Could there be side effects or an adverse reaction to the therapy that brought on these incidents?

Until such time that you can get more tests run, it would be advisable to give Mila in a nice, quiet place that she can retreat to in order to help her stay calmer - some place that she can get away from Spaska. It wouldn't hurt to keep them separated when you can't watch them, and then distract Spaska when it looks like she might be going to go after Mila.

Good luck at the vets. I hope they have some ideas in terms of tests that can be run to help pinpoint what might be wrong with Mila.
 
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Joe_Danger1337

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Talked to my vet this morning and she sent us to a bigger pet clinic that is going to take some x-rays of Spaska's heart and chest and we'll go from there. My vet hopes that it's not Mila's heart because the last exam that was on August 21st she had excellent bloodwork that showed her heart, kidneys and liver and everything work great.
The way they examine her heart at my vets is by doing detailed bloodwork, plus they listen to the heart and such.

My vet suspects Mila runs out of air when getting overly excited and she collapses to the ground to compensate for that, but she says she can't rule out heart problems especially because Mila is a persian so we have to have that looked at this more advanced clinic/hosptial tomorrow.

So if all goes well we're going there tomorrow
 
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Joe_Danger1337

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I can't find anything on her therapy online
the pills are called Immuno Xantin
She had well below normal white cell count and thrombocytes and this therapy was supposed to get that stuff back to normal.
She started therapy on August 6th and by August 21st her numbers greatly improved, she is to take these meds for 6 months and have bloodwork done every 3 to ensure it's working, but you could already tell it was working just by her behavior alone.

She eats well, drinks well and is generally acting normal and healthy.
 
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Joe_Danger1337

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Thanks!
That's the one:)
doubt an immune booster could have adverse effects like this
 

vince

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I would have thought it was some kind of cardiovascular incident, but forgot she's a Persian. They can have breathing difficulties because they're brachycephalic. Does she have a very flat face?
 
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Joe_Danger1337

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Milla_Working_From_Home_002.jpg
There she is messing up my mom's work from some months back before the heatstroke when she was happy and healthy, she looks the same now it's just this pic shows her face well
All three are doll faced persians not not so flat variant.
They do snore and seem to have constant Upper Respiratory Infections as soon as the weather gets even a little bit cold tho, but Mila isn't supposed to be taking antibotics now due to her other condition.

For the first year she was every bit as active and hyper as Spaska
she only calmed down after she had her kittens.
Even pregnant she was running around and playing, which isn't typical for a persian.
Never bit or scratched ever tho, one of my persians do.
 
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Joe_Danger1337

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The vet's results are in and it's not very good
Her white blood cell count is extremely low again, her blood sugar levels elevated, theyr'e at 11
the other numbers we forgot due to stress.

Her heart is excellent
Lungs show sigs of previous illnesses but otherwise work great
Kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, everything is in excellent condition

She definitely faints/collapses like this when under stress or overly excited due to the low white blood cell count
last time it was 100, now it's like 33 or something which is insanely low
She was tested for PIP, PfelV, FIV and she is negative to all three, so no issues there.

My vet suspects diabetes but good luck getting Mila to eat special diabetes food, we don't have cat feeders that react to micro chips in our country and I don't think I can order any online either.
With 4 cats in the house this is going to be a nightmare, especially because all 4 are used to free feeding and if there's no food in their food bowls they get very upset.

EDIT: Mila doesn't have excessive urination, she goes twice a day, regular sized pee clumps no issues there.
She doesn't drink water excessively either
she eats a tad more because there's kitten food available which she goes crazy for but that's about it.
No weight loss either she has been a steady 3Kg 100g all her life and we weigh her once every 3 weeks or so and that number hasn't gone down once.

EDIT 2: The vet suggested giving Mila Vitamin B12 for now and see if we can get her to eat that special diabetes food.
 
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FeebysOwner

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So, is the vet just treating the possible diabetes because of the high blood sugar level reading - as a separate issue from the low WBC?

I have always thought that multiple tests need to be done to see a constant rise in blood sugar. And, a urinalysis is generally performed as well to see if there are elevated sugar levels in the urine. Elevated blood sugar level is a common result from the stress of a vet visit, and that is why just one test isn't always sufficient. I am just surprised that the vet suspects diabetes when Mila doesn't really exhibit most of the symptoms associated with it.

As far as the diabetic food, the primary goal is to feed a high protein, low carbohydrate food. You may want to try to compare other foods to the carb level in the diabetes food to see if you can come close to the same level and then try those foods as well. They should be OK for all of your cats to eat. Are they on dry food only? If so, any chance on trying canned food? Almost all canned foods will probably be even better for low-carbs than the prescription diabetic dry foods.

I do know that Dr. Elsey’s Chicken Clean protein dry food is one of the better dry foods for a diabetic cat who won't eat canned food. It also would not be an issue to feed your other cats either. I just don't know if you have access to it. The dry matter analysis, which is the best gauge to use when analyzing food values, that is tied to this food is:
Protein:67.05%
Fat:20.45%
Fiber:4.55%
Carbs:7.95%

Btw, is there any specific element within the WBC counts that is low? (Neutrophils, Eosinophils, Basophils, Monocytes, Lymphocytes) Just curious if that would shed any light on anything.
 
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Joe_Danger1337

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Thanks for the info
My vet didn't say it's diabetes but she'd like to make sure it doesn't develop further, she did take into account that the cat might have been stressed and that she ate prior to the cat visit.
All I know about her bloodwork is that her white blood cell count is well below it should be, that's all the vets tell us.

My cats always eat dry food and get wet food usually once every other day or so on average.
They eat Royal Canin Persian, as far as I know it's the highest quality dry food for persians available in my country, wet food they change their preferences so they either get Felix or evne Whiskas even tho Whiskas has grain and stuff and isn't the best sometimes that's all they want to eat.

At the moment because of the kitten they're all on Royal Canin Kitten

So far, since August 6th all we know is that Mila has drastically decrased white blood cells but the vets don't know why. On June 29th she suffered a heatstroke which almost killed her and it all went to hell form there.

Also keep in mind guys, that while I can have any video game I want here, I still live in a 3rd world country with awful healthcare for people let alone pets, my vets love animals a lot so they're doing their best with what they have available.
 
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Joe_Danger1337

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Since I can't edit the OP I'm just going to summarize what we know so far:

What we know so far:

- Mila has low white blood cells, well below what they should be. Her thrombocytes were also very low, but due to stress my mom couldn't remember what the vet said over the phone about them now.
- She started taking IMMUNOXANTIN on August 6th for this, showed great progress but now it seems her WBC count has dropped again, she is still on this therapy and will be for the foreseeable future
VetaPro | IMMUNOXANTIN
- FIP, FelV and FIV have been ruled out, the vets did tests for all three on the 6th of August.
- Faints from excitement/running around, she recovers after 30 or so seconds give or take and acts as if nothing had happened, goes to eat afterwards both times it happened
- Has good apetite
- Drinks well
- Has a steady weight of 3100g 3kg and 100g as she always has
- Goes to the bathroom normally and has been since early/mid august when she started her urso cat or whatever therapy or was it urso vet I dunno, either way she is not on that anymore
- Vet suspects Diabetes, but she is going to do another bloodwork in 2-3 days first thing in the morning, the son vet just had a baby today(congrats
:)
) so maybe it'll take a few more days but they're going to do it to see what her glucose levels would be when she hasn't eaten anything. Today they were at 11 and supposedly 4-6.6 or as Ruth said 7 is the norm.
- Mila also had Stomatitis but that got sorted out
- Heart, lung, trachea, liver, kidneys are all in excellent condition, well her lungs less so due to scars form previous illnesses and the heatstroke but overall they're great.

Suspected causes for all this mess:
- The heatstroke she suffered on June 29th which almost killed her

MY PERSONAL Opinion:
- All this is a combination of the heatstroke taking a toll on her immune system and the plaque she has on her teeth. The plaque was cleared up a bit but it's still there and even the smallest of amounts can and sometimes makes a cat's immune system go haywire.

This has been going on since July
if it was cancer or something Mila would have been over the rainbow by now if I'm not mistaken

EDIT: or maybe it could be cancer, heck if I know anymore.

"Bone marrow: If the cancer were confined to the bone marrow, we would call this leukemia. The signs that we see in cats are usually related to the decreased numbers of normal cells (such as red blood cells that carry oxygen, white blood cells that fight infection and platelets that help with clotting) which are made in the bone marrow. Anemia, infections and bleeding are common problems. "

that sounds pretty on point.
 
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mrsgreenjeens

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You said she tested negative for leukemia though. Has the Vet tested again, just to be sure. Another sign of leukemia is stomatitis, which you did say she had at one point :frown:. But the fainting is NOT a typical sign of leukemia. It really isn't a normal sign of anything in cats that I'm aware of, especially if her heart is in good condition. But you did mention she has had previous illnesses that effected her lungs. What happened then? Could she be fainting from lack of oxygen when she gets too excited? Particularly since she is a Persian?
 
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Joe_Danger1337

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Lack of oxygen because of her breed was the initial assessment of both my vets and the vet we took her to today to take her x-rays. But he also said it could be diabetes. We did FIP, FelV and FIV tests on August 6th when her bloodwork was at its worst, all turned out negative and the vet said if they're negative now they'll stay negative because all 4 of my cats are strictly indoor cats.

Initially I thought FelV was the only bone marrow cancer but then I found out tonight there were more that could affect cats which has me, naturally freaking out.

As for what her previous issues were, when she got spayed she almost didn't make it, got bronchitis and what not, it was a bacterial infection as it often happens here in hospitals/clinics. This was back in early 2016.
Kala and Caspers spaying went off without a hitch tho.
Hoping to God there's no issues for Spaska's spaying because vets here generally don't like to spay before 6 months, so we have to wait a month and a half more.

God if it's cancer I genuinely don't know how I'm going to react anymore
I've gone through hell these past few years, from losing my grandparents 2018-2019, losing my dog of 14 years 2019 (even so 2019 was a great year overall() to breaking up with a BPD girlfriend,to being screwed over at work for a huge project last year and I still enjoy life and I genuinely am happy and have happy days more than bad days, but man if Mila ends up having cancer it's going to hit me worse than anything.
All this COVID stuff too, I'm super careful, wearing my masks, got vaccinated and all but I don't feel comfortable socalizing much despite having two pfizers in me, so yeah...I have a lot on my plate and seeing my beloved Mila suffer from cancer or anything for that matter is more than I can handle.
Sorry for the emotional dump lol
 
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