Spinal Lesions on Kitten

lsutton91

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 29, 2020
Messages
6
Purraise
4
Hi Everyone,

Sort of grasping at last chance straws here, but has anyone had any experience with cats that have spinal lesions? Specifically on cats under 1 year of age?

Our 9ish month old dsh started acting like she was in pain about a month ago -- she sleeps most of the day, and when she is up, she can't jump up to her food bowl (she can jump down, though), she cries whenever we pick her up, and she growls at her sister whenever she comes near. There didn't appear to be any traumatic accidents before the change in behavior. We've taken her to 2 different vets a total of 3 times now, and after fluids, antibiotics, pain meds, and blood work showing she didn't have feline leukemia, an x-ray finally found a big lesion in the middle of her back and a smaller one towards her tail. We've been recommended to a specialist who will charge close to $200 just to see her. I'm not going to lie and say money is no issue because we aren't the richest people in the world and we have already spent $600 on her. But we also don't want to give up on her. If anyone has any advice on this topic, it would be really appreciated. We can figure out $200+ if the specialist is going to be able to provide us with a reasonable solution to give her a high quality life. But what little I've been able to get from Google shows this usually being an issue in older cats and has a TON of causes--one of which is cancer... and to spend all that money just to have the specialist tell us there's nothing they can really do just adds to this already heart-wrenching ordeal.

Thanks for any advice you guys have!
 

FeebysOwner

TCS Member
Staff Member
Forum Helper
Joined
Jun 13, 2018
Messages
22,439
Purraise
33,202
Location
Central FL (Born in OH)
Hi. If it were me, and I was able to find a way to deal with the financial aspect, I would most certainly spend the money to have a specialist look at her. It might be that an ultrasound or CT scan is in order to help identify more about the lesions - things that an x-ray cannot do.

I know that if I didn't, it would haunt me never knowing if there was something that could have been done to help her.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3

lsutton91

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 29, 2020
Messages
6
Purraise
4
That's sort of how we're leaning. I was just hoping someone would have some experience with this and could give us a little insight into which direction this is heading. We got this little girl after our old cat passed away, and the thought of losing another so soon is awful, but we also don't want to keep taking her to doctor after doctor doing test after test. Beyond the money, we don't want to drag her pain out. We'll figure out the money if there's a clear solution to make her feel better, but it's hard watchibg her be so miserable. :(
 

FeebysOwner

TCS Member
Staff Member
Forum Helper
Joined
Jun 13, 2018
Messages
22,439
Purraise
33,202
Location
Central FL (Born in OH)
Maybe someone else will come along soon with more to offer that I have. I kind of responded in order to help 'get the ball rolling' on other members seeing your post and responding with whatever ideas they might think of.

Is she on a regular dose of pain meds, just to help out while you work your way through this?
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #5

lsutton91

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 29, 2020
Messages
6
Purraise
4
Thanks FeebysOwner! Hopefully I'll hear from someone. If not, hopefully the vet will have some good news next week!

She is on some pretty strong pain pills now. At the start of all this, they just gave her a little bit, but once they found the lesions they gave her the good stuff. For thr most part, though, she just sleeps in her cat bed 90% of the day. She used to love playing with her sister and cuddling with us. She still likes it if we pet her head, but she growls anytime her sister comes near her. Poor Stella doesn't understand why her sister doesn't want to play anymore.
 

FeebysOwner

TCS Member
Staff Member
Forum Helper
Joined
Jun 13, 2018
Messages
22,439
Purraise
33,202
Location
Central FL (Born in OH)
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #8

lsutton91

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 29, 2020
Messages
6
Purraise
4
Just in case anyone else comes on here looking for answers if they get a kitten with spinal lesions:

The expensive specialist's best guess without doing even more expensive blood work was disconspondylitist. Even though this is not a very common disease in cats, we continued with an antibiotic treatment that should have dealt with the infection. When that didn't work, we took her to another non-specialized vet who could do the suggested blood work at a more affordable price for us. It was discovered that our kitten had low red and white blood cell counts (side note: she did test negative for feline lukemia and other "icky" germs, to quote the vet). This led the vet and the pathologist he worked with to believe there was something wrong with her bone marrow, and while there are certain diseases that can be treated with antibiotics because it's caused by a bacteria, our kitten was so young and had so little exposure to the tics and other critters that could carry those germs that it was a very long shot the antibiotics (the third we'd tried on her) would work. We're pretty certain she had some genetic issues that caused the spinal lesions and bone marrow problems. I don't know if that will be the case for any future kittens diagnosed with spinal lesions, but since all the vets we've taken her to seemed dumbfounded by the lesions and we haven't been able to find anyone else who's dealt with similar issues, it may be safe to say it's a genetic problem. But please try antibiotics! As mentioned above, there are diseases that can cause these problems and can be treated. Unfortunately for our little Rosie, this wasn't the case, and next steps would have been very painful bone marrow extractions and surgeries. We didn't want her to suffer anymore on the increasingly slight chance it wasn't a genetic issue. :(
 

kittenmittens84

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Sep 30, 2019
Messages
618
Purraise
601
Just in case anyone else comes on here looking for answers if they get a kitten with spinal lesions:

The expensive specialist's best guess without doing even more expensive blood work was disconspondylitist. Even though this is not a very common disease in cats, we continued with an antibiotic treatment that should have dealt with the infection. When that didn't work, we took her to another non-specialized vet who could do the suggested blood work at a more affordable price for us. It was discovered that our kitten had low red and white blood cell counts (side note: she did test negative for feline lukemia and other "icky" germs, to quote the vet). This led the vet and the pathologist he worked with to believe there was something wrong with her bone marrow, and while there are certain diseases that can be treated with antibiotics because it's caused by a bacteria, our kitten was so young and had so little exposure to the tics and other critters that could carry those germs that it was a very long shot the antibiotics (the third we'd tried on her) would work. We're pretty certain she had some genetic issues that caused the spinal lesions and bone marrow problems. I don't know if that will be the case for any future kittens diagnosed with spinal lesions, but since all the vets we've taken her to seemed dumbfounded by the lesions and we haven't been able to find anyone else who's dealt with similar issues, it may be safe to say it's a genetic problem. But please try antibiotics! As mentioned above, there are diseases that can cause these problems and can be treated. Unfortunately for our little Rosie, this wasn't the case, and next steps would have been very painful bone marrow extractions and surgeries. We didn't want her to suffer anymore on the increasingly slight chance it wasn't a genetic issue. :(
I wonder if they considered FIP. iirc it’s actually the most common cause of spinal problems in cats, even more so in young cats and kittens. It causes lesions that lead to gait issues, difficulty jumping, head tilt, etc.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #10

lsutton91

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 29, 2020
Messages
6
Purraise
4
Non of the vets mentioned FIP, but she did have a lot of the symptoms that can come with it. She did have a lot of blood work with a lot of acronyms in the results, though, so maybe there was something in there that didn't indicate a high chance of her having FIP? Definitely worth looking into for anyone in a similar situation, but it looks like most cats with FIP don't make it. :( Still, sometimes it's nice just to know why. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
Top