Community | Ask The Vet

Poorly Kitty

09.08.2007

I wonder if you could help me. I have a male cat who is approx 10 years old. About 4 weeks back he started drinking large amounts of water and was a little wheezy and sneezing a little. I took him to the vets as I was worried that it could be his kidneys and he had bloodwork done and a urine sample tested, all of which came back clear. He has lost a lot of weight and last week his hind legs started to kind of give way and he started to walk as if he was drunk, stumbling and falling over. He also stopped eating and drinking. I took him back to my vets and he had him in for a day for observation and he had some more bloodwork done and full x-rays. The vet also tested for toxaplasma which came back clear. All X-rays were clear, apart from a small tumour in his lungs. My vet has checked and double checked and cannot see anything on the x-rays apart from this little tumour which he feels would definately not affect his legs in anyway and a little arthritis in his left hip.

He has been given a long lasting (14 day) antibiotic injection, 1/4 of a tablet of Periactin twice daily and 1/2 a tablet of Prednisolone daily. These were all started on monday this week. He was also given 5ml of lactulose as him tummy was a little gassy and he was a little constipated

The vet has examined him so thoroughly and has been really good but he says that Bailey remains a mystery at present and is a very poorly cat.
He is definately not in pain and it\'s almost as though the signals from his brain are not reaching his legs. My vet has offered me a second opinion from a vet at a sister practice and has also said that he can refer me to a Specialist in Chester but at the moment we would not want to put Bailey through so many tests and the travelling and my vet agrees with this. He is staying with my parents as they are retired and can look after him whilst I am at work during the day. Despite appetite stimulants he has not wanted to eat by himself as yet. We are therefore feeding him the A/D high calroie diet from my vet via a syringe and he is drinking as normal.

I have checked and checked the net for what could possibly be wrong with him but we can\'t seem to find an answer. Whilst he is not in pain or any distress, I am desperately trying to find out what is going on. He seems very alert and is purring away but he walks on the part of his leg between his paw and knee rather than his paw and just keeps falling over. His is not at all distressed or in pain.

I would really appreciate your thoughts on this and any ideas you have.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Many Thanks
Fran




morning fran

sorry to hear about your poorly kitty
it does seem as though your vet has been very thorough, and his advice to refer makes sense.
from the sound of things, a brain scan may be in order - weakness and stumbling is likely to be either from a metabolic disorder (which one would expect to be picked up on bloods) or due to lesions in the brain.
this is one of those cases where the prognosis, sadly, maynot favourable, and you do have to decide how far you want to go in terms of diagnosis and attempted treatment ( and of course it may depend upon your finances).
if she has not eaten for 3 days, tube feeding (oesophagostomy or naso-gastric) may be preferable to syringing, as it is difficult to give them enough food to maintain themselves by syringe, and this again would need to be discussed with your vet based upon your feelings.
I do hope you manage to get her sorted




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