I need sensible advice from vet or someone with knowledge of cats

[Suninfrance]

Our friend has a beautiful 8 month old kitten, Tilly, who has been hand raised from 5 weeks old.

[IMG]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a231/suninfrance/Tilly1.jpg[/IMG]

This picture was taken in August 2007 but weight wise, she is now half this size.

She has been well up until a couple of months ago when she became very listless and had loss of appetite.  She has been to the vets on several occasions and after lots of blood tests, it was discovered that she is not making enough red blood cells to keep her little body alive.  It is so sad to see her just wasting away.  She is not in pain and doesn't appear to be suffering in any way. 

She is now on her second course of antibiotics and is a little better, but still struggles to eat.  She will lick the jelly off her cat food, but struggles to chew the soft meat.  The vet advised she went on a special diet, but this did not help and while she was on it, lost even more weight and is now looking very skeletal.

Can anyone suggest anything we can tempt her with to help build up her red blood cells?  She does occasionally have a bit of cooked chicken and cooked pork when there are leftovers, but she struggles to eat these.  It's almost like she wants to help herself get better, but is having a hard time doing it.

We want to give Tilly the best chance we can, so, please, any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Jan

[raindog]

hmmm, sounds strange....

What about trying another vet? A second opinion as it were.

[Suze01]

Tilly is beautiful.  Can I assume that she has been wormed?

[Suninfrance]

The only other vet local to us deals mainly with large animals - cows, horses, etc.  The vet she normally goes to is almost my friend's second home as she has 4 dogs, 13 cats, a horse and a donkey and is extremely sympathetic towards cats in particular.  She also adores Tilly.

She has been wormed, de-flea-ed and checked regularly for ticks, although she very rarely goes outside.

I know liver is bad for cats (it killed my mum's cat, but then she was feeding it to her raw 7 days a week without realising the damage it was doing).  But as it is full of iron, I was wondering if a little piece maybe once a week might help her red blood cells recuperate.

[newbiee]

Get onto Google and put in "pets forum" and similar . ... I'm sure there will be plenty of forums devoted solely to animal lovers ..... you'll raise your chances of somebody having hadd a pet with a similar problem I'm sure.

good luck ... what a pretty little thing she is.

[daisymay]

Has the vet mentioned FeLV - feline leukemia or FIV -feline Immunodeficiency Virus. Both could have some of the symptoms you describe. I am sorry but I don't know the French for the deseases. I lost a catr to FIV once but treatment may have improved since then. (1985)

[Suninfrance]

She has had all the blood tests you could think of and her latest set of "bloods" were sent to a specialist in Limoges who came back with the same answer about the red blood cells, but not any kind of leukemia or FIV.

I will try googling though.  I did try earlier but ran out of word strings to try - didn't think about "forum".

[Clair]

Another way of getting iron is through black pudding... Worth a try maybe, unless this too is bad for them???

I  would go for a 2nd opinion too...

Not relevant to cats, but I had a similar health problem (very low red cell count and they were very small) and I was told to increase my iron intake for a few months...

PS: ANTI-FELINE IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS = VIRUS IMMUNODEFICITAIRE FELIN

[raindog]

I found this - don't know if it will help....

http://www.petplace.com/cats/immune-mediated-hemolytic-anemia-in-cats-imha/page2.aspx

[Suninfrance]

Thanks raindog - that was a very interesting article - I've sent the web link over to my friend.  Translating it into French could be a challenge though.

Jan

[Catalpa]

Your friend could try pilchards in tomato sauce - I think she should be able to find those over here. Apparently cats find them irresistable. [8-)]

Alternatively, to save the poor little soul from losing even more condition, and to try and improve her strength to fight whatever is wrong, could your friend feed her with a syringe several times a day? There's a very digestible food in little metallic cartons which can be bought from the vet - recovery diet or similar. Usually used for animals who've had operations and their digestive system needs to be bought carefully back on line. It can be mushed up and drawn into a plastic syringe (no needle) and syringed into the cat's mouth. We had to do this with a kitten who arrived malnourished, hypothermic and without the strength to really eat for iteself.

I don't think this would be a long-term solution but it might give her the strength and inclination to start eating again. Has the kitten had any form of steroid (or similar) treatment to kick-start her appetite?

She looks a sweet little soul - hope things improve for her.

[Suninfrance]

Thanks - I'll mention that to her.

The article that raindog sent was interesting because it suggested that some anemia could be caused by a reaction to certain chemicals.  I do remember Tilly having a really bad reaction to Frontline when she was treated and she was poorly for about a week.  Even with the kitten dose.  I have also heard that some flea treatment companies in England are under scrutiny because some animals have been very ill and even died after treatment, but I don't know if this is true.  Whatever the cause, I hope it can be treated.

Jan

[Suninfrance]

Just found this article which might help others to know what NOT to do:

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=74980&in_page_id=34

[betty]

After reading the metro link I have just looked at the contents of a household insecticide spray that our uk vet gave us back in 2006 (we have 5 cats and had quite a bit of an infestation that summer) and permethrin is listed. It definitely did the trick with the fleas and we haven't had to use the spray since. Certainly don't remember any of our cats becoming unwell after using it as the rooms were properly ventilated afterwards but don't think I would chance using it again after reading that report.

Betty

[Rob Roy]

Suninfrance, if you do want a second opinion try Pascal Loneux at Donzenac, he is our small animal vet and very good. His wife also works as a vet in the practice with him. He speaks excellent English (should you need it) as he spent some time working in Cambridge.

His phone number is  05 55 85 70 00

 

[val douest]

When our older cat was refusing to eat after a road accident in the UK, the vets were about to start force feeding him through a syringe.  However, they tried Liquivite (www.liquivite.co.uk) which is about the same consistency as thin cream. He was able to lap this up and although he only took a little at a time it was enough to stop him wasting away.  He has never had a very good appetite since and really prefers to lick the jelly off the chunks or to drink the water from the tuna tin (in spring water not brine). There doesn't seem to be a distributor of Liquivite in France but the website lists some for other European countries or if you know anyone coming from the UK soon they could perhaps bring you some.  Sadly I don't have any Liquivite here but if you send me a private message with a mailing address I will be glad to send you (or your friend) a couple of high nourishment, easy-to-digest soft cat foods I buy in quantity from the UK (it costs more to feed our cat this way but at least he stays fit and there is far less waste).  Let's hope between us all we can come up with something to help poor Tilly turn the corner.

Val

[Suninfrance]

Thanks Rob Roy - I have passed your message onto my friend and will have a chat with her later today.

Jan

[Quillan]

Sadly I have have been this route before.

Personally my advice would be to take her to a better vet in a big town which may be some distance away. We found and excellent vet in Carcassonne (not much help to you I know). it is practice with 4 vets and all the 'kit' including the ability to do blood analysis on site, xray, ultra sound etc is on site. Price was the same as the local vet but the quality of service was excellent. It is an hours drive from me. Now we take all our animals there. Using a town vet is a lot different to a village vet.

[Rob Roy]

I'm fairly sure the Dr Loneux has got good diagnostic kit (ultra sound, x-ray) etc at his practice, but I know what you are saying Quillan.

[Nimrod]

I am so sorry to hear of lovely Tilly’s illness. As a ex RSPCA general manager in the UK I have had to deal with many anaemic cats. I absolutely agree with Rob Roy about a second opinion and also Quinlan’s advice to seek help from a big town practice. Many French country vets, although kind and caring, just don’t have the facilities or the experience of serious cat illnesses.

I thought I would just pen some thoughts which might help.

Tilly’s vet needs to be able to tell your friend, not only that anaemia is present, but just as importantly, what type it is and what has caused it. Most of this information can be gleaned from the right kind of blood tests. A good Lab like Limoges should be only too happy to help the vet interpret the results of the tests, if needed. Can you get hold of the results? It is interesting to see that antibiotics are having some effect, but you need to know the illness to prescribe the right type of antibiotics, if needed! Has your friend asked the vet exactly what s/he thinks is wrong? I would have been very concerned if our veterinary staff in the UK could only tell me that a cat just wasn’t ‘making enough red blood cells’!

As a young cat, my first thought might be to link Tilly’s anaemia to an viral condition such as Felv / FIV (ruled-out) or to FIP(feline infectious peritonitis caused by a reaction to the Corona Virus) a serious and usually impossible condition to treat successfully. The tests should give some good clues if not 100% answers.

Some other classic causes of anaemia in the cat are:

·         FIA (Felne Infectious Anaemia) caused by a nasty blood parasite called Haemobartonella (Treated with powerful (specific) antibiotics and possibly steroids)

·         Internal bleeding caused by an abdominal tumour or inflamed bowel, or rodent poison

·         Types of liver or kidney infection / disease, leukaemia related to Felv, cancers, etc. It would be very rare to find an iron deficiency in cats.

You’ll see from the list how important it is to know what you are dealing with before you can consider treatment.

In the meantime it is very important to try to get Tilly to eat or she could develop liver problems apart from becoming very weak. Your other correspondents have made some good suggestions (but I wouldn’t consider raw liver.) Liquivite is an excellent food for sick cats, but is generally not available in France. You could instead try to feed Tilly some Hills a/d cat food (from the Vet or internet) which is developed especially for these sort of situations. It is very soft and can be further thinned by adding bottled water and feeding little by little from a large syringe (from the side of a cat’s mouth).  Sardines in tomato sauce are very useful but I am not sure about the contents of the sauce in France. Does Tilly like cooked white fish?  Try to feed a poorly cat from a saucer with a small amount of food shaped into a mound. The idea is that as the cat puts its head down to the food, some will be deposited on its mouth or nose and encourage it to eat. A Vitamin B tablet / day, crushed is a good idea, but only use one designed for cats – never use human medication or vitamins. Provet do a very good one and will mail order quickly to France www.provet.co.uk (Go to ‘Onlne Store’)

I’m sure that everyone on the site is thinking of Tilly. Do let me know how she is doing and if I can be of any further help.

Kind regards,

Roger

[Suninfrance]

Tilly Update

First of all I want to say thank you to all of you, for all your good advice and concern for Tils.  Also a very big thanks to Val for offering to send me some of her cats special food to help Tils get her strength back.

Tilly is not an outside cat and prefers human contact.  She's quite happy to sit and chat with you.

Brief story about her life.  Tilly's mum, Scaredy (barn cat) gave birth to two kittens during the summer months, a tabby and Tilly.  The tabby sadly died at about 3 weeks old although prior to that both kitties looked healthy.  It was thought best for Tilly's welfare that she was taken away from Scaredy as it seemed mum cat could not provide what the kittens needed and we didn't want to lose Tilly as well.  I am thinking that perhaps Tilly wasn't getting the nourishment she needed after birth from her mother and is therefore prone to infections.  However, Tilly thrived.  However, Tilly did succumb to the usual problem of flea infestation and was treated with a kitty dose of vet brought flea preparation.  It was after this that she became ill.  She had a bad reaction to the flea preparation but seemed to recover.

Anyway - we all know the story of her current plight.  However, I have heard from my friend today, who says thank you to everyone, and she informs me that Tilly is on a new batch of antibiotics and seems to be making progress.  She is eating a little more which is good, but she is still sleeping a lot and not interacting with Mistletoe, her three legged moggy friend.

I will keep giving you all a progress report to let you know how she is doing.

I agree that an alternative opinion might be the way, but the vet in village is exceptionally good with small animals.   I will ask my friend if she knows exactly what the blood results were, apart from just "not making enough red blood cells" and if Tilly falls back into seriously ill health after her antibiotics have finished, then I think seeking an alternative vet in a larger practice will be the next port of call.

Thanks again for your concerns and advice.

Jan

[raindog]

Hope she pulls through [:)]

I'm a big softy when it comes to cats (with most other things i'm a hard old bastard!)

[Suninfrance]

I'm with you raindog.  I adore cats, even my friends Egyptian Sphinx cat which is sadly no longer with us.  I am still suffering bereavement after my white cat (in the picture) went missing in November.  I love all my moggies, but Davy was so special to both me and OH.  I just can't stop thinking about him.  Tilly, although she isn't mine, is also special which is why I want to help do what I can. 

[Suninfrance]

Just thought I'd update you on Tilly.  Thank you Val for sending through that cat food.  Tilly had a go at eating it, but her appetite was just not there.

It seems now that the final diagnosis from the vet is Leukemia and although the blood tests didn't show this, she all the classic signs.  The poor little puss is now so weak, she can hardly stand and when she does manage to get up, it's almost impossible to stroke her without her falling over.  The vet has been very good and is now trying a course of injections.  Tilly has had the first one, but I gather they are very painful, so the vet gave her a mild sedative, before giving her the main injection.  We now have to wait to see if Tils rallies to this first part of the treatment and if she does, then the vet will continue with the rest of the course which is another 3 injections.

As this only happened yesterday, it is too early to say whether it has helped, but I will keep you all informed.

I've got everything crossed that this latest course of treatment helps.

Thanks again for all your well wishes.

Jan

[raindog]

This is awfull.

Unfortunately it's sometimes better to put them out of their misery when they reach this stage. In the past I let two of our cats live far too long when they were clearly suffering.

Hope she pulls through tho.