Another update on Timmy

[kathryn]

Helllooo yet again. Here is the latest news on Timmy-

Had 3 veterinarians examine his newest chest x-rays.. had 2 actually examine him. His heart and lungs sound fine. All 3 vets agreed that his chest area infront of his lungs on the x-ray looks weird and should not be cloudy like it is.



His lungs would be the dark colored triangular shaped area... infront of it should not be as white as they are.

Secondly we are putting him on Clavamox and Metronidazole for 1 month. He may have aspiration pneumonia. We aren't sure... no fever or other signs... just lethargy.


We pulled blood today... WHAT A PROJECT THAT WAS. I originally had him at the shelter where we did the surgery so he could see his doctor. We tried to get blood for him to send out to Antech (lab) and the cat FLIPPPEDDDD OUTT. He is a lovely cat at home *most* of the time... but he was a real towards everyone. I ended up feeling soo bad I was just like forget it. I took him over to the other shelter where he came from and had my friend there pull blood. He seemed to maybe not feel as comfortable acting like an idiot there so we just threw a muzzle on him and pulled 3cc's of blood from his jugular.

The other issues with him are when he was upset from having his blood draw he peed all over the place and it was a dark yellow color. We sucked it up in a syringe and sent it out for a urinalysis. Also when we spun the blood down in the centrifuge his plasma was also a dark yellow color like his pee. I looked online for normal blood plasma colors and it's supposed to be a pale to light yellow. This was like super dark yellow.. so that was probably not a good sign.



I'm going to try to get a picture up of his urine & blood tubes to try and show the color.


so I'll let you know when the bloodwork comes back

[kathryn]

the urine is on the left... the spun down blood is in the middle. maybe you can all see the funkyness of the yellow color?

[Love4himies]

I can't see the pic in the second post, kathryn.

I hope they find what is wrong with him. I thought they could hear pnemonia in the lungs

Did the vet tech have any ideas of why the plasma would be so dark?

[ancientgirl]

When will you get the test results back?

[kathryn]

I fixed the picture I hope.

My friend Jessi who was the tech at the shelter who got the blood on him is concerned about jaundice. She was looking at his gums and his eyes and mentioned that even before we saw the blood plasma.

She was saying his skin (in his ears) looked yellow too.. but then i pointed out the cat is an orange tabby and his skin IS kinda naturally yellow But it could go either way.

Hoping the test results come in tomorrow. They picked up the sample probably around 4-5pm today and if they run it tomorrow we should get the results back fairly quickly. I don't really know how it all works. I just know I put the stuff in the magic little box and the big truck comes and gets it


I gave him more fluids at home with the help of my mom (who honest to goodness would make THE WORST vet assistant ever! LOL!)... he got so upset with me he ran and hid under her blanket and hasn't come back out! i checked on him and he's snuggled in there so whatever as long as he can breath.


The type of pneumonia he would have would be a different kind.. that's likely why there are no outward symptoms I guess?


This darn cat.....

[kathryn]

Here are Timmy's blood work results. I've blurred out the personal information at the top but the rest is how it was faxed to me.





If anyone has any suggestions let me know. We've ordered a FIA/haemobartonella test on him.... results come back tomorrow. To be honest we should really be hoping for a positive on that test.. that way the mystery ends and we treat the stupid cat with Doxy. We've already started him on .2mL of the suspension twice a day.

[ancientgirl]

Aww, Kathryn, please don't refer to him as stupid. Poor little guy has been through so much. I know you must be frustrated but it's not his fault.

[kathryn]

This cat is like the cat from hell. he's pretty nice at home but he's so ungrateful towards the people trying to help him... i know he's a cat but he isn't scared or anything he's flat out horrible towards them.

It's just so frustrating... a simple thing of him getting a few fleas could have killed him if that's what it turned out to be

[kathryn]

The hemobartonella test was negative. No idea where to go from here

[mikischo]

Originally Posted by kathryn

The hemobartonella test was negative. No idea where to go from here

Oh, no! So the cause of his problems is still a mystery. :sad: How is Timmy doing today? Does he have any appetite?

[kathryn]

He's not too bad all in all. looking at him you'd just see a slightly lethargic kitty. Appetite is still down but not horribly bad. Hasn't lost any weight. Giving him SubQ fluids. Pooping and peeing. I dunno.. still a fairly normal cat

FeLV and FIV tested him again it was a strong negative.

This is so frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dr Lee]

This is indeed a difficult and frustrating situation. I am sorry for the little guy!

On the radiographs, it appears that there is pleural effusion and the is elevation of the bilirubin in the blood and urine.

Pleural effusion is fluid accumulation that is inside the chest cavity but around the outside of the lungs and heart. It can be secondary to heart disease, infection, lymphatic disease, etc...

The elevation of the bilirubin supports liver disease.

Now we need to try to tie everything together. Is this all related to the early problem, is this all new or are there multiple issues. how much of this is bacterial or congenital?

A bicavity ultrasound with cytology and possible biopsy would be one of my recommendations. I would recommend aggressive workup with an internal medicine specialist.

I hope this helps.

[Tundra_Queen]

Originally Posted by kathryn

This cat is like the cat from hell. he's pretty nice at home but he's so ungrateful towards the people trying to help him... i know he's a cat but he isn't scared or anything he's flat out horrible towards them.

It's just so frustrating... a simple thing of him getting a few fleas could have killed him if that's what it turned out to be

May he is acting this way because he is scared of having to go thru another operation and remembering all the horrible stuff he went thru and pain or he is going to be put back to live in the shelter,,,poor little guy. He has so many bad memories.

I hope he will get better.

Debbie

[kathryn]

thanks dr lee for the suggestions. timmy is still up and moving around and doing fairly well for the kind of condition he is in. still eating ... drinking.. pooping and peeing. he has gotten a bit more active as well! this is all sooo strange. because his megaesophagus was sooo big on his original xray it could have been hiding something all along. thats just my opinion... could it be possible that maybe from his esophagus shrinking that this is some sort of inflamatory healing process going on around it? its just so weird and this cat has been through so much and im just going to loose it sooner or later. i love my crazy little kitten and to think afteer all this he may die afterall is just killing me inside. i talked with his dr last night and now its down to a toxin (enviromental) or an autoimmune type thing. i dont even know what to do anymore!!

thanks again everyone... please excuse any typos as my internet broke so im on my cell phone with a 2 inch screen... lol

[Love4himies]

Oh no, Kathryn Poor Timmy, I was hoping they would find out what was wrong with him :sad:.

[kathryn]

He's doing really good this afternoon. Eating & drinking a bit more!!! He was begging for food! I had family over and he followed people around and was meowing for attention.. he's doing better! Maybe the antibiotics are killing something off??? Maybe it was an infection that was destroying his blood cells !??!

I was out for a bit and was worrying the whollleeeee time about him... and when I got home he was up and alert and looked so much better! He's sleeping right now but he was doing so good earlier... I mean I almost cried when I was out today cause I thought my kitty was gonna die on me... but he's responding well to his medications!!

thank you to everyone. this whole situation has been so hard on me!!

[ancientgirl]

Hopefully he will continue doing well. I hope you can figure out what's going on with him.

[kathryn]

He's doing okay still... eating and playing and is a bit less lethargic. He may have leukemia.. the cancer not the FeLV. Ugh. Dunno what else to say.... starting him on Pred and am repeating bloodwork Friday.

[ancientgirl]

Poor little guy. I hope it's not that. Maybe he's anemic?

[kathryn]

He is anemic... but Anemia is one of those things that is more of a symptom then an actual disease. So it's like... he has all these things going on but we can't put it all together. It's like a messed up puzzle and we just can't figure out what the big picture is. Is it related to the heart surgery? Is it another congenital defect? Is it a new thing, or was it hiding there all along and is now just showing it's ugly face?

It's like, so many questions and we have SOME answers but just can't put it all together. Like what is going on in his chest? Is that related to his liver? Is any of that related to his heart condition?

It's a true medical mystery. And when on the inside the cat is a complete wreck but on the outside he just seems like a kitten feeling a bit under the weather, it just really makes no sense. None of it does!

It's really coming down to several different veterinarians all trying to figure this out and just running whatever tests pop in our heads. I mean Timmy's "team" of vets is ridiculously huge and experienced. I've got so many vet hospitals and shelters involved in his case and his surgeon who is leading this case who I swear knows fricking EVERYTHING is stumped. But then again considering this surgery really has only been done a couple times before on a cat/kitten no one knows what to expect! For all we know this could all be side effects from the surgery!!!!!!!!


I'm mostly just venting to myself at this point.. after all this I really can't handle this cat dying after all he has been through. I know I've done what I could do but this cat means alot to me and I really just don't want to loose him. :sad:

[ancientgirl]

We don't want you to lose him either. Poor little guy has had such a rough short little life. I wish they could figure out what's wrong with him.

[chico2]

Kathryn,of course you don't want to lose him after all this,he's a beautiful brave little guy.
I'll probably get in trouble for saying this,but please do not let this little baby-boy suffer with too many procedures,if the vets think he's not going to make it,living with you getting love and care is what he needs.

[kathryn]

I know... I feel so bad having to poke and prod him but at the same time we still don't know and it could be something we can treat.

I hope the prednisone does something to slow down whatever the heck is going on. I'm going to finish out this week with the rest of his tests and procedures and my plan is to ask my grandmom if when I have to work and my moms not home if I can leave him over there. She's retired and I feel like if something bad is going to happen to him I don't want him to be alone. If I just pop up a small crate at my grandmoms and let him hang out there for the day she can keep an eye on him and make sure he is comfortable.

I just couldn't live with myself coming home to find him dead somewhere or something horrible like that. He's still doing pretty good and he seems like he has alot of will power to live... so for now I'm going to try to get to the bottom of this. If we can treat him then that's what's going to happen. If we can't then atleast he can be comfortable.

I really want to try and figure out what is wrong with him before just giving up on him. :sad:


Do anyone have just like, any random ideas they could throw out there? Really, I'm taking anything at this point.

[chico2]

Kathryn,I did not mean to say to abandon trying to make him better,I just don't want him to have too many painful procedures,if the out come is not good.
Leaving him with granny is a good idea

[kathryn]

Yeah.. I know what you meant.. you are right is what I was trying to say. But his vet is a very honest guy.. like not in the way you are thinking (lol) but if any of you watch House the TV show.. he's kinda like house... except usually right the first time so like, if he thought there was no hope he'd tell me so. but right now he's really trying to get to the bottom of it.

I mean, when he says there's nothing more he can do, I'll still try and find an answer but I can't subject the cat to being poked and prodded a zillion more times for nothing..

I think my grandmom would enjoy his company. Her cat is a miserable .. hehe... so she might enjoy having Timmy around because he's very sweet once he gets to know you in a comfortable setting.


He's up and eating. He really enjoys the Fromm Duck A La Veg dry food. Whatever Timmy wants Timmy gets... even if it's basically the most expensive food we sell at work

[sugarcatmom]

Originally Posted by kathryn

Do anyone have just like, any random ideas they could throw out there? Really, I'm taking anything at this point.

Have any of the vets mentioned the possibility of FIP? I know it's an extremely difficult condition to test for and even if that's what it is, treatment is mostly palliative, so I'm not sure it would make a difference to know or not. I'm kinda thinking along the lines of chico2, that maybe at this point, especially since all the vets are stumped, it would be good to just love Timmy with all your heart. Treat the symptoms as needed, but minimize the number of invasive tests he has to endure. What about a more holistic approach? Feed him the best food that you can (preferably raw, with some additional raw liver to help with the anemia), perhaps add some liver supplements like Denosyl or Denamarin, maybe probiotics or omega3 fish oils.

[sugarcatmom]

Forgot to mention, you might also want to look into giving Timmy some colostrum or Transfer Factor, which can help improve his immune system.

[kathryn]

Yes.. they already discussed that it could be FIP but they all feel it's not. I don't really feel it is either. His doctor said he doesn't present the clinical symptoms of either.. and my line of thinking is that if he had it he probably would have gone downhill by now. It's been over 2 weeks and he's still doing okay and has improved a bit, so that mostly knocks FIP out of the woods. I've only seen one or two FIP cats and I can tell you for the one recently I remember that a. the cat was clearly sick even just looking at him b. he went downhill super fast and c. the whole fluid in the belly thing... yeah I was there for the necropsy and I can say for sure that Timmy does not fit the usual symptoms of FIP.

But FIP is a tricky thing. But his vet has been working in shelter environments for many years so I'm sure he's seen enough cases to know enough about it.

But yeah, that has been weighing heavily on my mind... :sad:

I've been doing a bit with the raw food and he likes it for the most part. Right now because his liver functions aren't so great he's not really supposed to eat alot of protein as he might not be able to process it. I force feed him a bit of wet food mixed with water when he takes his medicine to help keep him hydrated and to keep his medicine down.

It's really leaning towards some kind of major, undetectable infection... an autoimmune thing... some kind of leukemia or cancer.... I think that's really it right now. Also looking into some kind of acquired anemia.. 'Hemolytic anemia' might be it.

I'll let everyone know what happens with the bloodwork on Friday... I mean even if he's just not worse but still the same will be better then anything else. I'm just at my wits end and it's scary that you have a 'team' of vets working on your 4 pound kitten and can't figure out what's going on with him. :sad:

[growler~GateKeeper]

You might consider adding Liquid DMG as an immune system support supplement. You can use either the human formula Angamik DMG 3 drops twice a day, there's a great product explaination in the Angamik link or the veterinary formula Vetri-DMG 0.5ml daily. My crf cat has used both & is currently on the Vetri-DMG.

for Timmy

[kathryn]

There was no improvement on Timmy's bloodwork we did yesterday. :sad: This is a huge blow to us. Ugh. He is doing alot better but is still very anemic.

Looks like we are going to have to do a bone marrow biopsy... :sad: