cat anemia
 

I have an 11 yo male cat. 2.5 years ago, he became sick. I noticed he was
losing weight, so off to the vet we went. From August to January my cat went
from 16 lbs to 8 lbs. He was deteriorating. It had our vet baffled. All he
knew was Aaron was extremely anemic and had a bad heart murmur (from the
anemia). He ran so many tests, and everything else came back fine. Aaron
still acted normal. We separated him from our 4 other cats and kept him
inside and fed him soft food. He seemed to only like the gravy, so I pureed
the food - but he didn't like it. Finally the vet sent us to a specialist 1
1/2 hours away. That vet did more bloodwork and an ultrasound. She said he
had an egg size tumor in his stomach, and did a needle aspiration.
Unfortunately he did not get enough of the cells to conclude anything. I
went back to my vet who disagreed with the specialists recommendation of
surgery. My vet said Aaron was to sick and the operation was very risky
under normal circumstances. He sent me home with steroid and B12 shots,
which I gave Aaron every week. He began to gain weight again, and got up to
16 pounds. I stopped the shots over a year ago. He has been fine...

....Until now. He is starting to lose weight again. He has lost approx 2.5
pounds in a few weeks, and I can hear the heart murmur. His nose and mucous
membranes are pale at times, so I am sure the anemia is back... I have began
the shots again, but notice his muscle mass has significantly decreased
since the last time I gave the shots. He does not have parasites, iron
deficiency, FLV, FIV, has not been around toxins or chemicals. We even
tested him for Haemobartonella (feline infectious Anemia) which was
negative.

We don't know where to go from here. I can't stand to do nothing, but I
don't want to put Aaron through what he went through before, and with no
answer. The poking and prodding and sticking and blood draws, I really think
that wore him out. My vet seems to think that the specialist may have gotten
it wrong, because he would have felt the mass if it were as large as an
"egg." Also, it has been over 2 years since Aaron was sick, so that means
whatever it was probable was not cancer, or he would not be here now. If any
of you have any idea what can be going on, please let me know.

Thanks

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"Connie" wrote in
:

We don't know where to go from here. I can't stand to do nothing, but
I don't want to put Aaron through what he went through before, and
with no answer. The poking and prodding and sticking and blood draws,
I really think that wore him out. My vet seems to think that the
specialist may have gotten it wrong, because he would have felt the
mass if it were as large as an "egg." Also, it has been over 2 years
since Aaron was sick, so that means whatever it was probable was not
cancer, or he would not be here now. If any of you have any idea what
can be going on, please let me know.


So sorry that your kitty is sick. If the specialist was right, it may be
that the cancer went into remission for a while. When Nickleby got sick,
the vet did the usual exam and blood tests and ruled out everything
except cancer. Then we didn't do any more "probing" to see exactly what
it was, as he was elderly and I felt any of the possible treatments would
be more painful/difficult than helpful.

Your cat is younger, though, so more diagnostics might be in order,
especially if there is something to be gained from finding out what the
problem is.

If it's cancer, and you decide against the more invasive treatments, I
would recommend looking into palliative care -- giving the kitty
painkillers to make him more comfortable.

Good luck with Aaron, and keep us posted.

--Catherine
& Rosalie the calico