Coming just a year to the day after we got her, this is needless to say a blow.
Scenarios: (some treatable, some not)
-heartworm. She was adopted from Florida, where she was indoor-outdoor, and heartworm is easy to get there. It takes about 8 months to incubate and attack the kitty’s lungs…thing is, her breathing is fine, lungs clear.
The folks brought Kitty Katherine back from the vet today and the news is troubling. Despite a clean physical the day before, a call came that her white blood count is through the roof.
Coming just a year to the day after we got her, this is needless to say a blow and has us on eggshells till Monday, when a few more tests will be back.
Scenarios: (some treatable, some not)
-heartworm. She was adopted from Florida, where she was indoor-outdoor, and heartworm is easy to get there and treatable. It takes about 8 months to incubate and attack the kitty’s lungs…thing is, her breathing is fine, lungs clear. That could suggest…
-some kind of cancer/leukemia/bad bad stuff. Whatever it might be, we’ve caught it very early, says the vet, but we all agree KK is not to be put through a lot of misery in a long course of treatment.
-some nameless “syndrome” where white counts go high even though nothing else is wrong.
Any of you kitty people have any experience with these things? How common, relatively, are they?
My mom, in particular, is deeply attached to this fuzzbutt and, being a crisis oriented person, is already digging a little grave in her mind and being extra sweet to KK. It’d be nice to have a little more intelligence to bring to the table, and hopefully salve her worry a little bit.
I should add that she is about 10, and completely lacking in outward symptoms, although she yaks about once every 2 weeks and sometimes her breathing is a bit rapid. Otherwise, she is a healthy, beautiful kitteh with plenty of get up and go.
One of my cats had very high WBC when he had a urinary tract infection. He didn’t really have any other symptoms that I noticed except going to the litter box a lot. Any infection or inflamatory process can cause high WBC. The fact that the cat has no other symptoms is encouraging. I wouldn’t count him out yet.
I’m now informed that it’s not just the white count, but something called eosinophilia. This is some kind of white-cell related meanies in the cat’s (or dog’s) blood that can be a symptom of about 30 conditions, from allergies to leukemia.
The vet didn’t mention allergies. That troubles me.
Could just be an infection with an indeterminate cause, as goldenmean1975 said. Don’t leap to cancer – and btw, if you do get that diagnosis eventually, please don’t assume that cancer is incurable, or that treating it means destroying your cat’s standard of living. I had a 14-year-old cat who had a cancer diagnosis, we gave her chemo for four months with no negative effects, and she lived for another two years pretty comfortably.
Of course every case is different. But some people automatically decide against chemo for their cats, thinking that it will have a debilitating effect on them (much as it often does for humans). Many cats take chemo pretty well.
Best of luck with your cat’s health. Let us know how things go!
Don’t panic, Doug, there are plenty of things on that list that are easily treatable. That’s all the advice I have, though. I hope the vet finds the issue soon, and that it’s nothing big. She’s a beautiful kitty.
Negative on the heartworm. Good, but that eliminates something common and treatable, so not good. Later this week ultrasound and bone marrow. For the bad bad stuff.
Some small consolation is that we had her to a different vet, say 6 mos ago, and her whites were somewhat high then, too. But nothing else was found or tested for, including this eo-whatsis, and she continued to be the picture of health. You’d think a cancer kitty wouldn’t go so long without symptoms.
News is not great. Kitty has enlarged spleen and lymph glands - could mean just an infection, but…
She also has lost function of one kidney, which may/may not be related. She is 14, not 10 as we previously thought (got some papers from her last shelter).
So…<sigh> we’re going ahead with the marrow test.
Talked to vet again. Ultrasound shows lots of lymph nodes with the eo-meanies and some more in the spleen. Given that KK is not feeling or acting like a sick cat, his most likely guess is mast cell disease. This is cancerous, yes, but often benign. Cats can live comfortably several years with treatment. She’s 14, so hey…
She’s got a bare square on her left haunch and was stumbling comically when we got her home, a back leg swiveling out from where they saddle blocked her for the marrow draw, and flopping her on ehr butt. Now getting back to her old kitteh self again, jumping up to the sleepy basket and such.
Marrow test back Monday.
thinking good thoughts for the kitteh and you guys too.
Best of luck to you and Kitty Katharine. BTW, those pictures of her are gorgeous. She looks like she’s an awesome cat to hug!
Speaking of awesome, that’s what you guys are for adopting an older cat.
{{Doug’s kitty}}
About what we expected. There are, thankfully, no meanies in the bone marrow, just a bunch in the spleen. This indicates mast cell cancer, but not metastatized.
Good news: she doesn’t need a spleen, and in 90% of cases taking it out cures the cat. So on Leap Day she’s having it out.
Of course, if they find a bunch more cancer when she’s out, we’re asking them not to bring her to.
Thinking happy thoughts for your pretty kitty!
that’s good news. hopefully she will come through it just fine.
Sounds like you have a pretty darn good vet. Your girl is gorgeous. Hope all goes well. And thank you for taking in a shelter cat, they’re the best ones!
