One of our kitties is feeling sick. She has been lethargic, and has lost weight. I took her to our local vet, who took some blood tests, and put her on antibiotics. After a week, there wasn’t much change, and I took her back in for a follow-up. Her white blood-cells were still very high, and the liver tests in the bloodwork were worse than a week ago. The doctor reccomended that we be aggressive, and do a series of tests, an ultrasound, an needle biopsy of the liver, and several blood work tests.
Here is where it begans to get bad. Our Dr. leaves at this point to go to Africa for the next month. They do the tests yesterday, and finally tonight the other doctor calls me and tells me that they essentially don’t know whats going on, and refers me to another specialized clinic about an hour away. She suspects that it might be leukemia, cancer, or allergies! I can see leukemia or cancer, but allergies? And I thought there were tests for leukemia. Of course, by the time I think of these questions and call back, she is gone until next monday. Oh, and all this has taken about $1000 so far, pretty much wiping out our main emergency reserves.
So, should we go to this other vet? What if they charge another grand to tell us that they don’t know either? She doesn’t seem to be in pain, but she is very lethargic. I asked the vet tonight if she though there was treatment for the options she presented, and she gave an incredibly wishy-washy answer. I love Jasmine, but I don’t have a lot of money to spend on a cat. She’s alerady 13, is it worth it to spend the money just to prolong her life another year?
Ok, I wasn’t sure that that email was gonna get thru, so I guess I’ll go ahead and post this here.
Jeeves,
Much of what you describe sounds like what I experienced a couple of months ago with my Mao. I came home one evening to find that she was in distress, and could not walk, could barely stand, and was having some difficulty breathing. I rushed her to the Vet, and 3 days of testing and 24-hour care later I was told that her red blood cell count was very low, her white blood cell count was very high, and the doctor wasn’t sure what was wrong with her.
We tested for leukemia, feline AIDS, pneumonia… everything we could think of, and nothing came back that said “this is it”.
I got a day off from work and went to the Vet’s office to see Mao, and finally was able to get the doctor to admit that Mao was only still alive because of the constant IV and 24-hour monitoring. It took a lot of talking to get the Vet to stop discussing other tests that we might do and admit that my cat was dying.
I hope that your cat’s situation is different from Mao’s. I hope that she can become healthy again, and return to your home to be loved properly and warm your house with her purrs. And whatever the case, I hope that you remember that many of us are here to listen, to comfort, to provide whatever solace we can when you and those you love fall on difficult times.
I wrote about Mao in this thread http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=321376, and was so grateful to the SDMB for providing me with a place to express my grief and love for Mao that I became a paid member that night. The comments I received back helped me keep my head above water for the next few days, until the pain began to recede. Should you find yourself in need, I am sure we will be here for you.
Best of luck to you both. All my fingers are crossed.
I just read the thread on fatty liver disease, called home and told Mr. Jeeves who is going to talk to the Vet today to ask about it. I am really upset that my Vet left in the middle of treatment and didn’t tell us, and that the other vet who called last night was so useless. Mr. Jeeves told me when he called this morning and talked to the receptionist, there was a test whose results weren’t even faxed in until this morning. Thank you for the advice, I want to get this treated.
This should be something they’ve already checked, but make sure they’ve considered FIP (I think it’s feline infectious peri-something-or-other). The symptoms sound very similar to my Teddy, who, like Snowboarder Bo’s kitty, just died recently. FIP is a Bad Thing and it’d be good if they could rule it out.
Lotsa good thoughts being sent out to you and Jasmine (which, by the way, is also the name of my parents’ cat!).
Whether it’s worth the money is a very personal issue – we spend a fortune on our 21 year old cat, on various medicines and fluid therapy for her chronic renal failure. But with the treatment, she’s living a very happy and pain-free, pretty normal cat life (except for peeing a lot more than an otherwise healthy cat), so there’s no reason to just stop treating her and let her deteriorate and die, or put her down (perish the thought). But everyone has their personal threshold and if you’re foregoing your own meals or mortgage to care for a sick cat, you have to draw the line somewhere.
In the meantime, to try to offset some of the expenses, sign up for a Care Credit card, which is specifically designed for both human and veterinary healthcare costs, with payment plans at no interest for up to a year, depending on the balance. Once you get approved, if your current vet accepts it, ask if they’d mind issuing you a credit on whatever card you put the charges on, or refunding your check, and re-billing you on the Care Credit card, and then only use that going forward.
Best of luck to you and Jasmine. I hope they figure it out and she starts feeling better soon!
