For many of our blog readers you worked at or are familiar with Camelot Pet Resort, Jasmine another one of the office cats has been sick, she is losing weight (you can see her back bone), throwing up all over the place, diarrhea, her hair coat isn't growing back (not just because of Jon's urging...) Jasmine quit cleaning herself so had to be shaved Dec 30th (believe it or not for her 1st shave in 9 years she was better behaved than TIKI who gets shaved every few months). Her hair coat is still very thin and hardly growing. So we did bloodwork thinking she might have kidney disease like Tabitha. The ONLY Thing on her bloodwork that was off was her White Count was extremly high, so we put her on antibiotics about a week ago. We rechecked her and her heart was slightly 'muffled' but not really a murmur, and it's very fast between 300-360 beats per minute. So we xrayed her and she's showing some changes in her heart, has fluid in her heart sack. And much to our 'embarassment' as we ARE a veterinarian we have a couple rule outs:
1- Feline Heartworm Disease (she will be the 2nd cat we have diagnosed so far in 2009).
2- Endocarditis (Inflamation and infection around the heart)
30 Hyperthyroidism
Either one of the heart ones can be fatal. We have diagnosed more cats than dogs with Heartworm Disease, and several have been diagnosed on Autopsy. We are ordering in some Feline Heartworm Tests and will hopefully be testing her to find out for sure. We did put her on Vetalog to try and help her more. You can be sure that all 4 of the clinic kitties will be getting their monthly prevention FAITHFULLY each month from now on! What an eye opener!
Tabitha on the other hand is doing remarkably well with her kidney disease, she's gaining weight, (has gained 1#), is more perky (jumping up the door frames) and starting to get some of her 'attitude' back (smacking your face when you hold her).
2 comments:
I didnt know they made HWT that you can do on cats without sending them to antech, are they accurate? Where do you get them Heska?
I would bet on endocarditis. I dont think she has HW Disease, that usually just kills cats before they are symptomatic right? I would think her EOS would be high as well for HW Disease, it usually is in dogs. Also I think hypothyroidism is very common in cats but wouldnt that have shown up on her lab work? Well lets hope with the cortisones and Ab's she will improve, she is a great cat.
Kelly
It doesn't always kill them before they are symptomatic, we have 2 cats that are still alive that we've/are treating for heartworm, one has outlived the worms, and is heartworm negative now, the other just was diagnosed about a month ago, and he was symptomatic. Iddexx or Heska have the feline heartworm tests you can use in clinic, we like the Solo Step ones. We were thinking Hyperthyroid not hypo on her. Her eos were high on her bloodwork as well, (part of cbc, just didn't put that on there)
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