Our sweet cat Bowser has gotten to be skinny recently. I’ve been able to feel his spine really distinctly recently, and when I took him in to the vet last week, I was sad to hear that he is down to 8lbs (he’s been up around 14 lbs in the past…that’s 40% down).
So $350 of vet tests later, we know the following. Bowser is not:
- hypertensive
- diabetic
- in kidney failure
Also, he does not:
- have glomerular disease (something to do with protein in the urine)
- have a thyroid abnormality
And they found that his blood counts are normal.
Possible Diagnosis:
During his physical exam, Dr. Heidi found that Bowser’s intestines felt thickened, and based on the fact that all other the other tests came back normal, she thinks he has some kind of a small intestinal disease. She says that the most likely candidates are inflammatory bowel disease, eosinophilic enteritis, lymphangectasia, diffuse small cell lymphoma, or another type for cancer.
Prognosis:
From Dr. Heidi’s email:
Inflammatory bowel disease has a good prognosis. Treatment involves feeding a hypoallergenic diet and oral medications to decrease the inflammation. Most cats are treated with weekly injections of vitamin B12 also. Eosinophilic enteritis is a subset of inflammatory bowel disease and treated similarly. Lymphangectasia is not common in cats and can be more challenging to treat.
Diffuse small cell lymphoma is common. In a recent study performed at the UW, there was a 96 % response rate to oral medications (prednisolone and chlorambucil) and a median remission of 2 ¼ years.
Doing a blood test of his GI system in order to move toward confirming the diagnosis is over $200.
I think I might try switching B to a hypoallergenic diet for a month to see if that helps before moving forward with more testing. It’s always kinda hard to know how to proceed with these kind of situations.
A couple years ago, Bowser’s brother Spooky had lost a significant amount of weight. I took him in, and we did a whole slew of tests and an ultrasound. They showed that he had probable bladder cancer, but we didn’t do the tests to confirm. Now, two years later, Spook is still fine, and he’s back to a healthy weight. So maybe he did/does have bladder cancer, or maybe he had something else that cleared up on its own. Sometimes, I think the answer is: who knows!
I am happy that my affectionate black kitty is in good health two years from his very worrisome diagnosis.
Please wish my Bowser-kitty good health! He’s my sleeping buddy, and most every night for the last 10 years, I’ve fallen asleep while he kneads my scalp, drapes his body across my head, and/or rests his little wubbily chin on my cheek or ear and purrs away.
