Wendy,
I'm sorry to hear about Stretch losing weight and her breathing
difficulties. Did your vet take any xrays? Did I understand you to say
he thinks it's either fluid on her chest, OR an enlarged lymph node? I'm
no vet, but they seem like two very different things to me. I guess the
dex shot was to help with possible inflammation and he threw Baytril at
it in case an antibiotic might help. I don't mean to disparage your vet,
and maybe he's working this way for financial reasons, but he's not much
of a diagnostician from what you describe. How can you treat her
condition, when you don't know what it is? I think Michelle is right,
you should ask for a referral to an internist and find out what's going
on. I certainly pray it's not FIP, I have no personal experience with
FIP, but from what I have heard, it scares the hell out of me. If her
breathing doesn't improve dramatically, and very soon, you might need to
get her to a vet that can drain the fluid, (if that's what it is) asap.
I would be afraid of alarming you with all this, but I'm sure you're
already very alarmed. I'm praying that Stretch responds to the steroid
shot and/or the antibiotics and has a complete turn around.
You and your family are in my thoughts,
Nina
wendy wrote:
Hi guys,
I don't know if you remember me saying that my nephew,
who turned 11 in Nov., came to live with us in May,
and we took in his three kitties that his mom just
left at their house when they moved out. Well, one of
his kitties, Stretch, started breathing funny
yesterday evening. You could put your ear to her
stomach and hear almost like a loud heartbeat off and
on; like something squishy moving around in her
stomach. We also noticed that Stretch has lost some
weight and hasn't been standing so strong as we are
used to seeing her. She's not big, but has always
seemed kind of muscular. I guess these kinds of
changes that are slow and gradual you don't notice
right away, and we finally put it all together
yesterday on the way to the vet. Luckily, the vet was
still there and said that either Stretch has fluid in
her chest or some other part of her body, or the lymph
node in her stomach (?) has enlarged and is putting
pressure on her heart/lungs. (I might not be
remembering all this exactly). He said she might have
pneumonia or it could be symptoms of FIP or FeLV. I
don't think it's FeLV as I have never heard anyone
talk about these symptoms, but I read up on FIP in my
cat books last night and one of the symptoms is fluid
in the body. The vet gave her a dex shot and put her
on Baytril and said to wait and see if she responds to
the medicine in a couple of days. He also said we
will want to test her in a couple of days for
FIP/FeLV. Stretch and her sister, Winnie, were found
by my sister at Trader's Village in Dallas on a trash
can lid at like 3/4 weeks, maybe younger, and my
sister bottle fed them until they were old enough to
eat. (That's why it was so hard for me to believe
that she just left them in the house; she has always
loved animals). So considering where and how they
were found, it's possible they could have been exposed
or born with FIP or FeLV.
My questions are these: 1) Has anyone here ever heard
of these symptoms? 2) Does anyone have any advice for
us?
Thanks guys. My nephew and I really appreciate your
time and suggestions.
:)
Wendy
__________________________________________
Yahoo! DSL – Something to write home about.
Just $16.99/mo. or less.
dsl.yahoo.com
