Hi folks -- long-time lurker here... I'm having the same problem with my Wallace. He's 10 in July, half-Maine Coon tiger-tuxedo tabby, used to be 20 pounds. Now he's starved himself down to 9 pounds, and up until last Thursday, the vet was mystified. All his bloodwork is normal. (He's not one of my FeLeuk rescues, so I guess he's a bit OT, sorry...)
Three weeks ago, he seemed to be sick. He had an eye infection, and wasn't eating. He looked like he'd lost a lot of weight -- he'd looked mostly normal up until recently, but there's been so much family stuff going on, I didn't think too much about it until the eye infection and when he got picky about his food. I took him in to get bloodwork, thinking that it would be hyperthyroid (which has been the case with three of our family cats in different households). Nope -- everything in the bloodwork was normal, except for his dehydration. Huh. He did have an elevated temperature, so they gave me antibiotics, eye medication, and gave him 150ml of Ringer's solution subq for the dehydration. A few days later, a family emergency came up and I had to go stay with my grandparents for the better part of a week. I brought Wallace with me, and he perked up a great deal. He was eating (although no where near his usual amount), but he was only licking the gravy off the wet food, not eating the chunks. He'd eat some kibble, too, but didn't even get through a half-cup during the five days we were there. Still, he seemed strong and even jumped up to sleep on the bed and sat in the window. After the family crisis passed, we came home to our apartment and the other four cats. Wallace gets along with all of them, pretty much. One of them is his twin brother, Bruce (who is still over 20 pounds of furry purring goodness). I have one rescue, Oliver, who has never really fit in and plays dominance games from time to time, so I thought Wallace's anorexia might be a behavioral problem, reacting to yet another of Oliver's power plays. This theory got more credence when Wallace seemed to droop when we got home -- I think he'd liked being an only cat for five days. :-/ About a week after that, he'd stopped eating again, and I took him back to the vet. This was last Friday, June 8. This time, Wallace did not have a temperature, and his eye infection was gone, but he was dehydrated again. Doc's scale said he'd gone up to 12 pounds, but I don't think it's right. When I weigh him at home (holding him while I weigh myself, then weighing myself and getting the difference), he's only 9.5 or 10 pounds. When Doc did the physical exam, he palpated a mass in his abdomen that he did not feel two weeks prior. Wallace has a bad habit of chewing on plastic, so I was thinking that perhaps he'd gotten himself an obstruction, but the doc didn't think so. He's thinking lymphoma, and we're getting an ultrasound and biopsy this week. I'm doing subcu fluids at home (100-150ml, depending on how much it seems like he needs), and have been syringe feeding. Doc also gave an Rx for Periactin to stimulate appetite, and it seems to have worked a bit. Sometimes Wallace's stomach can't take the periactin, though, and he vomits it up. The past two days, he vomited a *lot*, mostly bile and fluid. But last night, I didn't wake to the unmistakable sound of kitty yakking, so I think this is good. Wallace is using his litterbox, but he's started urinating frequently, with small volume. I'm really scared for his kidneys at this point -- even if he wasn't in kidney failure before, this anorexia and dehydration will throw him into failure. Has anybody had experience with a mystery anorexia, and then lymphoma? I thought lymphoma was unusual in FeLeuk negative cats. :-/ I think I need to have him tested for FeLeuk again -- he hasn't been tested since kittenhood, but he's a strictly indoor cat and hasn't been exposed (that I know of) to a FeLeuk positive cat. I guess I'm asking for prayers and good thoughts for Wallace, too. He's been my baby since he was three weeks old, and I had to bottlefeed him. I've put his whole story on my blog, here: http://lyonessnyc.livejournal.com/52532.html I've had some success in syringe feeding him A/D, and last night I bought a can of KMR feline milk replacer and mixed some of that in with the A/D. I actually got a couple of tablespoons into him, and he slept on the bed most of the night (not under it). I'm scared for my baby. Thanks for listening. -Jean ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ____________________________________________________________________________________ TV dinner still cooling? Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV. http://tv.yahoo.com/