When one has
pet cats, or is involved with rescuing cats, there are some interesting,
funny, surprising, distressing or puzzling things one observes.
Here are some vignettes of experiences I have had with cats under my
care that I wrote at the time they occurred, rather like a diary.
This page features my musings from 2000.
 Sumner Almost Died
Other musings:
2002: Galen's Freeze-Dried Chicken Treat Addiction, Minerva Talks to Us, Tensions in a Multi-cat Home with Three Males, Dominance and Submission, Sumner's Night Time Yelling
2003: Infant Kittens, Stumpy Bruce, Too Many Cats!, Bruce Died
2004: Simon: Hunter and teacher
2005: Simon says, no more cats!
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May 23, 2000
 Sumner has recently been licking the cement floor
of our enclosed porch and also the brick patio floor. He is just a year old, and never
did it before. Today he dragged a piece of a broken clay pot into the house,
and was licking it. I know that licking or eating clay can be a sign of a nutritional deficiency. But we feed the cats IAMS dry food, and Science Diet canned
food. I would think Sumner is getting all the nutrients he needs from them.
He's
been to the vet a few weeks ago for a routine visit, and is apparently
healthy. I wonder why he is doing this? I suppose there is no harm in
it.
May 24, 2000
It's bad news. We rushed Sumner to the vet as Sumner was just lying around, very
weak. Poor Sumner has severe anemia, likely due to hemobartonella.
Its some kind of bacteria, transmitted by fleas and ticks, which causes
the destruction of red blood cells. It's supposedly rare. The vet had to
send off the blood sample to be tested, to verify if it is hemobartonella.
So, while his food was nutritious, his red blood cells were being
destroyed. Who would have thought of some rare parasitic disease for
an indoor cat?
If we had waited one more day to take
Sumner to the vet, he almost surely would have died. He had a blood
transfusion of oxyglobin to get his blood count up, and is on tetracycline in case he
does have hemobartonella. He's in the hospital now, but the vet said he
might not live the night! Sumner was quite feisty about getting out
of his carrier, so he still has strength and spirit.
I feel a little guilty about not calling
the vet when he first started licking the bricks, but he was eating well
and seemed ok, until just the past two days. We thought it was just some
new weird habit. Since he's up to date on all his shots, and had just
recently been to the vet, we had no clue that things were so bad. The vet
said cats hide illnesses until they get very bad. Sumner's gums were pale, which is
a sign of anemia, so everyone ought to check their cat's gums every so
often. We never thought about doing that, as there never seemed to be a
reason to. This is a real shock.
May 25, 2000
 The lab results were in today and Sumner does
not have hemobartonella. That would have been good news at this point,
since there is a treatment for it. The terrible news is that Sumner's body
is not making new red blood cells. The vet does not know why. He said it
could be from some unknown virus. He started Sumner on prednisone, which
he said may possible get his body to start making red blood cells. He
wasn't very hopeful, and left the cathedar from the blood transfusion on
Sumner "just in case" (euthanasia). He was prepared to put Sumner
"asleep" today. We took him home and are taking him back to the
vet tomorrow for a blood count. It seems as if it is going to work,
results should be seen by tomorrow.
Sumner still has strength to jump up onto
chairs and the bed. And he's still eating. But, it isn't a very hopeful
situation. We're going to hold off on putting him to "sleep" at
least until his blood count drops lower than it is, if it does. Even if
the prednisone is supposed to work by tomorrow, I want to give it a few
days.
May 26, 2000
The prednisone hasn't worked yet, though it
was only one day. But Sumner's blood count has dropped. It's down to 6.5
today, (normal is between 30.0- 45.0), so he's not likely going to get
better. But, maybe it could still work, so we're keeping him home. He
still eats and has energy to jump up on the bed, and fight getting his
pill.
June 5, 2000
 Great news!!!! Sumner isn't going to
die!!!! We just got back from the vet's and his blood count is 30!! (35-40
is normal). He had been down to 6.5 just on May 26. The vet expected him
to die.
The prednisone worked!!!! The reason the
vet didn't use epogen, as someone suggested to me, has to do with Sumner's
having non-regenerative anemia. I don't remember all the technical
explanations, but it made good sense when the vet explained it. The reason
he used prednisone is on the theory that an unknown virus was/is invading
his red blood cells, and Sumner's body was killing the rbc's to kill the
invading virus. The prednisone suppresses the immune response, to keep the
body from killing the cells. Of course, the mystery virus could still be in
the cells, but since it is a mystery, there is no test or treatment for
it, because no one knows what it is. Maybe it's gone, or maybe it doesn't
actually do harm to the host.
Anyway, Sumner is to stay on the current
does of prednisone until the end of June, and then goes for another blood
test. The vet is going to try tapering down the dose after that. Periodic
blood tests would reveal whether he needs more or less prednisone
thereafter.
The blood replacement, oxyglobin, is what
initially saved his life, to buy some time for the other treatment to
work. It cost $280.00 but was well worth it. It is newly being used in
cats. I don't think it is approved yet for cats, but it is for dogs.
People need not be so quick to put their
pets to "sleep/death" as even when things look so grim, they can
get better.
The vet never knew for sure what caused the
anemia, but chemical damage to the precursor blood cells from an eye
ointment with chloramphenicol is most probably what did it. That
ointment is known to have caused anemia in humans, and the package insert
on the eye ointment said:
"Prolonged use in cats may produce blood dyscrasias. Therapy for cats
should not exceed 7 days."
That vet had prescribed chloramphenicol eye
ointment for Sumner about two months prior to Sumner developing the
anemia, and for two back to back rounds of 10 days each, so I am sure that
was what caused it. Too bad that vet didn't read the package
insert. He should have known the dangers of chloramphenicol and cats
and suspected that as a possible cause for the non-regenerative
anemia. It is discussed in the Merck Veterinary
Manual:
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/191262.htm&word=chloramphenicol
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