This will be quite long as I want to give all the history!
We took our female cat (nearly 12 years old) to the vet last summer as she had lost weight and was eating grass and bringing it back up (with a bit of foamy liquid) almost daily before breakfast, along with having occasional blood in her poos. She had a course of medication (sorry, I can’t remember what this was, maybe an anti inflammatory or something to protect her stomach?), changed to a hypoallergenic dry food, and had a blood test and abdominal ultrasound. All test results came back clear and she gained weight, and stopped eating the grass so much. She still on occasion had blood in her poo but the vet said any more investigations would be invasive and we agreed to adopt a watch/wait approach, and she said it was likely to be some kind of IBD.
She’s generally been fine since then - appetite dropped during the hot summer but has picked up since temperatures have fallen, which had been the same with our other cat of the same age. However recently she’s had blood in her poo more frequently, so we saw a vet last week who said she’s lost weight again (200g over the last 12 months). Her abdomen felt ok, and she had no temperature, but the vet detected a heart murmur (grade 1-2). She said generally steroids would help the digestive issues but these could now be damaging to her heart. She suggested a scan by a visiting cardiologist or one of the vets at the practice (both expensive, cardiologist more so of course) to see exactly what’s going on with her heart. She again said next steps to investigate the reason for blood in poo would be invasive, and might not necessarily provide an answer. She got a nurse to take blood and asked me to get a urine sample.
Blood test results came back absolutely normal for everything tested - FBC, biochemistry, electrolytes, kidney and liver function, protein, thyroxine, diabetes all fine. Urine had blood in (which was obvious from the sample I collected) and was apparently quite dilute. She’s suggested using Cat Ease (I wrote this down during the phone call but having looked it up think it’s actually Cystease, which I’ve ordered online) for a week then re-testing a urine sample. She’d rather not prescribe antibiotics straight away without behavioural signs of cystitis. She mentioned gabapentin but I think said that this wouldn’t be advisable because of the IBD… I was at work when I got the call and am not completely sure about this point. She also mentioned the possibility of a bladder scan.
I’m just feeling that all of a sudden there are all these different issues and they complicate the treatment(s) needed. Our cat seems her usual self, eating plenty and drinking water. She was using a litter tray regularly until I replaced the litter with the plastic beads to collect the urine sample on Thursday, after which she pooed on the floor and weed in our shower! She’s now gone back to using the litter tray for poo but continued to wee in the shower - until about 2 mins ago when as I was typing, she weed in the litter tray! The wee looks normal in there but as it’s beige clumping litter maybe the blood doesn’t show, as I hadn’t seen any previously either, but it was very apparent in the shower. I have set up a wildlife camera in the bathroom to see if there is any straining when weeing but certainly just now I saw her hop in and back out of the litter box quite quickly, in fact didn’t realise she’d actually used it until I checked inside it.
My head’s whirling with it all and I’m so worried. I’d appreciate any insight anyone can give into this mix of ailments. I cancelled our cats’ insurance at the start of this year after paying out for 10 years and rarely claiming but realised I’ve already saved more since then than the cost of the recent appointment/blood test and the potential heart scan fee. So cost is a consideration but at the moment our little cat’s wellbeing is the main concern.
The vet said one option is not having the heart scan and trying a short course of low dose steroids for the IBD, to reduce the impact on the heart, but I don’t know how risky this would be? On the other hand is there a possibility of having the heart scan and being told it confirms the heart murmur and we’re in the same position as now, but £800 poorer?! What answers could the scan give that would help in choosing treatment for the IBD? The vet said I can phone to discuss options so I’m trying to inform myself beforehand.
Thank you to anyone who can offer some views or who has experienced similar!
Sorry, it was VERY long!