Mystery face pain

[Amandaebrown1985]

Hello, I am hoping some of you may be able to shed some light on a problem my cat has developed.

My cat Alfie is 3 years old and was rescued from a rubbish bin by the PDSA when he was approx. 6 weeks old. We rehomed him a few weeks after and at the time were advised he was very malnourished and had some balance issues which they thought would go away as he got bigger. Unfortunately these issues never did disappear and the vets believe he has the part of his brain missing that controls his balance, possibly down to his mother having FIP. We love him and don't care about it and he is a house cat so that he doesn't get himself into trouble.

Since we have had him we have discovered he is very sensitive to lots of things, vaccinations make him ill, wormers make him lose his fur, he is quite often sick which we think is when he is being a food monster and eating things he shouldn't.

A few months ago we went away for the weekend and when we got back we noticed he would go to eat his biscuits and then jump back as if in pain and then not want to go back. This happened very briefly before and went away on its own but this time it persisted for over a week and so we had him on soft food and took him into the vets.

The first vet thought it could be Orofacial Pain Syndrome and advised us to give him Loxicom once a day for a week and come back if its persisted which it did. The second vet thought it could be something neurological because of his balance issues so booked him in with the neurologist, however before this appointment came through she called us to say the neurologist didn't think this was related and thought he would be better to have some x rays. Alfie was then taken in for x rays under general anesthetic, due to him being sensitive we didn't want to go down this route and they did have some problems when he was under with him needing very little anesthetic and his blood pressure dropping quite low so we are avoiding this again at all costs. The vet couldn't see anything on the x rays and sent them to a specialist who also couldn't see anything but advised they could take him in and do some from less traditional angles. They also said that the next step would be a CT scan to rule out tumours. Because of the risk of putting him under anesthetic again and the small issue of us self funding we said that it would probably best if we waited a little while longer to see what happened as he is now off the Loxicom and is eating again.

Over the last few days I have noticed he is eating very slowly and looks like its an effort and he also has one hot ear (this is new today!) so I am wondering whether it could be an ear infection of some sort, or allergies? He does keep sneezing which we told the vet about. My question is does anyone have any experience with similar symptoms?

If you've read this far well done! Thank you in advance for any advice

[greenkitty]

Wondering if he has deep seated ear infection, that would certainly explain the balance problems and hot ear. It's possible he's also got cat flu hence the sneezing and reluctance to eat, was he tested?

Poor little chap he's had a lot to deal with.

[Amandaebrown1985]

I have wondered about an ear infection because of the hot ear and what seems to be face pain. I think I may give the vets another phone call and see how they would go about examining this although I would have thought this would have been ruled out by now.

He hasn't been tested for cat flu and I really don't think he does have it, the vets haven't mentioned it either as he is running about playing as usual and really seems absolutely fine in himself. It is a really strange one and that is why the vets are ruling it as an Orofacial Syndrome - which they have said themselves is a term used for face pain when they don't know what it is!

Thank you for your reply!