Laboratory testing

[Suzynick]

Hi
Has anyone used a private lab for testing their cats stools? Having such trouble with Alfie. Vet diagnosed r IBD or possible cancer. Gave him steroids and I gave him probiotics. After missing a week or two of his steroids I realised he was doing ok and maintaining weight so didn't carry on with them. He's now gone downhill again. Only lost a bit of weight but stools are dreadful and he is constantly looking to be sick, even resorting to trying to pull hay out of the rabbit run! I've had him back on steroids the last couple of weeks one every other day which was what vet prescribed. Other thing is anal irritation as we are back to scooting again.

[Mollycat]

I have been where you are and my vet explained in great detail so that we could make an informed decision about how to proceed. Exactly the same - The Dire Rear (and he was long haired) and steroids kept him going for a while. We were on a whole tablet a day until giving it became a problem and then we switched to the 6-weekly injection. Exactly the same as you I was told we couldn't know if it was IBD or lymphoma without a lot of expensive and intrusive tests. The tests might reveal something or might not but either way the best treatment for either condition was the same - steroids. My Boo was 15 years old and we made the decision not to test but to let him live out his time in peace and help him when we needed to.

You don't mention Alfie's age or general health, maybe things are very different for him and it is appropriate to run a load of tests. That's something you need to consider and have a very honest discussion with your vet about. Every cat and every owner and every situation is different and the choices we make have to be right for our cat and for us too.

Now firstly you must never stop steroids suddenly, the dose must be tapered down very slowly otherwise problems can come back much worse. For a good explanation of why, this might help https://www.mayoclinic.org/prednisone-w ... q-20057923. Not to worry it's done and he is back on them, you can only go forward from here, I expect your vet probably didn't stress the importance of this. But chances are it will have been a bit of a setback for him and a call to your vet as to how to get back on track might be a good idea. If it's any comfort at all my other cat with completely different problems, hyperthyroidism, her system took nearly a year to fully reset back to normal, but it did eventually.

[Suzynick]

Hi Mollycat

Thanks for your reply.

Personally I don't think its lymphoma, I think it is IBD and something he's had for quite sometime but my previous vet hadn't bothered to look into the issue of him having his anal glands expressed so frequently!

Alfie is also 15! And like you we decided not to test him, whilst I liked the idea of getting a biopsy done so we knew for certain what it was, I couldn't do that to him, to lose him through doing that would have been horrendous.

Alfie's general health is ok, he is sneezing and retching a bit at the moment but we suspect he has either ingested a blade of ornamental grass or a long strand of hay, hoping he'll bring this up one way or another soon. Today he went into the litter tray and produced a much better looking stool! Still soft with mucus but not diarrhea thank goodness. His appetite is fairly good. He used to be on Yarrah and Lily's kitchen but seemed to go off them both and we did wonder if they were just too rich for him. He is now on Felix as good as it looks, I'd rather them be on a better food but they eat it so I guess that's more important.

Admittedly I have been really lapse in the past with the steroids, thank you for the link. He is now having one every other day and I am writing this down so I don't get in a pickle with it again. I have an elderly rabbit on metacam and was also having penicillin jabs for a while and I feel terrible for not keeping Alfie up to date with his meds

I will weigh Alfie later to see if he's put his lost weight back on.