Diagnosis: Feline Leukemia...Prognosis: not good



This isn't an easy post. Oliver doesn't have much time.

Just to give you an overview of the events, about 3 weeks ago, we found that his Lymph node was swollen under his chin on the left side. None of the others were, so we kept an eye on it for about a week and a half. No change. So we decided to schedule an appointment with the vet. Better safe than sorry.

So while all of this is going on, I had purchased a different kind of cat food...oops. Arty was doing ok with it, but Oliver didn't seem to like it at all. He wouldn't touch the stuff. A couple days before his Saturday vet appointment, he started throwing up and having diarrhea. He also looked very thin. We called the vet and bumped his appointment up to Friday. And by this time I went and picked up a bag of their usual food (which they both started to eat- however Ollie kept throwing up).

On Friday, Maribeth took Oliver into the vet and they checked him out. Aside from him losing approximately 2 lbs, he was fine. The Lymph node was back to normal size (which the vet didn't think it was his Lymph node anyway. Tard. Obviously it was) and the vet attributed the bowel/stomach issues to his lack of food intake.

However throughout the weekend we noticed that Oliver wasn't eating and he was just overall bad. He had taken to sitting around and sleeping and doing nothing and still pooping all over. We couldn't get him to eat anything substantial and what we could get him to eat was just thrown up within 10 minutes.

So off to the vet again. Maribeth took him in and this time the outcome wasn't so good. I don't know numbers, but he lost more weight, he was running a fever, he was dehydrated and on top of all this, he has fleas (which is odd, b/c he's an indoor cat and neither Arty nor the house show signs of fleas). So they pumped him full of liquids and drew blood to see what was up. They tested some of the blood in house and sent the remaining out to a lab.

The in house testing showed that his white blood cell count is extremely low. That's never a good sign. As far as the lab tests, they found the culprit: Feline Leukemia. From what the vet said, it's just a matter of time. A few days at most and that's the best they could give us. The fact that he's no longer eating is not a good sign. His chances of getting through this are slim to none.

So...I would say that at the rate of things, by week's end we'll be down one Swarr. We also need to get Arty tested. He may have contracted it too.

It's rough. He's good cat and a good friend, especially to Maribeth. He's her boy.

We'll keep you posted.

3 comments:

Lamar The Revenger said...

oh no... that ccat is the softest cat in the world. he's lovable and huggable. he'll be all right!

The Swarrs... said...

I don't think he's going to be all right...it's pretty bleak. But thanks for the optimism.

Anonymous said...

WE HAVE JUST READ YOUR BLOG DUE TO RESEARCHING FELINE LEUKEMIA, OUR CAT WHI IS 3 YEARS OLD HAS BECOME UNDER THE WEATHER, NOT EATING AND BLOODS SHOW LOW WHITE CELLS. AT THIS STAGE WE DON'T KNOW WHAT IS WRONG, IT HAS BEEN 3 DAYS NOW AT THE VET HOSPITAL BUT REALLY WHEN WE THINK ABOUT IT SHE (MYRTLE) HAS BEEN A BIT UNDER THE WEATHER FOR A WHILE.i KNOW THIS HAS BEEN A WHILE WITH YOUR BLOG BUT WE WOULD LIKE TO FIND OUT HOW OLIVER STARTED OUT BEING SICK.WE ARE SO SORRY ABOUT OLIVER, OWNING A CAT BECOMES SO MUCH PART OF YOUR LIFE AND YOU PUT SO MUCH LOVE AND CARE INTO THEM. IT IS A VERY GREAT LOSS. WE WOULD ALSO LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT ARTY.