Need some healing prayers for Tenderfoot

I know he's not diabetic, but you are my "home boys" so here goes:

Monday I took Cody and Tenderfoot in for blood work and a check up. I'd been noticing TF has been losing weight, vomiting more often, and drinking a lot but doesn't have high BG, so I was expecting kidney trouble. They are almost 14 and TF has had a number of health issues through the years (stomatitis/chronic gum disease--> most of his teeth removed, a bout with kidney trouble, a benign parathyroid tumor removed, serious high temp UTI in the fall) so ...

So the good news is that after 3 years of being unregulated Cody's kidneys are fine, as are all his others parameters except glucose. Tenderfoot however, threw the vet for another loop. Why is it that my boys have to have all the weird rare diagnoses?

After being there almost 2 hours she comes back in the room and tells me they had to draw blood 4x from TF because the 1st 3 immediately clotted in the tube (a first for her I think). The fourth one she had to add heparin to the tube to keep it liquid until they could get it into the machine to run the tests. She said it could be caused by a parasite, or with the weight loss probably a cancer or ...?. She said she has to call around to UGA to try to find out what to do next. She said the same thing could happen inside his arteries. My sweet boy is a ticking time bomb. I'm so numb I cant even cry.

Tenderfoot is Cody's civie brother, and is the sweetest softest loverboy ever. He sleeps on my pillow wrapped around my head every night, one paw on my face, and has a deep loud rumble purr that puts me to sleep like ... well you get the picture, he's a huge mommas boy. When I hold him he wraps his paws around my neck like a baby. He's a favorite at the vet, everybody loves him, a very special cat. He is a black tuxedo cat, but has a fluffy undercoat they call 'smoke' which I guess is kind of unusual. Cody has stolen the limelight lately with all his needs, but Tenderfoot is truly the unusual special one and very dear to me.

I'm a big believer in prayer, and I need some sent our way. Thanks

 

I'm sorry Nancy. Hang in there until you get a diagnosis - maybe it's nothing. (And, for what it's worth, Boo's blood congeals really quickly too...they had to spin the crap out of it and do multiple draws last time they tried to get serum...therefore, I doubly hope it's nothing).

heather

 

Oh... thats really encouraging! Thanks- boy i hope its just dehydration or something. She did have me give him 150ml LRS yesterday... come on TF - straighten out!

 

Sending healing vibes to ~~~~~~~ Tenderfoot ~~~~~

(((((((hugs)))))))

 

I'm not good with words like everyone else here but I just wanted you to know that I'm thinking of you and hoping for the best.

Take care.

Joanne

 

Prayers!!!!

 

Hmm. I have to admit that I'm not impressed by that at all. Cat blood clots notoriously quickly, and difficult blood draws can also activate clotting faster. I've had animals' blood clot within the syringe as I was drawing the blood! And had a patient a few weeks ago whose blood kept clotting before I could get it into a tube. I (and the vet) didn't think much of it. My goodness I can't imagine why she gave you a time bomb scenario. It's not common, but it's not OMG! either. Perhaps there's more to the story? But honestly I would wait until someone can get you anything close to an explanation before worrying. Benign until proven otherwise, IMO. DId she send blood out for a review from a pathologist?

 

I don't think she sent blood off. When I spoke to her a few days later she had nothing new to add. She's been a small animal vet for a long time, and I'm pretty sure she does most of the blood draws herself so for whatever reason she found his blood unusual. I'm glad to hear it is not that unusual.

"More to the story" which is possibly making her more suspicious is that she palpated nodules in his abdomen (possibly mesentery?), and mentioned something like... lyphoid..??.. sarcoma ? Most of his life he's been 13-16 lbs and now he's 10. He vomits every morning and needs "assisted feeding" (like with a spoon) but these are not new- been going on awhile. The weight loss was the most alarming thing.

I realize they are "seniors" and their time is coming one way or another, he's just such a sweet sweet friend...
He seems OK and I'm not going to dwell on this for the time (hopefully years) we have left- thanks for the perspective

 

Ah well that does deserve further investigation. Sounds like an abdominal ultrasound is in order, esp if the bloodwork didn't show much.

 

A prayer for you. Healing wishes for Tenderfoot! Hope he is better soon.

Karen and Obie