Does my cat have cancer, bleeds from his gums, swollen lymph nodes
Does my cat have cancer if he keeps bleeding from his gums and has swolen lymph nodes? i have a male cat who is about 14 months old. I had him sterilized about a month ago. he was sent home still groggy and escaped from his basket and stumbled on the stairs. there was a little blood in his mouth and the next day he was fine and normal. Around ten days later he developed some bleeding from his mouth. His gums appeared black and swollen as if there were clots in them. I took him to the vet thinking this was a complication of the fall. The vet cleaned his mouth and gave him a shot of antibiotics twice over three days. However the bleeding did not stop. My husband is a doctor and thought we can give him clindamycin and prednisone for a week.The vet had also given him vitamin k but it did not help. Neither did our prednisone and clindamycine.He also had swollen lymph glands in the inner thighs and his neck.In addition he developed a red spot on the back of his shoulders as if his skin was breaking down and one of his back legs became really swolen but did not seem to hurt if touched or pressed gently. so we went back to the vet who suggested a blood test. The cat had a low platelet count and in addition anemia with a haemoglobin count of 5. he also had raised number of lymphocytes . his liver function and creatnine were normal. The vet then started giving him oxytetracycline shots and prednisone shots. these were given for five days. He stopped bleeding from his mouth but had rectal bleeding. we felt it may because of the prednisone so we treated this with flagyl and two days later all bleeding stopped and he was eating better - upto six times a day. previous to this he was still eating but needed coaxing. He had fever in all this but no diarrhea excep one stool which i noticed was liquidy. Also no vomitting. He has been drinking water too. so now we took him back for a check up after his two good days. But he sitll had fever and so the vet suggested we give him some vibramycin. I was reluctant too as his course of flagyl had not ended yet. And now this sunday he started bleeding from th mouth again and looks miserable and will not eat and is listless. all these days i also noticed he would try to eat the gravel of his ltter box or lick the pavement outside or the walls when i took him out for a bit. i assumed this was some sort of Pica because of the low haemoglobin. We live in Karachi Pakistan where not a lot of diagnostic tests are available and where vets are not that well trained. So i have no idea what this is. can it be some kind of lymphoma, or can it be dengue fever. Dengue fever is widespread here amongst humans and we have to be careful to not get bitten. Can cats get Dengue fever? I am really at a loss here. I rescued this cat from a garbage
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By: Kara McCarty El Segundo, CA
Replied on 04/19/2011Dengue fever is species specific according to my research so it is likely not the cause of your cat's illness.
I would be concerned about immunosuppressive viruses like Feline Leukemia and Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (both species specific for cats) that cats can carry and have come out of hiding in times of stress, like surgery. There is a simple blood test that will test for both of these diseases. If he is positive for either of these it would explain his symptoms but unfortunately if he is as sick as you are describing his prognosis would not be good. Intensive supportive therapy with antibiotics, fluids and possibly a feeding tube would be required.
Another concern would be the Plague bacterium (Yersina pestis) which is caught by a flea bite or exposure to infected rodents. It is found in Pakistan and would cause all of the symptoms you are seeing in your cat. It responds to treatment with antibiotics in the Tetracycline family which would explain why he improved with Doxycycline as well as to Chloramphenicol, Gentamicin, and Ciprofloxacin. Unfortunately antibiotic therapy needs to be started early in the disease and continued for weeks to be effective. In the meantime it is very contagious to people so you need to be very careful and have yourself tested if he is positive. It can be diagnosed by staining of his blood or sputum to identify organisms or culture of his blood.
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