Talk Cancer » Liver Cancer » does cat have cancer or just bladder stones?
does cat have cancer or just bladder stones?
Question:
Hi. My 6-yr old female cat has been urinating on the carpet for several months. I mistakenly thought this was a behavior problem due to a new baby in the house. Last Wednesday the cat looked sick, smelled sick & acted sick. I took her to the vet – he did blood work and an abdominal xray & diagnosed her with bladder stones while waiting for the blood work to come back. Now the blood work is back and shows: low T4 0.4 slightly high potassium 5.7 low WBC 1.4 low absolute polys 1218 low absolute lymphs 126 no absolute bands 0 My vet has now advised me to hold off on the bladder surgery because he fears the cat has "an underlying disease." The xray also showed a small liver. He wants to rule out FELV, neoplasia, & hepatic disease by performing FELV test, coagulation test & possibly a bone marrow aspirate test. He expressed concern because he says he’s never seen blood work like this before. I guess he expects to see abnormal red blood cells and they are normal. On another note, and I hate to even bring this up, I mean I love the cat, but the xray & bloodwork were over $200 – not too bad – the stone removal will be $600!! – the FELV & coag will be $150 – and the bone marrow will be $150 – for a total of $1,100. I guess I want to know if these prices are reasonable (I’m in NJ.) Do these blood test results ring any bells with any of you vets – could she have some kind of rare liver disease or liver cancer? A final note – she did have a tumour (granuloma or neoplassia?) at the site of vaccination about 2 years ago – it was removed approx 3 weeks after vaccination. Please help! The cat has been on antibiotics for 1 week and seems fine. Reply address is antispam. Please reply to raerts "the at sign" idt "dot" net Thanks. Elizabeth Aerts
Response:
Hi. My 6-yr old female cat has been urinating on the carpet for several months. I mistakenly thought this was a behavior problem due to a new baby in the house. Last Wednesday the cat looked sick, smelled sick & acted sick. I took her to the vet – he did blood work and an abdominal xray & diagnosed her with bladder stones while waiting for the blood work to come back. Now the blood work is back and shows: low T4 0.4 slightly high potassium 5.7 low WBC 1.4 low absolute polys 1218 low absolute lymphs 126 no absolute bands 0
Uhm, yeah, this isn’t healthy. If it were a bladder infection, you’d expect the WBCs to be pretty high. Unless it became a truly raging infection and went septic where bacteria escaped the bladder and have seded throughout the blood stream. This chemistry reflects a severe neutropenia with no left shift. What that means is that something’s eating up the neutrophils and they’re not being properly replaced for some reason. While there might be concurrent bladder infection, this is reflective of a systemic process. Recommend aggressive diagnostic steps like blood culture and bone marrow aspirate and maybe stepping up to some killer antibiotics. The low T4 is strange, but not to panic IMHO. There’s a ‘euthyroid sick’ syndrome which is characterized by low T4 due to systemic illness which sounds a lot like what’s happening in this case. Erik "Rouleaux" Hofmeister WSU Class ‘00 PLEASE NOTE: In the absence of a traditional veterinarian-client-patient relationship, this information should be taken as a friendly opinion, not as an official clinical recommendation. Also realize that I am a veterinary student, and anything stated should be taken with that in mind.
Response:
Hi. My 6-yr old female cat has been urinating on the carpet for several months. I mistakenly thought this was a behavior problem due to a new baby in the house. Last Wednesday the cat looked sick, smelled sick & acted sick. I took her to the vet – he did blood work and an abdominal xray & diagnosed her with bladder stones while waiting for the blood work to come back. Now the blood work is back and shows: low T4 0.4 slightly high potassium 5.7 low WBC 1.4 low absolute polys 1218 low absolute lymphs 126 no absolute bands 0 My vet has now advised me to hold off on the bladder surgery because he fears the cat has "an underlying disease." The xray also showed a small liver. He wants to rule out FELV, neoplasia, & hepatic disease by performing FELV test, coagulation test & possibly a bone marrow aspirate test. He expressed concern because he says he’s never seen blood work like this before. I guess he expects to see abnormal red blood cells and they are normal. On another note, and I hate to even bring this up, I mean I love the cat, but the xray & bloodwork were over $200 – not too bad – the stone removal will be $600!! – the FELV & coag will be $150 – and the bone marrow will be $150 – for a total of $1,100. I guess I want to know if these prices are reasonable (I’m in NJ.) Do these blood test results ring any bells with any of you vets – could she have some kind of rare liver disease or liver cancer? A final note – she did have a tumour (granuloma or neoplassia?) at the site of vaccination about 2 years ago – it was removed approx 3 weeks after vaccination. Please help! The cat has been on antibiotics for 1 week and seems fine. Reply address is antispam. Please reply to raerts "the at sign" idt "dot" net Thanks. Elizabeth Aerts
Response:
Hi. My 6-yr old female cat has been urinating on the carpet for several months. I mistakenly thought this was a behavior problem due to a new baby in the house. Last Wednesday the cat looked sick, smelled sick & acted sick. I took her to the vet – he did blood work and an abdominal xray & diagnosed her with bladder stones while waiting for the blood work to come back. Now the blood work is back and shows: low T4 0.4 slightly high potassium 5.7 low WBC 1.4 low absolute polys 1218 low absolute lymphs 126 no absolute bands 0
Uhm, yeah, this isn’t healthy. If it were a bladder infection, you’d expect the WBCs to be pretty high. Unless it became a truly raging infection and went septic where bacteria escaped the bladder and have seded throughout the blood stream. This chemistry reflects a severe neutropenia with no left shift. What that means is that something’s eating up the neutrophils and they’re not being properly replaced for some reason. While there might be concurrent bladder infection, this is reflective of a systemic process. Recommend aggressive diagnostic steps like blood culture and bone marrow aspirate and maybe stepping up to some killer antibiotics. The low T4 is strange, but not to panic IMHO. There’s a ‘euthyroid sick’ syndrome which is characterized by low T4 due to systemic illness which sounds a lot like what’s happening in this case. Erik "Rouleaux" Hofmeister WSU Class ‘00 PLEASE NOTE: In the absence of a traditional veterinarian-client-patient relationship, this information should be taken as a friendly opinion, not as an official clinical recommendation. Also realize that I am a veterinary student, and anything stated should be taken with that in mind.
Response:
Hi. My 6-yr old female cat has been urinating on the carpet for several months. I mistakenly thought this was a behavior problem due to a new baby in the house. Last Wednesday the cat looked sick, smelled sick & acted sick. I took her to the vet – he did blood work and an abdominal xray & diagnosed her with bladder stones while waiting for the blood work to come back. Now the blood work is back and shows: low T4 0.4 slightly high potassium 5.7 low WBC 1.4 low absolute polys 1218 low absolute lymphs 126 no absolute bands 0 My vet has now advised me to hold off on the bladder surgery because he fears the cat has "an underlying disease." The xray also showed a small liver. He wants to rule out FELV, neoplasia, & hepatic disease by performing FELV test, coagulation test & possibly a bone marrow aspirate test. He expressed concern because he says he’s never seen blood work like this before. I guess he expects to see abnormal red blood cells and they are normal. On another note, and I hate to even bring this up, I mean I love the cat, but the xray & bloodwork were over $200 – not too bad – the stone removal will be $600!! – the FELV & coag will be $150 – and the bone marrow will be $150 – for a total of $1,100. I guess I want to know if these prices are reasonable (I’m in NJ.) Do these blood test results ring any bells with any of you vets – could she have some kind of rare liver disease or liver cancer? A final note – she did have a tumour (granuloma or neoplassia?) at the site of vaccination about 2 years ago – it was removed approx 3 weeks after vaccination. Please help! The cat has been on antibiotics for 1 week and seems fine. Reply address is antispam. Please reply to raerts "the at sign" idt "dot" net Thanks. Elizabeth Aerts
Response:
Hi. My 6-yr old female cat has been urinating on the carpet for several months. I mistakenly thought this was a behavior problem due to a new baby in the house. Last Wednesday the cat looked sick, smelled sick & acted sick. I took her to the vet – he did blood work and an abdominal xray & diagnosed her with bladder stones while waiting for the blood work to come back. Now the blood work is back and shows: low T4 0.4 slightly high potassium 5.7 low WBC 1.4 low absolute polys 1218 low absolute lymphs 126 no absolute bands 0
Uhm, yeah, this isn’t healthy. If it were a bladder infection, you’d expect the WBCs to be pretty high. Unless it became a truly raging infection and went septic where bacteria escaped the bladder and have seded throughout the blood stream. This chemistry reflects a severe neutropenia with no left shift. What that means is that something’s eating up the neutrophils and they’re not being properly replaced for some reason. While there might be concurrent bladder infection, this is reflective of a systemic process. Recommend aggressive diagnostic steps like blood culture and bone marrow aspirate and maybe stepping up to some killer antibiotics. The low T4 is strange, but not to panic IMHO. There’s a ‘euthyroid sick’ syndrome which is characterized by low T4 due to systemic illness which sounds a lot like what’s happening in this case. Erik "Rouleaux" Hofmeister WSU Class ‘00 PLEASE NOTE: In the absence of a traditional veterinarian-client-patient relationship, this information should be taken as a friendly opinion, not as an official clinical recommendation. Also realize that I am a veterinary student, and anything stated should be taken with that in mind.