Where do you go when you can’t get help for sick pet?
13y MN DMH
Was 17.7 lbs now 16.6 lbs
(BCS 7/9 he is a little heavy but also just a big boy)
2 month duration of symptoms
Symptoms: lethargy, mild anemia, profuse drooling/nausea, intermittent diarrhea, forelimb tremors, one episode of fever/shivering, weight loss and decreased/finicky appetite, intermittent labored breathing
Tests:
fPL normal
Chemistry panel normal
Infectious disease panel normal
CBC mild anemia
Ultrasound thickened intestines, enlarged kidneys
Other issues: seasonal environmental allergies, arthritis, FIC
History: Our sweet cat has had a tough two months and our vet has seen him 4-5 times for these symptoms. She ran several blood tests and sent him for an ultrasound and we have been treating him supportively at home. She sort of took her foot off the gas when nothing really worked to help him feel better and she couldn’t figure out what was going on with him. We pushed her because he’s just so miserable at home and is barely eating and dropping weight so she referred us to internal medicine at the local vet school. We went there for 2 days and they repeated all the same tests and said they suspect lymphoma or IBD and they said they would be in touch about next steps and they’d connect with our vet and that was a week ago and we haven’t heard anything. We connected with our vet again because while all of this is going on, our cat is just dropping weight and super sick at home and there’s no plan for him. She just punted us back to the vet school and said to work with his team there.
Is it always this hard to get help when it’s not a clear diagnosis? It feels like he’s not so bad or straightforward on paper so everyone moves on or deprioritizes him but meanwhile every day we’re struggling to try to find anything he’ll eat even a few bites of to keep him from getting even sicker. He just lays in his bed all day and drools and looks miserable. We’ve spent a ton of money and don’t understand why we can’t get good help for him? No one even seems sympathetic to what’s going on with him, our vet especially just seems tired of us and callous.
What should we do? Is it normal for vets just to have no interest in a case?
And are there other differentials or tests to run?
Thank you.