Dr.Magnifico:
I hope this message finds you and your family well.
I actually have a concern not about one of my pets but one of my daughter’s cat. Frisky (my grandboy cat of 12 years).
2 weeks ago my daughter noticed he had an odor of urine. She had tried a new litter and thought it was due to the muddy consistency. She bathed him with no luck and decided to take him to a vet in her area. Frisky is a very cool easy going gentle cat . Unfortunately, when he went to the vet, my daughter said he turned into the cat from hell. They were unable to treat him but managed to give him his rabies. He was prescribed 100mg gabapentin to be taken that night and then one more an hour before his visit the next day. She described him as acting stoned starting with the first capsule. He was fine at the vets office but sadly has been diagnosed with kidney disease. The following 3 levels are off the chart: IDEXX SDMA 63, CREATININE 8.6, BUN 165. The following levels are slightly elevated: Phosphorus 9.9, Anion Gap 27, Total Protein 9.4, MCH 17.6, Monocytes .646.
Frisky was put on a special renal diet with phosphorus powder added (to bind the phosphorus). He is supposed to go back to the vets on Monday to have his kidneys flushed in hopes of flushing toxins I guess.
My concern is that he has trouble processing the gabapentin due to his kidneys.
You know how much I value your opinion and I truly love Frisky. If one of my cats presented all these issues, would you recommend the same treatment? I am also extremely concerned considering what I have read about the toxicity of gabapentin with kidney disease. I am very surprised by his behavior at the vets but obviously he needs something in order to calm him down. Would you recommend an alternative to gabapentin? I believe they gave her a liquid for Monday’s visit opposed to the pill that was used for the previous visit. Have you seen the use of special food and the flushing of kidneys to help improve some of these numbers and allow him some time with a good quality of life? I hope I have provided as much information that you may need.
As always, I appreciate your insight very much.

Thank you
Sandy Brown

Is it safe to stop insulin injections if we think our cat doesn’t need it

Hi!

I have a 10 year old tabby named chunk — he is overweight hence his name. Roughly a month or two ago we noticed that he started to limp. While he isn’t holding the paw or crying while walking, it is a noticeable limp. He is still jumping up on the bed and off, walking up and down all the stairs in the house, eating, drinking, and grooming himself. We can’t touch the paw, rub on the paw, and Chunk does not react in anyway as if it hurts him. My question is, his one paw is somewhat swollen at the knuckle. Could this be arthritis? I don’t want to take him to the vet because he does not handle that well and I’m worried about giving him a heart attack or other health issue by taking him to the vet for something that might be nothing. You can see in the picture the differences in his paws. Thank you in advance!

We’re treating our 6-month-old kitten for Giardia and He has been quarantined in the bedroom since diagnoses. our 1.5-year-old cat ran into the room for a moment and crawled under the bed before running back out of the room. I clean the room once or twice a day but under the bed is definitely a hard place to be precise with cleaning. the kitten wasn’t in the room at the time since he was getting his meds for the giardia. should I be worried that now my older cat could be infected too?

My cat has been sneezing for about a week now. She only sneezes about 3 times a day so i wasnt worried but it hasnt gone away and today her eye has started watering. Is this something that will go away on its own like a human cold would, or should i take her to see a vet?

My cat has a very irritated, red & inflamed throat and the vet examined him under anesthesia a while ago and he’s been taking prednisolone for almost 3 weeks and he’s slowly coming off of it now and will be done with it by next week. After all this time, we are still not seeing any results, he still coughs and gags all the time. I was just wondering if there is ANYTHING I can do at home to help him even a little bit. I know his throat is probably so sore and I just want to know if there’s anything I can try, such as a humidifier or switching to wet food.. anything!
thanks!:)

My cat has an aural haematoma caused by head shaking (no earmites and no infection) but i am really worried about both options of either leaving it alone or having it surgically removed as both have risks of disfiguring his ear.
Which option will be better cosmetically for him?
Thank you

Hello!

I’ll show the vet the video as well, but that won’t be for some time now. Until then, could you take a look at it and let me know if this looks like FHS? Should I try to get an earlier time to check with the vet?

Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkdWxhOc1FI

More details:
New member of the community and new cat owner here, we’ve got Haku 2 months ago. She is 2 and a half years old, neutered.

Ever since we have her, she had constant mini-episodes, consisting mostly in vigorously shaking her head multiple times in a row, trying to clean her ears, and trying to run and hide from the shaking. I define a ‘mini episode’ as around 10-20 seconds of shaking during the span of 1-2 minutes.

First we attributed it to the ear mites and the fleas she had. However, the ear mites and the fleas had been treated, and the episodes do still happen, albeit at a lower rate, once or twice a week.

She also has a bit of a hard time passing stools (she only goes potty once every 2 days), so on our last vet visit they prescribed some Royal Canin GI Fiber kibble.

After 2 days of combining the prescribed kibble with her usual food, she had this episode shown in the video, which was more severe than what she usually has (it might have lasted for a good 5 minutes, with another 5-10 minutes of less shaking afterwards). As seen in the video, she also has twitches all over her body and she tries to clean herself all over.
I feel like the episode was also triggered by stress, as we brushed her teeth beforehand.

One day later (today, the 25th Oct), she also started an episode while playing. We immediately stopped to let her calm down and by the time I got the camera up, the episode stopped as well.

We thought the more severe episode could have happened partly because of the Royal Canin Fiber, as she currently is on a lower carbohydrates diet. We stopped giving her the RC kibble today, I thought I’d discuss it further with the vet.

From what I gathered with the limited data I have, these episodes could be triggered either by stress or by ‘being too excited’, as in ‘im ready to pounce and play!’. So basically strong emotions. Is this something that can happen with FHS?

I will keep a closer eye on her and try to get the camera if she ever gets another episode. I will update this post if I have any updates.

Thanks for reading through this!

my cat is maybe 1 1\2 – 2 ish years old. she is not fixed but she has always been very healthy and active and very into food and snacks. i couldnt find her for dinner time and thought maybe she was just sleeping somewhere hard, when she finally came out she did not seem interested in me making her food, i showed her the can and she slowly walked into the kitchen, no meowing or jumping on the table as usual. when i put her food down she sniffed it and walked away. since then she has been laying down, she has an odd expression on her face that seems very blank. her stomach seems to hurt as she stayed hunched over when she stands or moves and growled when i was trying to feel it. when she does stand or move she does it very slowly and as if she doesnt have enough strength to do so. she tried to stretch once and her back leg only shook a little, she tried to get up and move and meowed in pain. every now and then her ears seem very warm. she has recently had her first hairball from her new sister cat that has long hair. she has eaten the same dry food and about a quarter of a can of wet food at night and in the morning. shes not eating or drinking and she has not vommited since a hairball the other day or had diarhrrea.

Any ideas on how to fix behavioral cat peeing outside the box? My cats about 6 or so and she randomly pees on things that are in the floor. Rugs, blankets, baskets etc.