Our question this week was:

Hello, I hope you can help me.

I have an 8-month-old Persian cat who suddenly got very weak, had a fever, and now can't move her front paws. She looks healthy, has an appetite when I feed her does involuntary twitching from time to time. I took her to the vet and she did blood work showing that the liver enzymes are little below normal and the gluton? level was a bit off. The vet gave her a shot of cortisone and she is on an antibiotic.

She doesn't have a clue to what it is- such as it could be FIP or a or portal systemic shunt. Do you have any input to this?

Thank you - Donna

Answer

Hi – thanks for your email.

Sorry to hear about your cat. It sounds like a strange combination of signs – fever, weakness, twitching, and difficulty-moving front paws with a normal appetite. The blood work showed some liver abnormalities? And I'm not sure what you mean by gluton but maybe you mean glucose (which can be slightly high in some stressed cats).

Did the fever come down? Any exposure to toxins? Without examining her and doing more tests, it is difficult to diagnose her condition based on what you said. I'd worry about some myositis (muscle problem), seizure disorder, portal systemic shunt, viral or bacterial infection, or other inflammatory disease.

If she is not doing substantially better, I'd discuss the advantages of taking her to a "specialist" for additional testing.


Best of luck!


Dr. Jon





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