We're at a loss. My cat started being reclusive, then he started losing muscle control.. he seems to eat o.k. and use the litter box but he stays in one spot all day and we've spent $700.00 on tests and nothing. There is arthritis in his hips but it doesn't explain his other symptoms. We tried morphine deriviative for the pain, nothing. We tested for everything.. there was a slight trace of toxoplasmosis and we started and antibiotic for that.

He does walk in circles slightly but doesn't seem to stick that close to walls.. when he does walk.

Anyone?

Hello,

I don't want to rain on your parade or anything, but brain tumor or encephalitis come to mind.

We recently had a cat presented with the same symptoms. He seemed to be in excrutiating pain but we could find no cause. He lay shuddering and crying in one spot and, when he did TRY to walk, he walked in circles or rolled.

The doctor at our clinic tried a different approach. We gave him lots of pain meds (bupronex) and kept him basically in a coma for three days. Every time he would start waking up, we would administer another anesthetic dose. This gave his body time to try to heal itself.

On the fourth day, we put in a feeding tube as he hadn't eaten in several days and we didn't want to get a liver problem going. We then let him wake up.

He seemed improved. His head still tilted to one side and he rolled as if he had no control over his body (almost like he was extremely dizzy). We kept tube feeding him and, slowly, he kept improving. Every day he was a bit better.

I think it took about a week-and-a-half to two weeks, but we finally removed the feeding tube when he started eating on his own and he went home. The owner reports he is doing fine!

The weirdest thing was, this cat's labwork looked pristine! According to his lab values, he was the healthiest cat in the clinic and yet he was so close to death. This told us it was probably a brain issue.

Without doing a biopsy of the brain, it is almost impossible to know what caused his problem so we aggressively treated the symptoms as best we could.

I hope your cat gets better! Keep us informed!

Regards,

Thank you.

Bizzy doesn't seem to be in pain,he doesn't cry and the circling isn't that bad. We actually tried bupronex but nothing seemed to help.

I was very scared and he seemed to improve slightly, but he now isn't that excited about taking food (today and last night) so I'm really getting worried. I don't want him suffering , he just doesn't seem in pain so I don't know what it could be. I was thinking brain tumor, like something effecting his nervous system but does that always involve pain? I wonder what was wrong with your friends cat, if it was a tumor, it must have dissolved or the swelling might have been the only issue.

Thank you for your response, it gives me hope that this will resolve itself. The only other alternative is hard to face.

Melissa

Melissa,

Could it be an inner ear infection? That is a possibility as well.

Brain tumors do not always have pain as a symptom. In my Great Aunt's cat, we used prednisone which could have reduced any swelling produced by a brain tumor (which is the symptomatic treatment of choice for cancer/tumors) and in fact would have reduced any swelling caused by multiple issues. We still do not know what caused Tigger's problem but it seems to be under control for now.

In your cat's case, it could very well be the toxoplasmosis.

Click Here for an intersting article on Toxoplasmosis.

I hope, for his sake, it is. Just be careful handling any feces. It takes 24 hours for toxo to sporonate so cleaning the litter box 2 or 3 times daily reduces the risk to you of contracting toxo greatly. Of course, it's generally not an issue unless you are pregnant.

I suggest, if your cat isn't eating well, getting some oral feeding syringes and force feeding some meat baby food (such as veal, turkey, chicken, etc) or canned cat food such as Eukanuba's Maximum Calorie. Max Cal has a pudding-like texture which makes it easy to syringe feed plus it has extra nutritional support for cats who are ill.

Regards,