O.K.'s Case Study  

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Other Diseases/Conditions: Still ruling out FIP Story: Our cat O.K., which is short for Office Kitty, commutes to my husbands Insurance Office and greets customers besides being an awesome buddy to my three children. O.K. is the poster-cat for all cats. He's the friendliest most unassuming cat I've ever met. He can make anyone a cat lover! It makes me so sad that he has this terrible disease. O.K, age 4, has a history of Irritable Bowel Disease that seemed to get better after the age of 2. He had bloody diarrhea regularly for a long time. Many tests were run & nothing abnormal was found. After that he seemed just fine. He had a bout of not eating and lethargy in February 2008. Antibiotics and fluids brought him around quickly. No diagnosis was made at that time--but an infection was suspected due to a high white count. O.K. had a slow decline in activity in September 2008. He also began eating less. The symptoms got dramatically worse the last week of October 2008. All of a sudden he was nearly skin and bones, stopped eating and began with labored breathing. We took him to the vet on 10/29/08. The vet initially thought it was FIP. X-Rays showed alot of fluid in his chest and some in the abdomen. The vet aspirated out a whole bunch of fluid out of his chest and he felt much better. Blood work came back with nearly everything abnormal. However he had an exceedingly high calcium level. They did an ultrasound of his abdomen and found a Mediastinal mass. The vet said it was lymphoma. We are still awaiting the FIP test. The plan is to start him on prednisolone and see how he does. He came home today - 10/30/08. He looked good this afternoon, but is bad again tonight with labored breathing and uneasiness. I don't know if we will have much more time with this sweet, kind cat. My children are distraught and so am I. Outcome: Updated October 2008 - It's with great sadness to tell you that we lost our dear O.K. kitty today. He stopped eating, wouldn't get up, was laboring greatly to breathe, his lymph nodes on his neck ballooned and his fever spiked to 105+ this afternoon. We chose to let him go and be free of his pain and suffering. He was euthanized at 4:05 this afternoon. Outcome: Not doing very well. We are hoping for improvement with prednisolone. - By Annie O.K.'s Mom -

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