No diagnosis for Lily!!!

[Desley (booktigger)]

Fingers crossed you can get to the bottom of things, and I would be considering going elsewhere for a second opinion.

[Ela]

but I've heard that there are quite a few instances of false negatives with this particular test.

Lets hope you have the same luck as us. We have never had a false negitive as far as I can remember.

[smudgepickles]

It is quite possible that she caught it at the vets, when Gizmo went in for something a couple of years ago he caught something off the probe they put down his throat (driving me mad thinking of the name)  he then had to go back a couple of times and have throat swabs after 2 weeks at a time treatment.............just like the doctors I suppose you go in for one thing and come out with something totally different you have caught

Hope they get to the bottom of this lilycat .. your such a wonderful meowmy whatever it is she is in the best place with the best meowmy

xx

[lilycat]

Thanks for the website link and the suggestion about the lumpy lip...she was doing an awful lot of grooming of paws so that could well be the culprit 

Having had a look at the website, I'm really not happy about her being on steroids - it's only for a week apparently but I'll be sure to tell the vet that I don't want Lily on them if she suggests prescribing more. I think that when I take her back on Friday of next week, I'm going to ask for a referral to a specialist. There is a vet at the surgery who has a 'special interest' in felines but he didn't do her much good when she saw him last time so I don't think we'll bother with him again.

I'm also going to suggest getting her tested for FIV; she was tested last time but I've heard that there are quite a few instances of false negatives with this particular test. Hopefully it'll come back negative again but needless to say, if she is FIV positive, she'll be staying right here with us - nothing we can't cope with!

[Millys Mum]

The lump on her lip could be a rodent ulcer, one cause is overgrooming and nibbling which she may be doing to clean her feet after you wash them for her. Typical!

Heres a v.good site on stomatitis  http://www.dr-addie.com/stomatitis.html

If she has a weak immune system the steroids could lower it further.

[Ela]

Funnily enough we have a Lily who is about 4 months old and terrible gut/bum like a cows backside problem, numerous bloods and tests have been carried out and all proved inconclusive. Next week she is going to see a specialist I think the initial consultation fee is £14O and then perhaps she will need more tests but we have to get to the bottom of her problem

[lilycat]

With regard to the MRSA, at the time I had no idea that it could pass from human - cat and of course I went and got myself swabbed straight away [the vet said she'd probably got it from me as I work in a hospital environment - student nurse - and she's always coming to me for her cuddles] but my swabs came back negative so I can only assume that she [most likely] got it from the vet hospital.

I did a bit of searching about Stomatitis last night and one link took me straight to FIV information which was a bit worrying to say the least - I agree about the antibiotics though; they always put ther on them and if she has decreased immunity already.....

I think I may have to ask for a referral for her and try to get this problem identified once and for all.

[Tiggy's Mum]

I don't know anything about the medical conditions but I do agree with you about the way the vets are treating the symptoms rather than the cause, if I were you I'd go in without any cats and ask to speak with the vet about her case - it could be that  it's out of their league so to speak and might need referring to a specialist.  If you're not happy with the explanation then maybe you should consider switching.

Hope Imogen's check goes well and a big pat on the rump for Dave for being such a good boy.    to you to and Lily too!

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Have just done a quick search and come up with this site which it may be helpful to look at

http://tahilla.typepad.com/petsmrsa/how_to_deal_with_vets_and_animal_hospitals/index.html

There are others out there too so maybe a quick bit of research is needed before tackling the vets again.

It looks like we may have to put this i our links section cos have not heard of this before as said below but its out there, known about and a problem 

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Very sorry to hear about this and think I would at least be looking for a second opinion, even if not changing verts immediately.

To me they sound too casual and i would have thought they maybe doing swabs again just to check.

I didnt know that cats could have MRSA but this sounds very serious and I thought in humans antibiotics overuse was the root course of it but catching from where, is never discovered.

I do hope poor Lily gets well soon 

[lilycat]

Hi SP 

To be honest, no-one offered an explanation as to where or how she'd go the MRSA or the E-Coli or what the root cause of her problem was - in the first instance, they were even repeating swabs etc in case they'd got false negatives the first time!!!

The malaseb does the trick with her toes [even though she isn't very happy-smiley about her paws being washed  ] - se grumbles all the way through    and I tell her that yes, she's very fierce!

To be fair, the vet's really nice but can I keep them there because the staff are nice? Not really. Also, I was concerned at how they dealt with Mavis when she went in for her op....she'd had mammary cancer removed previously and went in again after I noticed a couple of little lumps had come back. They operated on her but when we went to pick her up the vet said it had been a much bigger op than anticipated which they first realised when they shaved her belly prior to the op. I've always thought that they should have contacted me before operating on her to ask what I wanted to do...Mavey was 16, so was old for such a big operation and she never really recovered from it, she was pts six weeks after it.

Thanks for all the hugs  - Lily's got her mystery illness, Imogen's back at the vets next week for a check up [HCM] but on the bright side...Dave still hasn't sprayed anywhere yet... 

[smudgepickles]

Hi Lilycat
sorry to hear your having all this worry and the little ones unwell again I think your right about a vet change as everytime they are giving antibiotics the imune system weakens and they do need to find the cause for all your sakes......where and how did they say she had contracted the MRSA and and ecoli etcpoor little darling Malaseb rocks, its the best ever stuff for my cats dogs and horses too...... shame they charge sooooooo much

Please let us know what you decide and how liily gets on

Big hugs from me and head kissses from my clan 

xxxx

[lilycat]

Hi all,

Earlier this year I took the lovely Lily to the vet with what turned out to be acne and an infected claw...biopsies were taken and after not responding to antirobe, then amoxicillin and gentamicin, her toe was amputated and she was found to have MRSA and E-Coli in the toe biopsy. Anyway, no concrete diagnosis was reached and it seemed to all clear up on its own.

Last week I spotted a little patch of acne and so I checked her toes and sure enough, they were looking slightly scaly so off she went to the vet again - I was hoping I'd caught it early enough to stop it becomming a major problem for her....

During this week Lily's been on amoxicillin and malaseb footwash and although her toes seemed better, she didn't seem well in herself [you know how you can just tell?] and so back to the vet this evening and as well as a small hard lump on her lower 'lip', the inside of her mouth is very inflamed. The vet gave her a steroid injection - for 24hrs - as well as Prednicare tabs to start tomorrow and she's had a long term antibiotic injection. The vet said it looked like Stomatitis which has occurred as a secondary symptom. Lily gets a slight infection which she can't fight, her immunity is weakened even more and so she ends up getting something even worse than the original, fairly insignificant, complaint.

My issue with this is....am I being unreasonable in thinking they should perhaps be looking at finding the root cause of her problem rather than, in effect, treating the symptoms? The first time around they ran tests, took blood, did biopsies and didn't actually find anything much and that seems to be what's happening again. Last ime it ended up as MRSA and E-Coli, this time it's Somatitis.

What do you think? I've been with the same vets for 9 years but I'm seriously thinking of changing.