I have a 3-4 year old neutered male cat who has been diagnosed both feline leukemia and heartworm positive. He is currently on enalapril, prednisone, and lasix daily, and also takes Interferon 4 days on, 3 days off each week, as well as taking transdermal aspirin at a 5mg 2 times per week dosing (1/16th of an 81mg aspirin b.I.d.). The lasix and enalapril and prednisone was started about a month ago when the cat was showing signs of edema in his extremities. He has a good appetite and is in relatively good spirits, but the swelling shifts daily, sometimes his elbows his hind legs, his chin, he has a ‘pouch’ under his belly at times, his back feet are probably the most consistently swollen, looking so big they seem about to pop. It was determined that based on his weight loss that he has glomural (sp?) nephritis, in addition to everything else, which is what apparently is causing the swelling.
just yesterday I noticed an open sore on his front leg, which then happened to be the only limb NOT swollen, and everywhere he lay he left a wet spot behind. My vet confirmed it was due to his skin literally just having ‘split’, and added orbax to his daily regimen for a week to ward off infection (which, being leukemia positive puts him more at risk for infection)
is there ANYTHING else possible to do to relieve the swelling? especially since he is NOT building up fluids in his lungs affecting his breathing, just the edema…I can’t help but wonder if a needle prick here and there would have an effect like popping a water balloon. I realize that it is a symptom of a ‘condition’, but would massage help? I’m open to anything at this point!
while he DOES have periodic bouts of lethargy, when his appetite is nil, but a round of antibiotics usually corrects this and then he is back to his usual self, with a pretty hefty appetite. Currently he is eating Hills Prescription g/d both dry and canned and seem to like it pretty well.
please advise!
Thank You
Poor boy!
The heartworm disease has caused inflammation of the filtering part of his kidneys (glomerulonephritis). This causes him to lose protein from his bloodstream, protein needed to retain fluid inside his blood vessels. Basically, he is losing blood fluid through millions of tiny (normal) holes in his blood vessel. The edema is this fluid below his skin. Massage would help if he had normal blood protein, but he doesn’t. Ask your vet about what, if anything, can replace his blood protein.
Phillip McHugh, DVM
Park Veterinary Hospital
Durham, NC
aspirin is a good anti-inflammatory still in use today. *;’
aspirin is great for reducing pain and inflammation just be careful with overdose though;~”
Hi Joseph, I don’t know about giving a pet aspirin. Have you had any experience with this?
Linda – VetLocator.com
My cat is 20 and he gets 1/2 of childrens aspirin every 72 hours. Started on this when he had a blood clot where his legs branch in the rear. He now has a very swollen front leg which has no diagosis, vet x ray as well. Aspirin is dangerous for felines if not given on this regimen. Hope this helps.
has anyone had a complete swollen leg on their cat, mine is in the front leg all the way up to his shoulder and it is double the size of his other front leg?
Some of these symptoms – the fluid in his abdomen and the skin fragility sounds like wet FIP. I had a cat with FIP and he had those 2 symptoms. He also became lethargic, lost interest in eating very much and lost weight. I don’t know how long your kitty has been sick, but FIP progresses rapidly and my cat went from the lethargy and weight loss severely ill in abot 1-2 weeks. When I first noticed his weight loss, I took him to the vet. Long story, but at that time we noticed he had developed feline skin fragiity syndrom, which is when his body started attacking itself and his skin became so fragile it would tear so easily he couldn’t be handled unless I wrapped him in a thick towel. This was a rae symptom of the FIP and I hope to never see it again. Within 1-2 weeks I opted with agreement of my vet and the vets at a specialty hospital, to put him to sleep.