Purrs for Brody

UPDATE:
I got home with Brody a little while ago and so far it's mostly good news.  His fever is gone.  He is eating better.  That part had me scared.  He went from 10.3 lbs on July 17 to 7.6 lbs yesterday.  He is feeling better.  He is a bit more lively than I have seen him in the last few days.  I misunderstood what the vet was saying.  She said his FeLV might have given him FIV not FIP.  That brings his chances up for survival of #6 from nil to maybe.  Of course if both his FeLV and new FIV are active now, his chances are pretty slim.  He came home with amoxicillan in case it's pneumonia, prednisolone in case his FeLV is suppressing his appetitie and polyprenyl immuno in case he developed FIV.  The bad news is that we (the vets and I) don't know what he has yet and won't know until Monday when the results of his latest tests come back from the lab.  Thank you for all the purrs, prayers, healing light and kind thoughts you have already sent.  Please keep it up for little Brody.  Cissy sure was glad to see him again.

Karen Jo: I hate to go from a party post weeks ago to a Purrs post, but I feel that it's necessary. Brody was having what looked all the world like dry retching when he went into his wellness exam on July 17.  I asked if it could be coughing, because I had never seen a cat cough and wouldn't know the difference.  The vet said that his chest was clear and for me to give him a hairball remedy.  When I went in for a consultation on Thursday about Horus, who hasn't been very nice lately, I mentioned it again and was prescribed some Laxatone and told to bring Brody in if he wasn't better in 3-4 days.  Three days ago he started acting sick and I called as early as I could on Monday to get Brody an appointment and got him in yesterday afternoon.  It wasn't good.

His temperature was 104 F.  The vet did x-rays and a large blood panel.  His albumin and red blood cells were low and his white blood cells were a little high.  He has a large amount of fluid in his chest cavity, but only one side.  She sent me to the large emergency and specialty animal hospital in Santa Fe, who kept him overnight to drain his chest and whatever else they thought necessary.  That vet said he needed more in hospital care, so now he's in his regular vet's for more x-rays and to have the chest fluid analyzed.

Here are the possibilities as to what is wrong with him, given in the order of his chances of long-term survival:

1. He had a fall and banged the side of his chest hard enough to cause the fluid to form in his chest.  In this case he will survive, no problem.  The retching was because the fluid in his chest made him uncomfortable and he was trying to expel it.

2. He has pneumonia.  His chances of a full recovery are very good.

3. He has the type of FeLV that attacks the lungs and brain and he is having a flare-up. He might survive this attack.

4 He has both the type of FeLV that attacks the lungs and brain and the type that attacks the bone marrow and he is having a flare-up.  Chances of surviving this attack much slimmer than for #3.

5.  His FeLV has given him cancer in his chest cavity.  Chances of long-term survival next to nil.

6. His FeLV has given him FIP.  Chances of long-term survival nil.

Please purr for my little mancat.  I will do an update when I get him home again at 4:00 MDT.  We may know a lot more then, or not much more.