My cat is sick, not eating, losing weight. What further vet tests?

Poor Sachi! Significant weight loss and inappetence are certainly a major concern. I'm glad to hear that his blood work (I assume a CBC, chemistry and T4?) was unremarkable. However, foreign body intestinal obstruction/blockages, intestinal malabsorption issues that can cause inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), chronic pancreatitis, or cancerous processes, do not necessarily cause changes on screening blood tests. If Sachi has not yet had abdominal x-rays or an ultrasound, consider talking to your vet about these tests as his next diagnostic step. If he has a foreign body obstructing his intestines, this is a surgical emergency, and these tests would be helpful in obtaining a diagnosis. If pancreatitis, IBD or EPI are more highly suspected, consider talking to your vet about testing for vitamins B12 and folate, as well as TLI and fPLI. I hope this helps!

Poor Larry! It sounds like it’s time to move onto further diagnostics. Obviously something is wrong and it just hasn’t been discovered yet. I recommend to discuss an abdominal ultrasound with your veterinarian and possibly checking a fructosamine level to see if the blood sugars have been elevated over the past month. This will help to figure out if diabetes, pancreatitis, cancer or inflammatory bowel disease is present. I hope this gets figured out quickly. Best of luck and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. Based on these lab results, I would suspect renal disease. BUN, Amylase, magnesium and CPK all can become altered with renal impairment. The weight loss may be due to muscle wastage due to chronic renal disease or something else may be going on. I would consider having Tigger's urine specific gravity checked and also send out an SDMA test to see if the kidney's are the main problem. At 14.5 years of age, renal disease would be high on my list of causes of these symptoms. Other problems such as cancer and inflammatory diseases may be the cause of the symptoms as well. I would recommend having your vet pursue additional testing to get more of a definitive answer on whether or not the kidneys are impaired and if not, coming up with further recommendations on diagnostics and treatment. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

He needs more testing. Just because the blood work is normal does not mean there is nothing underlying. Something is wrong. I suggest x-rays as the next step and maybe an ultrasound of the abdomen.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Poor Toots! I would bring a stool sample and have Toots examined by your Vet. I would recommend full blood work including Feline Leukemia and FIV. If that is normal then I would consider maldigeetion and malabsorption blood work (tests B12, folate and 2 pancreatic enzymes and consider an ultrasound of his belly to rule in or out underlying intestinal disease like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or small cell lymphoma. Most IBD cats are treated with a prescription diet and anti-inflammatories. Since he is getting worse I recommend starting a work up. I wish you and Toots the best!

It sounds as though you and Schumacher have been through a lot over the past 2 years! Given his weight loss, chronic diarrhea, normal blood work and initial response to depomedrol, chronic pancreatitis or primary intestinal issues, such as inflammatory bowel disease or lymphoma would be my main concerns. In this situation, further diagnostic testing is often needed to try to get to the bottom of this issue. Some tests include vitamin absorption and pancreatic blood tests (B12, folate, TLI, fPL) and an abdominal ultrasound to look at his internal organs, intestinal thickness, lymph nodes, etc. In some cases, biopsies are needed to differentiate between different conditions so that the most appropriate treatment can be started. Cats with inflammatory bowel disease or lymphoma often benefit from long-term steroids, antibiotics and prescription diets to control their clinical signs. I hope that all goes well for Schumacher!

I'm sorry Murray isn't doing well!! Unfortunately with his symptoms cancer could be a likely diagnosis. Other causes could be a foreign body or intussecption (where the intestines telescope into themselves), but without seeing him in person I can't say for sure. Next step would be x-rays to try to visualize the intestines or an ultrasound. I recommend speaking to your vet about doing these tests.