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Question

My vet is stumped and so am I....I've taken all 3 of my cats (Allie 10 yrs old, Louie 10 yrs old and Oyster 9 yrs old) for their checkups and vaccines as well as find out why Allie has been urinating outside of the litterbox. There have been NO changes in the home and I havent switched litter brands either. Allie did not get her vaccines since the vet wanted to get her bloodwork and urinalysis results back...AND Oyster and Louie had a complete "senior's" checkup along with bloodwork. Keep in mind ALL my cats are strictly indoor cats and have been indoor cats all their lives (I live on the 8th floor of an apartment).
Allie's urine showed mild bacteria in it and her bloodwork showed a decrease in white blood cells as well. Now Oyster and Louie ALSO had a decrease in their white blood cells too. The most puzzling thing is that all 3 of my cats had INCREASED thyroid levels! They're all from different litters and had vaccs since they were kittens. How can this be?

Submitted: 106 days and 13 hours ago.
Category: Cat
Value: $15
Status: CLOSED
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Optional Information

Pet's Sex: Female
Pet's Age: 10

Already Tried:
I've added an additional litter box in my apartment and I still scoop daily - sometimes twice a day. They all eat Royal Canin urinary SO diet dry in the morning and wet before bedtime and have 2 waterbowls plus a jumbo sized dog drinking fountain which they all love to drink from.
How can all 3 suddenly have elevated thyroid levels? At the moment, their vet wants to get Allie sorted out with antibiotics then get another blood workup done in 2 weeks. They all still behave the same, play, eat, drink, poop, pee...I dont see anything out of the ordinary other than Allie's pee habits outside the litterbox.

Posted by Dr. Louis Gotthelf 106 days and 13 hours ago.

Answer

How increased were the thyroids? IF they are over 8, then it is serious, but if it is in the 5 or 6 range, then I wold just re-test in 6 months.

Bacterial urinary tract infections are very rare in cats unless they are diabetic or if they have a very dilute urine. Just because there is a little bacteria in the cat's urine does not mean urinary tract infection.

When cats urinate outside the box, it can be a behavioral problem. We are using a lot of Elavil (amitryptyline) to treat these kids. Sometimes an arthritic cat will not be able to jump into the litterbox and they will urinate outside it.

As far as the White Blood Cell Counts, low counts less that 4,000 are significant, usually indicating some type of viral infection. Some cats just have low counts. If all 3 cats have low counts at once, they may all be suffering through a viral infection.

Edited by dr4pets on 8/7/2009 at 8:33 PM

106 days and 13 hours ago.

Reply

I dont think its arthritis since Allie races up to the top of the 8 foot scratching post without any problems and she loves to jump and play. I dont know how you rate the thyroid where you are from but my vet said that values between 13-56 is normal. Oyster had 73.6, Louie had 60.8 and Allie was somewhere between the two.

Accepted Answer

If it is not arthritis, then it is probably behavioral. Ask your vet to try Elavil 10 mg at a rate of one tablet twice a day for 2 weeks as a test.

The units for our tests are different by a factor of 10. I wouldn't think of either of these cats being hyperthyroid at this point. Over 80 is when I would worry. Also, hyperthyroid cats vomit food and lose weight. They also have a very rapid heartrate, often over 200 beats per minute.

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Expert: Dr. Louis Gotthelf
Pos. Feedback: 97.1 %
Accepts: 
Answered: 8/7/2009

Veterinarian

31 years owning a dog and cat veterinary practice. President of an animal emergency clinic

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