I was looking through all our cats’ medical records after Cleo’s passing and Rey’s caught my eye.
When I took them all back from the adopter’s in June last year, Robin had severe diarrhoea and Rey had a skin issue and the flu.
Rey’s SDMA test last year had a reading of 13 (normal is 0-14) and his urine SG was 1.028 (normal should be 1.03 and above), then later, he had a problem of massive urination, but that was treated and he got well from it. I was concerned about this, worried about AKI (acute kidney injury) and that was slightly more than one year ago. I didn’t want to take any chances even Rey has no signs of being ill at all. He is active, eating very well, and a “Monster” in size!
But after the experience with Indy where one should not judge a book by its cover when medical health is concerned, I decided to take Rey to the vet’s too.
As it turned out, luckily I took Rey for a check-up, because the vet discovered that Rey’s lymph nodes on both sides of his neck are enlarged. This is known as lymphadenitis.
Lymphadenitis is the medical term for enlargement in one or more lymph nodes, usually due to infection. Lymph nodes are filled with white blood cells that help your body fight infections.
Lymphadenomegaly is the enlargement of the lymph nodes and it could be due to (1) lymphadenitis (due to (a) allergy, (b) bacteria or (c) virus) or (2) neoplasia which is the uncontrolled and abnormal growth of cells and tissue (benign or malignant (cancerous)).
Scary-sounding, right?
But the vet doesn’t think it’s an allergy or neoplasia (because Rey is young). So for now, we are going to treat it with an antibiotic and steroids (Metrogyl and Prednisolone). The steroids will be tapered down after a week.
As for Rey’s chem10 blood test, the SDMA is 12 (maintained, more or less) and his kidney readings are normal. I was initially worried about AKI (acute kidney injury) but this worry is now unwarranted. Rey’s urine SG is now 1.047, which is totally normal! Yay!
Rey’s liver reading are also normal.
The vet also wanted to retest Rey for FeLV/FIV because when he was tested last year, he had just returned from the adopter’s house. Sometimes, newly-infected FeLV/FIV will not show in the blood test until after a month. So we retested and its is NEGATIVE. Yay!
The vet taught me how to palpate Rey’s lymph nodes to check if they have subsided in about 10-14 days, but I had no confidence if I was palpating the correct thing!
So, since our vet will be leaving for overseas soon (sobs…so sad), I decided that another vet in the same clinic will follow-up with Rey, so this vet came in to palpate Rey’s lymph nodes and did the measurement. Both sides measured 1cm.
I’m really sad that our cats’ vet will be leaving soon. But I do wish her all the very best as she pursues her further studies overseas in her specialty. It’s not easy to find a vet who is both knowledgeable as well as compassionate. You might find vets who have one but not the other. She has both. Truly a treasure that our country will lose.
Not easy to take Rey’s photo as he is always surrounded by his brothers and Ginger. The camaraderie amongst the Monsters is admirable.
Here’s Rey! Let’s hope the lymphadenitis is only due to an infection and the medicines will take care of it. No cancer, please.
Rey was very restless throughout the car ride. That’s probably because he has not had many car rides before (which means very few trips to the vet’s, which is good). At the vet’s, he needed three humans to hold him down for the blood-taking and the ultrasound. Not because he was aggressive. Definitely not! But because he’s so strong!
The ultrasound was needed to extract urine from his bladder and at the same time, the vet scanned his kidneys, stomach and liver too. All organs appear normal. Phew!