4 month old kitten with no energy and fever

Question
QUESTION: We have a 4 mo old kitten who was fine until 3 weeks ago when she suddenly became lethargic.  Took her to the vet and her fever was 103.6 and has stayed in the 103's since.  Tested her for parasites, leukemia, FIP and all were negative.  She did have low anemia on one test so we tested that for anemia related diseases and it was negative.  She has been on 2 different antibiotics and still no change.  She eats normally, her stools are normal, pee is normal, she is gaining weight.  Our vet has her on Dioxycycline 1ml 2x/day with no improvement.  She simply has no energy and a fever. Any ideas?

ANSWER: Hi Lisa,

I would still be a little suspicious of FIP.  Do you know what her blood proteins and blood counts looked like?  For instance, if her globulins were high and her neutrophils were high, these can be suggestive of FIP, even if an FIP test is negative.  The FIP test is somewhat unreliable.

However, if all of those tests looked pretty normal, I'm not sure what to make of it.  I did have a kitten who went through the same kind of thing.  Eventually, it was clear that he was not going to respond to any antibiotic, so he was placed on prednisone to try to calm down any inflammatory processes that may have had a part in his mystery illness.  This worked wonders for him.  We were afraid we were going to lose him, but he's 8 years old and fit as a fiddle today.  You always have to be a little cautious when using prednisone on a cat that has an active infection, because it can have the potential to delay healing.  However, if your kitten's lab work didn't show any major issues with his white blood cell counts, and antibiotics aren't making any difference, then infection might not be a worry at all.

I hope she feels better soon!

Jessica



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Jessica,
Thx for your response.  I think you r right to question FIP.  Her globulin was 5.8 which is high and her neutrophils were 17252 also high.  I took her to an internist today who suggested FIP also but said that it could be a liver shunt too.  They are going to do an ultrasound tomorrow to look.  I was wondering about Toxoplasmosis since fever, lethargy, and central nervous problems can be symptoms.  She is now had 2 of what the internist thinks are seizures where she suddenly is itching her right ear very fast and her body kinda locks up and she has lost her urine during an episode of this. What do you think?

Answer
That does sound like seizures.  Toxoplasmosis and FIP can certainly mimick each other in a lot of ways, and it's always prudent to treat for toxo when this could be a possibility.  Clindamycin would be a better treatment for that than the doxycycline is, and I don't see a reason why your vet wouldn't want to make the switch.  You could talk to your vet about running a toxo screen, though this isn't always the most reliable test, either.

Liver shunts are very serious, but they have a much better prognosis than FIP.  Between the two, I would hope for a liver shunt.  Because every case presents so differently, it will be really difficult to say if one is more likely than the other until the results of her ultrasound are back.  I'd be interested to hear the results.

Good luck!