Young Male Cat: Muscle Spasms, High White Blood Cell Count - its a mystery

Question
Hello,

We have a very small male kitty that's is about 8 months old.  He is a rescue kitty.  We adopted him at around 5 months of age.  The shelter gave him a clean bill of health and he has had all of his kitten shots.  He is also neutered.

We had him for about 3 weeks to a month, and was a very active, playful, healthy and happy kitty.  Then we took him on a trip with us to the river.  He stayed in the house the entire time, but as it is an older place, some small creatures do get into the house.  All seemed fine until we returned home, we noticed he was very lethargic, began eating less, we could not get him to play even if we enticed him and he seemed to sleep all day.  We took him to the vet who told us he doesn't seem to be sick and since he is eating and drinking and going to the bathroom he is fine.  We also mentioned to the vet we had taken him on the trip and were concerned he might have gotten bit by something, but the vet didn't seem to think that mattered.  We knew something seemed off but figured we would keep a good eye on him in case anything else changes.  

Maybe a month or so later, give or take a week, we noticed he couldn't walk.  He would do an army crawl type walk, he had very little balance and coordination, weakness, specifically in the hind legs. He would go limp when you pick him up and when you put him back down, his front legs would tuck under as if he couldn't straighten them to stand.

We had noticed him over about a week or two period sometimes eating soil from one of our plants.  We didn't think that much of it since cats seem to get into things like that.  But, a friend told us that tree might be poisonous: Madagascar Dragon Tree aka Dracaena Plant.  

We took him to a specialty cat vet who understood something was off with him.  They did tons of blood work to try and figure it out.  Tested him for the common feline diseases such as FIV, etc. Vet also looked into the fact that he might have been poisoned by the plant, but we have been unable to pinpoint the type of toxin, and therefore unable to diagnose whether it's the cause or not.  Toxin could possibly be saponins.  The vet said it's inconclusive.  At this point the vet thought it might be the plant, otherwise a brain issue since his coordination was way off. We were told to keep an good eye on him, make sure he eats, drinks, pees and poops and call if anything changes.

Maybe a month or so later, he seemed to be improving.  Ate more, had more energy, played and was more alert.  We took him back to the vet who weighed him and he seemed to have gained at least a little weight.  He was more alert and his coordination was back.  The vet told us that he seems to be getting better and to call if any more symptoms arose.

Three weeks went by and he gradually improved and returned to being like a normal, healthy kitty.

But then, last week, maybe Tuesday-ish, he began having slight twitches.  He began peeing and pooping out of his litter box, which he never did before.  Thursday is when we noticed his first real tremor/muscle spasm. Friday he seemed ok, just a little out of it.  Saturday he really took a bad turn and Sunday was worse.  Some muscle spasms are more violent than others.   He is pretty much immobile, seems to be in pain, can barely move or walk.  He cocks his head to one side almost constantly.

We took him back to the vet on Monday, who recommended us to take him to the neurologist.  The neurologist thinks it is meningitis.  They took x-rays with no answers.  They want to do a spinal tap and an MRI, but we cannot afford either.

As of Monday, he seems to be about the same and we started him on antibiotics on Tuesday morning.


The antibiotics did not work and he is on steroids right now (he just started steroid treatment this morning).

We are not sure how long he will make it and we cannot keep him living in pain and discomfort for much longer.

Please help to provide any answers.  

Thank you,

Tiffany

Answer
Hi Tiffany,

Sorry to hear about your little one.  I don't have any experience with meningitis specifically, but steroids are a mainstay of treatment for diseases that cause neurological symptoms due to inflammation.  Most cats who are going to respond to steroids respond pretty quickly, particularly when an injectable steroid is used.  You will often start to see an improvement in a day or two with injectable steroids.  Oral steroids can take longer to have an effect.  I would try to give him at least 3-4 days to see if the steroids will bring down some inflammation and give him some relief.

Was a toxoplasmosis test run on your kitty?  This is a protozoan parasite that can cause neurological problems.  It's contracted through eating infected prey, typically mice.  It might be possible your kitten caught a rodent while on your trip and became infected.  I would make the assumption that there are specific reasons toxo is not a suspect in this case, as it's usually a common suspect any time neurological signs are present.  But if a test was not run, you might want to ask about having that done, or treating the kitty for it empirically.  Clindamycin kills this germ.

I hope he feels better soon!

Jessica