T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
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1060.1 | | BRAT::JENNISON | Angels Guide Me From The Clouds | Fri Feb 07 1997 10:04 | 1 |
| Sandy-- poor you and Rio~ 8( Hope he gets better soon!
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1060.2 | | CATMAX::SKALTSIS | Deb | Fri Feb 07 1997 10:47 | 8 |
| >Any thoughts...ideas???? The pathologists are thinking some type
no ideas, just good thot comming the way of you, Porr little Rio and
the rest of your furfaces!!!
Deb
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1060.3 | | PADC::KOLLING | Karen | Fri Feb 07 1997 10:52 | 7 |
| Poor Rio! My wild guess is that the FIV has lowered his
resistance to some random infection. Hopefully Cornell can
figure out what is going on. Big furry hugs to him. Please
let us know what's happening,
Karen
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1060.4 | | PADC::KOLLING | Karen | Fri Feb 07 1997 10:56 | 9 |
| A second thought, this couldn't be the world's biggest reaction to
fleas, could it? Little Bit was literally covered with small scabs
even though I had the flea population in the house down to the point
where I usually didn't find more than one or two when I combed all four
cats. LB's scabs were not as big nor did they form cysts, but his
immune system is okay, as far as I know. He did get a very bad
surface infection under his chin. All this cleared up miraculously in
7-8 days after I started the cats on Advantage.
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1060.5 | Done that already... | USCTR1::MERRITT_S | Kitty City | Fri Feb 07 1997 11:24 | 4 |
| Karen...we already thought of that and had him put on Advantage
last month but to no avail.....
Sandy.....
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1060.6 | | TUXEDO::GASKELL | | Fri Feb 07 1997 11:26 | 6 |
| Did you get a new carpet, underlay, drapes with Scotcguard
treatments? Did you do any home decorating with vinyl paint or
varnish? Those lumps sound awful familiar to my reaction to the
above? I haven't heard of a cat reacting to these, but I suppose
it's not impossible. If his immune system is already under attack
then he would be doubly vulnerable to react to contaminates.
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1060.7 | | JULIET::CORDES_JA | Eight Tigers on My Couch | Fri Feb 07 1997 11:27 | 8 |
| One of Jo's cats had some odd skin rashes and bumps. They finally
traced it to allergies. Turns out she was severely allergic to mold
and the house they were living in had a spot underneath where water
was trapped causing mold. Once they figured that out and got this
problem fixed her odd skin conditions mellowed out significantly and
only occasionally flare up now.
Jan
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1060.8 | | USCTR1::MERRITT_S | Kitty City | Fri Feb 07 1997 11:50 | 11 |
| They did test for many allergies...and didn't find anything, but
I did just re-do our kitchen this summer and used varnish. Hmmm....
Also....Rio spends time in my cellar which is part rock ledge;
therefore it is damp and possibly moldy! But yet...he has been
with us three years and the bumps just started at the end of the summer.
Good thoughts though.....I'll keep this in mind if they can't figure
it out from the biopsy.
Sandy
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1060.9 | | TAPE::FEASE | Andrea Midtmoen Fease | Mon Feb 10 1997 04:27 | 6 |
| Healing vibes for Rio - those itchy scabs must be awful! Hope you
can figure out what's causing it!
- Andrea
Loki & Midnight
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1060.10 | | KERNEL::COFFEYJ | La Feline Flooz - a unix cat | Mon Feb 10 1997 05:14 | 19 |
|
Fluffy comfort wishes from over here.
Hope paw Rio gets rid of it and you find out what it is
so it can be prevented... and get rid of the rest of it too.
Actually it's interesting reading that so many think it may
be an allergy, I've occasionally had a similar thing myself
at the bottom of the scalp by the nape of the neck...especially
on the left for some reason... I'd always assumed I'd irritated
it externally and there was nothing I could do - hence I'd not
mentioned it to a doctor ever, but thinking about it most of the time
it's also about the same time my skin gets all sensitive and
itchy and whenever I rub it when it itches it breaks the
skin and I get little scratches on my face. Hmmm...
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1060.11 | Maybe hyper-kitty-acne? | HOTLNE::CORMIER | | Mon Feb 10 1997 06:03 | 12 |
| Sandy,
Are they some sort of cysts? It sounds like cystic acne, almost.
Sebaceous layer gets inflamed, rises up, breaks the skin open, and
clears up. Is he on antibiotics for the long haul? In humans you need
to be on antibiotics for a few months continuously. I don't know if
there's anything a pathologist could find if it's just an acne-like
erruption. With his immune system compromised, it could just be an
extreme reaction to what would normally be a small bump at the base of
the hair follicle in any other cat.
Very curious!
Poor Rio : (
Sarah
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1060.12 | | USCTR1::MERRITT_S | Kitty City | Mon Feb 10 1997 07:46 | 10 |
| The bumps actually feel like inside tumors at first..and then
they bubble up, break and leave scabs. Poor Rio has been on
every type of antibiotic known....the main reason for that is
so the bumps do not get infected and abscess.
Hopefully the results will be back on tomorrow.....I'll keep
you posted.
Sandy
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1060.13 | STill UNKNOWN!! | USCTR1::MERRITT_S | Kitty City | Wed Feb 26 1997 05:15 | 44 |
| I talked to my vet last night and she finally heard back from
Cornell. I now know why it took so long for Cornell to respond...
they are as baffled as eveyone else!!!! Three different types
of vets (pathologist, parasites and some other type of specialist)
from Cornell reviewed Rio's biopsy. They all believe it is some
type of single celled parasite...but nobody can identify what
type it is. Two of the Cornell vets are going to a pathalogist
conference in a few weeks...and they are going to bring Rio's
biopsy slide with them to review with other specialist. It will
probably take awhile for me to hear the results..but my vet
believes Rio will go down in the medical history books!!! Huh..
the Rio Disease!!!
The good news is...Rio's bumps are going away. Some of them
went away as fast as they came, while other bumps are healing
a bit slower..and no new ones have appeared. Once they scab and
dry up...you can flake the scab away with your fingers and there
is clear skin underneath.
The only thing that we have done differently is we changed is
medicine for two weeks and after reading Jan's comments regarding
a mold allergy...we have not let Rio in the cellar since that time. I
really started to believe it was a mold allergy...BUT my vet
said that based on what Cornell is saying she does not feel it
is any type of allergy. BUT..we both agree that whatever it is...
he most likely picked it up down the cellar. That of course doesn't
explain why all my other cats don't have it because they love the
cellar too!!! Unless it's because Rio is FIV positive and his
immune system might be a bit weaker then the others.
The GREAT news is...Rio is on NO medicine, the bumps seem to be
going away, his appetite is GREAT and he's starting to be the
wild and crazy cat we all once new and LOVED!!! Even is nasal
snort seems to be getting weaker!!
Sandy
ps: The only other thought Ernie and I had last night was...
I do have very old coal bins (with coal) in my cellar. We
have completely blocked off the bins so the cats can't get at
them. Makes me wonder if some type of parasite might live in
with the goals and the reason why the vets don't recognize
it is because NOBODY uses coal anymore???? I'll have to
mention this to the vet!!!
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1060.14 | | PADC::KOLLING | Karen | Wed Feb 26 1997 09:44 | 4 |
| I haven't seen a cellar coal bin since I was a tiny tot.
Monsters used to lurk in ours :-) I'm so glad Rio's problem seems to
be clearing up.
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1060.15 | Great news! | CATMAX::SKALTSIS | Deb | Wed Feb 26 1997 11:30 | 11 |
| >The good news is...Rio's bumps are going away. Some of them
>went away as fast as they came, while other bumps are healing
>a bit slower..and no new ones have appeared. Once they scab and
YEA!!!!!
Deb and THE FIRM
P.S. If the disease is named after Rio, THE FIRM advises demanding
royalties on the name.
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1060.16 | update... | USCTR1::MERRITT_S | Kitty City | Wed Apr 23 1997 06:48 | 19 |
| Hmmm...still a mystery!! The two vets from Cornell brought
Rio's biobsy with them to a world wide conference...and the end
results is they sent my vet a document explaining in all these
technical terms everything they saw in the biobsy (many wierd
organism)...but the end result was "diagnosed..unknown, Cause..unknown.
The vet from Tufts added a few comments that because Rio is FIV positive
it could be some fungi or weird organism....and she suggested that
if Rio's bumps flare up again...that we try a few other tests and
possibly another biobsy!!
In the meantime...all of Rio's major bumps have disappeared, but he
still has a few smaller bumps/scabs still on his back. His nasal
snort is still there...but his appetite is good again. He visits
our vet again on Thursday night!!
Leave it to Rio to stump everyone!!!
Sandy
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