To all who have wished me a speedy recovery: Thank You! I am feeling steadily better (1 month out), and expect to be back to full strength shortly. @Alisande, If you think you may have babeseosis at the moment, then insist on being tested. Same with anaplasmosis, both are less-difficult than Lyme to diagnose from blood smears, I believe. (The issue with the blood supply, aside from the traditional head-in-the-sand attitude of the blood industry, and of course the cost, is that there is no rapid-enough test for babeseosis -or possibly the other tick-borne diseases -to work with the need for fresh blood.) But as I mentioned, anaplasmosis has distinct, characteristic, changes in routine blood work that are almost diagnostic. I can check next time I am in the medical library if there are specific changes in the case of babeseosis. I may have that info for erlichiosis, if you'd like to know it. Anaplasmosis has distinctive mullberry shaped artifacts (morullae) in the disease-specific blood smears (as does erlichiosis, I believe). Babeseosis is different but unless you, like I, have had malaria it's pretty distinctive in the blood test for it. The tests aren't inexpensive (the unadjusted street price for them is $500-$1,000 -each- but my insurance company whacked both of them down considerably. Since you're on Medicare, you'd only pay a percentage of the CMS-negotiated cost which is likely to be as aggressively moderated as that of my own insurance company's contractual rate. Since all three are bacterial, not spirochete, -caused it doesn't require the complex analysis of PCR bands that Lyme does. But frankly if I was on my second continuous month of Lyme I would have pretty awful constitutional symptoms from that lengthy treatment alone. I can barely make it out the 30 days of a single course before I have disturbed sleep, night sweats, muscle aches and pains, etc. Part of my fierceness about discovering ticks early is to avoid the need for the lengthy course of anti-Lyme doxy. Since doxy won't really do anything for babeseosis - and other drugs will - why keep taking what may be the wrong cure? I don't think you would experience symptoms from babeseosis or anaplasmosis (or even Lyme) infection before locating the tick. The incubation time needed to get sick from a still-attached tick would have resulted in a deer tick as big as a green pea, a nasty pearly-grey tight blob. It's hard to imagine you wouldn't have noticed it well before getting sick if it was still attached. Don't you itch like mad when you have a tick attached for more than a few hours, not to mention days? I'd be wild! BTW, the tick-hours-of-bite measurement has a built in problem: the aging relies on analysis of stomach digestive contents. But that assumes, and it is not always true, that the bite the tick was discovered making is the only bite, not a second one. Also you mentioned you squashed the critter in removing it. You might want to consider beginning more intensive searches for ticks on your body twice a day in order to not miss one. I have hair so long I can sit on it so I do realize it can be hard to check your scalp and hair. I have also found attached ticks under my breasts, in my belly button, on various unmentionable parts of my bottom, and even larval ones between my toes and fingers. I usually keep my long hair tied up in pigtail outdoors. I tuck the pigtail down the back of my shirt to minimize the likelihood of ticks getting caught in my hair. Of course I always have a hat on outside for sun protection, so my head and scalp are less-common tick areas. I do tick-checks at least twice every day of the year, unless I am away from home overnight in the city. It's just like brushing your teeth. I'm not convinced that Lyme "lurks in your body" but given that it is caused by spirochete I suppose it's possible. (Another spirochete-caused illness, syphillis, has a proven habit of lingering on and re-occurring, often despite treatment.) I know, for certain, that I have had Lyme (from clearly positive blood tests), been treated successfuly and subsequently had lengthy periods of profound physiological, and mental stress, without Lyme popping back up and adding to the problems. And I still have one band for Lyme on the latest PCR, which indicates an old, resolved infection, so there's no question it's still visible in my blood, but not thankfully making a pest of itself. I also still have serological evidence of malaria in my blood and I haven't had any illness from it in more than fifty years! But the bacterial diseases (anaplasmosis, babeseosis and erlichiosis) seem extremely unlikely lurkers and later-pouncers, especially if treated. What I definitely think they can do, however, is damage other organs and systems resulting in consequential, long-term problems (like the poor fellow described above who lost his spleen as a result of a babeseosis infection.) Your description of high fevers, muscle aches and pains, etc., sound much more like anaplasmosis than Lyme. Did you have any "regular" blood tests done at the time? The average time from bite to onset of symptoms with anaplasmosis is 8 days. I could look that time up for erlichiosis and babseosis, if needed. I don't know enough about Fibro, but aren't night sweats and aches and pains part of that, too? You may not need to go to any doctor more specialized than your primary care doc to check for the bacterial tick-borne illnesses. And then you'll be able to know, and treat, any that are there. I didn't get any hint that the tests for them lead to confusing, or contradictory results, as I know the Lyme test can, because it is a different, and more complicated test.. If you test negative for them, including having normal routine blood results, you can cross them off your list of worries and look elsewhere. (And get off the wretched doxy!) HTH, L.

The reason Nature's Miracle says not to use any other method of cleaning is because they know you will use another method before buying it. Now they have an excuse as to why their product doesn't work. Nature's miracle is junk. My wife and I are current replacing flooring in our house. We adopted a 3 year old cat that was left behind after the owner moved. We found out why she was left behind. She pisses and poops everywhere. She had some kind of pancreatic issue and was on steroids her whole life. She died at the young age of 12. We loved her so we endured the daily treasures left behind. I would destroy another house full of flooring for that cat. It's a small price to pay for that unconditional love. This is Pita (acronym for pain in the arse)

Hi dmb, I am so sorry to hear about your predicament with your 19 year old cat but I have to say that I thought I was reading about my 18 year old female cat when reading your cat's symptoms. I am at the same place you are - what to do now? However I have gone one step further than you and thought this migh thelp you. I have been giving my cat the Sub Q fluids for her renal failure for the last 2 years now and she really rallied once I started to that. Also at the same time I have been giving her renal support probiotics (2 kinds) to support her kidneys and that plus the fluids gave her back a couple of years for sure. However about 2 weeks ago she started to bang into things and I realized she had gone blind and that my stupid Vet hadn't ever mentioned blood pressure taking especially if the cat has thyroid or kidney issues and my cat has both. She had the radioactive iodine treatment about 3 years ago so I was expecting the kidney issues but after I reached out to a different Vet they told me that her blood pressure probably caused the blindness together with the renal or the thyroid issues. Her thyroid might have gotten worse despite the iodine treatments. Sigh. The new Vet said that she probably had a stroke during the night that I didnt know of and that she was totally blind. I was so upset. Also she has gone totally deaf before this stroke so now she is deaf and blind and last week she took a step backwards and seemed to be acting confused like she did when she had the first stroke. She was starting to adapt to being blind and had figured out where to jump and where not to and I was so excited then she took a backslide. Another stroke? Who knows. I really think you should try the Sub Q and the 2 renal support powders that you just mix into your cats meals (wet is best in food for this) and you will notice a big difference in her health. However the deafness and blindness is another thing. I am trying to decide if her quality of life is worth keeping her going. Now she is so blind that she just seems to be giving up and laying down wherever she is and just goes back to sleep and this is so unlike her. Also she is getting grouchy (Himalyan) and never was like that before. Now she only responds to touch and when I touch her she knows it's either to put a needle behind her neck for the sub q fluids or to stick a pill down her throat for high blood pressure or to move her to the litter box so when I just pick her up to pat her she growls. I mean what kind of life is this now? I don't know. She has been the best cat ever, always gentle and loving and she appears okay in other ways. She is still grooming herself, eating well, pooping well etc but I know her kidneys won't last forever and with the blindness and with no hearing I just don't know. I am giving her a blood pressure med ever since a new med took her blood pressure 2 weeks ago but like I said since that she has slipped. I don't envy your situation because it's mine too but maybe try the sub q and renal support and the blood pressure meds and see what you think. The best of luck with whatever your decision is. I know you will make the decision with love and respect for the cat no matter what. My prayers are with you and your pet.

Elevated CK is usually an indicator of muscle damage or wasting. Your observation of muscle loss is consistent with an elevated CK. Has your cat's appetite been normal? If he is losing weight despite good appetite, that is usually a sign of a serious underlying disease. BTW, the highest CK level I have personally seen was about 2.5 million. It was a cat with pancytopenia (decreased red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets). She did fine, although the cause of her pancytopenia was never found, and it was her 4th occurance. Weird case. Anyway, one wouldn't try to treat an elevated CK level. You try to find out what is causing the muscle wasting, and treat that. The thyroid levels are not really all that high. Up to 4.0 is normal. I would not at this point blame the muscle wasting on being hyperthyroid. The thyroid level naturally fluctuates throughout the day; it is most likely that the second sample was simply taken at a peak. What radiographs were taken (abdominal, thoracic)? What was the reason for the EKG? Lymphopenia (decreased lymphocyte count) is not a specific finding. Many sick and stressed animals have lymphopenia due to increased cortisol. Some other causes of lymphopenia is cats are FeLV and FIV infection. It is not very useful looking at just the lymphocyte count from a CBC. The entire CBC must be evaluated to obtain any meaning. Platelet count, if it is real, is concerning. 170,000 is not really normal for a cat anyway, slightly on the low side (200-450k is normal). 40,000 is quite low, but not yet low enough to cause spontaneous bleeding (25,000 is considered the level at which you might spontaneously bleed). But there are labratory methods and errors that can seriously underestimate the platelet count, especially in cats. Platelet clumping is very common in cats, and depending on lab methods and if nobody looked at a direct blood smear, could falsely lower the automated platelet count. Was a platelet estimate also done? If that was adequate, then it was a lab error/clumping issue. If the platelet estimate is also low, then your cat needs to be further evaluated for thrombocytopenia. Without seeing the rest of the labwork, it is really hard to get an idea of what is going on. We never look at just the abnormal values- the CBC and chemistry only are useful when taken as a whole, and in light of knowing the patient's history and physical exam. Sure, it's fun to speculate, but the person most qualified to answer your questions about your cat's bloodwork is your vet.