Possible lymphoma

[brittanyb]

Well today Scarlett and I made a trip to the vet since it's been 4 weeks since she got her Suprelorin implant and she is still extremely itchy, and over the past week she's been a little lethargic and her appetite has decreased. Her vet did an ultrasound and confirmed that her adrenal glands are enlarged, so her diagnosis for adrenal disease has been confirmed. However, her spleen was also enlarged and "abnormal", and the vet suspects lymphoma, yet her lymph nodes aren't inflamed, and her other organs look normal.

Her vet recommended against doing a needle aspiration of the spleen in her current state, so for now we are sending some bloodwork out to see if it tells us anything else, and we'll decide what to do from there.

I'm hoping for the best, because poor Scarlett came from a rough situation and all I want for her is to have many healthy, happy years remaining. Please keep sweet Scarlett in your thoughts. ❤

[caitmonster]

Oh my. Hang in there, little miss Scarlett.

[Corvidophile]

Hope the blood results come back ok, sometimes I hear about enlarged spleens and nothing else comes of it, at least for a while. The implant causes a surge of hormones in the first few weeks after injection before it starts suppressing their production, so she might be relieved of her itchiness yet.

[Sherry Stone]

Fingers crossed it is just the adrenal disease affecting her spleen. If she is still having symptoms like extreme itching or not growing back her coat, get her a melatonin implant. They last about 4m and take care of the side effects deslorelin sometimes doesn't. It is worth it, and actually doesn't cost much compared to the des.
On the other hand if you are home all day you can give her oral melatonin 7-9 hrs after sunrise daily and it will do the same thing. If this is the route you take, I can check into the dosages for you.

[brittanyb]

Thank you all for your kind words. Scarlett's bloodwork revealed that she is "moderately" anemic, so doing any further diagnostic tests on her is a no-go for the time being. The vet still suspects lymphoma, but wants to do further tests when/if Scarlett is well enough. Her BG was low on the bloodwork results, but was perfectly normal yesterday when I took her back in to the vet for some subq fluids. I think her initial low reading was due to not eating well the night before/morning of her blood draw. We were sent home with steroids as well as an antibiotic just in case the issues with her spleen are being caused by an underlying infection (which is low on our vet's list of possible diagnoses, but it can't hurt to rule it out).

Today Scarlett has been a bit more alert and her appetite seems to have increased somewhat. She devoured several of her raw chicken treats during playtime this morning, which was great to see! She is still quite weak, which is to be expected with her anemia. I've tried several ways to help get extra calories into her: Carnivore Care, duck soup, several brands of wet cat food slightly warmed up in the microwave... and she isn't a fan of *any* of them. We aren't at the stage where force-feeding is necessary because she *is* still eating on her own, but if anyone has any tips on what I can give my picky eater to put a little weight back on her, I would be most grateful!

Sherry, I actually meant to ask my vet about the melatonin implant and completely forgot with everything else that was going on. I'll bring it up at her follow-up appointment in 2 weeks. In the meantime, I'm home all day and can give her the oral melatonin, so yes, I would appreciate the info on dosage. 😊

[brittanyb]

Oh, and her itchiness seems to have decreased slightly over the past day or so. I'm hoping the implant is starting to help her, because I hate seeing my poor girl so uncomfortable.