Great history, very detailed...I sense a future as a veterinarian in you :)
This will be a little tricky, on the surface it does not sound serious however for it to happen several times it may be a concern. I have a few questions for you: You mentioned she is 6 years old but her last vet visit was 11 years ago. How old is she? Is she spayed? Does she go outside and/or catch any mice? has it been several years since her last vaccine?
There are a handful of possibilities for cats with intermittent distended abdomens and so making an educated guess will need more info. Various organ diseases can cause this, some inflammatory conditions, viral or bacterial infections etc.
Replying to this will send your answers directly to my email so lets chit chat and get to the bottom of it.
Cheers,
Dr. Redford
Dr. Redford:
Thanks so much for your reply! To answer your questions: Priss is 6 years old, but has never been to the vet and is an intact female. She is a completely indoor cat, only ever leaving home once in a carrier when we evacuated for Hurricane Rita. We don't have mice, so she's never been exposed to any other critters besides our other cat, who is also solely indoors.
Bah, goofy enter key and posting by phone. We did end up taking her in to the vet on Friday, but got no definitive answers, just a bill estimate of over $1100 to run diagnostics. They wouldn't even give us a basic idea of what they'd be looking for.
We opted to seek a second opinion, which we will see tomorrow.
With her being intact I would mostly worry about a uterine disorder. A pyometra or endometriosis etc. I am surprised the tests did not tell you anything. If it was my case I would be recommending exploratory surgery. Likely she will need to be spayed.
Good luck today
It ended up being pyometra; from the looks of the x-rays, her uterus was so inflamed that you could barely see any other organs, her colon was shoved up against her spine. It just looked like she had this giant pouch that filled her insides.
In the end, we had to opt for euthanasia. She was so bad off by the time we got her to a competent vet that her survival rate for surgery was slim. Still, I'm posting the results here, hoping this may help someone else in the future.
I am so sorry to hear about your loss. I can only hope there were unusual circumstances as normally a pyometra is easily diagnosed and an automatic possibility with an intact female dog or cat (it was my first thought). Sorry again,
Dr. Redford