D
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Hi everyone,
I am starting a new thread just to tell the whole story so far in one place. Jinkx just turned 9 months and things have unfortunately only gotten worse for her. I have been on a bit of a hiatus because I was between jobs and things have gotten pretty hectic over here. She is receiving all the care we can find, the water is just getting pretty high for what I am financially able to swing. Hoping for some improvement but we got some bad news today. I am going to go ahead and start for the beginning...
I got Jinkx in December, she was born in October. She was doing well until around January 26th, when I started to notice that she was having red spots around her ears and was shaking her head a lot. I texted with the breeder, who told me to use the antifungal wash Sebazole she had recommended along with the ear medicine (for fungus and yeast) that she had initially sent me home with. There was moderate improvement (looking back now I have no idea if it was related to the wash or not) but kept coming back and began showing up on her rear around . I began using KetoWell wipes (also antifungal) but what I noticed eventually was that even though the spots temporarily went away after application of anything topical, they quickly came back. At this time there were only one or two spots that would pop up and fade (this is around March still).
As a separate but potentially related observation, around January 10th (I went back and checked all my photos of her) she started to get “winky” as we called her. She would keep her eyes squinted or closed frequently and this got progressively worse over time and included excessive eye goop (discharge) and rubbing of the eyes. We also noticed that when she would eat food she would look like she was crying because tears would be running down her face. I will share more about what I have learned since a bit later down.
At that point I realized we were coming up on her appointment to be spayed and I reached out to a vet to have her formally checked out (mid-March). The vet used a toothbrush to scrape her skin and take a culture, and additionally tested her under a black light. Both tests came back negative for ringworm, however she received two rounds of a two-week antibiotic shot Cefovecin (Convenia). The shots had no impact on the spots. I was additionally given mousse in early May to put on her that was a topical antibiotic which resulted in her breaking out in rashes on her face, in the folks of her skin, and on her feet. In some areas this looked red and agitated, in other areas it looked like dirt. I discontinued it and it faded almost immediately.
Around the end of May she was prescribed ¼ of a pill of Zyrtec to rule out seasonal allergies, I closed the windows in my house, wiped her twice a day with a microfiber cloth, and changed all of my cleaning supplies (only cleaning with warm water and dawn, only using detergent with no dyes, perfumes etc and I re-washed everything in the home). There was no impact and in mid-June I discontinued the Zyrtec.
I was transferred to a veterinarian in mid-June who owns a sphynx of her own. Within a few moments of meeting her she was troubled by how often Jinkx squinted and did a fluorescein stain on them which revealed scarring on both eyes. Her worry was that Jinkx might have tiny eyelashes scraping her eyes (entropian, where the eyelids roll inward) and she referred me to an ophthalmologist. In the meanwhile, I was sent home with Remend eye lubricating drops 2-3x daily and , tobramycin (antibiotic) eye drops 2x daily.
On Friday she got bloodwork done that came back good with the exception of an abnormal distribution of white blood cells. She noted that this could be due to her being in heat but that we would monitor it. She is scheduled to be spayed on the 19th of this month.
I just saw the ophthalmologist today, who told me that she has really bad conjunctivitis (the inside of her lids are covered in blisters filled with white blood cells that have scarred her eyes over time). She is working to determine the cause but is worried about either Herpes or Chlamydia (neither of which can be received from or transmitted to humans, and she has never been with cats other than her litter so I am curious as to how that happened if not from birth) and that the lesions on her face make her think that it is Herpes but we have to watch. Her rear is also now covered in 10-11 very large noticeable red squiggles and swirls that fluctuate in size and shape so during her spaying they will be taking a biopsy.
Today I was prescribed Omega-3 to start after her surgery and immunosuppressant eye drops to try to take care of the reaction in her eyes, as well as instructions to continue the rembrand eye lubrication because she is not able to retain the tears in her eyes, so they are drying out (that’s one of the theories for why the tears just slid out of her eyes while she was eating with her head down). This also explains the excessive goop, rubbing, and winky appearance she took on as the infection got worse.
So that is the end of my present saga. I am unable to get pet insurance because she now has a pre-existing condition, so I am trying to figure out if I can continue to keep her. I will do whatever I need to not give her up, but ultimately I am young, and a new social worker and I break even at the end of each month before any of her vet bills, so all of it is going onto a credit card. I don’t know if anyone has any advice on the financial portion, but it feels very scary to watch the numbers keep going up and to hear that her eyes will be a lifelong condition. I am mostly feeling sad and like I am quickly going to be in over my head and I want to avoid that if I can.
If you have made it this far, thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, I know this has been a wild ride. I will keep updates more consistent so you all know what is going on! Thank you all for being consistently supportive!!!!
I am starting a new thread just to tell the whole story so far in one place. Jinkx just turned 9 months and things have unfortunately only gotten worse for her. I have been on a bit of a hiatus because I was between jobs and things have gotten pretty hectic over here. She is receiving all the care we can find, the water is just getting pretty high for what I am financially able to swing. Hoping for some improvement but we got some bad news today. I am going to go ahead and start for the beginning...
I got Jinkx in December, she was born in October. She was doing well until around January 26th, when I started to notice that she was having red spots around her ears and was shaking her head a lot. I texted with the breeder, who told me to use the antifungal wash Sebazole she had recommended along with the ear medicine (for fungus and yeast) that she had initially sent me home with. There was moderate improvement (looking back now I have no idea if it was related to the wash or not) but kept coming back and began showing up on her rear around . I began using KetoWell wipes (also antifungal) but what I noticed eventually was that even though the spots temporarily went away after application of anything topical, they quickly came back. At this time there were only one or two spots that would pop up and fade (this is around March still).
As a separate but potentially related observation, around January 10th (I went back and checked all my photos of her) she started to get “winky” as we called her. She would keep her eyes squinted or closed frequently and this got progressively worse over time and included excessive eye goop (discharge) and rubbing of the eyes. We also noticed that when she would eat food she would look like she was crying because tears would be running down her face. I will share more about what I have learned since a bit later down.
At that point I realized we were coming up on her appointment to be spayed and I reached out to a vet to have her formally checked out (mid-March). The vet used a toothbrush to scrape her skin and take a culture, and additionally tested her under a black light. Both tests came back negative for ringworm, however she received two rounds of a two-week antibiotic shot Cefovecin (Convenia). The shots had no impact on the spots. I was additionally given mousse in early May to put on her that was a topical antibiotic which resulted in her breaking out in rashes on her face, in the folks of her skin, and on her feet. In some areas this looked red and agitated, in other areas it looked like dirt. I discontinued it and it faded almost immediately.
Around the end of May she was prescribed ¼ of a pill of Zyrtec to rule out seasonal allergies, I closed the windows in my house, wiped her twice a day with a microfiber cloth, and changed all of my cleaning supplies (only cleaning with warm water and dawn, only using detergent with no dyes, perfumes etc and I re-washed everything in the home). There was no impact and in mid-June I discontinued the Zyrtec.
I was transferred to a veterinarian in mid-June who owns a sphynx of her own. Within a few moments of meeting her she was troubled by how often Jinkx squinted and did a fluorescein stain on them which revealed scarring on both eyes. Her worry was that Jinkx might have tiny eyelashes scraping her eyes (entropian, where the eyelids roll inward) and she referred me to an ophthalmologist. In the meanwhile, I was sent home with Remend eye lubricating drops 2-3x daily and , tobramycin (antibiotic) eye drops 2x daily.
On Friday she got bloodwork done that came back good with the exception of an abnormal distribution of white blood cells. She noted that this could be due to her being in heat but that we would monitor it. She is scheduled to be spayed on the 19th of this month.
I just saw the ophthalmologist today, who told me that she has really bad conjunctivitis (the inside of her lids are covered in blisters filled with white blood cells that have scarred her eyes over time). She is working to determine the cause but is worried about either Herpes or Chlamydia (neither of which can be received from or transmitted to humans, and she has never been with cats other than her litter so I am curious as to how that happened if not from birth) and that the lesions on her face make her think that it is Herpes but we have to watch. Her rear is also now covered in 10-11 very large noticeable red squiggles and swirls that fluctuate in size and shape so during her spaying they will be taking a biopsy.
Today I was prescribed Omega-3 to start after her surgery and immunosuppressant eye drops to try to take care of the reaction in her eyes, as well as instructions to continue the rembrand eye lubrication because she is not able to retain the tears in her eyes, so they are drying out (that’s one of the theories for why the tears just slid out of her eyes while she was eating with her head down). This also explains the excessive goop, rubbing, and winky appearance she took on as the infection got worse.
So that is the end of my present saga. I am unable to get pet insurance because she now has a pre-existing condition, so I am trying to figure out if I can continue to keep her. I will do whatever I need to not give her up, but ultimately I am young, and a new social worker and I break even at the end of each month before any of her vet bills, so all of it is going onto a credit card. I don’t know if anyone has any advice on the financial portion, but it feels very scary to watch the numbers keep going up and to hear that her eyes will be a lifelong condition. I am mostly feeling sad and like I am quickly going to be in over my head and I want to avoid that if I can.
If you have made it this far, thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, I know this has been a wild ride. I will keep updates more consistent so you all know what is going on! Thank you all for being consistently supportive!!!!