Page 8 - Winter 16

Intestinal Bowel Disease in a Cat by Marc Baer, Zurich
Medical History
• 24.08.06: Silvano a six-year-old neutered tomcat visits us for the first time. After feeding he sits for 15 minutes quietly without vomiting or diarrhoea. It’s a cat that defends itself well. Since the death of another cat in the household he is much more quiet. No fever. Lyc 200
• 07.02.07: general anaesthesia to comb and cut his fur. The behaviour after eating is still the same, and after eating the owners hear a lost of bowel movements. He sometimes has diarrhoea and is more quiet then before the onset of the symptoms. Phos M (which he had three years earlier and cured a sinusitis)
• 05.06.07: worse since two weeks. The owner says Phos has helped for a while but didn’t cure. Blood results without abnormalities (TLI also in normal range). Silvano has lost some weight now. He eats only a small amount at a time, the owner says he has pain in the abdomen. Upon examination the abdominal wall is tense and we hear too frequent bowel movements. Phos M (after deworming with Milbemax)
• 12.6.07: not better since deworming. He is a bit more lively but doesn’t like to be touched, can hiss and strike at the other cat in the household. The owner mentions that the symptoms might have begun after treating him with essential oils. Nux-v 200
• 22.06.07: growls when want to lift him up, lost more weight. We try NSAID’s but without amelioration
• 09.07.07: ultrasound examination and biopsy reveals inflamed mucous membranes in the gastrointestinal tract. Histology:
hypertrophic pylorus, lymphoplasmacellular and eosinophilic gastritis. Diagnosis: Intestinal Bowel Disease
• 13.07.07: homoeopathic case taking
Spontaneous Case Taking
He comes out of the kennel immediately. He is only afraid of noise, nothing else. He is a cat that isn’t afraid of dogs. He goes to dogs, even if they bark wildly and just sits there and watches them. He also loves cars; if somebody leaves a car door open, Silvano almost certainly jumps into the car. Otherwise he is a very tolerant and pleasant cat.
Since the disease he hisses at the other cat in the household; before they tolerated each other very well. If the other cat approaches him, he hisses and growls now. Before that he also liked to sit on the owner’s lap and purr. Now he doesn’t do that anymore either. He remains near her, but when she wants to touch or stroke him he walks off. Sometimes she can still stroke his head and neck, but certainly not the abdomen (which he loved before). In the surgery he behaves well, except in some circumstances when he feels pain. In contrast to what the owner tells, he now jumps on her lap and remains there for quite a while.
He was a curious cat but now he is very quiet, doesn’t play anymore and withdraws from any activity. The problem didn’t come at once but began slowly and he deteriorated over time. He was the first cat of the owner and when the second cat came, he behaved like a sulky uncle. But after a while he liked her, began to play and roamed outside together with
his “sister”. The two cats even slept together, but now this isn’t the case anymore.
When the owner goes on holidays she has a cat sitter and Silvano is OK and not offended, when the owner comes back. Originally he is from Malaga and was transferred to Switzerland to a rescue centre. At the beginning he was afraid of everything and had blood in the stool. We had seen him right after and without a case taking gave Lycopodium. After that, those symptoms subsided and Silvano became much more confident. He began to chase other cats: he stands somewhere and all the other cats run away. But even with large dogs he doesn’t run away, just remains, where he is. Up to now he was never attacked anybody. Except for the other cat in the household he has no contact with other cats. He doesn’t even hiss, he just stands there and the other cats run away. The only thing he is afraid of is noise and therefore, luckily, of cars. Silvano plays in a strange way: he doesn’t chase balls or threads of wool, but tries to move irregular patches off the wooden floors, which of course will never happen, and it ends up in him beating these patches.
Silvano loves all people and wants to be stroked by everybody. Outdoors he rolls on his back in front of passer-bys and demands attention, even to be stroked on the abdomen. He never tries to scratch then; when he had enough he just retreats.
After eating he seems to have cramps immediately. While chewing he starts doubling up and doesn’t want to move anymore. This lasts about 20 minutes, then the symptoms fade. During pains he doesn’t want to be
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