My Cat Has Been Sick from Toxoplasmosis Twice
I know it is too late for Harley (RIP little guy), but I wanted to share in case anyone else comes across this site looking for advice as I did. My cat fell and gashed his cheek and had rolling eyes/shaking head when he was a year old.. They only tested him for Toxoplasmosis because I was pregant.. It was positive. He was given a Chlorpromazine shot for the neurological effects and put on Clindamycin for a month. He recovered fully. Just before Christmas (15 days ago) he started showing symptoms again.. I took him to a new vet as we moved to a different state. Was told it could be a number of things, but since he had a history of toxoplasmosis that we would treat him for it.. They put him on Clindamycin and he wasn't getting any better after almost week, so I took him to a second vet who increased his dosage and he seemed as if he was getting worse, so we switched him to Azithromycin and he got much worse within 2 days. He could barely walk and his head started tilting and he went completely blind, he was miserable.. I took him to a third vet and was told that we didn't give the Clindomycin enough time to work and sometimes it can take a couple of months to fully recover (and at least a couple of weeks to see improvement at all sometimes). Switched him back to Clindomycin and he is slowly getting better. His vision is not back, but we can live with that even if he makes a full recovery without his vision.. I was at a point where I was sobbing and thought he was literally going to die right in front of my eyes, but he is getting better and better.. Patience payed off this time.. He was over 9 years in between his bouts with this and it seems as if something always sets it off. He had a URI when he got sick the first time and this time they found his teeth to be infected (as soon as he is better we will have to get them cleaned and get some pulled). I have read a lot of advice on the internet that people have been given by their vet, a lot of bad advice. If you take your cat to a vet who is not familiar with the disease or doesn't know the course and how to treat it then you must switch vets.. I am over $700 in on just vet bills and a few bits of labwork and meds alone - wishing I had picked the third vet I went to first as he had had a number of kitties with the disease and sucessfully treated them.. . But I truly believe that he will make a full recovery and live to be an old man.. ;-) Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Shelly
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