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Thread: EOSINOPHILIC GRANULOMA COMPLEX...any advice?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Middle Tennessee, USA
    Posts
    2,693

    EOSINOPHILIC GRANULOMA COMPLEX...any advice?

    From doing a search I know that Pearl has this diagnosis. I was just wondering if I could get some specific advice about it. Oscar was just diagnosed with this issue. Since I really haven't posted much lately (yes, Pinot's Mom, I'm trying to find time to fix that. ), here's the background on Oscar. He was a stray that showed up a couple years ago at my parents house. He was added to the outside crew. Eventually he started limping. Off to the vet he went. Tons of money later and just short of an MRI, nothing could be found to be wrong with him. He was given some pain medicine and came to live in my garage in a large dog kennel for 6 weeks or so. He was assumed that he must have torn a ligament. After he was feeling better and couldn't stand to be in the garage any longer, he went back to Mom's house. A little while later the limp returned just as bad. My nieces were sure that he would be killed out there so they begged my brother in law and their uncle to let him move in with my sister and him. They live on property that connects with my parents land. That was about a year ago. He's decided my sister is his mom and follows her everywhere. The other 3 cats weren't thrilled with his arrival but learned to tolerate him for the most part. Eventually his limp healed and hasn't returned. They've recently acquired a puppy they found running down the road. The puppy and Oscar have been come best friends.

    Now for the current situation. When I was visiting, I noticed that Oscar was drooling and had foul smelling breath. I asked them about it and they said that he had a snaggle tooth. I looked and noticed a large sore. Long story short, he went to the vet about 2 weeks ago. Of course, I'm the contact for all of these cats, so the vet called me to say that Oscar had a huge growth under his tongue. He couldn't tell by looking what it was and wanted to do a biopsy. Of course after having been through the mouth cancer with Morgan, none of us were very optimistic. When they went to pick Oscar up, the vet was much more positive. He said that the entire lump came out very easily and he was able to get a good margin all around it. He said that it was huge though and showed it to my mom. She said that it was at least an inch long. He put 25 stitches in Oscar's mouth, sent him home and the lump off to be biopsied. The results came back yesterday...eosinophilic granuloma complex. From what he said, this is basically caused by an allergy. He said it is very hard to find what exactly is causing the allergy and most times it is bacteria that forms in the mouth that causes it. He said the treatment is steroid shots when it flairs up. Eventually it gets so bad that they end up pulling all the cat's teeth and that usually ends the problem. Oscar had been recovering very well and was back wrestling with the puppy. But a few days ago, he lost interest in eating and started throwing up liquid. Back to the vet he went today. More blood tests and exams, and besides being dehydrated, Oscar was fine. They gave him fluids and a steroid shot. The vet assumes, because without doing a scope he can't be positive, that Oscar may have more of the granulomas in his intestines and that is causing the vomiting. He'd been eating dry food up until his surgery. Since his mouth was so sore, they'd been giving him canned. We don't know if that change affected the condition or not. I asked about an allergy to food, and he said that any food allergy is related to the kind of protein in the food rather than the carbs or dyes. He suggested finding the main protein in his dry food and looking for a canned food with a similar protein, since maybe the change in protein in the canned may have contributed to the intestinal trouble.

    From what I read, Pearl is on a grain free diet and that keeps her EGC under control. Was that something suggested by her vet? Does anyone else have any experience with this? I am just starting to research online about it, but haven't come across the remove all the teeth treatment yet. Oscar's vet said that he has some cats that get a steroid treatment twice a year and others that get one every month. It just depends on how often it reoccurs. Any first hand information I can get would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Location
    Santa Paula, CA
    Posts
    27,648
    I'm sorry to hear that he's become so sick. In my Pearl's case, hers was more like a very bad case of chin acne and her lower lip would also become swollen. Prednisolone in pill form helped clear her up. All of my cats are still on a grain free diet but now they eat Merrick's Before Grain dry in both chicken a salmon flavors. They also eat some of the grain free Wellness canned as well. My vet didn't think that hers was caused by a food allergy but feeding her a grain free diet has helped reduce her breakouts. When I switched from Wellness Core dry to the Merrick's Before Grain, she did have a flare up. It has a lower protein content than both the Innova Evo which I used to feed them and the Wellness Core so maybe this was the cause. I treated her with pred to clear it up and now she's been fine for quite a while now. Maybe her body just had to get used to the new food. I've also read that it can be caused by fleas. I treat all of my cats with Advantage II every month so this hasn't ever been an issue. I hope that Oscar will feel better soon and that you'll be able to keep it under control. Good luck.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
    Posts
    20,164
    Poor Oscar! I have no advice on this, but I just want to send my prayers and best wishes along to him. I hope the vet can come up with some answers and some satisfactory treatment.

    I did just read in the last couple of days that you have to measure protein content differently comparing wet foods to dry foods. Something like you multiply the wet food protein level by 4 to find the comparable level in the dry food, because of all the water in the pet food, or something like that. I don't remember exactly, so don't regard that as accurate. I'm trying to track down where I read that, and if I do, I'll post it here. In the meantime, run that by your vet and see what he/she says.

    Also, there are limited-ingredient foods that are helpful in determining allergies.. Natural Balance makes some: http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/pro...anned+Formulas

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