1. My cat's name is Cleo, three years old, female
2. Spayed
3. Savannah
4. 14 lbs
5. BE- Cleo is very active, she is obsessed with daily evening leash walks, she spends time in an outdoor enclosed space daily, and has a very upbeat demeanor. She has periods where she spends more time laying in our bed when her stomach is upset, but she will still intermittently come out and interact, and always wants walks. She also gets along well with our other cat and they play and leash walk together.
A- She has a strong but picky appetite. She will reduce or restrict her food intake for a short period if she gets GI upset or if she is tired of the flavor. She will eat inedible items such as silicon, wool, or other fabrics if she has restricted her food intake for a half a day, for example. She only has pica-like bx when she is hungry or with GI upset.
M- Very positive mood, however extremely insistent on her requests. She will yell consistently for up to 30 minutes, if she is denied or ignored for her request, such as a walk or food (she is communication button trained). This is despite a consistently timed food and walk routine.
6. Her diet is currently Advance gastrointestinal wet food only. We have tried many diet approaches, particularly due to her breed and intolerance to additives and grains. Currently we have been trying to get her acid reflux under control. We eventually plan to return to a partial raw meat diet which consists of chicken, beef, rabbit, turkey (including small organ portions). We have tried many kinds of dry food- most recently orijen six fish, but they always seem to lead to stomach upset, even gastrointestinal specialized diets such as hills science. She also takes a vitamin supplement (to support high taurine needs and to make sure we don't miss anything when she has raw meat and wet food diet) and probiotics.
7. She had her last rabies vaccine on 6/2024. She was also vaccinated for rabies around 5 months before we adopted her at 6 months old. Both vaccinations were Versiguard which is supposed to be an inactive strand. She also received FeLV and RCP once on 12/2024. She has taken 2mg of Dexacortone (Dexamethasone) since around 9 months old. The frequency has varied and is currently every other day. She recently started VetGastril Plus to temporarily help with her recent acid reflux flare.
8. Primary problems are cortisol suppression over time from prolonged Dexacortone treatment, her current bloodwork results (attached) including chronically low platelet count and anemia symptoms, her acid reflux/GI issues, and a continued chronic white growth on her tongue/mouth interior. The white growth on her tongue was discovered around 9 months old when she was being spayed. I spoke to our vet most recently about my concerns regarding continuing Dexacortone chronically, and how I believe it is negatively effecting her. He then changed her to Fludrocortisone 0.1 mg daily this week and said to stop Dexacortone immediately and change to this instead. I wanted to get other opinions before suddenly stopping such a strong steroid and going this route as a treatment plan. He said we could not mix the two at the same time, and if we wanted to do 8 days of slowly decreasing her current dose before switching, we could do that first, and then start the new prescription. I am worried about the sudden change, especially due to her current cortisol levels. I don't believe her current medication is a solution, but I don't know the best alternatives. I prefer to try the most natural path forward, but understand with autoimmune concerns, that she may need some kind of medication support. However, she has never been given the opportunity to wean completely from steroid use and see what her body is capable of since this treatment plan happened in kittenhood.
9. When dexacortone was tapered down, her cortisol improved, but her tongue growth worsened. Her acid reflux does flare with changes in diet or if she has too large of an amount of food at once. (She does not free feed and is given 3-6 meals per day/currently 5-6). Her reflux sometimes worsens when she trantrums.
10. I have attached the bloodwork results and a photo of the growth on her tongue. She also had an x-ray when she was young of her spine due to leg tremors, although no concerns were found. No formal diagnoses, only suspicion of some kind of autoimmune disorder and now suspicion of Addison's.
11. When she was spayed, the vet discovered white growths towards the back of her tongue along the sides and inside of her mouth. They were tested and found to be benign, but to manage the progression, and in an attempt to even eliminate them, she was prescribed Dexacortone. Unfortunately, they only reduced the growths, rather than eliminated them. The goal at that point, was to taper her off the medication and see if she would be able to live with the growths without medication. We moved homes in the midst of that goal, and as we continued tapering with our new vet, they saw the growths worsen and even have some bleeding for the first time along with a flare of acid reflux symptoms. Our current vet recommended increasing her dose to daily, however, I did not want to go from every three days to a daily dose. She had never had that high of a dose before. So our vet said we could try every other day instead. Our first vet assumed she had an autoimmune disorder that causes the growths. However, no formal diagnosis has been made. Our current vet now suspects Addison's. Her bloodwork suggesting anemia now, (not a year ago), I believe may be due to prolonged steroid use rather than the root cause. She gets her bloodwork done about every 6 months. Last September, she had an emergency surgery due to swallowing a large piece of silicone she couldn't pass. We had to stop her steroid use completely during her initial recovery. We did her first bloodwork since her surgery early January, 2026. I have attached bloodwork from this month and it also includes her previous results from 8/2025, just prior to her surgery and swallowing the silicone, on the far right column. I have translated it to English since we currently live in a Spanish-speaking country. She has had a low platelet count since beginning steroid use, and it has continued on a downward trend. Her cortisol was 1.03 5/2025, 0.20 8/2025, and 1/2026 0.07 (not included in the attached bloodwork results).
12. Her leg tremors have become more severe over time, perhaps as a consequence of steroid use. She has recently aspirated when having reflux, although that seems to have resolved with smaller meals and removing any dry food at this time.
13. @Dr. Jeff @Dr. Jean Hofve @Dr. Christina
Thank you for your time and input!
2. Spayed
3. Savannah
4. 14 lbs
5. BE- Cleo is very active, she is obsessed with daily evening leash walks, she spends time in an outdoor enclosed space daily, and has a very upbeat demeanor. She has periods where she spends more time laying in our bed when her stomach is upset, but she will still intermittently come out and interact, and always wants walks. She also gets along well with our other cat and they play and leash walk together.
A- She has a strong but picky appetite. She will reduce or restrict her food intake for a short period if she gets GI upset or if she is tired of the flavor. She will eat inedible items such as silicon, wool, or other fabrics if she has restricted her food intake for a half a day, for example. She only has pica-like bx when she is hungry or with GI upset.
M- Very positive mood, however extremely insistent on her requests. She will yell consistently for up to 30 minutes, if she is denied or ignored for her request, such as a walk or food (she is communication button trained). This is despite a consistently timed food and walk routine.
6. Her diet is currently Advance gastrointestinal wet food only. We have tried many diet approaches, particularly due to her breed and intolerance to additives and grains. Currently we have been trying to get her acid reflux under control. We eventually plan to return to a partial raw meat diet which consists of chicken, beef, rabbit, turkey (including small organ portions). We have tried many kinds of dry food- most recently orijen six fish, but they always seem to lead to stomach upset, even gastrointestinal specialized diets such as hills science. She also takes a vitamin supplement (to support high taurine needs and to make sure we don't miss anything when she has raw meat and wet food diet) and probiotics.
7. She had her last rabies vaccine on 6/2024. She was also vaccinated for rabies around 5 months before we adopted her at 6 months old. Both vaccinations were Versiguard which is supposed to be an inactive strand. She also received FeLV and RCP once on 12/2024. She has taken 2mg of Dexacortone (Dexamethasone) since around 9 months old. The frequency has varied and is currently every other day. She recently started VetGastril Plus to temporarily help with her recent acid reflux flare.
8. Primary problems are cortisol suppression over time from prolonged Dexacortone treatment, her current bloodwork results (attached) including chronically low platelet count and anemia symptoms, her acid reflux/GI issues, and a continued chronic white growth on her tongue/mouth interior. The white growth on her tongue was discovered around 9 months old when she was being spayed. I spoke to our vet most recently about my concerns regarding continuing Dexacortone chronically, and how I believe it is negatively effecting her. He then changed her to Fludrocortisone 0.1 mg daily this week and said to stop Dexacortone immediately and change to this instead. I wanted to get other opinions before suddenly stopping such a strong steroid and going this route as a treatment plan. He said we could not mix the two at the same time, and if we wanted to do 8 days of slowly decreasing her current dose before switching, we could do that first, and then start the new prescription. I am worried about the sudden change, especially due to her current cortisol levels. I don't believe her current medication is a solution, but I don't know the best alternatives. I prefer to try the most natural path forward, but understand with autoimmune concerns, that she may need some kind of medication support. However, she has never been given the opportunity to wean completely from steroid use and see what her body is capable of since this treatment plan happened in kittenhood.
9. When dexacortone was tapered down, her cortisol improved, but her tongue growth worsened. Her acid reflux does flare with changes in diet or if she has too large of an amount of food at once. (She does not free feed and is given 3-6 meals per day/currently 5-6). Her reflux sometimes worsens when she trantrums.
10. I have attached the bloodwork results and a photo of the growth on her tongue. She also had an x-ray when she was young of her spine due to leg tremors, although no concerns were found. No formal diagnoses, only suspicion of some kind of autoimmune disorder and now suspicion of Addison's.
11. When she was spayed, the vet discovered white growths towards the back of her tongue along the sides and inside of her mouth. They were tested and found to be benign, but to manage the progression, and in an attempt to even eliminate them, she was prescribed Dexacortone. Unfortunately, they only reduced the growths, rather than eliminated them. The goal at that point, was to taper her off the medication and see if she would be able to live with the growths without medication. We moved homes in the midst of that goal, and as we continued tapering with our new vet, they saw the growths worsen and even have some bleeding for the first time along with a flare of acid reflux symptoms. Our current vet recommended increasing her dose to daily, however, I did not want to go from every three days to a daily dose. She had never had that high of a dose before. So our vet said we could try every other day instead. Our first vet assumed she had an autoimmune disorder that causes the growths. However, no formal diagnosis has been made. Our current vet now suspects Addison's. Her bloodwork suggesting anemia now, (not a year ago), I believe may be due to prolonged steroid use rather than the root cause. She gets her bloodwork done about every 6 months. Last September, she had an emergency surgery due to swallowing a large piece of silicone she couldn't pass. We had to stop her steroid use completely during her initial recovery. We did her first bloodwork since her surgery early January, 2026. I have attached bloodwork from this month and it also includes her previous results from 8/2025, just prior to her surgery and swallowing the silicone, on the far right column. I have translated it to English since we currently live in a Spanish-speaking country. She has had a low platelet count since beginning steroid use, and it has continued on a downward trend. Her cortisol was 1.03 5/2025, 0.20 8/2025, and 1/2026 0.07 (not included in the attached bloodwork results).
12. Her leg tremors have become more severe over time, perhaps as a consequence of steroid use. She has recently aspirated when having reflux, although that seems to have resolved with smaller meals and removing any dry food at this time.
13. @Dr. Jeff @Dr. Jean Hofve @Dr. Christina
Thank you for your time and input!
