Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Cat with chronic diarrhea misdiagnosed with intestinal cancer
By Wasmer, M L et al.·Published in Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association·1995·Department of Small Animal Medicine and Surgery, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Food intolerance mimicking alimentary lymphosarcoma.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A cat with chronic diarrhea was initially diagnosed with duodenal lymphosarcoma after two endoscopic biopsies, but treatment with prednisolone did not help. After switching to a hypoallergenic diet, the cat experienced a complete resolution of symptoms that lasted for six months. This case highlights how food intolerance can sometimes be mistaken for cancer, leading to unnecessary treatments.
People also search for: cat chronic diarrhea treatment · hypoallergenic diet for cats · cat lymphosarcoma symptoms
Abstract
A cat with chronic diarrhea was diagnosed as having duodenal lymphosarcoma on two separate sets of endoscopic biopsies. Prednisolone failed to effect any clinical improvement. However, feeding the cat with a hypoallergenic diet resulted in long-term (i.e., six months) resolution of clinical signs. Most clinicians are familiar with the possibility of mistakenly diagnosing inflammatory bowel disease when the patient has lymphosarcoma; however, this case had the opposite problem: lymphosarcoma was diagnosed histologically on two separate occasions when inflammatory bowel disease was the problem.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8581539/