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Lurker in need of medical advice... (Sorry, it's long)
Hi all,
I need some advice on what to do with my cat, Beemer... he's been in serious pain for over a week, and I'm beginning to feel like we're wasting time. 
Long story short, my 10-year-old kitty has something going on that has caused him a great deal of pain. He arches his back, his tail is down, he doesn't walk normally, and otherwise avoids putting any kind of pressure on his lower back.
The first vet visit (Saturday, 1/7) resulted in an NSAID inject, followed by 5 doses of oral NSAIDs. (The vet detected a heart murmur and was hesitant to give any steroids/anti-inflammatories). He responded minimally to this, but the pain persisted.
Tuesday morning (1/10) was so bad for him that I called off work and took him back. He would howl/hiss in pain when he simply tried to stand up. This visit resulted in xrays, a urinalysis, and a shot of cortisone. When the vet looked at the xrays, he thought he saw some narrowing between his last two lumbar vertabrae-- indicating a problem with a disc. As always though, he sent the xrays out to radiology, and I was to follow up with him later in the week. Kitty responded minimally to the cortisone, but he's still not back to normal.:(
I followed up with the vet's office to see what radiology had to say, and they said they saw nothing remarkable about his spine, his heart, organs, or anything. Their advice was to treat it as a soft-tissue ailment. The urinalysis came back clear, as well.
Here's where we're stuck. The vet doesn't understand why Kitty hasn't responded to the cortisone by now (if it is soft tissue, like radiology suggested). His next step is to do some blood-work to see if there's an underlying issue we haven't noticed yet. But I can't help but think we're wasting time by getting blood work done... my instinct (and the vet's first inclination) was that it was an orthopaedic issue. Since this is uncharted territory for me, I don't know what to do, but feel a little foolish just blindly throwing money at diagnostics...
Help make me feel better about getting his bloodwork done today. Or give me some stories of your own Kitties that have experienced something similar. Anything that could possibly give me some hope that Beemer can someday get his personality back would be appreciated... b/c I really need some hope right about now It just hurts so bad to see him in so much pain
Re: Lurker in need of medical advice... (Sorry, it's long)
This is a tough one. I'd say do the bloodwork to rule out FLV or whatnot and if it's negative, I'd move on from there. Personally, I'd ask for a referral to a veterinary chiro or orthopedist next. There are a lot of therapies that may work that haven't been tried yet, but it's most important to get a definitive diagnosis.
Alternatively, you can just look for another provider and obtain a second opinion.
I sent you a PM