Hi OmNom,

Ziggy was on 5mg (oral) twice a day, quite difficult getting Ziggy to take his meds................

Ziggy had relapses too. I know it's hard seeing our little love ones not being as mobile as the used to be, but giving them their meds and lots of love and attention certainly worked for us.

Ziggy hasn't had a relapse since 2009. He is slightly smaller that Indy our other male bengal, but he has bags of energy...............

I really hope that Apollo gets over this relapse.

Colin x

I just found this post a few days ago while trying to figure out what is wrong with my 7 month old bengal Raji. I have only had him a month, but he was very much a typical bengal up until a couple of weeks ago. He stopped jumping and would fall trying to get up on the sofa. I noticed that he was pulling himself up to the cat tree and on furniture. He is very slow going up and down the stairs, it is a struggle for him. We carry him up and down the stairs and pick him up to put him on the sofa. He has no power whatsoever in his back legs. He will follow me into the kitchen and fall on his side. He eats and drinks just fine, but he is very lethargic. This happened so fast! I took him to the vet on Friday and she did agree that he is very weak in his back legs, so she gave him a steroid shot. Raji has been very lethargic since then, but he did manage to jump up on the sofa without falling. Last night he did sit up, but went to groom himself on the back leg but fell down. I contacted someone else about this on another forum and she recommended that my vet consult with a specialist in NY. She did that and he recommended all sorts of tests that will be very expensive. I am trying to figure out what to do. I take him back in a couple of weeks when the shot wears off. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for the reply. I will definately get him to my vet ASAP. I am so lucky to have found this information early on. Hearing what others have gone through is giving me a lot of hope.

I totally agree with what Junglerose has just mentioned.

Do not let them do Biopsies etc for Polyneuropathy. If Raji has a clinical diagnoses or not, he will be put on oral steroids, Ziggy had a the biopsies done, and it nearly killed him. I definitely wouldn't go down that road again.

Fingers crossed for Raji

Colin

Just got back from the vet. She is running a bunch of blood tests. I left with prednisone to start tomorrow after I get the results. Since she has already consulted with a neurologist who has seen this, so my vet now knows what to expect. Thank you all so much!

Just got Raji's blood work back today, and it doesn't sound good. His white blood cells are high, along with other things. We were told to hold off on the steroids and have started him on antibiotics. She suggested that we test for toxoplasmosis and FIP. She is going to call the neurologist back next week and run the results by him and go from there. It's not going to be a Merry Christmas this year

High White blood Cell count is not usually a feature of FIP. Low lymphocyte levels, (they are a specialised WBC), are more usually seen in FIP.
FIP diagnosis flow chart - http://www.dr-addie.com/downloads/FIPdi ... wchart.pdf

Fingers crossed for him. I hope they get to the bottom of it soon. Hugs

Hi Everyone,

My 11 month old bengal Cai seems to have very similar symptoms, She was completely active, being her usual crazy self, and over night she developed a limp in one leg, turned into a hunched walk and now her back legs are very weak, she walks two steps then stops, she cant go up or down the stairs,her tail is limp, at one point I had to take her to the litter. I thought perhaps she hurt herself. I took her to the vet, we have had blood, urinalysis, and X- rays taken all came back perfect. My vet has a feeling Neuropathy or Myopathy might be the cause. The vet has given her an injection of steroids yesterday, and most likely is going to refer me to neurologist. I just dont how a cat can go from being so active to barley walking, or meowing, she does not purr at all, when I pick her up I think she is in some pain. It has only been 4 days, but It seems like a lot longer since poor Cai was her normal self. Any ideas or Suggestions? I called the breeder she says she has not seen anything like this before.

Sorry to here about cai our Bengal Simba started having same problems walking on Monday. The vet started treating her for polyneuropathy with steroids on Friday night. we have seen some improvement she's walking better, seems to be helping. Now were having problems getting her to take her pills however and she doesn't want to drink any water. We've been feeding her all wet food with lots of water to keep her hydrated. Keep us updated on how cai is doing. It is very hard watching our little loved ones go through this and not being able to instantly make them healthy.

Hi all,

As most of you are aware, I started this thread many years asking if anyone knew of Bengal Polyneuropathy. Ziggy went through the mill with a barriage of tests and biopsies. Ziggy was diagnosed with Polyneuropathy.

Ziggy is now 6, his birthday is today

Ziggy hasn't had a relapse fpr a considerable time, which is great.

Just wanted to let everyone know that there is hope out there, even if at sometimes there seems to be none.

Colin x

Fantastic news about Ziggy, Colin, and thanks for the update!

So many posts on here asking for advice and we never hear if the problems get solved.


Heather

Happy Birthday Ziggy. So glad to hear he's doing well

I am so sorry for not checking in before, but between Raji and my husbands health issues, it's been a rough year. I was on Facebook the other day looking at a post by bengals the beautiful cat and they listed some health issues with bengals. Distal neuropathy was one of the issues listed and then I remembered to check back in to let you guys know what a godsend your guidance was. I think his blood work was out of sorts because he had a rabies shot and steroid shot on the same day. He was on antibiotics for a month and prednisolone a couple of times and his hind legs are back to normal . Apart from dealing with food and seasonal allergies, he is great. The most awesome best friend I have ever had. I owe you for your invaluable advice......thank you so much!

Hi everyone,
I am brand new to this forum but I have been on Facebook posting about my cat and his problem for the past week. We got home from vacation 1 week ago today and my 10 month old Bengal Clyde was dragging his back paws behind him. As you can imagine I was totally freaked out. I took him to a vet who works in the practice of my vet as she was not there and I wanted to know what was going on. At that same time I had been posting on Facebook about Clyde as I am part of a couple Bengal groups there. Vet that was there looked at him and refused to give a diagnosis and sent me to a neurologist is San Francisco who ran the entire battery of blood tests and also agreed that his hind legs were weak. When we got the test results back she had advised me that one of the blood tests came back. I think it was called a corona titer test and it was positive. She then started telling me that it was possible that Clyde had FIP. By the time I had talked to her again I had not only found this forum online I had also done a bunch of research online and read up on Bengal Polyneuropathy and talked to my breeder. and had sent her pictures of how clyde was looking. I had purchased Clyde and Bonnie together brother and sister and she advised me that she had in the past had a Bengal with Polyneuropathy and that it had gone away on its own with steroids from vet. So when vet called and advised me of the results she advised me to get both a spinal tap and also for them to take tissue sample from Clyde. I advised her what my breeder had told me and what I had found online both on Facebook and from other places she advised me that my breeder did not know what she was talking about nor should I be reading things on internet because the internet is full of wrong information. I was kind of surprised that she had said that given that clyde has a very healthy coat and his eyes are bright and the only problem he had shown was back leg weakness. I advised her I was not going to continue with spinal tap or any other test she had advised because I was going to trust what I had read and what my breeder had advised me. I had advised her that paying $4000.00 US just to find out if he has FIP was not going to happen. Anyways now we are a week later and I am going to see my normal vet tomorrow to hopefully get steroids so he can get better. He is now walking gently on his back legs and a couple days ago he tried to climb the cat tree and has been back to his normal self purring and wanting me to pick him up and kneeding my back as he laid over my shoulder and onto my back with his front paws. I am not getting a lot of grief from people advising me that the spinal tap is important and that I am wrong not to do it. I just wanted other peoples thoughts on this. By the way he is eating and drinking normally and today when he had a bowel movement he was actually not almost laying down in the litter box but was bending his back legs and had the strength to do it as he always had before. He has lost some weight and muscle tone in his back legs though. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!