Jacqueline Renell writes:

Subject: Dysautonomia in cats

My cat, Albus, has this disease. He was a stray that I took in back in January, 2009. He was about 3 months old at the time and I quickly realized something was wrong with his eyes. After undertaking tons of tests and reporting concerning diagnoses, his vet finally suggested he had dysautonomia. He started him on Reglan to help control his vomiting, and that has seemed to work. While the prognosis was not good, and really heartbreaking, I maintained hope. Now, 8 months later he is still with me. He still takes the Reglan three times daily and vomits about once every other day, which is not pleasant. The upside is that he is really playful and seems very happy. I also give him eye drops several times a day to help with his lack of tear production. He is the sweetest cat and has such a funny personality, almost more like a dog than a cat...and you can definitely tell he was once a stray as he is a huge thief! He steals my socks, loaves of bread, and just about anything I leave lying around. He is hands down the sweetest and funniest cat I've ever had and he's incredibly affectionate, which is one of the reasons I had to put myself into debt trying to diagnose his condition and now maintain his prescriptions.

I'm writing this to note that there is some hope. Maybe Al is one of the 30% of cats that don't die within 2-3 weeks of diagnosis. I do know that the Reglan definitely helps, as when he was off of it for a couple of weeks he went downhill fast and dropped to under 5 pounds, when he is normally about 6.5 pounds (which is still very small).

I just wanted to share this to add to the personal experience information on this rare disease. Hopefully, there will be additional medicines available to treat it in the future.

Frank Will writes:

Subject: Dysautonomia in pets

Hi Jacqueline,

That is great news about Albus!!

I know exactly how much this means to you and I am glad you commented--my 15 year old dalmatian was diagnosed with malabsortion disease by what was our regular vet. I took the article I wrote about this disease in to him last week as he wanted to put him down. He has lost a lot of weight in the last month or so but I knew it was not this disease. So I changed vets and was told this morning that he is just fine and is simply loosing some muscle mass just like older people do. Our 15 year old majestic dog is still with us because I would not give up on him.

Don't give up on Albus--you have saved his life twice now--taking him in as a stray and sticking with him with dysautonomia. This is a very difficult disease to beat, but looks like your little guy has beat it. Again it is very nice to hear from someone that would not give up on their pet. They are a precious life and they mean a lot to us

Thanks