Lyricality

*waves*

I know a lot of my flist are cat owners, and I'm looking for some advice.

Zachy, my big 12 year-old Maine Coon kitty, has been ill since around March of this year. His main symptom is vomiting (and a lot of it), and the vet to which I was originally taking him diagnosed pancreatitis from the bloodwork. He took a full month of steroids painkillers, and seemed to feel a little better, but his pancreatitis test was still positive and the vomiting never entirely stopped. He underwent an x-ray, which showed nothing, and then a second course of medication. This time, when he returned to the vet, the test was negative. Within a week, however, he had started to vomit again.

I was out of town, so my mother took him to a different vet for a second opinion. They did some different blood tests and found that his white blood count was elevated. This vet is treating another cat (also a Maine Coon) who has very similar symptoms, and they are consulting with a specialist.

The doctor is now recommending an ultrasound. I wouldn't necessarily hesitate, except that it costs $450. I'm afraid that like the x-ray, it won't show anything, and I'll just be throwing more money at this problem without getting any answers. The doctor seems to be leaning toward intestinal lymphoma as a diagnosis, but Zachy has already lived longer than most cats who are diagnosed with that (over six weeks), and he isn't acting particularly sick besides the vomiting. He hasn't lost a lot of weight, either (he's a little over 13 lbs, and he's always been around 14 lbs).

The other choice is IBS. In that case, he'll be placed on a very weird, special diet--something like rabbit and green peas. My hesitation there is that I've changed his food twice since this all started, once to Hill Science Diet Sensitive Systems and again to a special prescription wet food, and he'll stop vomiting for a little while and then start right back up again.

Siiiiiiiiiiiigh. Has anyone dealt with either of these diagnoses before? I'm just terribly unsure which path I should take, or if I should get him the ultrasound. Any advice would be helpful.