Sick kitty all of a sudden June 3rd

Gimpy

Gimpy

The Living Force
Yesterday our kitty began her day in the usual 'thunder-paws fashion'. Other than the itchies for the season, she was fine.

By noon, she'd vomited 6 times, so violently she lay on the carpet and shivered afterwards. I held her, and she felt a bit cool to me. Result being we spent from 3:45 to about 6 pm at the vets office, trying to figure out what the heck was going on. If she's eaten a bug or other substance? I can't find it. The blood-work turned up inflamed pancreas, liver, bladder stones, and high blood sugar.

I am at a total loss as to what is causing this, and the vet isn't sure either, but he suspicions its got to be more than poisoning given the blood work results.

He is looking into poisoning alerts on the food she eats, but warned me it could be cancer or other tumors. If that is the case, we will put her to sleep rather than drag her through more suffering. It was horrifying how fast she deteriorated through the day.

Dexter we knew was a result of old age and multiple health issues. This? Its too much on an emotional level...we're waiting to call in to the vet to see how she did through the night. Kitty is only 8 years old, and she's normally a very bright eyed, ornery, being.

It just happened so fast my brain is still scrambling to catch up.
 
Spoke to the vet: she improved through the night!

He's going to keep her for the day, and see if she will eat a lower fat food. He's hoping its medication related, which is a matter of taking her off everything and resting the system. If its not, that's another story. (She has the same/worse allergies than I do)

I'll be cleaning like a fiend to try to reduce any allergens today.

Cautious optimism will be the rule.
 
My father once told me that the trouble with love is that humans live so damned long, but cats don't.

I hope he's okay.

When my kitty was sick, I had the hardest time eliminating all the nearby water contaminated water sources. He kept drinking out of the toilet and pans in the yard. I share this house, so I can't properly control others' behavior. He had giardia, and it took nine months of antibiotics to cure him.
 
Here's hoping Kitty will recover and be okay.

A few weeks ago Goldie, one of our orange tabby cats stopped eating for a few days. By the time we took him to the vet he was down to 8lbs, but the vet gave us an appetite stimulant for him along with some food and he ate a little of that, then a little tunafish, and recovered his appetite after a couple of days. He's still not back up to his former weight, but we're checking to see that he eats, and he's fine.
 
Gimpy, I hope your Kitty has a quick recovery.

MoonGlow said:
When my kitty was sick, I had the hardest time eliminating all the nearby water contaminated water sources. He kept drinking out of the toilet and pans in the yard. I share this house, so I can't properly control others' behavior. He had giardia, and it took nine months of antibiotics to cure him.
Click to expand...

I recently adopted a rescure kitty that had giardia as well. He was on antibiotics for a month and still had problems until I switched his food to one that was grain free and he's fine now.
 
Gimpy said:
...I am at a total loss as to what is causing this, and the vet isn't sure either, but he suspicions its got to be more than poisoning given the blood work results...
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I am sorry to hear about this.

The vet's suspicion seems reasonable to me. It might be acute poisoning, and the blood sugar problem may have already been there, not causing any unusual symptoms (but possibly increasing vulnerability to toxins). Is her normal food 100% grain free?

The cities are bathed in toxins, from household products, from chemicals used on lawns and gardens, and from bait meant to kill pests. We have trained our cats (I'm not quite sure how we did it) to stay inside the back yard fence, and we keep them in at night and when we are not home.
 
Megan said:
Gimpy said:
...I am at a total loss as to what is causing this, and the vet isn't sure either, but he suspicions its got to be more than poisoning given the blood work results...
Click to expand...

I am sorry to hear about this.

The vet's suspicion seems reasonable to me. It might be acute poisoning, and the blood sugar problem may have already been there, not causing any unusual symptoms (but possibly increasing vulnerability to toxins). Is her normal food 100% grain free?

The cities are bathed in toxins, from household products, from chemicals used on lawns and gardens, and from bait meant to kill pests. We have trained our cats (I'm not quite sure how we did it) to stay inside the back yard fence, and we keep them in at night and when we are not home.
Click to expand...

She's an inside kitty. We don't use mouse baits or other traps for critters. She's known to catch mice live and drop them on my head in the wee hours of the morning. (No fun, but I've learned the times of year to keep an eye peeled.)

Since she's gone in, I've torn the house apart looking for anything she can get into, and came up empty. I'm allergic to so many kinds of frangranced soaps and other things that we don't have much in that category laying around. I clean with Dr bonners unscented. All my craft supplies are tucked in drawers out of nibble range. Paintbrushes are in glass jars up on shelves where she can wish to reach them, but can't get it done. Same with watercolor paints and craft paints, glues, etc.

All her stuff is gluten free/grain free, and that seems to be an issue to her system...though I can't figure on why that would be? Her digestion is so inflamed they've reduced the fat intake to almost nothing, to give it time to heal if it can.

I called the vet at 3, and he says I can pick her up in a couple hours. Its tentative, to see how she does off the IV's and anti-barf meds.

*knocking on wood*

Meantime I've pitched all her old food and cleaned everything I can.
 
Megan said:
Houseplants?
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None.

She's home now. Not eating or drinking. The vet wanted her home a night to see if she would eat for us, as she wouldn't eat for them today.

So far, no. She's laying in a nest outside my office (a folded sheet she likes to sleep on) and isn't interested in anything.

Not looking good again.
 
Hi Gimpy. Sorry to hear that your kitty friend is ailing. Cats are the best of companions I say! ;) FWIW, our kitty was sick with a virus that almost killed him. The vet to this day is still amazed he pulled through. His fight and seeming will to hang around jaw dropped myself and many others. The last thing we could do for him was to try and get him to eat. He went without food for 7 days, without water for 5 (except for 1 night of IV at vet's). It seems his digestive system had just ceased to function. To 'get the juices flowing', I bought an eye dropper and some organic chicken broth. After warming some in a sauce pan, I held him with an eye dropper full and squirted the broth gently into his mouth. I did this 3 times a day for 2 days. Finally he began to drink the broth and nibble on his food a bit. He's recovered and gained back the pounds he lost as the virus had hold of him for 3 weeks. All of our kitties were down with this unknown and what I call evil virus. He suffered most because of age and preexisting kidney conditions.

I hope your kitty recovers Gimpy, or at least that the vet can figure out what's wrong. I know it's very difficult to watch them suffer. Hang in there yourself. Also, you have my condolences on Dexter passing. :flowers:
 
Spider bite? or she ate a spider maybe. Why some cats become suddenly ill can remain a mystery, as does their often miraculous recovery.
BrightLight11's suggestion of the chicken broth sounds like an excellent course of treatment to me.
Best of luck to you all and remember to also take care of yourself during this time.
shellycheval
 
Thanks guys!

She came in and meowed for food this morning, but only ate a mouthful. She did let Hubby and I hold her a while before returning to her favorite sleep spot.

The vet is going to call this morning with the rest of her test/blood results. He did say to me yesterday that she may have a virus, but he wanted to check and make sure it wasn't a tumor or other internal issue, since it isn't one system being affected.

I'm going to see if she'll take some meaty broth, but it'll have to be skimmed for fats first.
 
shellycheval said:
Spider bite? or she ate a spider maybe. Why some cats become suddenly ill can remain a mystery, as does their often miraculous recovery.
BrightLight11's suggestion of the chicken broth sounds like an excellent course of treatment to me.
Best of luck to you all and remember to also take care of yourself during this time.
shellycheval
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I did ask about a spider bite, and the vet said he had no way to determine that? We do get brown recluse here, but I'm not sure cats are prone to those?

The only spiders I know she goes after are fishing spiders, and other than a mini-incursion of those when it first warmed up and began to rain, we've not seen them again. Those are big, and not known to be toxic.

I even took in a list of things Hubby and I went over to figure it out. "Mysteries" drive me nuts, short trip or not.
 
Do cats get erlichiosis? If so, doxycycline is what kicks it, though it has to be taken for a long time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrlichiosis_%28canine%29
 
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