Cat will not eat after illness

16 years ago

Hello all,

I am new to this forum and would appreciate any advice. Our cat became ill 5 days ago, throwing up diarrhea lethargic, temperature.

We took him to the vet, he was on IV fluids for 2 days along with antibiotics. His kidney levels elevated. The fever broke, kidney levels fine, and we were sent home with antibiotics for him.

He still could not keep anything down. Threw up, some diarrhea maybe drank a little water.

Back to the vet for an injection of fluids some anti nausea meds to see if that would help him. He has been through several blood tests and all things look fine for him according to the vet after 4 tests in 5 days.

This morning he throws up again. He has had minor interest in food over those 5 days , he licks it if there is water on it, then will throw up.

He is on a special diet due to crystals in the urine diagnosed, treated surgery about 7 years ago.

Any suggestions on getting him to eat. The vet indicated that we should give him till Friday maybe before we get more concerned but realistically I am not an ATM machine and do not want to continue going for more emergency situations.

We are waiting the results of a more comprehensive blood test but all of this was rather sudden. He was a very healthy 15 year old cat and took a sudden dive.

Any advice at all?

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Comments (8)

laurief_gw
16 years ago
Which antibiotic is he on? Some antibiotics can cause substantial digestive upset. Switching the antibiotic is the first thing I'd ask the vet about.

Laurie
margaret_garfield
16 years ago
I also would ask about stopping the antibiotics.

My cat had a reaction to Clavomox, and didn't want to eat even after stopping the Clavamox and giving her the anti-nausea drug. I hand fed her slices of ham (the only thing she would try) for a couple of days until she trusted that eating wasn't going to make her vomit.

Ask your vet if switching to a different food for a couple of days would be okay. I don't think the crystal build up would happen that quickly and, anyway, not eating is more dangerous than urinary crystals.

Try baby food or cooked turkey or some treat that your cat likes. He may think that his regular food is making him feel sick.

Margaret
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How's your kitty doing? I just saw this post and it reminded me of my cat Emmett a little. He's 14 1/2, big cat like Sylvester, very lanky, not overweight. In 2010 he started to have issues with throwing up -projectile- and his back legs going a little limp, pooping issues, he's always had pooping issues! After many, many vet visits involving multiple tests, scans, sonograms, xrays, they decided to scope him. I see you said you can't put Sylvester under, have they tried a sonogram? Hopefully you can find a clinic close by. I never realize how much I take for granted having state-of-the-art veterinary facilities just down the street. Anyway, Emett had a mass of hardened mystery goop stuck in his lower esophagus. They saw fur, partially digested food, god knows what. He eats fuzzies and used to eat the plastic off of our clothes hamper until we got rid of it. He's really weird. This didn't explain his back legs though. He's polydactyl with 7 claws on each front and 6 one each back paw so we thought maybe he's just getting old and starting to walk funny, arthritic perhaps. So after the mass was knocked out of place by the scope, he started a round of steroids, medicine to help him poop, medicine to help him eat, the whole deal. He did really well and for years we experienced no big issues, just general check-ups, nothing special. About a year ago he started showing symptoms like he did last time. Our doctor thinks is it's IBD which makes so much sense. He does have some serious gut issues so we started feeding our cats only non-GMO, grain-free, organic, made in the US food which has helped insanely. (should have been doing that since day one) They also get pro-biotics daily with exception to Emmett. I find that giving him some makes him vomit after eating every time. But all in all, after switching his diet, giving him a boost of vitamins sometimes we give him some CannaPet - it has CBD oil in it and really helps when he's starting to flare again, he's been doing really well with us treating his medical problems as an autoimmune disease. His back paws still flare out, especially his left one, but he doesn't seem to be experiencing any more weakness. When he had the blockage and when he flares, his back legs go almost limp. But this could be a spasm or pinched nerve, he's only lost minimal bone density from all of this. I hope everything works out for you and Sylvester. I hate seeing furry little critters sick. Maybe sharing what Emmett deals with will help in some way, maybe not. But either way, we'll be thinking about you guys and hoping Sylvester gets better.
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jsinger9999
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you both.

I looked up both antibiotics Clavamox and Zenquin and then called the vet who indicated that I should stop the meds and feed my cat anything he wants until he gets his appetite backs.

I will keep you posted!
lfnyc
16 years ago
There is a thread on page 3 of this forum that addresses this same issue, "Cat won't eat - My successful experience".
This person gives some good tips. If you want to try to tempt him with human babyfood, just make there is no garlic or onion in the ingredients.
laurief_gw
16 years ago
Clavamox causes nausea in a lot of cats, so I'm not surprised your cat couldn't tolerate it. It may take a couple of weeks for your cat's system to get back to normal, but it's important that you keep him eating until it does. If you can't convince your cat to eat something reasonably well, contact your vet again right away.

Laurie
Elly_NJ
16 years ago
Try the smelliest cat food you can find to appeal to his sense of smell, which may get depressed when he is sick. Fancy Feast, not the most nutritious, is very appealing. Consider adding tuna juice or salmon juice to the food.
cat_mom
16 years ago
I also recommend Gerber baby food (Stage 1?)--chicken or turkey, and Prescription Diet a/d or c/d (from vet's office usually), alone or mixed together, and heated in the micro ever so briefly just enough to warm it up and release the aromas. Those are often pretty appealing to many cats. Also, fresh roast chicken bits mixed with some of the pan juices is very tempting, too.
jsinger9999
Original Author
16 years ago
Hello all,

A way late late late update.

Our cat is doing every well. He went back to pet emergency a few time$. Ouch.

he was on some wet food and now is eating again. Essentially it boiled down to my wife demanding he be put on an iv antibiotic to get him to eat (they were still doing oral after all this) his tests are fine, he is fine and eating away.

We did find out he has one working kidney though and they felt this has been the case for several years.

thank you fo all of your advice!

Cat will not eat after illness

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laurief_gw

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Cat will not eat after illness

Comments (8)

laurief_gw

margaret_garfield

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jsinger9999Original Author

lfnyc

laurief_gw

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jsinger9999Original Author

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jsinger9999
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