Hydration Help! Mysterious Sickness...

First, I want to know a good amount of water to give a cat during a 24 hour cycle. The vet I went to didn't provide me with that and right now it's too late to call.

They charged me $350 to run a test, say "I don't know, maybe he has AIDS/Cancer?" "He's dehydrated." and inject him with some hydrating fluid before I went home to take care of the cat myself.

He's run out of that hydrating fluid and me of money, so I'm wanting to know what's good for water supply. He's only a year old. I know he's not dehydrated now, but I'd worry if I over-water him (I manually feed him water with a turkey baster). Are there any symptoms which show it?

If you know what may have caused this, it would be a great help. We think he may have devoured something toxic and it's merely passing through his system. It hit him like a hurricane. Fine when I left then on the floor with vomit and BM, meowing in pain when I came home and took him to the vet Saturday night.

Habits experienced so far
-A lot of vomiting (but has not vomited since saturday night)
-Bloated (this has reduced)
-Fast hard breathing (slower and softer now)
-Was dehydrated when we found him (Seems fine now; gums are not dried, his skin is better)
-Loud awkward "Meeoow" usually but not always just before vomiting
-Always resting in bed, seeks warm places.

Positive signs:
-Went without BM's a while, but has had a BM 3 times since this morning (but it is green...maybe an effect of something the vet gave him?)
-Painful meows have been replaced by purring
-Holding down what he eats and drinks (in terms of food isn't much)
-Walks to the window to sit sometimes (at first he would keep to dark places)

It's time to get a new vet. Your cat is sick, and it could be one of any number of illnesses, but if all your vet did was charge you $350 and then make a guess then your vet needs to be fired.

The symptoms you describe sound serious, many of them by themselves, and collectively they sound worse. Many vets will work out a payment plan, and if you have a local Humane Society they may offer good rates.

Try contacting a small private cat rescue group in your area (google them or call the local aspca for references) and talk to someone at the group. Ask if they have a vet that they use and ask, being that this is an emergency, you are out of $$$ etc, if they could possibly help you get "rescue rates" from their vet.

[EDIT] I re-read your post that he was dehydrated "when you found him". Does this mean you just recently took this cat in and you found him in this condition? If yes, then the symptoms could easily be connected to being outside in which case there is an environmental explanation for his symptoms, and while troubling, may not be as serious especially as he seems to be inproving.

If the above is the case, he should be dewormed, tested for fiv/FeLv (one hopes the vet did this), but on a nutritous stable diet, and possibly tested for parasites.

The green poop isn't a good sign, it might be connected to a liver problem but i'm not a vet!

A rule of thumb is that a healthy cat should consume 2.5 times the amount of water (in weight) as they consume in food. If a cat eats 4 oz of food, he should drink 10 oz of water daily. (that's 1-1/4 cup).

Did your vet show you how to tell if your cat is dehydrated?

And just in case your vet didn't tell you (it sounds like they didn't tell you much), your cat is exhibiting signs that make me suspect he may have FIP. You should do some reading on it. I really hope that's not the case.

Do you have other cats?

How green is his feces? It does sound like he at something toxic. What cat food does your cat normally eat? Does he drink any water on his own? The dehydration was probably part of whatever his illness was, so as that passes, you may not need to syringe water into him anymore. Most people give subcutaneous fluids, and those usually average between 50 and 150 mL given under the skin.

I agree with Stephen, your cat is seriously ill and needs to be seen by a better vet. Your vet should have at least instructed you on how to administer subcu fluids (unless needles make you squeamish). The symptoms are serious, both by themselves, but certainly together as a whole.

So much information is missing from your post- when did you get this cat, is he allowed outside? How are you administering fluids? You say a turkey baster, bad idea, you can flood your cat's lung to easily, Call the vet and get smaller feeding syringes, they run about $0.25 apiece, some vets give them out freely. Use only small amounts of pedialyte, not water, or use bottled water mixed with pedialyte.

The symptoms could be anything from a viral disease to toxins. Is he vaccinated? Did you recently use any over the counter products on him, flea products, shampoo anything?

Try feeding watered down A/D get that from your vet, or try chicken flavored baby food. Check to be sure onions aren't on the label, some baby food manufacturers add garlic and onions- which is bad for cats.


Good luck

StephenQ-

No, "when I found him" means when I came home and saw him laying on the floor in my kitchen.

The vet said whatever it was did seem to affect his liver, but it wasn't drastic or anything...according a tests they ran. Don't the kidneys and liver filter toxins in the body? She also said the kidneys were looking worse than the liver, but it was probably secondary to dehydration. After that she said he may have "Feline AIDS" (her terms) and dodged or ignored a lot of my questions.

It sounded really bad at first, but if you look at the symptoms and everything you can see in parenthesis that he's improved. I'm wondering if he is instinctively hiding his weaknesses. Though I wonder why that would change from before, does this mean he is getting better iether way?

Mermaid-

Hmm, according to the symptoms I've read this doesn't seem to be the case for FIP if he is now starting to show his infection. He has a couple symptoms in common with it, but nothing else and a couple other symptoms contradict...he's actually been gaining wait recently.

The vet showed me his gums and tugged on his skin, I'm familiar with the "elastic skin" part. These are 2 ways of checking on it, anyone got something else?

Thanks for the water ratio, I'll keep that in mind.

Cloud Shade-

I'd say the feces are a shade between light green and plain green. I haven't seen him drink water on his own, but the level of his water dish is always different. Though since this could change from either my family watering him or the cat drinking water himself I don't know if he is drinking on his own. I only know he eats on his own. It started with subcutaneous fluids but now we just give him water to consume.

Hissy-

Sorry I forgot some stuff, it was late and I was a little rushed to go check on him after I finished posting.

We got the cat last march or april, I believe. He was a kitten then, I suspect he's about a year old. He is allowed outside, the area is safe from traffic. I administer fluids with the turkey baster by putting the baster to the side of his jaw and when the water drips he licks it up. I'm not injecting anything into his mouth directly. I'll see if I can get some pedialyte. I literally spent all money I have plus more just on the vet and some supplies.

I quit my job and have no steady income. I had little cash because I let my brother borrow a lot of money, and he won't pay me back right now. He got angry when we didn't put the cat to sleep, but he's also particularly cruel to animals, seeing them as far below us. Thankfully he has no pets.

The cat is vaccinated, and no over-the-counter stuff has been used since a few months ago when one of my other cats got fleas and my mom used some stuff to get rid of them. I have 2 other cats. Both adults, both vaccinated, all have been spayed.

He's never had it before, but since he became sick I find he only eats soft catfood. We used to only buy hard type.

Thanks for the information, and yes how you are pushing fluids sounds fine. Could your brother have given him something unpleasant?

Don't think so, most of the time he's cruel is when the animal does something "wrong." But this one time my dog urinated on his wives blanket, and he grabbed the dog (which was a small dog) and threw it against the wall, injuring the dog's leg. Mind you, the wall was all the way accross the room.

Maybe my article will help you find a way to afford better care for your cat


http://www.thecatsite.com/Health/76/...erinarian.html

Thanks hissy. Until I can get another job I need some help.

Well, the cat seems to be doing better. His feces seem a little more solid, and a little less green. He eats and drinks more, and today I saw him drinking from the dish by himself.

He got to walk around a couple times...his tail "wags" around a lot like it used to and his front legs seem fine...but his back legs can't really keep up. My mom is wondering if he was only nicked by a car and it injured his organs and hind legs. Apparently something similar happened to her friends dog and not one bone was broken, but internal organs were damaged.

Today was the first time I felt comfrotable enough to leave the house since this weekend when it started. Mother watching the cat while I was gone also helped.