Our cat just will not eat

macy

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I don't know what is up. We have a vet appt. on Monday.

She's lost over 5lbs. She weighed 20.2lbs. As you can see she loved to eat. But especially over the past week her appetite has just decreased so much. Today we tried 3 different kinds of pouched food, her favorite. She ate about a nickle sized amount and that's it. We gave her tuna fish, ham, roast beef. Wouldn't touch it. And she LOVES food. She doesn't seem dehydrated but I also havn't seen her drink anything.

She did eat the food that was on recall. But we switched it immediately. She's the only one that's sick though and we had 2 other cats that ate it.

Man, I don't know what I'd do without her, she's just a big teddy bear.
 

beandip

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I'm sorry to hear that she's having trouble. That's good you have an appointment.

I don't have a lot of personal experience with this, but I know it's very important to get her to eat...and if she won't - then assist feed her. Cats who go even a short time without eating can lose all interest in food. Heavy cats are at greater risk.

There is more info here

http://www.assistfeed.com/FelineAnorexia.htm
 

pat

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I couldn't agree more with Beandip...please check out the link given, and do your best to get your girl to eat and drink something this weekend.

Try plain baby food meats (check label, needs to be onion and garlic free), plain boiled chicken broth (from fresh chicken, not the raw frozen with broth as that broth may contain onions).

Is she still using her box a normal amount - usual amount of results in it??

You can check her for dehydration by gently picking up a fold of skin at the base of the neck/over the shoulders, and then releasing. If the skin does not snap right back, if it remains up like a collapsing tent, then your kitty is dehydrated.

Honestly, I would not wait for Monday if you feel she's lost 5 lbs. in a week, and you can not get food or water into her...see if there is an emergency vet who can do the necessary labs and begin necessary treatments (cat may need to rehydrated with some fluids etc.)
 

kalikat

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If she is dehydrated you can try giving her a hydralite solution with a dropper. I safely gave it to some orphan baby mice I hand reared. I can't remember if I diluted it or not as it was over a year ago. I got the infro from a web sit about feeding baby mice.
 

gothicangel69

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Sorry to here about your kitty.
I would agree to try assist feeding her and to see if you can get her to an emergency vet. The longer you wait, the harder it may be to make her better.
If you really can't get in until Monday, maybe you could try picking up some Hills A/D canned food. I just picked up some for my cat because he wasn't really eating, and he really likes it.
Oh, and pedialyte is great to keep them from getting dehydrated. You can syringe it right too them and you don't have to dilute it. The stuff's amazing.
 
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macy

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The vet clinic in our town offers an 24-hour emergency service, so we called them and we got a recording that gave us a # to call for it but it said that you MUST be an established client, if you're not then don't even call.

We've only been there once and it was about a month ago, so what makes you an established client?

That bothered me, it shouldn't matter if you're an established client or not.

So anyways we called this other clinic that offers Sunday appts. We left a messege and they called us back 20 minutes later, so we have an appt for tommorrow at 11:30am.

That's a lot better.

Oh yeah and we checked to see if she was dehydrated, the skin went back fine. We did give her a little bit of water and some slurry stuff, just a packet of food mixed with water.

Just thought i'd update everyone.
 

gothicangel69

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Thats great! So much better than Monday. Good luck with the appointment and let us all know how it goes!
 

pat

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I am so glad to hear you could get an apt. for tomorrow, and that there wasn't any tenting
Please give us an update tomorrow on how she's doing after her apt.
 

ladybass0711

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Umm has she eaten any of the recalled food? So many foods have been recalled so it is hard. This may be what is happening
 
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macy

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I'll update everyone.

Last night around 9pm Macy started vomiting all this white foam. Around 12:30am we just had to take her somewheres we called our local animal hospital that has 24 hour emergency service. They said that it will cost $150 and all they could do was the physical exam since they don't have access to a lab and they have no help. What kind of emergency service is that?

So we drove an hour to another Animal Emergency Clinic. I really didn't think Macy was going to survive. Her bloodwork came back pretty normal, she is slightly anemic and her pattasium (sp?) level is a tad high but it's not really a huge concern. Her gums and skin are yellow so she has something wrong with her liver. They did an x-ray and her liver is slightly enlarged but it's not as bad as we all thought. They think she might have Fatty Liver Disease, which is caused by large cats not eating for a couple of days and fat builds up in the liver- or something like that, so they are treating the liver by giving her antibiotics etc.

They are trying to figure out what made her stop eating in the first place but they dont' think they are going to find out.

Macy has lost 6lbs, i'm assuming in the last 2-3 weeks.

Now to the vet bill, no less than $1,100. Bleh.

We will be picking her up tommorrow morning or tonight maybe.
 

pat

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I am sorry, I know this must be difficult. We all hate it when our cats don't feel well. Another name for Fatty Liver disease is Hepatic Lipidosis, there is an excellent article on it (written by Hissy - aka Mary Anne, a long time member of tcs) that you can read here:http://www.thecatsite.com/Health/85/...Lipidosis.html

There are several members here who have dealt with this, hopefully they will comment.

I hope they find the cause, and wish her recovery.
 

batgirl2good

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Originally Posted by Pat & Alix

I couldn't agree more with Beandip...please check out the link given, and do your best to get your girl to eat and drink something this weekend.

Try plain baby food meats (check label, needs to be onion and garlic free), plain boiled chicken broth (from fresh chicken, not the raw frozen with broth as that broth may contain onions).

Is she still using her box a normal amount - usual amount of results in it??

You can check her for dehydration by gently picking up a fold of skin at the base of the neck/over the shoulders, and then releasing. If the skin does not snap right back, if it remains up like a collapsing tent, then your kitty is dehydrated.

Honestly, I would not wait for Monday if you feel she's lost 5 lbs. in a week, and you can not get food or water into her...see if there is an emergency vet who can do the necessary labs and begin necessary treatments (cat may need to rehydrated with some fluids etc.)
Listen to Pat & Alix! I had to assist feed Humble at the end of last year.

Until you get in, you might try giving some Pedialyte or Gatorade in a medicine dropper. I did that with Humble as well.

Good luck!
 

bonnie1965

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You are a great cat parent! That bill had to hurt but now you know what the problem is and will soon be an expert on it. Sending lots of get well vibes to Macy. Please let us know how she is doing.
 

jen

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You didn't happen to feed her the recalled pouched cat food did you? What brand did you give her? There are so many that have been recalled it is unreal.
 

amercnwmn

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Originally Posted by Macy

The vet clinic in our town offers an 24-hour emergency service, so we called them and we got a recording that gave us a # to call for it but it said that you MUST be an established client, if you're not then don't even call.

We've only been there once and it was about a month ago, so what makes you an established client?
Really!! How do they expect you to get established if they won't see you? lol
Makes a lot of sense, the one here is like that. I think what they are referring to, is having your information on file, but our ER vet will only take people with credit cards.
Guess its just to heck with the rest of us..

I hope your cat gets better soon!

Pedialyte is something ANY animal owner (or parent) should have on hand. I keep it for my kids and my reptiles for emergency hydration of animals brought to me.
 
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macy

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Update.

We picked her up this morning. She only vomited once last night and it was very little. She is being Syringe fed, so she is keeping a lot of the food down. She's being transfered to our vet and has to still stay there for a day or two. Since she was at an emergency hospital, they arn't open during the day so all pets must be out.

She is also a lot more alert.

The vet bill came to $976 but with her being transfered and all it will probably be a little over $1000.

My dad thinks the bill was only $476, we don't plan on telling him the truth.
 
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macy

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Macy passed away last night at the vets.
Her liver failed.
 

marishka

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I'm so sorry to hear about Macy. My thoughts and prayers are with you
 
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