Oi... I'm not really sure where to start with this.
About last Thursday, I started to notice that my cat, Jinx, was not acting like himself. He was sneezing a lot, his breathing sounded very "rattly", he was pretty lethargic and wanted nothing to do with people--which is very unusual because in that respect, he's more like a dog, always wanting to be with people. We waited it out and by Friday night/Saturday, he seemed leaps and bounds better, so we assumed he was just getting over it himself, and that would be the end. But of course that's not how it went...
His appetite has drastically decreased and he's still working on the same bowl of food we gave him last week. He's been vomiting a lot but there's nothing in it, it's just foamy (understandable if he hasn't been eating). As far as drinking goes, I can't say I've even seen him drink anything, but there are plenty of times where I'm not around that he could be. When cleaning his litter box today, I noticed plenty of pee, but there was no poop that I could tell. Of course, if he hasn't been eating, I don't know what there would be to poop out.
Before I forget: last Sunday he peed on the carpet, my brother is the one who cleaned it up so I don't know for sure, but he says there was no smell which leaves me to believe that it wasn't concentrated. That's the only time he's done that outside the litter box, though.
He has these episodes quite a few times a day, that last for a good minute or so, where... it kind of sounds like he's choking on something, and maybe trying to cough it up? Which, would maybe be him trying to cough up a hairball, but he's the only cat I've ever had and he's never had a hairball, so I don't really know what that sounds like.
Okay. So we brought him to the vet on Wednesday. We got told that there are quite a few things this could be, but in order to know for sure we'd need to run tests and such, so for now we're treating it as a really bad hairball, to rule that out before we start doing a bunch of expensive stuff. The vet gave him 250 cc's of sub-q fluids just to make sure he doesn't get dehydrated, and we were sent home with some Laxatone that we've been giving him 4x a day since. And he still has yet to get rid of any hairball.
Here's the thing: I'm definitely no expert but that sounds like a lot of stuff wrong with him in order for it to just be a hairball. Obviously if this continues and he still doesn't get rid of it, then we'll start exploring other possibilities, but for now I'm just worried. Maybe he does have a hairball but I think something else is up as well? I read somewhere that a hairball would not cause any respiratory symptoms... so, him having a hairball does not explain the sneezing, or that rattly breathing, or the slightly cloudy nasal discharge he had today.
So I know this is all jumbled together, and I might be leaving something out, but I was wondering if anyone had some input on the situation.
About last Thursday, I started to notice that my cat, Jinx, was not acting like himself. He was sneezing a lot, his breathing sounded very "rattly", he was pretty lethargic and wanted nothing to do with people--which is very unusual because in that respect, he's more like a dog, always wanting to be with people. We waited it out and by Friday night/Saturday, he seemed leaps and bounds better, so we assumed he was just getting over it himself, and that would be the end. But of course that's not how it went...
His appetite has drastically decreased and he's still working on the same bowl of food we gave him last week. He's been vomiting a lot but there's nothing in it, it's just foamy (understandable if he hasn't been eating). As far as drinking goes, I can't say I've even seen him drink anything, but there are plenty of times where I'm not around that he could be. When cleaning his litter box today, I noticed plenty of pee, but there was no poop that I could tell. Of course, if he hasn't been eating, I don't know what there would be to poop out.
Before I forget: last Sunday he peed on the carpet, my brother is the one who cleaned it up so I don't know for sure, but he says there was no smell which leaves me to believe that it wasn't concentrated. That's the only time he's done that outside the litter box, though.
He has these episodes quite a few times a day, that last for a good minute or so, where... it kind of sounds like he's choking on something, and maybe trying to cough it up? Which, would maybe be him trying to cough up a hairball, but he's the only cat I've ever had and he's never had a hairball, so I don't really know what that sounds like.
Okay. So we brought him to the vet on Wednesday. We got told that there are quite a few things this could be, but in order to know for sure we'd need to run tests and such, so for now we're treating it as a really bad hairball, to rule that out before we start doing a bunch of expensive stuff. The vet gave him 250 cc's of sub-q fluids just to make sure he doesn't get dehydrated, and we were sent home with some Laxatone that we've been giving him 4x a day since. And he still has yet to get rid of any hairball.
Here's the thing: I'm definitely no expert but that sounds like a lot of stuff wrong with him in order for it to just be a hairball. Obviously if this continues and he still doesn't get rid of it, then we'll start exploring other possibilities, but for now I'm just worried. Maybe he does have a hairball but I think something else is up as well? I read somewhere that a hairball would not cause any respiratory symptoms... so, him having a hairball does not explain the sneezing, or that rattly breathing, or the slightly cloudy nasal discharge he had today.
So I know this is all jumbled together, and I might be leaving something out, but I was wondering if anyone had some input on the situation.
