My 17 year old Cat just threw up her breakfast, I really need advice.

danimarie

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Ok here's the situation.
Mutty is 17 years old and has never really had health problems OTHER THAN being really overweight, which we've spent lots of time, energy and money on.

Over the past few months, she's been vomitting frequently. I've tried different things: Took her off dry food completely...changed her wet a few times to see what would NOT make her throw up...give her hair-ball gel and hair ball treats in rotation.

I can't get her to a vet until late next week, POSSIBLY the next week due to finances. (and yes, I've tried getting care credit and "payment plans" from every single vet in the area, including the one she's gone to for years, but those greedy jerks won't help us out, they wouldn't even help us with Cubby's eye infection and he's 2 weeks old, I was told basically "too bad" and had to struggle beyond anything to ensure he didn't die or something.) Seems to me vets are NOT caring people anymore.


I'm really scared. She *IS* 17. Plus it can't be comfortable for her to be throwing up all the time. I thought I had a handle on it, she hadn't vomitted in days and then just now she vomitted her ENTIRE breakfast (half a can of the food she's done well on).

Any ideas, suggestions, ANYTHING???
Anything she might have, might need to be tested for, maybe suggestions due to age????

Please help me out here!!! I've had this baby since I was 9 years old, I want her to be as comfortable and taken care of as possible!!!

 

sharky

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Is she keeping anything down.???

did you check her for dyhdration??

Have you tried vets out of your area ??
 
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danimarie

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She drinks more water than my other cats. So dehydration isn't the problem.
I fill her bowl with fresh spring water every morning, as I've done for years.


Trust me, I am the biggest advocate for taking the cat to the vet, but I spent all last week calling EVERYWHERE. Vet offices, humane societies, "cat sanctuaries"(which I couldn't believe they wouldn't help me out with a two week old little kitten), every vet within an hour to an hour and a half radius, including vet ERs. Most of the animal hospitals here are interconnected. It's sick, like chain restaurants or something. Believe me when I say, I've exhausted every option and am TICKED OFF at the entire vet industry. Each vet or shelter would give me a number of another vet or shelter that might be able to "help me", which NONE of them would. If a person is sick, a hospital doesn't reject them, do they!???



Anyway, she keeps things down off and on. Like I said, it had been a few days since she's thrown up. Then she'll go through spurts of vomitting every day.

I'm so confused. I don't want to hear anything is failing in her, but I want to know what's wrong with her, especially if there's something, ANYTHING I can do to help!!!

Is this common in senior cats? Do you have any suggestions as to what the problem might be???

I'll give her a little food in a couple of hours just so she has something in her stomach, but she threw up EVERY little piece of her breakfast...and this isn't even nearly the first time.
 

sharky

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I hope you can get a vet to answer this for you.... Pepcid ( the original pink pill no the complete) is what I used with Kandies CRF when it upset her tummy..

Unfortunately it sounds like kidney or liver but I send I am wrong
 
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danimarie

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Originally Posted by sharky

Unfortunately it sounds like kidney or liver but I send I am wrong
That's the answer I've been dreading.
 

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Barkley, Petunia and myself send love and fuzzy kisses to your Mutty. As for the vomiting, although Petunia is 11 years younger than Mutty she too goes through spurts of vomiting. We have had her checked out from head to toe and she always checks out fine at the vet, no major organ problems or anything and Im thankful for that. The vet tells me that she just eats too fast and that is the main culprit un why she throws the food right back up at times when she eats it.

I pray that Mutty does not have any major functioning problems with her organs. I hope that maybe it's just attributable to her age and her stomach just is not able to tolerate the food as it once could. One of my friends has a senior cat that is roughly the same age as Mutty and Lexie seems to have the same problem (excessive vomiting spurts) but checks out ok at the vet. Please keep us informed on Mutty's status.
 
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danimarie

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Originally Posted by BarkleysJester

Barkley, Petunia and myself send love and fuzzy kisses to your Mutty. As for the vomiting, although Petunia is 11 years younger than Mutty she too goes through spurts of vomiting. We have had her checked out from head to toe and she always checks out fine at the vet, no major organ problems or anything and Im thankful for that. The vet tells me that she just eats too fast and that is the main culprit un why she throws the food right back up at times when she eats it.

I pray that Mutty does not have any major functioning problems with her organs. I hope that maybe it's just attributable to her age and her stomach just is not able to tolerate the food as it once could. One of my friends has a senior cat that is roughly the same age as Mutty and Lexie seems to have the same problem (excessive vomiting spurts) but checks out ok at the vet. Please keep us informed on Mutty's status.
Bless your heart for that response.
It made me feel a lot better.
I've also considered that she may be eating too fast and her senior belly can't handle it.
I'm going to try anything I can!!!

Once again, thank you!!!
 

catsarebetter

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Maybe try Wellness Core canned? It's actually cheaper than Sheeba (which is only a few ingredients although not recommended as a daily diet), and I think it's just one or two ingredients? If she's just having an aversion to the foods, perhaps putting her on something that only has a few ingredients and very few additives might work?

I hope everything clears up and she feels better.
 

barkleysjester

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I know the vet told me one time when I mentioned to him about Petunia's rapid eating habits that vomiting is one symptom of it. Like your Mutty she doesnt do it all the time but I still worry on those occasions when she does. I have tried everything I can think of to get her to stop eating so fast but nothing seems to work. She just gets mad at me. Have you spoken with the vet about eating too fast or noticed that Mutty does this? I hate seeing the little babies sick or out of sorts.
 

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Poor kitty, hope she is better.

This won't make you feel any better, but, my dog showed the same signs before she had her stroke.

At least you have some for-warning and it will not be sudden. Hopefully, she is not having a pre-stroke.
 

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I have an older cat (Maverick, who's 12) who goes thru spurts of vomiting every once in awhile, too. There's nothing wrong w/ him (he's been checked over by the vet), he's just getting older and sometimes eats too much or too fast. But I can understand your fear
A few weeks ago, he threw up about 7 or 8 times in an hour's time-span, and scared the absolute h#ll out of me! I tried to contact my vet, who was out-of-town (naturally! - it's always that way!), but was able to contact a vet who was willing to see Maverick if I wanted to bring him in. Before I brought him in though, the vet reassured me that it was probably nothing serious, and that perhaps Maverick had eaten something that disagreed w/ him, or maybe had ingested a spider or something that set off the puking. I decided to watch him closely for the next half an hour or so instead of panicking, b/c Maverick does have a nasty habit of eating just about ANYTHING - such as rubber bands, pine needles - weird stuff like that. And b/c we're so broke right now and in debt paying for Winchester & Geronimo's FIP meds, I also didn't want to make any unnecessary trip to the vet if it wasn't needed. It turns out that Maverick did ingest something that disagreed w/ his aging stomach, and was alright after he threw it up and got it out of his system.


I can relate to you regarding the vet issue, too.
Just about every
vet in this area won't even see your pet unless you pay them up front: it makes me so
mad!
IMO, if they're gonna be that way about it, I won't give them my business, b/c to me, it means they're more concerned w/ money than they are your pets. I realize that a lot of vets probably get "ripped off" by some people not paying their bills, but they should at least give each individual a chance, instead of sticking them all in the same category. I'm lucky: my vet lets us make payments: but he also knows he can trust us, too, and we're not gonna rip him off.


I hope your baby's problem is just age-related, and that's there's nothing seriously wrong w/ him. It sounds like it's not anything too serious, b/c it's not occurring all the time. But I'm no expert, either.
I would continue to moniter him, and if he gets worse, get him into the vet as soon as you can.

I'll be sending good vibes your way.


KittKatt
 

mawilouwl

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I wish you the very best for Mutty. No matter what happens, I'm sure that she is a happy cat, because you seem like a very good person.

Marilou
 
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danimarie

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Thanks so very much everyone.
I really appreciate the moral support!!!!!!!!
 

catsarebetter

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Originally Posted by KittKatt

I can relate to you regarding the vet issue, too.
Just about every
vet in this area won't even see your pet unless you pay them up front: it makes me so
mad!
IMO, if they're gonna be that way about it, I won't give them my business, b/c to me, it means they're more concerned w/ money than they are your pets. I realize that a lot of vets probably get "ripped off" by some people not paying their bills, but they should at least give each individual a chance, instead of sticking them all in the same category. I'm lucky: my vet lets us make payments: but he also knows he can trust us, too, and we're not gonna rip him off.


KittKatt
You know, I considered going to school to be a vet, but the schooling was just too much between cost and time and so forth, however... that's not the point here. I was going to make the point that one of the reasons I wanted to be a vet was because I wanted to help animals, and people that had animals. I'm sure that there are exceptions to this as some people really just shouldn't own animals... but one of the things I do not understand is why vets go into practice when they don't really love animals. I'd personally rather be broke and be able to help all the animals that came to me then to turn one away and know it might die because I wouldn't help it due to financial problems. That's so wrong. And I agree, it makes me furious that vets do this.
 

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At 17 your baby should be getting a senior panel. But, I read what you are going thru with the vet.

Going to the vet is #1 at her age, but I will tell you that my elderly kitty started vomiting regularly once she got "old". It was usually because she wolfed down her food, then puked it up shortly thereafter. We fed her in small increments instead, which helped, b/c that way she couldnt wolf so much. It seemed mostly a morning thing too.

She was ravenous and wolfed, we assume, from her hyperactive thyroid. She was always hungry. She lived to 22 once her thyroid was treated, so the vomiting was an unfortunate way of life in our house for several years.
 

catsarebetter

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I'd heard that if you feed dry and you put it on a cookie sheet or wide pan, the cat has to "chase" the food across the pan, making it much more difficult for them to gulp and guzzle it.
 
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danimarie

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Ok I just wanted to update with my experience the other night.

I was looking at Mutty in the kitchen, just kinda walking by her and she LOOKED sick. A Mommy can always tell when her baby isn't feeling well.

So I sat on the floor and put her on my lap, started feeling around, turned her upside down and noticed her belly looked at little weird so I pressed very lightly to see if it was tender and urine shot straight up into my eye. And she YOWLED...screamed...bit me...and ran. Painful smelly pus-like urine. That CAN NOT BE NORMAL.

I freaked out and rushed her to the vet.

Let me just say, I am losing respect day by day for vets in general due to vets like this.

First she was sedated, because she was really scared. (they put her in the gas tank then a little mask over her for her exam) I had to request this, as they were not seeming to realize how scared she was)

He felt around and took an x-ray.

In the X-Ray he said she looked incredibly good for her age and just looked a a little "constipated". Also that her liver was a little large but that was normal in older cats.

I asked about the vomiting and suggested maybe kidneys, but he tested her urine which was very diluted and didn't have any of the bacteria to idenfity an infection in the UT and said only a blood test could really tell about kidneys.

This guy did a whole lot of talking without making a lot of sense to me.

I asked if he noticed any arthritis, he said yes due to her age, and if we run a full blood panel to rule out kidney problems, I can give her baby aspirin twice a week.

..."but the blood panel is a little pricey".

I'm thinking this entire visit is going to run me $100, maybe $150, he didn't do freakin ANYTHING or solve any problems. In addition, I kept asking questions that he'd give obscure answers to.

Like :

"Any suggestions for food at her age?"

"I'd stick with what she's been having...it seems to be working."

"Well ok I've had her on all wet but she's still throwing up, even with weekly hairball treatments."

"I wouldn't change anything."

"So no preference on wet or dry?"

"Nah"

"So what about the vomitting?"

"Well if it's an ongoing problem we might want to look at it again." (Why so you can charge me another arm and a leg? It's been going on for a few months, I'd call that an ongoing problem!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

The bill came out to $391, to tell me she was constipated and put a little gel up her bum.

To run the blood panel would have been an additional $120...which we haven't even paid our bills this month, so this was already a huge blow and we had to say no. (which I cried and cried about , but we 400dollars already is KILLING us this month)


"Is there ANY way you can do the blood panel and put us on a payment plan of some sort? We can have it paid off in a few weeks."

"No, we don't do that. Cash upon services."

"Finances are really tight right now and she's obviously sick."

"Like I said, everything seems ok to me."





We get home yesterday and she's thrown up all over the kitchen again.

I'm at a loss.
I don't know what to do.

My grandmother (who is the closest person I am to) has one solution : put her to sleep...which I WILL NOT DO if there's things I can do to help her.

She's not DYING , she's just sick.

I keep getting the "well she's old, maybe it's just time".

It'll be time when I'm out of options.

Any NEW ideas due to this latest experience?
 

catsarebetter

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Bullcrap. Your cat is sick. That vet doesn't know what he's talking about. How did you pay him? I'd take the cat to another vet. Tell him what happened with the first vet... and then ask him for an opinion and refuse to pay the first vet. If you can cancel your payment to them, I'd do that, if it's by check or by charge card. You can call in and talk to your credit card company... I think if you dispute a charge (like if you'd bought something and then returned it and the store refused to give you a refund for faulty services or products).. tell the first vet (provided the second one finds out what's wrong with her), that he did an obviously poor job, couldn't figure it out, and the second vet had no problems and you want a refund of the monies paid to him. If not, contact your AVA and discuss with them what route you take. I'd also probably tell the 1st vet if he does not refund your money, then you'll be putting a report in to all qualifying agencies including the BBB and the AVA. I think it's AVA.. whichever the governing organization for vets is.

Definitely take her to the new vet, and I'd call them and explain your situation before you take her in, and let them know that you may have to make payments because this vet just took you through the wringer. You might also qualify for that assistance.. erm.. it's emergency medical assistance for kitties.. CareFirst, maybe?

Anyone know what the emergency vet assistance is?

I'm so sorry, and I know exactly how you feel. heading your way.

If you get really stuck PM me and I'll give you the number for my vet and perhaps they can at least let you know whether it really sounds like an issue to them over the phone. They're awesome, although I know you won't be able to take them to my vet, perhaps they'll still be able to assist in some way.

 

faolteam

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Was just wondering how ur cat is, definitely lose the vet im from ireland and i never heard such crap from a vet, id report him,
 

sharky

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Try a different vet... do tell what you have done ( ie tried a different vet and see about payment arrangements )
 
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