Help Please! sorry this is long :)

Hi Everyone!

I am a relatively new poster so bear with me because this is going to be kind of long!

On Friday night my friend Anna was at her parents house and her parents commented on a cat they had seen lurking around the house that day. Upon inspection my friend found the cat to be completely emaciated and rather unresponsive. She tried to feed her and give her water but the cat refused. The cat just kind of stood/crouched and looked extremely weak, almost on the verge of collapse. Anna took the cat to the emergency vet friday night and the vet said that the cat was unspayed, about a year old, and dehydrated and starving but otherwise everything appeared ok. He said to feed the cat using a dropper if we could. He said to take the cat to her regular vet during normal hours which anna is doing tomorrow. we were able to feed the cat friday night, baby food, using the medicine dropper.

I went over friday night to see the cat (being the cat lover i am!) and have been over there to visit every day since. The cat now is eating wet food on her own (VERY hungry kitty) but has not used the litter. she also never seems to lay down. she kind of falls asleep on her feet, standing very still, closing her eyes, and swaying back and forth until she stumbles and catches herself. she seems very unsteady also, she will shake herself off and kind of splay out her legs as though she is going to fall over. She is very friendly, will weakly nuzzle us purring.

Any ideas what is going on with her?
Thanks!!!!!!!!

I'm guessing she had some severe trama in her young life - where she didn't get a lot of rest, always had to be on the alert for dangers from everything. So she doesn't know HOW to relax and have a good nights sleep.

If you keep her and spay her after she puts on weight and is healthier (do not let her outside), then eventually she will be secure enough to act like a normal cat.

First, thank you to you and your friend for looking after her

Hmmm.... whatever is happening with her, it sounds very uncomfortable. My guess would be there is a blockage somewhere that is preventing her from using the poddy and it is causing so much pain/ discomfort that she can't lay down

I would tell your friend to make this kitty an emergency appt as soon as possible. If she is unable to urinate/deficate she could very well die from it. Plus, you do'nt know how long she has been in that condition- I'm afraid she needs urgent care.

Please keep us updated, and good luck

Did the E-vet give her IV fluids to rehydrate her? If not,she may be so dehydrated that it's making her extremely weak. I wouldn't wait until tomorrow to take her in,she needs to go now. Bless you both for saving this kitty!

just checking in on the responses, i will tell my friend about moving the appt with vet to today and tell her to check about iv fluids. but good news- she used her litter box finally and she meowed for the first time since she came to her new (temp? permanant?) home!!! I have a sneaking suspicion this cat might be headed towards my house though in the end. Anna has a 21 year old cat who might not adjust well to a new addition....

She could have been abandoned since she was a very small kitten and never taught human socialisation. She is probably also very weak still, it might be worth feeding her a high quality kitten food as it has more of the things needed for growth.

With the litter issue, tell your friend to put soil into the tray and to gradually add litter. The cat has probably been abandoned outside for a while and may be used to using soil. When Ziggy got pregnant and I had to keep her in, she would only use her litter as a last resort because I wouldn't let her outside. (I had taken her litter tray away as she never used it)

It's good of you both to look after her and I hope one of you decide to keep her, or at least find her a good home yourselves as it will take much longer in a shelter.

What you describe is alot like how Maisie behaved when I got her though she is alot older. She never used to lay down just stay hunched up looking really depressed. She was underweight, dehydrated, bad teeth, fleas... but once the major things like the dehydration and teeth were sorted out she improved so quickly and was soon sprawling out on the floor, bed, chairs...

So I`m thinking she is blessed to have found you and the fact she is eating is great! I`m sure she will be like a different cat in no time.

Oh, I was thinking, Maisie was all boney so I thought maybe it was painful for her to lay down so I got her some Vetbed and a nice squidge cat bed. She got comfy on those but I used a folded up duvet at first because I didn`t think I would keep her and it worked just as well.

Good luck!

P.S. What are you going to call her?

Hello again!
In answer to the last posters question- we are calling her Milia which means striped in Swahili (according to my sister, if not it is still a good name for her!) Next question, she is now using the litter (alot!) and has been to the vet who drew blood . We have no results back yet, now we are concerned because Anna's other cat, Bessie, had contact with Milia by accident all during the day when anna was at work because she mananged to get the door to the basement (where Milia is staying) open. Question is, what dangers has this exposed Bessie to since we do not know yet what illnesses Milia may be carrying?
Thanks!!!

I am double posting this from my other thread - sorry if this is a no no here, let me know and i can delete it!! I just was not sure if anyone would read my next question in an old thread


Hello again!
In answer to the last posters question- we are calling her Milia which means striped in Swahili (according to my sister, if not it is still a good name for her!) Next question, she is now using the litter (alot!) and has been to the vet who drew blood . We have no results back yet, now we are concerned because Anna's other cat, Bessie, had contact with Milia by accident all during the day when anna was at work because she mananged to get the door to the basement (where Milia is staying) open. Question is, what dangers has this exposed Bessie to since we do not know yet what illnesses Milia may be carrying?
Thanks!!!

It would be difficult to say what dangers the other cat was exposed to until you get results back from the other kitty. At any rate, it's too late now to prevent it. Once you get the results, if the kitty has any problem let the vet know your other kitty was exposed to it.

Milia may not have had any vacinations, or may at least not be up-to-date with them. However Bessie I'm sure is up-to-date with hers and so should be okay when it comes to main catty illnesses unless she has had indoor-only vacininations.

Was going to mention on my other post to feed her wet food because it contains more fluids and will hydrate her more. The body also absorbs more of it.
It might also be worth feeding her kitten food for a while to get her strength up (This is just a suggestion and is not based on experience)

How is the eating going anyway?

She is eating ravenously. For the first night she had baby food- chicken and beef because we were feeding her with the dropper. then a few days of canned, now she is having canned for dinner and kitten dry food left out during the day when noone is home. she eats the dry food fine but will sit and finish an entire can of canned in one setting as long as we sit there with her to kind of fork it out of the crevaces of the can. the vet said she probably got hit by a car because she has one blind eye and the leg, hip and shoulder on the same side show signs of past breaks that have healed incorrectly

POOR ANGEL!

I am so glad she sought your friend out (and yes I do believe she DID!).

It rips me up to hear of our friends getting into such awful situations.

Originally Posted by booboo1

She is eating ravenously. For the first night she had baby food- chicken and beef because we were feeding her with the dropper. then a few days of canned, now she is having canned for dinner and kitten dry food left out during the day when noone is home. she eats the dry food fine but will sit and finish an entire can of canned in one setting as long as we sit there with her to kind of fork it out of the crevaces of the can. the vet said she probably got hit by a car because she has one blind eye and the leg, hip and shoulder on the same side show signs of past breaks that have healed incorrectly

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Can I suggest you scoop the wet food out of the can and put it in a dish for her? A stainless steel bowl would be best (available at the dollar stores - I bought 10 of them). When using the bowls please also wash them well after each feeding. I put mine in the dishwasher so they are sterilized.

Great news!!!! We found Milia's owner!!! She lives across the street from my friends parents house. they saw the owner out in the yard last night and she came over and asked if they had seen a tiger cat! I guess she (milia) had been missing for two months and they had took out an add in the paper and made posters back when Milia went missing. Then they had gone on vacation for a month so noone was home to look for Milia until she turned up at my friends parents house last friday! The owner is coming to pick her up at three and is taking her directly back to the vet. We will be sorry to see her go but glad she belonged to someone!