Should I take my cat to the vet?

I'm debating whether or not I should take my cat to the vet. I'm leaning more towards yes but I wanted to get some opinions first.

Here's her background:

I received her from an elderly woman who passed away. She is an indoor cat, and the only cat in the household. She is about 5 years old. I took her to the vet last Sept to get her yearly shots and the vet said she tested positive for Feline Leukemia. But the vet also said my cat was really healthy and he was suprised she tested positive. He said to get her tested again in 6 months to check and see if she was still positive because it could have been a false positive, some kind of error in the test, etc. But I did not take her to get tested again because really I just didn't want to know. She is very healthy and I had no reason to get her tested since tehre is no treatment for the disease anyway.

She is due for her yearly shots again in Sept and I planned on taking her to get them and seeing if she was still testing positive for Feline Leukemia.

However, for the past few days she has been acting weird. She has not been eating very much. When normally she will wake me up in teh morning to feed her, and then when i get home from work she will be right at the door to greet me and then meows to be fed. But the past few days I've only filled up her bowl about 2 times. She has just been kind of laying around. She hasn't been meowing at all. She normally meows at you if you talk to her alot. I tried rubbing her belly which normalyl makes her kick my hand away with her back claws or she tries to bite me but she didn't do anything. When I came home from work last night she was in the kitchen with her food but then she just went on the floor and laid down. She didn't wake me up to feed her this morning and her bowl was still pretty full from last night. I brought a handful of food over to my bed to try and get her to eat and she did eat some. Then she just kind of laid on my bed for a while then jumped off and went under my bed to hide.

I almost called off work today because I was worried something was going to happen to her while I'm at work. I live alone so I have noone who can check on her. I'm working 12 hours and won't be home until 730. I'm wondering if I should find a local animal hospital to take her too if she's not better? If I should wait till tomorrow morning (i'm off the next 2 days) Or if I should just wait a few days and see if theres any change.

Any thoughts/opinionss would be greatly appreciated!

You have to take her now, cats fail fast if they don't eat.

I can only tell you what I would do now....after having gone through a devastating exprience with Feline Leukemia. I WOULD TAKE HER IN NOW.

Something you said...

...I did not take her to get tested again because really I just didn't want to know. She is very healthy and I had no reason to get her tested since there is no treatment for the disease anyway.

Click to expand...

While there is no cure (remember, there are no cures for many other chronic conditions, either!) there are many supportive treatments which you could learn about from other people who have been managing their FeLV kitties' health for years. Maybe it's time to get proactive!

You have the benefit of knowing that she may be positive....I only wish I had had that knowledge three years ago.

She needs a Vet now.

I would take her in as soon as you can. Even if she is negative for FeLV...it must be something else that is making her ill. The sooner it gets diagnosed and treated...the better.
A reduced appetite is VERY worrisome.....

I agree with the others. Take her into a vet ASAP. When a cat loses their appetite for more than a day or two, it's generally not a good thing...

I'm not familiar with FeLV, but generally speaking, there are treatments available for a lot of feline diseases. I can understand your feeling of "not wanting to know", b/c I have two FIP cats that I love dearly, and I didn't want to hear their diagnosis either. But it's better to know than to not know, b/c at least you have a chance to treat your kitty. If you wait too long, it may be too late. If I would have waited too long to treat my furbies, it may have been too late. But b/c I found out what was wrong with them, they are being treated and are doing well..

Please take your furbie in to be checked.

~KK~

Hi
Thanks so much for saving this cat.
Please do not get the shots. Go for a check up though. You want to know if your cat is sick an treat it if possible before thnings get worse.
If your cat has Feline Leukemia, then the shots cannot help. If your cat is sicl there is a weakened immune system so the shots can be more dangerous then usual. This is besides the fact that I dont believe (like many others) that after the first set of shots as a kitten, that boosters do any good and in fact can cause harm.

I find these stats unreal
http://www.vaclib.org/legal/PetsDying.htm
and another
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/F...cinations.html

She really needs some treatment ASAP. Hiding calls for emergency care because that means the cat really doesn't feel well.

I took her to the hospital yesterday afternooon and she was very dehydrated, has a high temperature and anemic. She also does have this feline leukemia. She started eating this morning on her own. They called me and told me that they have her on ice and asked for my permission to give her a blood transfusion. All in all this hospital stay is going to cost well over $1,000. Its pretty steep but worth it in my opinion.

I just hope I get to bring her home from the hospital. I am not going to let them do a bone marrow biopsy or do chemo because number one its very expensive! And number 2 I don't want to put my kitty through that. I'm hoping this blood transfusion will help and maybe I can bring her home tonight. I don't want to keep her there too long and make her suffer.

Then therse the option of putting her to sleep, but oh my I can't even think about that right now. I've been crying all morning. I'm going to see how this blood transfusion goes and take it from there...

The blood transfusion should help her. My Lucy and Stripe were saved by them. Stripe had Crf though. Lucy had a shot then ept needing blood transfuions every few months. So sorry your Cat has Feline Leuemia. our neighbors Cat had it and he did live a while with it.

Take it one day at a time. To think about pts is too much to absorb with everything else.
Keep us updated.

She is B positive and they do not have that blood in the hospital so they have to get it shipped from out of state. And it will be here tomorrow so she'll get the transfusion tomorrow.

Her temp is 105, she just vomitted all of the food they had been feeding her. I'm a wreck

Thats terrible she has to wait for blood. Mine got it fast at the Er Vet and it helped.

I lost a cat to Feline leukemia, and it was heartbreaking. One day he seemed fine, and then suddenly he wasn't. I see no reason to have you read the details, but it wasn't pretty. I took him to the ER vet who told me she could probably give him a few weeks with meds, but I couldn't put him through that. We opted to end his pain.
I truly hope they can do something for poor Lucy.

I am sorry to hear about your cat and what you are going through at the moment. I am not sure if you are aware of a new treatment for FELV/FIV. It was just approved last March by the FDA and it's called Lymphocyte T-Cell Immunomodulator (LTCI) by IMULAN Therapuetics.


Check this site for more information:-
http://www.imulan.com/felv-fiv-treatment.html

This treatment is fairly expensive but the success rate has been reported to be encouraging.

And here's a youtube video made by the owner of two FELV positive cats undergoing this treatment:-


I hope that if you want, you can talk to your vet about this.

Stay strong!

I went to see her tonight and got to be with her for about an hour or so. I just held her and petted her. She was very sleepy but he ears still wiggled when I talked to her. Her name is Miss Kitty by the way.

The doctors gave her some kind of anti inflammatory med and it made her temperature go down but she's still very tired and worn out. And more than likely will be like that until she gets the blood tomorow. She's still not eating though. After she gets the blood tomorrow I am going to bring her home. I don't want her to suffer anymore in the hospital and also I can't afford the bill! Im going to watch her for a few days and if she doesn't improve then I will take her to the vet to get put to sleep. But hopefully this blood will help for at least a little while...

I'm sorry, I really hope the blood helps. Hang in there. BIG

I hope the transfusion helps!