Need some advice with old Kitty

Hi guys,

Basically I'm looking after my girlfriend's cat and staying at her place since her mum and her are away on holiday.

Kitty went to the vet just before my gf left as she is getting very old (she's about 17) and is suffering from quite a few problems.

The main thing she was given was some sort of wheat husk (I can't remember the name) to try and ease her constipation. She was also diagnosed with early stage kidney failure, so she was perscribed something called Fortekor 2.5mg.

The problem is, since my girlfriend left (she left a couple of days after her mum), Kitty seems to have became quite ill. She's completely lost her appetite, and just sits upstairs on mummy's bed and does nothing. She usually has a massive appetite, and she seemed to be okay with eating food with the wheat husk in, but now she barely touches anything. She isn't drinking too much either, which is very worrying as she usually drinks lots. She's also thrown up twice, last night and this afternoon which mostly seemed to be stomach fluids since she hasn't eaten much...

Kitty is VERY close to her mummy and quite close to my girlfriend too. I know she's depressed (or very depressed) that her two main care givers has gone, but does anyone think I need to talk to the vet about what she's doing right now? I mean, she could just be depressed, but why the complete lack of appetite and the throwing up? She also seems to be weeping slightly from one eye I noticed earlier.

Does anyone have any ideas? I care for Kitty very much too, but I have no idea what to do. Especially since it's Saturday and the vet we usually take her to will most likely be mostly closed

Thanks!!!

I have a 17 year old cat with CRF.
You need to find a vet some how that will see her.
Illneses go very fast in old cats.
She might need fluids for the kidney problems.

decreased appetite, thirst, and activity can all be very bad signs and what you should do is get her to a vet immediately, even if it is a different one.

Could you maybe call and find out if there are any vets that her regular vet associates with?

Perhaps, if you can do so in a timely manner (as in not waiting days), you should get into contact with your girlfriend and see if there is an emergency vet she uses.

Thanks for the replies, everybody. Lucky she seems quite a bit better...

And we don't really have a regular vet or an emergency vet for her -- unfrotunately Kitty is so difficult, vet visits are rather rare apart from recently (lucky on the flip side she's hard as old nails).

I actually spoke to an emergency vet over the phone (I phoned Celia Hammond where we've been taking her before and got a mobile number for an emergency vet from the answer phone). I explained the situation to the vet and was advised to keep as close an eye on her as I can, basically.

She suggested the throwing up and decreased appetite, etc, are very possibly phsychological, and it does very possibly seem mostly like depression to me. I'm worried about rushing her to a vet as this will just stress her out even more, and that's the last thing she needs. Silly cat
I'm also worried about the side effects of the Fortekor (maybe taking it with a decreased appetite/empty stomach due to the depression isn't helping?), but the leaflet with it mentions nothing about throwing up.

She seemed quite perky last night anyway (she's a house cat, but she went out for a LONG walk which is unlike her, and even almost caught a bug -- VERY cute ). Although she threw up once slightly (?????), she ate a little and drank lots after. She even did a poo this morning, which is very good (she's usually very constipated, so the wheat husk is working...).

Anyway, I'm meant to talk the vet we took her to last week anyway for a check up and to discuss the things we had her in for last week, so I'll make sure I call asap on Monday morning and try to figure out what's up with her.

But it's most likely depression... I think I need to buy her some nice raw mince