Nausea/Vomiting/No desire to eat - ideas?

Eden is an approximately 3-4 y/o Siamese who was abused until I got her a year ago. She was pregnant, dehydrated, starved, & had a neurological issue. She was tested then for FeLV/FIV & was negative.

She has regained her balance - however has an occasional seizure (not on any meds to control seizures).

Labor Day weekend, she was drooling often, vomiting foamy white liquid, not real active, but did eat & keep all food she ate down (she only vomited foamy white liquid ).

Fri Sept 11th she was in to the vet for an exam & her yearly booster shots. She was fine, temp normal, heart good, the whole 9 yards. She got her vaccinations without issue.

Fast forward to Wed Sept 23rd. She seemed a little less mellow, but I attributed it to playing too rough with Dory (she was being rowdy Tues PM). Thursday she's definitely off - drooling (just sitting there drooling), vomiting foamy white liquid, not eating (she would sit & stare at food - but not eat much). I gave her some canned, as normal, and she ate it. We booked a Fri AM vet appt. Thurs later in the day she threw up the canned I gave her.

Fri AM (today) - vet appt. She won't eat Fri AM. Vet takes temp, normal. Heart, lungs - normal. Palpates abdomen - no masses felt, nothing abnormal, bladder not full. Examined her mouth & under/around tongue, as well as as much of her throat as he could - find nothing there to be causing this. Has lost HALF A POUND in 2 weeks!! We ran a complete CBC/GHP - nothing is out of normal ranges.

I'm baffled. Obviously the weight loss could be caused by not eating - but what is causing her to not want to eat???? The thing is, until Wed - she's been eating all her normal portion of wet food & is the first pig in the dry food when I refill it (free fed dry food).

I have gotten her to eat canned food today, and she is getting small portions multiple times a day....she'll only eat a spoonful, tops, at one time. I made a slurry of canned A/D (high calorie Rx diet), which she licked some of. I'm adding a dabble of the A/D into her other wet food.

She's also getting laxatone in the unlikely event something isn't passing through. If she's not eating/much perkier by Monday, the vet wants to do x-rays & possibly surgery to determine what's up with her intestines. I'm trying to monitor her to see what her poop looks like (if I shut her in a room she'll hold her poop in until she gets let out).

Thoughts/ideas??

I have a few but let me formulate them into words Normal folks understand

Yikes, Nat!!! That you, sharky and the vet can figure this out w/o surgery!!!

I'd do the xrays.

Maybe she ate, or tried to eat something? That wasn't food. And it's stuck somewhere between her throat and stomach? If it were in her lower throat area that would casue vomiting, her trying to hack it up. And it would certainly be uncomfortable, making her not want to eat.

Whatever it is, I hope it gets sorted out soon!

sounds like pancreatitis to me. That is exactly what Stomper does when he gets an attack. He also has triaditis, but the pancreatitis is what makes him vomit, then he drools and is literally afraid of his food dish.

Definitely get the x-rays, ( is she pooping? if so she isn't blocked or opstipated.) If her bowels are full, do an enema. if she cleans out most likely something else. We though stomper was constipated/blocked at first too. His fPLI came back a 36. That test is extremely expensive. I paid $100 for the first one and $160 for the second time. ( different vet offices, one an internal medicine specialist).

Treatment for him is cyproheptadine ( or mirtazapine good for appetite stimulation and nausea both) for appetite, a little buphrnophine and some sub-Q fluids. Plus prednisolone. Also the TAMU cobalamin protocol is great for any intestinal issues/malabsorption. After starting it Stomper has finally started to gain back some of the weight he lost. He was 13 pounds and is now back up to 11 1/2. He was a skeletal 10 pounds last october.

Could she have pancreatitis if her bloodwork all came back normal? I know Amylase is on the bloodpanel & it was within normal ranges - I'm not sure if lipase is on there or not (just don't remember & don't have it handy right now to check).

She had no feces build up in her intestines or anything, the vet said it all felt clear. Now whether or not she has something stuck he couldn't feel or elsewhere, I can't say. She is eating very well now, small meals often - and hasn't vomitied any food back up. I haven't seen her poop, with multiple cats I'm not sure whats hers & what isn't (and she doesn't handle being seperated well). She is still drooling - but not vomiting.

When Kismet stopped eating (similar symptoms, vomiting white foam, drooling) we NEVER figured out what caused it, as by the time I took her to the vet she had FLS, so that was the main concern. It still bothers me we never figured out the initial cause, but keeping her eating (force feeding) got her over whatever the original illness was. She went from 12 pounds to 5 pounds and I almost lost her, but she wasn't eating as all.

Good that she will eat at ALL, but obviously you know that keeping her fed and hydrated is the best thing you can do for her if she is undiagnosed. For feeding I have personally had REALLY good luck with cyproheptadine as an appetite stimulant..... might be worth a try, it really doesn't have harmful or longterm side effects.

Even if you don't figure it out, keeping her healthy is all you can do. Good luck and I'll be checking in on this thread

Originally Posted by white cat lover

Could she have pancreatitis if her bloodwork all came back normal? I know Amylase is on the bloodpanel & it was within normal ranges - I'm not sure if lipase is on there or not (just don't remember & don't have it handy right now to check).

She had no feces build up in her intestines or anything, the vet said it all felt clear. Now whether or not she has something stuck he couldn't feel or elsewhere, I can't say. She is eating very well now, small meals often - and hasn't vomitied any food back up. I haven't seen her poop, with multiple cats I'm not sure whats hers & what isn't (and she doesn't handle being seperated well). She is still drooling - but not vomiting.

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Yes, her bloodwork could be completely normal. Stomper's was, it was actually perfect. Then as he started getting more and longer episodes, he would get a slight increase in his ALT, but his ALk and AST were normal. His amylase and lipase have never been elevated. For some reason the typical markers for pancreatitis in humans and dogs don't hold true for cats. I don't know if this is because they are obligate carnivores or not.

When Stomper's bloodwork was normal, that was when his first fPLI was sent to the GI lab at TAMU. It was from the same draw and was off the charts high at 36.

As a side note, there is an increased belief among feline practitioners that pancreatitis attacks may be the trigger for a good number of Hepatic lipidosis cases.It is hard to detect, transitory and really there is no specific "trigger" for it.

This is a good basic article on feline pancreatitis, even though it is from 2003
http://www.vin.com/proceedings/Proce...6623&O=Generic,

I hope Eden is doing better.

I believe pancreatitis is a separate test. When Riley was so sick last year all his regular bloodwork was normal, but they were going to do a pancreatitis test after, if he hadn't responded to the syringe-feeding. It may be one they have to send out for testing.