Here's the short version:
Our Nora cat (indoor) is 13, has been healthy, but for the past week has been puking a lot (anywhere from 1 to 4 times a day) and has significantly reduced thirst and appetite, no matter what we try to feed her. Her puke is either chewed up food or a small amount of clear liquid with a little white foam in it. The vet has run a bunch of tests and can't find anything wrong. Other than not eating or drinking, her behavior is more or less normal (though somewhat reduced activity) and she's still using the litter box. The past couple of days the only thing she's been able to keep down is a bit of chicken broth.
Here's the long version:
Nora is a spayed female, 13 yrs old, 7lbs (she's a small thing). She was an outdoor cat the first 5-6 years of her life, indoor since then.
She self-feeds on dry food but starting a month ago we started to feed her half a small can of fancy feast every day.
Last Saturday, in the evening, she threw up once. It was everything she had eaten earlier. The vomit was basically chewed up food.
Then the same exact thing happened on Sunday.
Then on Monday, she started to vomit more frequently, every 2-4 hours. After the 2nd or 3rd episode, her vomit was basically a small amount of clear fluid with a little bit of white foam in it.
On Tuesday we took her to the vet. They ran a bunch of tests (feces, urinary, blood, x-rays w/contrast in GI tract) and found nothing. No obstructions, no kidney or liver problems. She was slightly dehydrated so they injected some saline under her skin. The vet's best guess was some kind of stomach bug, so he put her on Metronizadole (Flagyl) as an antibiotic (once a day), and Metoclopramide for anti-nausea (twice a day). We have been giving these to her since then. She didn't puke this day!
On Wednesday she was pretty much her old self again, mostly behaving normally, but she was clearly not eating or drinking as much as usual - she didn't touch her hard food and only ate about half the regular amount of soft food. I also tried feeding her a tiny bit of the prescription food the vet had said to give her if she wouldn't eat, but she puked that up right away. She also puked a couple of more times overnight.
On Thursday we took her to the vet again since clearly we hadn't been able to control her vomiting. The vet gave her a shot of something to control her vomiting and provided us with some antacid pills we could give her (which we haven't done so far, but probably will later tonight). Later on Thursday she did eat a little of her Fancy Feast. She did NOT puke at all this day!
Friday she did puke a couple of times, and the only thing she was interested in ingesting was a bit of chicken broth - not interested in food or water.
Today (Saturday), she is still taking in a bit of chicken broth, and a little milk, and we tried feeding her a bit of chicken baby food. She ate a bit, and then puked it up an hour later.
Throughout all of this her behavior has been mostly her normal sweet self, although sometimes after puking she gets upset and goes and hides for a little while. Her activity level is a bit reduced, but she has continued grooming, continued using the litter box (though obviously not as often as normal), and clearly seems to be interested in eating, but usually when the food is presented to her she just sniffs at it and walks away.
So that's the story so far. A sick cat who is still (mostly) acting herself, but who has us really worried. I know it's good that she's not showing signs of lethargy, and that it's good that there's no bile or blood in her puke, but she clearly can't stay like this, not eating or drinking much, without something getting worse.
We have only a few theories about what might be going on...
- The vet said there could still be something serious like a stomach tumor that could cause this, that he has not yet tested for. But he doesn't think it's that. And I would think that something like that would probably build up slowly?
- The day this all started was the day we got our Xmas tree (a natural one). We do this every year. Our cat has never shown much interest in messing with the trees though and can't reach into the water resevoir. We don't put any tinsel on the tree and have not found any pine needles, etc. in her puke. The vet doesn't think the tree is involved, but we're removing it tomorrow.
- Maybe some kind of food allergy? But since she's been ill we've tried feeding her the vet's prescribed food, and baby food (pure chicken), and both of those appear to make her puke too. So if she's got an allergy to some ingredient, I can't think of what it would be.
- Some kind of reaction to too much fish-containing Fancy Feast? Today I realized that all the Fancy Feast flavors I've been giving her for the past 3-4 weeks have had some kind of fish in them, none of them have been just poultry or just beef, etc.
Anyway, I'm hoping some folks out there could share their ideas or stories about similar problems you've had, and how you (hopefully) overcame them!
Sincerely,
Going nuts in Oregon
P.S. Here is some more background info in case it is helpful...
Her past health issues have been minor:
- She had fleas once when she was 1 or 2.
- She had a tapeworm when she was 7 or 8.
- A year or two ago she started to cry sometimes when urinating. The vet thought she might have urinary
crystals, so we switched her to a urinary health formula dry food from Wellness which fixed this problem.
- Several months ago we started to notice an occasional spot of bright red blood by her litterbox and sometimes a bit of blood on her anus. Figuring it was due to possible constipation, We started to feed her Fancy Feast (half a small can) once a day, which fixed this problem.
- She never has coughed up hairballs (once in a while she'll puke and there'll be a fair amount of hair mixed in though, but nothing like a real hairball).
- She usually is an infrequent vomiter, typically only every couple of months.
Her diet history:
- She's never been a particularly finicky eater; switching cat food brands on her has never been a problem when we had to do it.
- Self-feeding dry food all her life; initially Chef's Blend, then about a year ago we switched her to Wellness indoor cat formula.
- Starting about a month ago we began feeding her half a can of Fancy Feast once a day (but allowed her to keep eating the dry food as she wanted too).
- She usually drinks a lot of water (definitely more than our previous few cats).
Our Nora cat (indoor) is 13, has been healthy, but for the past week has been puking a lot (anywhere from 1 to 4 times a day) and has significantly reduced thirst and appetite, no matter what we try to feed her. Her puke is either chewed up food or a small amount of clear liquid with a little white foam in it. The vet has run a bunch of tests and can't find anything wrong. Other than not eating or drinking, her behavior is more or less normal (though somewhat reduced activity) and she's still using the litter box. The past couple of days the only thing she's been able to keep down is a bit of chicken broth.
Here's the long version:
Nora is a spayed female, 13 yrs old, 7lbs (she's a small thing). She was an outdoor cat the first 5-6 years of her life, indoor since then.
She self-feeds on dry food but starting a month ago we started to feed her half a small can of fancy feast every day.
Last Saturday, in the evening, she threw up once. It was everything she had eaten earlier. The vomit was basically chewed up food.
Then the same exact thing happened on Sunday.
Then on Monday, she started to vomit more frequently, every 2-4 hours. After the 2nd or 3rd episode, her vomit was basically a small amount of clear fluid with a little bit of white foam in it.
On Tuesday we took her to the vet. They ran a bunch of tests (feces, urinary, blood, x-rays w/contrast in GI tract) and found nothing. No obstructions, no kidney or liver problems. She was slightly dehydrated so they injected some saline under her skin. The vet's best guess was some kind of stomach bug, so he put her on Metronizadole (Flagyl) as an antibiotic (once a day), and Metoclopramide for anti-nausea (twice a day). We have been giving these to her since then. She didn't puke this day!
On Wednesday she was pretty much her old self again, mostly behaving normally, but she was clearly not eating or drinking as much as usual - she didn't touch her hard food and only ate about half the regular amount of soft food. I also tried feeding her a tiny bit of the prescription food the vet had said to give her if she wouldn't eat, but she puked that up right away. She also puked a couple of more times overnight.
On Thursday we took her to the vet again since clearly we hadn't been able to control her vomiting. The vet gave her a shot of something to control her vomiting and provided us with some antacid pills we could give her (which we haven't done so far, but probably will later tonight). Later on Thursday she did eat a little of her Fancy Feast. She did NOT puke at all this day!
Friday she did puke a couple of times, and the only thing she was interested in ingesting was a bit of chicken broth - not interested in food or water.
Today (Saturday), she is still taking in a bit of chicken broth, and a little milk, and we tried feeding her a bit of chicken baby food. She ate a bit, and then puked it up an hour later.
Throughout all of this her behavior has been mostly her normal sweet self, although sometimes after puking she gets upset and goes and hides for a little while. Her activity level is a bit reduced, but she has continued grooming, continued using the litter box (though obviously not as often as normal), and clearly seems to be interested in eating, but usually when the food is presented to her she just sniffs at it and walks away.
So that's the story so far. A sick cat who is still (mostly) acting herself, but who has us really worried. I know it's good that she's not showing signs of lethargy, and that it's good that there's no bile or blood in her puke, but she clearly can't stay like this, not eating or drinking much, without something getting worse.
We have only a few theories about what might be going on...
- The vet said there could still be something serious like a stomach tumor that could cause this, that he has not yet tested for. But he doesn't think it's that. And I would think that something like that would probably build up slowly?
- The day this all started was the day we got our Xmas tree (a natural one). We do this every year. Our cat has never shown much interest in messing with the trees though and can't reach into the water resevoir. We don't put any tinsel on the tree and have not found any pine needles, etc. in her puke. The vet doesn't think the tree is involved, but we're removing it tomorrow.
- Maybe some kind of food allergy? But since she's been ill we've tried feeding her the vet's prescribed food, and baby food (pure chicken), and both of those appear to make her puke too. So if she's got an allergy to some ingredient, I can't think of what it would be.
- Some kind of reaction to too much fish-containing Fancy Feast? Today I realized that all the Fancy Feast flavors I've been giving her for the past 3-4 weeks have had some kind of fish in them, none of them have been just poultry or just beef, etc.
Anyway, I'm hoping some folks out there could share their ideas or stories about similar problems you've had, and how you (hopefully) overcame them!
Sincerely,
Going nuts in Oregon
P.S. Here is some more background info in case it is helpful...
Her past health issues have been minor:
- She had fleas once when she was 1 or 2.
- She had a tapeworm when she was 7 or 8.
- A year or two ago she started to cry sometimes when urinating. The vet thought she might have urinary
crystals, so we switched her to a urinary health formula dry food from Wellness which fixed this problem.
- Several months ago we started to notice an occasional spot of bright red blood by her litterbox and sometimes a bit of blood on her anus. Figuring it was due to possible constipation, We started to feed her Fancy Feast (half a small can) once a day, which fixed this problem.
- She never has coughed up hairballs (once in a while she'll puke and there'll be a fair amount of hair mixed in though, but nothing like a real hairball).
- She usually is an infrequent vomiter, typically only every couple of months.
Her diet history:
- She's never been a particularly finicky eater; switching cat food brands on her has never been a problem when we had to do it.
- Self-feeding dry food all her life; initially Chef's Blend, then about a year ago we switched her to Wellness indoor cat formula.
- Starting about a month ago we began feeding her half a can of Fancy Feast once a day (but allowed her to keep eating the dry food as she wanted too).
- She usually drinks a lot of water (definitely more than our previous few cats).
