My cats are always ill! Need advice/help!

In September (2010) one of my youngest fur babies, Loki, ended up with ringworm. That turned into a long battle with three of our 5 cats that finally just ended in January. It was a complete and utter nightmare!
About a month or so ago, my oldest male (he's 6) Simon, came down with a bad UTI. He stayed at the vet for 4 days. They did X-Rays on him and found a strange mass in his abdominal cavity. I was told that they had only seen it once before and it was calcified fat tissue. While Simon was recuperating, one of our other males, Loki started acting strange. He spent the night at the vet with a fever of unknown origin. He came home with antibiotics.
We took one of our girls, Maya, to be vaccinated on a Thursday. That Saturday night, we noticed she had lost fur in the area of the vaccinations. We took her back and were told that she had a rare reaction to the vaccine. She got a steroid shot and antibiotics.
Then, Simon got sick again. It ended up that he was majorly constipated. I saw the X-Ray and I've never seen a cat full of that much poop in my life. He got some enemas, stayed overnight at the vet, came home with a laxative and more antibiotics.
We finally just let Simon out of the sick room and our youngest girl, Maggie started to act strange last night. She was squinting one eye and there was a lot of yellow, crusty discharge. We brought her into the vet today and she was diagnosed with conjunctivitis. Oy vey!
So, things have not slowed down since September when we got our new kittens, Loki and Seamus. They all keep getting sick with other things and I wonder if I'm doing something wrong. They are all loved very much, we play with them, always have fresh water, they get a small amount of dry food per day along with wet food, we live in a decent sized house, they have 5 litter boxes (we have 5 cats), and they are all completely indoor cats.
The vet suggested we try Feliway to keep them happy but it's much to expensive for us to afford to by one spray bottle or one diffuser per month. I know we have a lot of cats, but that can't be helped now. We love them and I refuse to take them to the shelter.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what we should do and/or what, maybe, we aren't doing? Or am I just overreacting to a run of bad luck? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for listening!

Welcome to TCS, Cemeterysiren! That sure is a lot to handle! <<<Hugs>>>

If it's not just a run of bad luck, then stress and nutrition are the two things I would look at.

First, if I were you, I'd drop the kibble, completely. It's not a species-appropriate diet for an obligate carnivore and it causes a host of issues including chronic dehydration, which can - and often does - lead to urinary tract problems and constipation.

Second, what kind(s) of wet foods are you feeding? How much and how often?

Third, how well - or not - do your cats get along?

By the way - you can get Feliway fairly cheaply on Amazon.com.. in fact, right now you can buy a diffuser and single dose on sale for $22.75 (from $48!!), and a pack of six refills for $72.75 (which is only $12.13 each) or single refills at $12.75 each (from $42.48).

http://www.amazon.com/Feliway-Plug-I...8767927&sr=1-1

AC

P.S. Many, many TCS member are multiple-cat owners, and five cats is NOT considered to be "a lot of cats" by quite a few of us.

So your cat that had been vaccinated, was her only symptom just fur loss at the injection site? That's fairly common. Sometimes the fur grows back, sometimes it doesn't. Unless this area was red and hot to touch, it seems like total overkill to me that your Vet would panic and give antibiotics and a steroid shot, wow! I'm always leary of Vets who are real quick to give steroid shots. And antibiotics shouldn't be used willy-nilly unless truly warranted as they lead to antibiotic resistance.

Read up on: injection site alopecia (in cats)

As for your cat Simon, who has the calcified mass in his abdomen, is surgery not something being considered to remove the mass? Could it in any way have lead to the constipation? Doesn't seem normal for a 6 yr old cat to develop severe constipation like that unless something else is going on.......considering you feed canned twice daily. Has bloodwork been done on him to rule out health issues that could lead to dehydration (which can then lead to constipation)?....like diabetes, kidney disease....?

I surely do not mean to upset you at all but cancerous tumors are often calcified........which is why they show up on xrays so easily. Not saying this is the case here but I'd certainly be getting a second opinion (get the xray films and have another Vet review, explain Simon's history, his recent extensive constipation)..........I personally wouldn't just accept that my cat has a calcified abdominal mass and no further investigation be done. Just my opinion. I have 5 indoor cats myself and have had cats for 25 yrs.

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

By the way - you can get Feliway fairly cheaply on Amazon.com.. in fact, right now you can buy a diffuser and single dose on sale for $22.75 (from $48!!), and a pack of six refills for $72.75 (which is only $12.13 each) or single refills at $12.75 each (from $42.48).

http://www.amazon.com/Feliway-Plug-I...8767927&sr=1-1

AC

P.S. Many, many TCS member are multiple-cat owners, and five cats is NOT considered to be "a lot of cats" by quite a few of us.

Click to expand...

I too have five cats, and Welcome to TCS. I am glad I found this place and it is nice to surrounded by other's who have multiple cats!!!! Thanks Auntie Crazy for the Feliway link!! Much cheaper than Petsmart

I am so sorry for your string of bad luck with the health of your cats. I honestly don't think you are doing anything wrong. It is just alot all at once and I think you will get a break soon.

I would look at diet, just to make any positive healthy changes you can at this point. I have also heard of vaccine injection site reactions, so this is common, but I would re-think vaccines on that particular cat again, or find out from a vet about modified-live vaccines vs. live vaccines. I feel vets over-vaccinate cats, especially cats over three, do not need vaccines each year anymore. That is another subject though.

I wish you the best with your five kitties!! I just think you have been dealt alot and are handling it quite well. Hang in there, your cats need you

After reading The_food_lady's reply, I went back and reread your post, Cemeterysiren.

TFL is right that your vet seems to be, maybe, a bit antibiotic-happy. I don't recall ever before reading or hearing about a vet giving antibiotics to a cat for constipation, for sure.

Feralvr also mentioned something that I'd like to second; annual vaccinations - especially for indoor kitties - are pretty much unneeded, and there's a lot of evidence out there that they cause as much or more harm than they're meant to prevent. None of my cats has received any since their kitten shots, except for the required-by-law rabies.

It's possible some of the stuff you've had to deal with was actually brought home, or brought on, by the multiple vet visits. Do your cats travel well? Or handle the exams well?

AC

^^^ Wow, I had missed that too......antibiotics for constipation. Wow. It makes no sense to give antibiotics for constipation. What does make sense, however, is further investigation of a calcified abdominal mass and why such a young cat would be that constipated.

I would seriously be questioning a Vet who seems to be prescribing antibiotics for everything; a fever (could be viral? and then antibiotics wouldn't even work as they only work for bacterial infections; and was any bloodwork done to get to the root of the fever of unknown origin?)....constipation.......fur loss at a vaccination injection site. Yikes.

Hello, and welcome. I'm so glad you found tcs. How wonderful that you have 5 cats. So do I!

I think you are having a run of bad luck. It happens. Are your cats getting along alright? You didn't say anything about behavior issues. Feliway is really for calming if cats are stressed and not getting along, or are upset in some way. I use Feliway because some of my cats have mental or emotional or behavior problems. I knew this when I got them. I do buy the diffuser refills from Amazon, where the price is best. I'm slowly reducing the use of Feliway in my house, as my last cat arrived in September, and things are pretty stable now.

As far as food, I think this is very important. If you read the nutrition subform, you will find out a lot about good cat nutrition. I've had cats for over 50 years, and I've been feeding cats kibble since it was invented in the 1960's. I've had the vast majority of my cats live long lives on mostly kibble. By long lives, I mean 18+ years. Also, most of my cats go their whole lives without needing dental work of any kind, including teeth cleaning. And I don't brush their teeth.

Each cat is different, and you have to look at each individual, and the whole picture. There are good quality kibble foods. But canned food is a good idea, too, because it increases the fluid the cats take in, and this is good for their kidneys. I feed my cats two measured amounts of kibble meals a day, and one small (1 oz. per cat) meal of canned food. I feed what I consider the highest quality food available, also considering what my cats like and do well on. My cats are all healthy (knock on wood).

So, I say be sure that you are feeding a good quality kibble, and good quality canned food. And use Feliway diffusers as needed.

And hopefully, soon, your luck will turn around. As far as your cat with the mass and constipation, I'd be concerned about him and follow up on that with your vet, or get another opinion.

Best of luck to you and all your kitties. It's great you take such good care of them and get them to the vet when they need to go. I hope they are well, soon. Lots of going out to you and them that they are in the pink, very soon.

Robin

Thank you ladies for your care and concern. You all bring up very valid points and I will try to address all of them now.

I will consider dropping the kibble all together. For kibble, they all get Purina One Urinary Tract Health. For wet food, they were getting prescription Purina ST/OX but they snubbed it after about a week. I'm now giving them Friskies Special Diet. I give a handful of kibble for each cat in the morning for all of them to graze on. For wet food, I give two 5 oz. cans in the morning and two 5 oz. cans at night. I've been doing this for about a week now. They used to get nothing but dry food and were only given wet food for a treat. I'm trying to work out how much food to give them.

They all get along well for the most part. Simon and Maya are bonded and she is really the only other cat that Simon "likes". He can't be bothered with the others. Maya loves everyone, Seamus loves everyone, Maggie plays mostly with Loki and Loki plays with Seamus and Maggie. Phew! No real problems but I do notice that Simon will grab Loki by the neck a lot and Loki will go limp. Simon is just a skittish, nervous cat. He was like that as a kitten and he's like that almost 7 years later.

No blood work or tests were performed when Loki was diagnosed with a fever of unknown origin. They gave him fluids and a day later, the fever was gone. They felt that they didn't need to do any tests.

I DO believe my vet's office is antibiotic crazy. Simon was on antibiotic for the UTI, then the after the constipation. Loki was on antibiotic because he had a fever. Maya was on antibiotic because she had a reaction to the vaccinations. It's nuts that they give out medicine like candy. There's also some other reasons why I'm considering leaving that practice but I will discuss that at a later date. I will just say that I was not happy with how Simon was handled and how I was treated when I had to bring him in on an emergency basis for the UTI.

As for vaccinations, we really haven't kept up on any of their vaccinations over the years. The only reason we vaccinated them now was because we had waited so long and Simon did bite the vet when he was trying to x-ray him. I don't want anyone attempting to remove my cat's head to find out if he has rabies. I don't believe that they should be vaccinated every year either.

As for Maya's hair loss, when we first noticed it, her skin was very red and irritated. It looked the same way the next day when we took her to the vet. The area was a little swollen too. We were actually frightened that it might be ringworm again, but we were told that it wasn't. You could tell by looking at it that she had scratched herself in a few spots and I caught her scratching right before taking her to the vet that day. Whether it was warranted or not, the redness soon disappeared and the hair is now trying to grow back. I will do some reading on Injection Site Alopecia though. Thank you.

Back to Simon's problems. No, surgery has not been considered for removal of the masses. We really just cannot afford it. I've been having a lot of medical problems the past 6 months and we've already spent close to a grand on them between the ringworm and the problems that are happening now. I do plan on taking him to another vet for a second opinion. I am definitely NOT content just taking their word for it that the masses are "calcified fat cells". If it does turn out to be cancer then all we can do is give him lots of love, spoil him rotten and try to make him as happy and comfortable as possible. They did do blood work and a urinalysis. His blood work came back fine. They tested it twice. The first time they tested his urine there was some sugar in it. We braced ourselves for the diabetes diagnosis but the second time they tested it, there was no sugar. They said the sugar could have shown up because of stress. I know that Simon was stressed out and he was also on an antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory and a urine acidifier. I honestly do not know what caused it. I thought he was eating and drinking just fine, but I guess I missed it. I suppose that it COULD be kidney disease, but nothing showed up on the blood work. Our cat that had kidney disease had signs in her blood work right away.

I may just try the Feliway. Simon is the only cat out of the 5 that just hasn't been acting like himself lately. He looks very thin, even though (according to the vet) he hasn't lost any weight since they saw him in September. He hides all day and only comes down briefly at night. He will eat in the morning and that seems to be it for the day. He's not very fond of the other cats except for Maya. I don't know what else to do to make him happy.

I've learned one thing, though, in writing all of this: I need to find a new vet for my kids! Thank you all for your kind words and good vibes. Lord knows I need them!!