10 month kitten had fever, not really eating or drinking...thoughts?

Quick background -
We have 2 rescue kittens, about 10 months old, which ended up having Feline Leukemia. They've been very strong so far (maine coon style/mix).

About 5 days ago, the male was acting odd, slow, sleeping, not eating. The next day we took him to the vet. He had a fever of about 104. He got an injection with fluids and we went back home with antibiotics.

He threw up the antibiotics, and we got a second kind. He threw that up too.

The next day he still had fever and we went back to vet where he stayed until Saturday. Over the 3 days at vet, he was observed, had blood work done and an xray.

Bloodwork was clean - white blood cells were normal, not high or low. Xray was also clean, showing no blockage, etc. He had a catheter and IV and another injection of fluids.

Vet was a bit baffled and said perhaps it was just a kitten version of the flu and we needed to wait it out.

This all started Tuesday, and by Saturday afternoon, his fever broke, was back to 101 and he was meowy and eyes bright. We brought him home.

That was about 24 hours ago. Since then, he has spurts of walking around and jumping on tables, but overall, still no real change. He has had only a little water and a small amount of food.

We've tried at least 20 different kinds of wet and dry food, gravy, treats, etc... he's just not interested in eating or really drinking.

Obviously just super worried and really want to get some food in him. Any thoughts or advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Well, I don't have any experience with this. We have a kitty we have to keep an eye on because he's got an autoimmune disease that causes anemia, but we've never had a kitty (knock wood) go off their food for any unidentified reason.

I'm sorry your vet didn't think to give you something for the nausea, to help prevent kitty from throwing up the antibiotics when you had to go back to get something he might tolerate. I'm also sorry it didn't occur to your vet to give your cat Convenia (an antibiotic injection that doesn't need to be repeated).

It is important your kitty eat. Here is a thread that you may find really helpful, showing you how to force feed him for now. Syringe feeding Lucky video/If your cat is not eating

Is he hydrated? (Does his skin snap right back if you pinch it up and let go? Or does it kind of "tent?")

He wasn't blocked up in the sinuses? No runny nose or coughing/sneezing? No goopy or runny eyes?

If he doesn't improve and you find you still need to force feed him, you may want to talk to your vet about the shot of antibiotics, anti-nausea meds, or you may want to consider getting another vet opinion. Quite frankly, a second vet opinion literally saved the lives of two of our cats.

for your male! (What's his name?)

Thanks for the advice.
He is definitely hydrated. His skin snaps back pretty good, doesn't tent up. He was on IV as well as the fluid shots so that's good.

No runny nose, no weepy eyes, and no fever that we can tell (based on the the lips to the ear test - same cool temp as our other kitty).

Mainly, just moving slow, not really eating or drinking. Perhaps it's a wait it out thing? This is only his 2nd day without the fever....

Back to the vet tomorrow and possibly a second opinion if there isn't a good answer tomorrow....
Thanks

Well, when it comes to eating, you definitely don't want him to go more than 48 hours. But yes, see how he's feeling tomorrow. If he's still not eating, I'd call the vet to ask if they think it's important to get some antibiotics in him, and how they think you should manage his not eating.

I am so sorry your kitten is sick! And I couldn't agree more with LDG on this. You must start syringe feeding you cat. Did the vet offer some A/D? It is a prescription diet from Hill's packed with nutrients and is an appetite stimulant wet food. It can be mashed down for syringe feeding and this will make your kitty start to feel better fast. Cats should never go long without eating and syringe feeding then is the only option. A few small frequent amounts will help so much. Bless you for taking on these sick rescue kitties. Let us know how he is doing.

Thanks for the help everyone. Update on Logan -
back to the vet this morning. His temp is 103.3, which is said was a good thing in that his temp for the past several days had been 104.1. He said it was good because he as 36 hours with fluids or "vet care" at home, and his temp was only up to 103.3.

He got an injection of fluids today, injection of antibiotics to prevent secondary bacteria infection, and an appetite stimulant.

He is staying at the vet all day for observation and monitoring. If he doesn't eat, he will get liquid food from the vet and we'll go from there.

He thinks this is just a version of kitty flu, and because of his young age (10 months) and the FELV, he just needs more time to fight it off (as in his immune system is just not fully developed yet).

We'll see and I'll keep you updated, and also just in case in the future someone searches the forums for these symptoms, this will come up and maybe help.

Thanks again!

He's so lucky to be in such wonderful care. Do keep us updated!

More for your baby!

New upadate -
So by this afternoon, after a day at the vet, here's the update.
Logan had a temp of 103.3, by the afternoon he was down to 102.6, which is great.

During the day, the vet did:
1. Injection of fluids
2. Injection of antibiotics which will last 2 weeks; because the liquid ABs we were giving him was causing nausea (I think because of his empty stomach).
3. Force fed him Hills Prescription Diet A/D. (A mix of water and the wet food into a very soupy mix).

By tonight, for the first time since last Tuesday (today is Monday), he started showing signs of being himself. Although still sleeping, he finally started playing in boxes, and playing around with his feather toy - it was just obvious, we were finally seeing his personality back. Really happy about that.

I think a big part of it was the force feeding. They force fed him 3 times today and we did once tonight. He's on a 10 ML / 4 times per day regimen.

We will continue the 4 times a day until he starts eating on his own.

As mentioned before, for anyone running into this, like people, it just seems so important for anyone or any animal to have food for strength.

Thanks again for all the advice everyone!

Sounds like Logan couldn't be in better hands . I think he is on his way to recovering and so happy for him and you too for continued good progress.

Logan update:
Logan's still not eating on his own. Went back to vet. He has lost an additional 0.2 lbs, and his temp was back, and higher than before. 105.3 (It was a max of 104.5 earlier in the week).
Short story of it - vet said about all that is left to try is baby aspirin. He said you can give a cat 1/2 a baby aspirin every 2 days max.

So, he was given the aspirin and more fluids. He said aside from this, there is not much more to do other than wait.

Really sucks.

I am very sad to see your post. I am so sorry Logan is not doing well. This must be very difficult on you too. Sending mega and mega to you and Logan. Please keep updating. Prayers are coming your way. FeLK is a terrible disease, I am sorry. :he art3:

Thanks so much. It is tough because he's really such a great kitty

AW hun, my heart is aching for you . Very painful part of loving and having cats when they get very sick. .

Yeah, waiting is soooooo difficult.

And heaps of for your baby boy!

Logan Update:

So on Saturday we got a new update. Vet did another round of blood work. His White blood cell was up and his Red blood cell was down. He is pretty sure he has mycoplasma.

Mycoplasma is some wacked out bacteria which is transmitted via flea or tick (or from mother of kitten) and attaches itself to the red blood cells. The deal is that this is very hard to detect and often goes unnoticed on a blood test. Apparently only recently did researches find a test for it. You can read more about it here:

http://www.felipedia.org/~felipedi/w...Mycoplasma_spp

and here

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body...us_anemia.html

So since he only an indoor kitty, we're not sure how he got this. We are actually waiting on test confirmation later today, but, in the mean time, treatment has started with 2 forms of antibiotics.

Overall, I think - think - he is starting to feel better. Yesterday he was much more "alive" than he's been. He was very affectionate and walking around (relative to the past 10 days) and even spent some time at night sleeping on our bed. That's a big sign, I feel, considering his unusual behavior of sleeping in the closet the past 10 days. This morning, though, he's back under the bed, so hard to say I guess.

For those researching their own issues of Fever of Unknown origin, and it's been more than 5 days or so, I would highly recommend a retest of blood and a test for this mycoplasma. They say it's an outdoor kitty problem, but, indoor kitties can get it.

Thanks for all the well wishes everyone, and I'll continue to update.

I hope the antibiotics do the trick! Our Tuxie fought anemia of unknown origin for years (still is). He responded to doxycycline, but also needed steroids to suppress his immune system response (of attacking his red blood cells) (that's the really short version LOL). Prednisone stopped working, but the long-acting shot, depomedrol is working. He went from needing it every two weeks to needing a shot about once a year (his fight with anemia has been going on since 2004).

for Logan!

Thanks LDG! So glad Tuxie is doing so well! This is great info and I'll keep it handy over the next couple of weeks in case I need to ask about it for Logan.
Thanks!

I hope you won't need to. !!!!

I sure hope the meds help Logan . continuing your way.....

Logan update:

The mystery continues. Logan was negative for mycoplasma.

His fever continues at 104.1, red blood cells have gone down a little bit more. At the start of this 2 weeks ago it was 36. Then it dropped to 18.5 and now is at 16. Although this new drop sounds bad, it is encouraging that the rate of drop has slowed.

Vet discussed with another vet who confirmed everything we have done so far is on course with what they would have done. They are both baffled as to what this could be.

Next course of action: In addition to regular injection of fluids and continuation of general ABs, is an injection of steroid called prednisone. This is supposed to do 3 things:
1. Reduce fever
2. Induce and increase appetite
3. Stop the white blood cells from attacking the red blood cells.
4. Reduce stress because of 1-3

Also, a consult with an internal specialist is scheduled as well.

If this does not work, the next step is feeding tube combined with a blood transfusion.

I feel like this is an episode of kitty "House"

He has basically ruled out FIP. Apparently there are 3 tell tale signs of FIP, and Logan has none of them.

On a slightly positive note, we finally observed Logan drinking a good amount of water on his own....