Sick kitty

So I took Tulip to the vet Friday morning because she has been breathing heavily for a few days. I had to leave her there for xrays and blood tests, they said it could be a heart problem, asthma or a respiratory infection. The xrays are too fuzzy to tell much and the blood test was inconclusive...The vet gave her a shot to pull fluid off her lungs in hope that a second xray would come out clearer, but he said it didn't seem to help so maybe she didn't have much fluid there...She barely eats her food, the vet says it's cause it's hard for her to eat because she's breathing so heavily...

She progressively starting breathing better over the weekend and she is walking around a bit more. She purrs when we're petting her. She walked to get water and drank some yesterday morning and last night she walked over to her food, licked at it a bit and walked away...She seems a lot more comfortable now too, she can lay down and sleep because her breathing isn't as labored.

I'm cautiously optimistic. She's still not eating much but when I put fresh food in her bowl last night it looked like some of the food from earlier was gone...not much, but some. I'm not really sure what to do, I know she needs to eat. When I try to give her some food, she seems to gag a little at the smell...is there something I can give her? Like some sort of liquid that has the vitamins she needs?

Oh I'm so sorry!

I'm glad she seems to feel a bit better.

But I have to ask - is there another vet in the area? Because she really needs a diagnosis. A vet should be able to determine if it's her heart, asthma, or an infection. Another possibility, if she's an indoor/outdoor cat or could have eating a snail or slug, is that it's lung worm. That's unlikely, and seems to be a problem exclusively to our outdoor feral cats ( ), but when we brought the first few kitties in with labored breathing and a raspy cough, the x-rays were fuzzy and the vets thought it was asthma.

But you're right, she needs to eat. There isn't really a liquid food replacement. Unfortunately, they need the calories as well as the nutrition. Their bodies aren't designed like people's bodies, and they can't use fat reserves the way we do. In fact, this can cause something called "fatty liver disease" (hepadic lipidosis).

There are several options.

You can talk to your (a) vet about syringe feeding her. There are several foods available by prescription, from the vet, designed to be used in a syringe. There's Hill's Pet a/d, or Royal Canin Recovery, and Iams has one. OR you can buy a pate type food, and syringe feed that. You may need to add a little bit of water to it so it goes through smoothly. The vet should have syringes available. You can also start with some KMR (Kitten Milk Replacement), or Kitten glop: http://www.kitten-rescue.com/what_to_feed.html

If she's being sensitive to a lot of smell, the KMR or Kitten Glop might be a good place to start.

Or you can try to find something that smells "right" to her. Chicken babyfood may smell too strong for her (just make sure the only ingredients are chicken/chicken broth/water), but it's worth a try. Most cats just love it. It doesn't have the complete nutrition she needs, but it does have calories in the form of protein that she needs.

Here's a thread with other ideas on how to entice a cat back into eating: http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=235692

Here's a thread with a video on how to syringe feed: http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...=syringe+video

I am syringe feeding one of our kitties right now. He doesn't struggle, so I don't need the cat bag. But you're not trying to force the food down her throat when you use a syringe, you're just trying to get it in her cheek or on the hump of her tongue, so she swallows it.

Of course, it's best if you can figure out how to entice her to eat on her own.

I hope you're able to find someone who can give you and your baby the answers you need! If she has asthma, she'll need treatment for it! And if she has a heart problem, there is medication for that. And, of course, if it's an infection... she may need antibiotics. So you really do need some answers!

Thank you for your help. I have good news (sort of), the vet called last night, they finally got the rest of the blood test results in and it appears Tulip's thyroid is alarmingly high...I think he said 160 or something and it should be around 10-15? Anyway, I'm not entirely clear on how that caused her breathing problems but it totally explains her weight gain from a few years ago, I thought I was just a terrible person who can't figure out how to feed a cat properly...

Anyway, all we have to do now is go in for a simple test to confirm that it's her thyroid and then she'll have to take a pill everyday for the rest of her life. I can handle that. Considering when we got back from the vet on Friday she was so bad, I thought for sure we were going to lose her over the weekend. She is now eating more dry food (more and more every day) and she even climbs the stairs from the basement to the rec room to hang out in there. This morning I found her in the living room which is *another* flight of stairs. Her breathing is pretty much completely back to normal! I'm so relieved. All I hoped for when I took her in on Friday was an answer and I was pretty frustrated that I didn't get one. So this is good

Here's hoping she just continues to get better! I think I'll switch her litter back to the regular stuff in case that's what triggered the breathing problems in the first place.