cat illness in a foreign country

Hello all. I posted this over on livejournal and I was recommended here, so I thought I would see what advice you had on this problem.

At the moment, I live in a developing country, and here there are very many strays living all over the place. A couple months ago, one of these strays that lives near me "adopted" me and, being the cat lover than I am, I happily took her in and have been feeding and caring for her. However, she's starting to show signs that she might be very seriously ill.

She has always been a very thirsty cat, ever since I took her in a month ago. She frequently drinks 3+ bowls of water a day (granted, these are small bowls). I wasn't super worried about this because she still had an extremely healthy appetite, but over the past week and a half her appetite has disappeared. She's VERY skinny, which I was pretty sure was because she was a stray, but she feels even skinnier now - all of the weight she had started to put on from regular feeding has dropped off again. I try to coax her to eat daily, but she will maybe eat a tiny bit of food and then give up, and she just doesn't seem hungry anymore. She also doesn't seem to be having bowel movements anymore. The only thing about her medical history that I'm aware of is that she was recently pregnant in June/July and that she's unspayed. I have no idea how old she is.

I know these are all symptoms of something seriously wrong with her and at the moment I'm preparing for the worst. From google, it appears to be kidney disease, diabetes, or liver failure. Unfortunately, vet care is extremely difficult to find here and I have the added problem of being okay but not fluent in the local language, which makes it even harder. I'm still going to inquire around about getting her to a vet, but there's probably very little that can be done. The other issue is that oftentimes here, people can't recieve very good health care or it costs exorbitant amounts, so it's likely that veterinary bills would be absolutely out of my budget (I'm a volunteer who lives on the local currency). My question at the moment is this: what can be done to make her more comfortable if she's suffering from one of the several very serious illnesses that these symptoms seem to indicate? The last thing I want to do is have her suffer through weeks of very painful illness before she sucuumbs to it. Any advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

(People on LJ have so far suggested deworming, as well as trying to find a native speaker to get advice from or to speak to local vets for me, but I'm still not even sure that my town has a vet at all. I'm going to look into it today or tomorrow, but things get done very slow here.)

ooh you're in a tough situation. I wouldn't recommend deworming until you can contact a vet. You don't want to accidently make the problem worse. Like people have already suggested just try your hardest to find a vet to take her to and until thing just try to make her as comfortable as possible. Have you felt her gut? Does it feel hard or soft? Any areas that feel "strange" or that seem to hurt her when light pressure is applied? What kind of food are you feeding her?

I had a similar problem when I lived in Bosnia - no vet care, no shelters or animal organisations and hundreds of strays on the streets. In hte end I ent to the University, where I found there was a vet school, mostly aimed at farm animals but one vet there was brilliant with cats and I worked with him a lot to set up TNR, as well as treating the strays I actually took in. At the very least htere, you should find people who will deal with your cat humanely should hte worst happen, and t here is more chance of them speaking some English. Good luck, I hope you manage to do the best for your cat.

I think finding a way to get vet care for your cat is what needs to be done and it sounds like that will be difficult. Quality vet care for cats has been a fairly recent development in the U.S. Good vet care started with lifestock then dogs and finally cats in this country. I hope you can find the care that your cat needs.

You might be able to get a referral to a local vet here: http://www.worldvet.org/node/6718 There's an email address, and as the site is in English, you might get a reply in English.

What a horrible situation. It doesn't sound good and of course vet care is what is needed but that sounds like it's easier said than done. Is there a human clinic with basic meds and supplies nearby? If so can you get some things from them? There are a lot of people meds that you can use. One thing I would get asap if possible is an IV bag, tubing and needle and start giving her sub-q fluids every day. You'd use the same stuff that is used for people. It's not hard. Youtube has very good videos that shows you how to prep an IV bad and give a cat the fluids. This is very important if she's not eating. I would also start her on an antibiotic just in case. It may help or it may not but it shouldn't hurt and at this point I think anything should be tried. Chances are good that she won't make it much longer. If you can get a hold of human Amoxicillin, Amoxicillin with clavulanate potassium or an injectable penicillin you can give that to her in cat doses. If you can find children's liquid amoxicillin that would be best.
I'd also start force feeding her. Can you get canned food? If not you can make your own and make it runny. Some kitten glop may also help. She has to eat. If she doesn't she will get fatty liver which will definitely kill her. If you can I'd feed her a little at a time often. You can wrap her up in a towel so that she can't move and put it in her mouth. If you can get a large syringe, like a 10cc, you can put the food in that and squirt it in her mouth. If you don't have a syringe a small spoon or similar would work. You just have to get it in her.

Unfortunately though it doesn't sound like this is something that can be fixed without a very good vet and even with that it may not be fixable. Getting her food and fluids will make her feel better though. But if it was me I would look into a way to humanely euthanize her. If you can find a vet that is what I would do.

Although I would never recommend that people play vet themselves or try to euthanize their own pets there are times when desperate situations call for desperate measures. Being in a third world country is one of them, imo. So for that, if there are no other options, here is a link on how to euthanize a pet yourself using gas: http://www.alysion.org/euthanasia/ . Of course if a vet is available anywhere the cat should be brought there but if that's not an option at all I think the above directions are preferable to having the cat suffer for weeks. Valium and Xanax is often used to sedate cats if that is needed. See if a human doctor would be willing to help you.

My teacher is a vet so I'll ask him tomorrow night what he thinks. He's very helpful with questions. If there is anything you would like me to ask him let me know.

Thanks for all of your help! I haven't managed to find her a vet yet, but I do have an update that makes me feel rather promising: she has eaten! I bought her wet food instead of dry, and at the moment she is scarfing wet food down. I hadn't tried wet food before this because it's more expensive and harder to find, but if it's all she'll eat, I think I can manage to get ahold of it.

I also bought a deworming tablet, but I think I will wait to use it until I look into consulting a vet, like you recommended (especially since I didn't understand the instructions for use that the saleslady gave me). I felt her stomach and it feels...squishy and soft? I'm not exactly sure what I'm feeling for though.

I will do the best that I can to keep her happy and comfortable in the interim. The more I think about it, the more I think that there has to be a vet somewhere nearby, because I live in a rural area with a lot of livestock that people depend upon to make a living. I'll do the best that I can to inquire around and recruit local help! Thank you all for the help and advice; you've made a seriously monumental task in a foreign country seem a lot less daunting.

That's great that she's eating. Yay! Maybe it's a dental issue. If that's all it is getting canned food should help tremendously. I'd still be a bit concerned about the drinking. Could you measure the amount she drinks each day to get an idea of whether or not it is within the normal range?
Do you know what kind of dewormer you have, what the active ingredient is?
How is her stool? Any diarrhea? Is she peeing okay? If you feel on the sides by her back right after her ribs do you feel any organs?

You're probably right that there is a livestock vet around somewhere. Often times livestock vets are not that familiar with treating small animals but it's better than nothing. At least he can get you meds and do tests if needed.

If you don't mind saying, I'm just curious, what country are you in?

Okay let me tackle your questions.

One water bowl holds 1 cup of water, so it would seem that she drinks 2-3 cups of water per day. I'm not sure how much she weighs, but it's definitely on the low end of the scale (7-8 pounds maybe?) and so that still seems a little excessive. I would say it's closer to 2 cups a day than 3 though; I sometimes refill it twice and sometimes three times.

The dewormer I bought has no writing on it at all. When I asked for it at the store, they asked me if I wanted the cheaper one or the more expensive one (I said whichever was better, and I'm not sure which one they gave me). The language barrier makes doing anything more than buying it pretty difficult - I didn't even really understand the instructions they gave me, it seemed to be something about crushing it and putting it in water or food but they also implied I should just put it in her mouth(? seriously, understanding this kind of thing is super hard in a language you've only spoken for a year). It's a white tablet that's about a half inch in diameter.

She hasn't been producing much stool but what she has has been normal, no diarrhea that I've seen, and she's been peeing normally. Before the not-eating began, her stool was the small, hard, dark kind that doesn't smell much and it was pretty easy to clean from the litter box.

Oh, and I live in a rural town in Ukraine. Ukraine is a weird country because the cities have most modern conveniences and yet in the country, it's hard to find most things. I live about 2.5-3 hours by bus from any major city, which makes it pretty hard to find specialized things out here. Also, there aren't a lot of English speakers here! Even accomplishing normal daily chores can often be very difficult, so trying to do something complicated like get health care for an animal is so hard it's ridiculous.

I do sympathise - I have been to Ukraine and though the people were very friendly they were too busy just trying to feed themselves and their children to have much time for anything else. I met many of the same problems in Bosnia, especially before I could speak the language properly. But you are doing all the right things - I suspect the instructions you were given were alternative ways of giving her the pill. Good luck with finding a vet who can help. The pharmacy where you bought the pill might know = write the word for vet on a piece of paper and a question mark and see what happens.

Thank you for taking care and for caring.
I'm shooting in the dark here but: can you take a picture of the pill (front and back) and post it here? A vet tech/vet poster might be able to identify the pill from the markings. I know you can do that with human medications. (Is there a physicians desk reference for animals?)

Sorry, no pictures yet (although that is a good idea). I just woke up to a host of new symptoms and figured I would add them to the list. Last night, she vomited water three times, despite not drinking a lot today. She also seems to be constipated - she spends a lot of time in the litter box but can't actually go, and when she's not in the litter box, she stands as though she's trying to go. She's also meowing quite loudly like she's in pain.

The more I watch her movements and behavior, the more I believe she might be a very old cat. She reminds me a lot of my 17 year old cat who sucuumbed to kidney failure a few years ago, and she's got the senior cat citizen look about her. She might just be very old and sick. I am still trying to find a vet.

It sounds like she could have a partial blockage. If it is just constipation you gave give her mineral oil or milk of magnesia. Mineral oil should be available there too I would think. You can give her 2tbs a day divided in 2-4 doses. It's safe and quite effective.

I'd really see about getting an IV bag to give her fluids. Maybe the pharmacy would have it. It would really help her.

Maybe the pharmacy has Pyrantel Pamoate too. It's used for humans for roundworm too. I don't think it's worms that is causing this though.

The eating/drinking problem sounds classic for old cats with dental problems. We had a foster like that, and we found we could mix her wet food up with even more water and she would eat just fine. You CAN mash up dry food with water, or at least try it.

It sounds like she may be constipated. That's a tough thing to solve in the short run, but it can be controlled in the long run.

I'm sorry to reply with such horrible news, but she has passed away. It was over before I could even get a straight answer about a vet, but I am still going to try to find one before I take in another stray (which, let's face it, I probably will). I'm just glad to know that I gave her a warm place to sleep and lots of cuddles and love before the end, and also that she didn't linger for weeks, suffering.

Thank you for all of your help and support, and I appreciate all the effort you put into trying to help me solve this problem. In the end, I think she was old and it was her time.

I am so sorry. She goes out knowing that the last few days of her life were no doubt the best days, full of love and warmth.

I'm very sorry to hear she didn't make it. I'll close this thread now. If you'd like to post a few words about her, TCS has a Crossing the Bridge forum.