Sick cat. Behaving differently, not drinking or eating. Really worried.

socal90

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I apologize for writing so much but I feel I can get better help/advice with the more details I give. So if you can bare with me and take the 10-15 minutes or so to read this I would much appreciate it as I could really use some advice from other cat owners.

My 6 month old kitten, Scout, hasn't been of good health over the last 24 hours. Yesterday night he threw up for the first time ever since we found him. At first I thought it was just his first hairball, cleaned it up and thought nothing of it. I started to notice a decline in his activities shortly after, he wasn't interested in playing and just wanted to lay down and not in his usual spots. He would lay down in the middle of the hall ways and when I went to bed he normally sleeps right beside me but this time wouldn't and instead chose a spot on the floor. It was then that I started thinking about how his food had looked untouched all day which I just related back to what I thought was a giant hairball earlier and deemed it as the reason he lost his appetite.

Early in the morning I woke up to find out he had urinated on the end of my bed!!! He has never gone outside of his litter box before. I found him back in the spot he chose before I fell asleep and thought immediately it was very odd. I got up to clean the mess and found a second throw up on my floor. This time I found an object in it. He had eaten one of those things that women use to tie their hair in a ponytail - it's kind of like a rubber band covered in cotton/fiber or something (one of these). It looked like he threw it up sometime during the night. While I was cleaning it I heard him meowing in another room, I went over to see him vomiting a 3rd time. I figured okay well he threw this thing up earlier so he should probably start feeling better soon. Nevertheless I kept him in the bathroom just encase he threw up more.

I went back to bed and as soon as I woke up I went to check on Scout. I found he threw up 5 more times throughout the day. Also looking into his litter box I found a few piles of what looked like clear diarrhea but after looking closer I realized it was more of like a clear mucous/jelly substance, it has no odor. I started really taking notice that he was behaving very lazily. Not covering his waste completely, not eating anything, not drinking, not interested in anything - all he wanted was to lay in his bed only making an effort to get up so he can get to the litter. At this point I decided it's time for the Vet.

I saved the thing he threw up in the 2nd vomit to show the vet when we got there. They seemed to only focus on that he had thrown up the object and that it was a good sign. But I kept stressing even though it was out he still continued to vomit another 5 times and the clear substance coming from his anus was really concerning me. Plus the behavior change and lack of wanting food or water. At home he seemed very out of it and sickly but at the vet he was much more alert so they never saw his actual behavior. At this point they gave me 2 options. Option A) Was to give him Laxatone to clear his system and wait it out. Option B) Was to give him an X-ray to look for any more foreign objects but at $200 I couldn't afford to do that just yet. I took option A and my vet gave him his first dose of the Laxatone.

Back at home he went back into his abnormal behavior of not wanting to do anything but just lay in his bed. He has completely stopped vomiting but still continues to defecate that clear jelly substance...a lot. While I was cleaning his bed area I saw him do his business, I saw just a small bit of feces in the clear substance. It's now going on I want to say 28 hours since his first vomit. He still won't eat, he won't drink, he's very out of it and aside from the vomiting having stopped he hasn't improved anywhere else. Right now he's laying in his bed looking very sleepy and unwilling to do anything, occasionally he will purr when I go in to check on him.

I'm also afraid to give him anymore Laxatone, as it is he's not drinking water at least, if I gave him more won't it dehydrate him further? But at the same time if there is something in him it needs to come out already.

I'm thinking about taking him early in the morning to go get a 2nd opinion. I was also wondering what other foods I could try to feed him that might help him out a bit? Usually he eats dry food and I want to look for something that will be easier on his stomach.
 
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socal90

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I'm really worried for him and at 4:45am I'm having a lot of trouble sleeping, I don't want to wake up to find that he had stopped breathing. We first found him back in August covered in fleas and hiding inside a cars engine bay trying to keep warm. He was so small and young it was obvious he shouldn't have been away from his mother so soon. I ended up nursing him back to health, even bottle feeding him which was quite an experience as I've never had to that before which is part of the reason I'm so attached to him more than any other pet I've ever had.

I'm not one for emotions but knowing Scout's like this and I can't do anything right now is tearing me apart, at 6 months he's too young for anything to happen 


Maybe I'm just paranoid and not giving him enough time to heal up yet I don't know, just wish he would eat or drink.
 
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speakhandsforme

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I would also take him to another vet ASAP for a second opinion preferably NOW to an emergency vet. When a cat stops eating and drinking, that is a sign of serious illness of some sort. Stress that he's extremely lethargic at home; he was likely more alert at the vet because he was scared out of his wits.

Here's a link I found on the clear mucus poop thing: http://www.justanswer.com/cat-health/30saw-cat-keeps-pooping-clear-liquid-apparently-mucus.html

I understand that money can be tight (it certainly is here!) so, if you need it, here's a link to the CareCredit site. http://www.carecredit.com/ They can approve you immediately for a line of credit that's low-interest to be used for vet bills that you can pay back in installments.

Since there might be something obstructing his intestine, I wouldn't force feed him just yet, but you might have to if it turns out he's just sick with a serious bug, which from the clear mucus it sounds more likely to me. (I'm not a vet or anything, that's just my two cents.) Cats that don't eat for more than 24-48 hours are at risk of developing hepatic lipidosis, and the only way to prevent/treat it is to get them to eat normally. This might require syringe force feeding, like I said. If you do have to do that, come back here and we'll give you loads of tips.

At the very least, please take him to another vet ASAP. I don't know what the standard of care is in your area, but you might want to try a feline-only vet if one is available.
 
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mrblanche

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Here's a very important question.

Do you have more than one of those hair ties around?  And how many might be missing?  How about rubber bands?

You may have just hit the tip of the icerberg with the one thrown up.  He might have a major blockage from many more.  It's happened before, to such well-known cats as Dewey the Library Cat.
 
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socal90

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Doze off for a bit since my last post, I have good news though. I went to check on him and he's a lot more alert now and moving around. He's drinking his water and also ate some wet food when I gave it to him so I'm glad he seems to be feeling better. He's still slow with his movements and retreating to his bed to rest but still doing better. Later if he's still showing improvement I'll try to see if I can get him to play with his favorite toys. It's a lot of relief to see some progress after 30 hrs of him being miserable. We're going to hold off on the 2nd vet visit since he's eating, I gave him another round of the Laxatone after he ate so we'll see how it turns out as we keep a close eye on him.
 
Here's a very important question.

Do you have more than one of those hair ties around?  And how many might be missing?  How about rubber bands?

You may have just hit the tip of the icerberg with the one thrown up.  He might have a major blockage from many more.  It's happened before, to such well-known cats as Dewey the Library Cat.
That's a good question, we're not really sure how many are missing if they are. They're kept in a place the cat can't get to so I think he may have just found the 1 stray lying around. As for rubber bands, never use them so we don't have any.
 
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