Cerenia injection for Vomiting..

My cats are going through a mysterious illness that my vet and I are still trying to get to the bottom of. It's a long story and if someone really wants to know, I'll explain more later. 

However, the main question I have is about [color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]cerenia injection.. How long does a shot of it last? I've tried to Google it and gotten mostly "24hrs" as the basic answer. [/color]

[color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]Then today, my vet told me it will wear off "probably tomorrow"... O.O Tomorrow?? [/color]

[color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]I thought it had already probably worn off? She gave my boy the shot of it on Saturday morning. Can one shot of this stuff really last 72 hours? She's a great vet as far as I know but when something I hear differs so much from everything I'm reading online... I thought I'd ask you guys. I did a forum search and there was tons of posts mentioning [/color][color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]cerenia but I didn't see anything that mentioned exactly how long it lasts. I'm assuming that it depends on how much he was given so maybe she gave him a super-dose or something? Not sure, I was holding him while she fixed him up so I didn't see the cc's. [/color]

[color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]How long do you think a normal shot of [/color][color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]cerenia lasts?[/color]

I've never used injectible cerenia, only oral, so I don't know. Carolina has used the injectible. Hopefully she'll be able to check in at some point today or tonight. :cross: I'll send her a PM to alert her.

....and I'm sorry your kitty is going through this! :rub:

Yes, I think you should tell us

1) what's been going on
2) what diagnostics have been done - and what the results indicated (blood work numbers as well, if you have them)
3) How old your kitty is, and
4) what you feed him.

There's a wealth of "mysterious health" experience here on TCS, especially if it involves GI problems. Who knows - we may be able to help!

I've used both injectable and oral. When I gave injectable, it was usually every day for several days but it depended on the needs of the sick cat. For some, it was enough to give every other day, or more, and it controlled the nausea. As with any drug, the less you have to give, the better. The main difference is how rapidly it acts, with the injection, of course, being very speedy. 

Those mystery illnesses are a nightmare. A few years ago, all my fosters and my own cats (9 total) came down with a gi flu-like virus that had both the shelter vet and my vets completely stumped. All we could do was treat the symptoms - which included very bloody diarrhoea which shot out of them like water gushing from a fire hydrant. I nearly lost a feral foster from dehydration. I got him to the shelter clinic where two vets and three techs held him down while giving him subq fluids, meds, a shot, and syringe feeding.

Good luck with your cats and the mystery illness.
 

24 hours......

Thanks for the replies. I thought 24 hours sounded right but when the vet said 72, I just had to get a second (or third or fourth!) opinion.

Our mystery seems to have worked itself out for the time being. Not solved but my boys all seem a lot better.

I'll try and sum up what happened without giving you all a giant wall of text to read. I did warn ya that it was a long story!!

Three unneutered males; 10 months old. Strictly indoor cats. Beefy, Cheese and Porkchop. Aprox 8-10 lbs

They eat/ate: 9 Lives canned (switched to) Friskies Tasty Treasures canned for dinner and Friskies Favorites dry/Purina Indoor Natural dry for grazing. Yes, I wish I could feed them expensive Blue Buffalo ect but it's just too costly and my husband won't go for it.

A little background:

The mother is a feral that has been coming through our yard for the past two years and still won't let me very near her. She'll accept the food I give her but that's about it. Last November, she had her kittens under my bay window in my backyard. The plan was to adopt them out via the Humane Society, flyers, a local pet shop ect. I made a bunch of calls, asked around, tried pretty hard to find homes for them but found nothing that seemed right. At about 5 weeks old, the mother started wandering around more and leaving them alone in the cat shelter I created under the window for them. Except in November, it gets pretty cold here in Wisconsin. I felt so bad for them that I grabbed them up on the 6th of December before a snowstorm and brought them into my basement. I already had 6 of my own, (older, spayed, immunized females) so I know I shouldn't have kept them, but... We're all a big happy cat family now. The boys have their own room for sleeping at night so the girls get a break from them. All the cats have been in great health, nobody has given me reason to call my vet and things have been going really well. The first vet appointment was scheduled for the end of this month for all shots and neutering. As in, right before the mystery illness presented itself. 

The mystery:

So. Fast forward to the 8th of this month. Saturday night. Cheese vomits rather violently. Okay, cats puke sometimes; I don't freak out. Was right before bed so I clean it and him up, give some cuddles and put the boys to bed. Next morning the husband says 'Hey, I don't wanna worry you but Cheese has, um, a wet rear end." Indeed he did. Clear mucus coming from his little butthole. Continued all that night, not a huge amount but certainly not normal. Husband says not to worry, his UNSPAYED female used to do the same thing. "Um, yea, hon, she was doing it for a different reason." He says not to call the vet just yet; Cheese will be fine. Cheese vomits some more. Like three or four times a day till I'm freaking out and posting here, telling you guys about his mucus. This goes on for almost TEN DAYS. Husband still insists he's fine. He's still eating and pooping, but it's loose. Finally I ignore what my husband says and on Friday, call my mobile vet. She says she'll come Monday but on Saturday, bring her a few stool samples. Remember, we're at SEVEN days of this now. Zero treatment. I collect samples from Cheese and Beefy (who's suddenly got the mucus and very loose stool). I notice when he's falling asleep, his neck seems to spasm a bit. Raises his head to the upper left and twitches a bit. This has never happened before. 

Cheese perks up Sunday evening and when Dr. Rossi arrives on Monday morning, Cheese is actually doing a lot better. After looking at the fecal samples I've given her Saturday afternoon, she finds no  parasites. She examines Cheese, finds no lumps or anything alarming in his abdomen, but he's dehydrated (gets subq fluids), running a fever (Penn G injection antibiotics), and 5 days of Flagyl for me to give him the coming week. Beefy is now vomiting too. She gives him the same as Cheese but adds a shot of Cerenia for the vomits. Pork Chop seems fine, but he did have the butt-mucus on Thursday but no vomiting. He gets some Penn G anyway and I'm told to give all three boys the Flagyl for 4 days. That's what I do. However, Beefy's shot of Cerenia wears off and he starts vomiting again. About every 4 hours. He's also doing the falling-asleep-head-twitching thing. I call Dr. Rossi and tell her he can't keep the antibiotic pills down and they seem to make things worse. She agrees I should not try to give them to him anymore. She comes back on Saturday morning (the 22nd) and gives Beefy more subQ fluids, Convenia (the crazy antibiotic injection), Kenalog for the GI irritation, and more Cerenia. Throws in some a/d canned food (he thinks its gross).  She says to call her every day and we'll see how it goes. He hasn't vomited since, it's now the 26th. Thus my creation of this post the other day. All the boys have perked up, everybody's stool is getting back to more normal shapes, they're playing again, grooming, heads aren't twitching when they take naps anymore and things seem pretty much back to normal. So... that's my story.

TL;DR version: Anal mucus, vomiting, no parasites, head twitching when falling asleep, eating normally, but lethargic. Given subQ fluids, antibiotics and anti-vomiting shots. Seems like a poisoning, a blockage, or a virus. If it was/is a virus, it seems to pass in 10-ish days. No blood work has been done. Why? Good question.... Other 6 indoor girls are perfectly fine. No symptoms at all. 

So this is VERY long and I'm sorry to actually have typed so much here and if you read it all- wow. Thanks! o.o 

Do you have any ideas about what this could be?

That's why I didn't wanna type out the whole story! No replies! Haha.

Nadja said:

That's why I didn't wanna type out the whole story! No replies! Haha.

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Folks are probably just digesting everything you wrote, maybe researching, and putting together replies...like me. Just be patient, hon.

Did they have access to eat or drink anything the other cats couldn't get to.
 

WhollyCat said:

Nadja said:

That's why I didn't wanna type out the whole story! No replies! Haha.

Click to expand...

Folks are probably just digesting everything you wrote, maybe researching, and putting together replies...like me. Just be patient, hon. :rub:

Click to expand...

Actually, I'm just on TCS for the first time since the post.

My question is the same as Blueeyedgirl's. It seems odd the boys would all share a virus, but the other cats wouldn't have been affected.... on the other hand, why was it apparently self-limiting, and resolved in about 10 days?

Thankfully they seem on the mend now! (Right?)

Like WhollyCat, I'll spend a little time on some research.

Sadly, someone else on TCS is having a similar problem! http://www.thecatsite.com/t/249220/puking-bm-full-of-mucus-not-eating#post_3254388

Do you have cat grass, or have they had access to it?

Nope, they have the same access to everything the girls have. No indoor grass, nothing but a few blades that might have come in on the bottom of our shoes. I pick it up as soon as I see it but still didn't want them eating it. I've hunted high and low for anything else that they could have gotten into and come up with nothing. Until today, I thought we were done with all of this. However, there's very loose stool tinged with a tiny amount blood in the box this morning and little Cheese again seems lethargic and not feeling well. Damnit.. I thought this was over but perhaps not. I have more of the antibiotic, maybe I should give him another 5 days worth. Guess I should call the vet back. Ugh, I just spoke with her last night and told her they were fine.

Hi Nadja,

I usually don't post on any sites, but, I may have some input that could be of interest to you & I really want to share it with you & all the readers.  It does require a little bit of a back story on myself/my rare & unique    health situation, so please bear with me!!

I am afflicted with a very rare blood disease called CVID/Common Variable Immune Deficiency...sp rare there are probably no more than @ 3000 Americans diagnosed with the form of it I have!  It took over 25 years for me to finally get diagnosed & this didn't happen until I battled for my life every 90 days from summer 2008 thru 2013.

In a nutshell, I don't have an immune system & it's due to the fact I have a genetic defect in my bone marrow that prevents me from making antibodies.  Every week I have to get an IVIG infusion or an Intravenous Immunoglobulin infusion.  IG simply means antibodies, & we have a whole lot more different types of these than the average person is aware of!!!!

Now, for the 2nd part of this...when you have very low levels of antibodies you also have very low amounts of gut flora or good bacteria which is necessary to digest food, absorb nutrients, & move waste thru the system.

That being said,  in July 2013 I developed an insane level of sharp pain in my lower left abdomen/descending colon.  After almost 1 week of it getting worse/unbearable I gave in & went to the ER where I was admitted ASAP!!  A GI Specialist was sent to my room, asked me a lot of questions, & when I told him of my CVID he immediately said I needed to be put on a few different types of antibiotics & Flagyl even though several/all of my fecal tests came back negative.

He further explained to me that even though their tests couldn't find any pathogens this didn't mean I didn't have some type of an infection that could have been caused by some strain of microbe our medical community hadn't discovered yet or by a    ,what he referred to as a single cell organism that the Flagyl would take care of.

I have to tell you within 24 hours of starting the Flagyl I began feeling so much better & that horrible pain was subsiding!!!  I learned so much from him & was so impressed with the depth of his knowledge re the Gut Microbiome I asked him to be my new GI doc.  Plus, he was actually knowledgeable about my illness!!!

so, the moral of my longwinded tale is simply that just because we are given an antibiotic this doesn't necessarily mean it has the ability to destroy every single strain of gut bacteria!!!!!  There are still thousands of strains we still have to identify, & this includes veterinary medicine!!

Flagyl is usually prescribed to treat protozoal overgrowths/infections, anaerobic infections, & as a plus, it has anti-inflammatory effects on the GI tract.  It only treats bacterial & protozoal infections, & I think it's the only antibiotic that has the ability to fight protozoa which are uniquely different from basic bacteria.

I've done a lot of research on these microscopic organisms since they can have such a detrimental impact on my life & life expectancy!!  I'm NOT an expert, but feel I know just enough to be a little "dangerous"!  At least I'm able to keep up with my vet & all of my docs!!!

If I can answer any of your questions, please let me know!!!

By the way, I have 2 beautiful Persians, Garfie & Teddi.  Teddi is my Lilac, 9 years old, & Garfie is my Red Agouti, 7 years old.  They are my kids, my only family now that both of my parents are gone, & naturally, my Best Friends!!!! 

I have both of them registered as Service Animals especially since we live on the San Andreas Fault Line!!!  This way, in the event we have to be evacuated, they MUST go with me!!  The law says so, & NO 1 will ever get me to leave my home without them!!!!!  Only a fool would attempt this!

This post is long enough & I don't want to deter anyone from reading it, so I am finished.  Thanks for  allowing me to be a part of this community & for letting me make my contribution here!!

Gloria

Few months back, my boy vomited dark bile twice in one morning. Took him to the vet and he was injected with Cerenia. And was given some tablets and syrup for a few days.
After returning home from the vet, he did not vomit anymore.

LDG said:

Actually, I'm just on TCS for the first time since the post.

My question is the same as Blueeyedgirl's. It seems odd the boys would all share a virus, but the other cats wouldn't have been affected.... on the other hand, why was it apparently self-limiting, and resolved in about 10 days?

Thankfully they seem on the mend now! (Right?)

Like WhollyCat, I'll spend a little time on some research.

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That is really odd i've never heard of anything like that and iVe had cats for 50+ years. But last November both of my cats ended up with mucousy diarrhea stopped eating and lost weight and in 10 days they both got better with medication. Vet told me it was the cat flu. I guess it's just a term they use when they can't figure out what's going on. Because both my kitties had labs run and fecal test done they are both indoors their entire lives so if they got theirs they got it from my groomer comes to my house which I don't use anymore, or they got it at the vet during their last visit before their illness which was I believe in July doesn't make any sense. Glad your babies are doing better

nadja said:

Thanks for the replies. I thought 24 hours sounded right but when the vet said 72, I just had to get a second (or third or fourth!) opinion.

Our mystery seems to have worked itself out for the time being. Not solved but my boys all seem a lot better.

I'll try and sum up what happened without giving you all a giant wall of text to read. I did warn ya that it was a long story!!

Three unneutered males; 10 months old. Strictly indoor cats. Beefy, Cheese and Porkchop. Aprox 8-10 lbs

They eat/ate: 9 Lives canned (switched to) Friskies Tasty Treasures canned for dinner and Friskies Favorites dry/Purina Indoor Natural dry for grazing. Yes, I wish I could feed them expensive Blue Buffalo ect but it's just too costly and my husband won't go for it.

A little background:

The mother is a feral that has been coming through our yard for the past two years and still won't let me very near her. She'll accept the food I give her but that's about it. Last November, she had her kittens under my bay window in my backyard. The plan was to adopt them out via the Humane Society, flyers, a local pet shop ect. I made a bunch of calls, asked around, tried pretty hard to find homes for them but found nothing that seemed right. At about 5 weeks old, the mother started wandering around more and leaving them alone in the cat shelter I created under the window for them. Except in November, it gets pretty cold here in Wisconsin. I felt so bad for them that I grabbed them up on the 6th of December before a snowstorm and brought them into my basement. I already had 6 of my own, (older, spayed, immunized females) so I know I shouldn't have kept them, but... We're all a big happy cat family now. The boys have their own room for sleeping at night so the girls get a break from them. All the cats have been in great health, nobody has given me reason to call my vet and things have been going really well. The first vet appointment was scheduled for the end of this month for all shots and neutering. As in, right before the mystery illness presented itself.

The mystery:

So. Fast forward to the 8th of this month. Saturday night. Cheese vomits rather violently. Okay, cats puke sometimes; I don't freak out. Was right before bed so I clean it and him up, give some cuddles and put the boys to bed. Next morning the husband says 'Hey, I don't wanna worry you but Cheese has, um, a wet rear end." Indeed he did. Clear mucus coming from his little butthole. Continued all that night, not a huge amount but certainly not normal. Husband says not to worry, his UNSPAYED female used to do the same thing. "Um, yea, hon, she was doing it for a different reason." He says not to call the vet just yet; Cheese will be fine. Cheese vomits some more. Like three or four times a day till I'm freaking out and posting here, telling you guys about his mucus. This goes on for almost TEN DAYS. Husband still insists he's fine. He's still eating and pooping, but it's loose. Finally I ignore what my husband says and on Friday, call my mobile vet. She says she'll come Monday but on Saturday, bring her a few stool samples. Remember, we're at SEVEN days of this now. Zero treatment. I collect samples from Cheese and Beefy (who's suddenly got the mucus and very loose stool). I notice when he's falling asleep, his neck seems to spasm a bit. Raises his head to the upper left and twitches a bit. This has never happened before.

Cheese perks up Sunday evening and when Dr. Rossi arrives on Monday morning, Cheese is actually doing a lot better. After looking at the fecal samples I've given her Saturday afternoon, she finds no parasites. She examines Cheese, finds no lumps or anything alarming in his abdomen, but he's dehydrated (gets subq fluids), running a fever (Penn G injection antibiotics), and 5 days of Flagyl for me to give him the coming week. Beefy is now vomiting too. She gives him the same as Cheese but adds a shot of Cerenia for the vomits. Pork Chop seems fine, but he did have the butt-mucus on Thursday but no vomiting. He gets some Penn G anyway and I'm told to give all three boys the Flagyl for 4 days. That's what I do. However, Beefy's shot of Cerenia wears off and he starts vomiting again. About every 4 hours. He's also doing the falling-asleep-head-twitching thing. I call Dr. Rossi and tell her he can't keep the antibiotic pills down and they seem to make things worse. She agrees I should not try to give them to him anymore. She comes back on Saturday morning (the 22nd) and gives Beefy more subQ fluids, Convenia (the crazy antibiotic injection), Kenalog for the GI irritation, and more Cerenia. Throws in some a/d canned food (he thinks its gross). She says to call her every day and we'll see how it goes. He hasn't vomited since, it's now the 26th. Thus my creation of this post the other day. All the boys have perked up, everybody's stool is getting back to more normal shapes, they're playing again, grooming, heads aren't twitching when they take naps anymore and things seem pretty much back to normal. So... that's my story.

TL;DR version: Anal mucus, vomiting, no parasites, head twitching when falling asleep, eating normally, but lethargic. Given subQ fluids, antibiotics and anti-vomiting shots. Seems like a poisoning, a blockage, or a virus. If it was/is a virus, it seems to pass in 10-ish days. No blood work has been done. Why? Good question.... Other 6 indoor girls are perfectly fine. No symptoms at all.

So this is VERY long and I'm sorry to actually have typed so much here and if you read it all- wow. Thanks! o.o

Do you have any ideas about what this could be?

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Hey I'm wondering what happened with your case? My cat currently has very similar issues (including the head twitching when falling asleep) and we don't know what it is yet. What happened?

We never found out what it was, honestly. The symptoms just slowly stopped after Beefy's second round of medicine and whatever it was hasn't returned. Beef has been healthy as a horse ever since and Cheese did have to have surgery for a tail accident (someone closed it in the closet door and will always feel horrible about it forever) but there were no complications at all. Just a shorter tail.

It's just one of those cases of an odd illness that ran it course. Was very scary though. Hope your baby is okay too. Personally, I still think it was viral.

nadja said:

We never found out what it was, honestly. The symptoms just slowly stopped after Beefy's second round of medicine and whatever it was hasn't returned. Beef has been healthy as a horse ever since and Cheese did have to have surgery for a tail accident (someone closed it in the closet door and will always feel horrible about it forever) but there were no complications at all. Just a shorter tail.

It's just one of those cases of an odd illness that ran it course. Was very scary though. Hope your baby is okay too. Personally, I still think it was viral.

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Thanks so much for responding! My cat Sabbath was diagnosed with stage 1 renal failure, and she spent some time in an emergency vets office before seeing her regular vet. After reading your post I suspected that it seemed viral as well and wondered if she possibly picked it up from there. She's had diarrhea for over a month now which our regular vet gave us pills for. She was on KD food which she was throwing up, so we put her back on her old dry food. Then she started vomiting what looked like spit so she is also now on Pepcid 2x a day because it seems that she is getting acid reflux or heartburn with her old food. She hasn't improved long term after going off of the anti diarrhea pills, and went back to wet/mucus diarrhea. We got her more anti diarrhea pills for now and she got a shot for her nausea this morning. We're also now switching her to GI food and having an ultrasound done in a week to see if it can show us issues with her digestive system. And of course the twitching while about to go to sleep is still happening.

Were Beef and Cheese put on any other medications to help with the symptoms? How long were they sick for?

Nope, we just sort of let it run its course. After about two weeks or so, everything slowly went back to normal. No follow up meds or anything and Beef hasn't needed to even see a vet since the incident.

Renal failure.. stage 1... hmm, that's actually incredibly rare from what I've heard. You almost never *ever* catch it at stage 1 since the symptoms are so very faint and hard to diagnose at that point. How old is Sabbath? My eldest cat just turned 20 last month and also has it. Our Dr. Rossi said it was somewhere between stages 2 and 3 at the time. This was about two years ago now. Chloe does the foamy pukes followed by diarrhea thing as well. On and off for years now. I thought it was heartburn/acid-reflux too and thought about Pepcid. But she's impossible to pill and doc thought adding meds to such an old cat might stress her more than it was worth. However- and this isn't hasn't been confirmed with ultrasounds or any high-stress procedures (due to my Chloe's advanced age) but my old vet, new vet and one of my best friends who's been a vet tech for 16+ years all agreed with me- I think it's a hairball thing. Chloe doesn't actually cough up the hair, it goes further into her digestive system and creates an irritation in the intestines. Resulting in an empty stomach but still trying to vomit (thus, she only vomits foam which is kitty bile) and generally just feeling like crap for a few days until she passes the hair in her stool.

I don't give her any meds at all, just changed her diet (ProPlan urinary formula and Muse wet food so she actually eats something she likes that are low in phosphorus) but left the dry food as is- Iams Lively Senior and Fussie Cat Market Fresh dry food. The biggest help of all was adding a probiotic called Fortiflora or Advita Powder Probiotic Nutritional Supplement for Cats. Both can be found on Amazon. It's helped tremendously. High stress situations (like an emergency clinic) and dehydration can cause a cat's BUN numbers to jump around and flag a renal failure diagnosis prematurely. Not saying that's the case for Sabbath- again, not a vet- just a neurotic cat Mommie. Have you tried Sabbath on a probiotic? What kinds of food does she actually like? That K/D stuff is mostly pork and there's a reason you never see ham flavored cat food- they just plain don't like it.

nadja said:

Nope, we just sort of let it run its course. After about two weeks or so, everything slowly went back to normal. No follow up meds or anything and Beef hasn't needed to even see a vet since the incident.

Renal failure.. stage 1... hmm, that's actually incredibly rare from what I've heard. You almost never *ever* catch it at stage 1 since the symptoms are so very faint and hard to diagnose at that point. How old is Sabbath? My eldest cat just turned 20 last month and also has it. Our Dr. Rossi said it was somewhere between stages 2 and 3 at the time. This was about two years ago now. Chloe does the foamy pukes followed by diarrhea thing as well. On and off for years now. I thought it was heartburn/acid-reflux too and thought about Pepcid. But she's impossible to pill and doc thought adding meds to such an old cat might stress her more than it was worth. However- and this isn't hasn't been confirmed with ultrasounds or any high-stress procedures (due to my Chloe's advanced age) but my old vet, new vet and one of my best friends who's been a vet tech for 16+ years all agreed with me- I think it's a hairball thing. Chloe doesn't actually cough up the hair, it goes further into her digestive system and creates an irritation in the intestines. Resulting in an empty stomach but still trying to vomit (thus, she only vomits foam which is kitty bile) and generally just feeling like crap for a few days until she passes the hair in her stool.

I don't give her any meds at all, just changed her diet (ProPlan urinary formula and Muse wet food so she actually eats something she likes that are low in phosphorus) but left the dry food as is- Iams Lively Senior and Fussie Cat Market Fresh dry food. The biggest help of all was adding a probiotic called Fortiflora or Advita Powder Probiotic Nutritional Supplement for Cats. Both can be found on Amazon. It's helped tremendously. High stress situations (like an emergency clinic) and dehydration can cause a cat's BUN numbers to jump around and flag a renal failure diagnosis prematurely. Not saying that's the case for Sabbath- again, not a vet- just a neurotic cat Mommie. Have you tried Sabbath on a probiotic? What kinds of food does she actually like? That K/D stuff is mostly pork and there's a reason you never see ham flavored cat food- they just plain don't like it.

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Oh, ok so it didn't last as long for your kitties. II'm glad they didn't have to suffer for too long.

Sabbath is about 14 years old (I don't know her exact age, unfortunately.)

My previous cat Punky also had renal failure. We caught that at stage 3 as well, and she was also an older cat like Chloe. She had foamy puke too but not as much of a diarrhea issue. She was also impossible to pill! But we didn't experience the kinds of issues Sabbath currently has, so this is a bit new to us.

Yes, it is rare, right? The renal failure diagnosis stage 1 came about due to a very messed up incident. Basically, Sabbath had a blood in her stool along with the foamy puke and diarrhea happening on/off for a few weeks. The blood was fresh, and about a dime sized glob. It could've been a hemorrhoidal type of thing, but we wanted to be sure so we tried to find an ER vet, as this happened around midnight on a Sunday. We visited 2 ER vets offices that were closed and finally found one open. There, the vet diagnosed her with stage 2 failure after a blood test and put her on fluids overnight. He claimed one kidney was smaller than the other in an X-ray as well. He wanted her on fluids for 48 hours. Unfortunately, this guy was very careless and he didn't even put a litter box in with her overnight – which I could not believe. That's basic. So, we pulled her from there and took her to our regular vet.

My regular vet saw symptoms that she was given way too much fluids, and had fluid build up in her lungs. Sabbath couldn't walk very well, as the extra fluid made her very tired after taking a few steps... it was just an awful time. We complained to the state board. But that's a whole other story.

My regular vet had the same thoughts as you did – that the stress of the ER vet caused a misdiagnosis in the blood test. So, we did another blood test a week later to let her calm down a bit from the trauma. My vet found that the new blood test showed that Sabbath is in stage 1. I went with what my vet suggested and we went ahead and switched her over to KD food. She liked some of it for a while, but the endless diarrhea issue started up a couple weeks after the switch to that food, so we took her off of it during this course of treatment. She also just lost a taste for it – I didn't realize it was mostly pork! That could be why she couldn't stand it for long. As I said, we started the pepcid because of the puking she is experiencing on her old food, and that helped for a while but she still throws up the spit or just gags, just not as regularly.

The hairball theory is interesting, I wonder if that is part of the problem. It's not something I would discount, since Sabbath has always had issues with hairballs and throwing them up with or without a lot of food along with it, and I have seen it in her stool as well. I also put her on a hairball control food when she was younger due that issue. She has also just felt generally awful since she's been sick, but that's to be expected with whatever it is that is causing all this.

Today we found she went from 14lbs to 11lbs since April, so she is eating and drinking less. We've started putting little bowls of dry food and water around the house to entice her to eat and drink more. She likes wet food a lot, any fish or crab/shrimp mixes. We have always given her both wet and dry food; using small amounts of the wet food primarily for mixing with supplements.

I haven't tried adding probiotics yet – I read natural ways of giving cats probiotics that are in yogurt, etc but I haven't tried a supplement for that yet. It's a good idea, I'll look at the probiotics you recommended! She seems to like the dry GI food we got her today, which is a prebiotic so maybe that will help too. The thing is, the main ingredient in it is chicken, and she won't eat any wet food with chicken in it! So, I wonder if this GI food will also be something she temporarily eats for a short window.

For now, I'm trying to alleviate her misery as much as I can before we can see the specialist for the ultrasound.

Thanks for responding with your insights – I really appreciate it!