Hi All!
First, I want to thank anyone who helped me the past few weeks with all the questions I had about Casper and his mysterious illness, which the vet wasn't able to pinpoint. He had been vomiting quite a bit, had no appetite, was very lethargic and his personality in general just wasn't himself. He has been known to regurgitate his food at times, but nothing like what was happening recently, let alone the strange way he was acting.
After running a senior panel, which came back perfect, putting him on some arthritis meds because he does seem to be developing that problem aside from what else was going on (holistic route, nothing major for now), and Laxatone he started getting somewhat better. In the last 3-4 days, he is eating pretty much back to normal, and his behavior is much better also.
However, last night we *may* have discovered something which could have been the root of his problems. Not sure but it's a strong possibility considering all the tests came back ok, and there was no rhyme or reason for what he was experiencing.
When I got home last night, Casper walked into the coat closet, which is very large and also serves as a pass through to our downstairs powder room. He never used to go in there until recently, and we chalked it up to the behavioral changes he was experiencing from being ill.
I followed him in, to see what he was so intrigued about, because I just could not figure out what there was in there that would interest him.
To my surprise, I found him with his nose buried in a really old string mop, that had been left in there by mistake. The mop, certainly had to have leftover chemicals on it, dirt, whatever - even though it would have been rinsed before putting it away. I never could be called *clean* by any stretch of the imagination. Plus, it's a string mop, not sponge, so the possibility exists that he ingested a piece of it too.
When I went to pull him a way from it, he growled at me. He was way too annoyed by my taking him away from this object, as if he'd become attached to it in some manner. This made me even more suspicious that he may have been going in there purposely the past few weeks to either lick it, eat it, or whatever.
The thing is, we had been leaving that door open for a couple of weeks because there is no heat in the powder room (no a/c either), and in NJ, it had been utterly frigid for a while. If we closed the door, we risked pipes bursting back there, so we had put a space heater in the area, left the door open to get more heat from the rest of the house. Temperatures had moderated back this week, so we were able to close the door again.
I find it coincidental that his appetite has returned the same time that the door was being shut again, and he is behaving more or less normally. In fact, he even groomed our other cat this morning for the first time, and they had an actual play chase session.
So, we're hoping we have gotten rid of the problem. The mop, is now in the basement and we'll be much more careful of what we leave out in the future around the kitties. We thought we had everything locked up good and tight, but I guess sometimes a mistake can get made. Even if this wasn't the cause, and whatever it was just ran it's course, it certainly isn't a good idea to have something like that out for them to be poking around, so a lesson was learned for us anyway.
Much relieved!
First, I want to thank anyone who helped me the past few weeks with all the questions I had about Casper and his mysterious illness, which the vet wasn't able to pinpoint. He had been vomiting quite a bit, had no appetite, was very lethargic and his personality in general just wasn't himself. He has been known to regurgitate his food at times, but nothing like what was happening recently, let alone the strange way he was acting.
After running a senior panel, which came back perfect, putting him on some arthritis meds because he does seem to be developing that problem aside from what else was going on (holistic route, nothing major for now), and Laxatone he started getting somewhat better. In the last 3-4 days, he is eating pretty much back to normal, and his behavior is much better also.
However, last night we *may* have discovered something which could have been the root of his problems. Not sure but it's a strong possibility considering all the tests came back ok, and there was no rhyme or reason for what he was experiencing.
When I got home last night, Casper walked into the coat closet, which is very large and also serves as a pass through to our downstairs powder room. He never used to go in there until recently, and we chalked it up to the behavioral changes he was experiencing from being ill.
I followed him in, to see what he was so intrigued about, because I just could not figure out what there was in there that would interest him.
To my surprise, I found him with his nose buried in a really old string mop, that had been left in there by mistake. The mop, certainly had to have leftover chemicals on it, dirt, whatever - even though it would have been rinsed before putting it away. I never could be called *clean* by any stretch of the imagination. Plus, it's a string mop, not sponge, so the possibility exists that he ingested a piece of it too.
When I went to pull him a way from it, he growled at me. He was way too annoyed by my taking him away from this object, as if he'd become attached to it in some manner. This made me even more suspicious that he may have been going in there purposely the past few weeks to either lick it, eat it, or whatever.
The thing is, we had been leaving that door open for a couple of weeks because there is no heat in the powder room (no a/c either), and in NJ, it had been utterly frigid for a while. If we closed the door, we risked pipes bursting back there, so we had put a space heater in the area, left the door open to get more heat from the rest of the house. Temperatures had moderated back this week, so we were able to close the door again.
I find it coincidental that his appetite has returned the same time that the door was being shut again, and he is behaving more or less normally. In fact, he even groomed our other cat this morning for the first time, and they had an actual play chase session.
So, we're hoping we have gotten rid of the problem. The mop, is now in the basement and we'll be much more careful of what we leave out in the future around the kitties. We thought we had everything locked up good and tight, but I guess sometimes a mistake can get made. Even if this wasn't the cause, and whatever it was just ran it's course, it certainly isn't a good idea to have something like that out for them to be poking around, so a lesson was learned for us anyway.
Much relieved!
:cross: 
