Help!!

I have a 5 year only female cat and she is really sick. She won't eat or drink any water and just sleeps. She's just not herself! I took her to the vet on 2/25/13. They did a full blood panel and took x-rays and cannot find anything wrong with her. The blood work showed she was dehydrated and her white blood cells were a little bit low which he said could be the start of infection (cat fight or cat bite) so they put fluids under her skin, gave her an injection of antibiotics and sent antibiotics home with me that i am supposed to give her twice a day. The vet said the most important thing is that she drinks water. I cannot get her to eat or drink. If she got poisoned somehow she needs the water to flush it out of her system. ANY SUGGESTIONS ON WHAT I CAN DO TO MAKE HER EAT AND DRINK????? I FEEL SO BAD FOR HER

I am surprised that the vet just sent you home with antibiotics. Did he/she offer to do another subq if she doesn't eat or drink? Your cat is in a dangerous situation if she is not eating or drinking at all. You can try tempting her with her favorites and tuna water, but if she still won't eat or drink, she needs more subq fluids or an IV.

Welcome, Shelly. Make sure you are also in contact with your vet daily or more often. That is very important in a situation such as this. If I were you, I would go out and get a syringe from any pet store such as this one http://www.petco.com/product/107463/Petco-Puppy-Handfeeding-Syringe.aspx. You can gently syringe water into her mouth. Or better yet, you can get some Hill's A/D canned food from the vet which is high calorie and nutritious and will spark an appetite. A/D is easily used for syringe feeding sick pets as the consistency is quite smooth and creamy. You can water that down a bit and syringe that into your cat. Just be gentle about only feeding her a small amount at a time. Let her swallow and then squeeze a little more.

If you cannot do this, then you will have to bring her back to the vet for fluids. That does not cost much ($10.00) and since the vet has already seen your cat then they should be very willing to do this for you to get her well again. for your kitty.

I did take her back to the vet on 2/26/13. they did more fluids and another injection of antibiotics. i'm going to try to get her to eat something here in a few minutes. Thank you

I do have the A/D canned food but she wasn't interested. When I took her to the vet on 2/25/13 they did give her an appetite stimulator and sent some home with me but the instructions say that I cannot give her another one until 2/28/13

It bothers me giving her antibiotics when they don't even know whats wrong with her. If she has cancer or a brain tumor antibiotics are not going to help. The vet said no on the cancer but he did not rule it out 100%. She seems really doped up when she awake. She cannot keep her eyes open. She's just really tired. Should I just let her sleep until she wants to get up? She's o.k on the hyration part for now because I've taken her 2 days in a row and had the fluids put under her skin. I feel like I should just not bother her for a whole day and let her rest. Is this a bad idea?

Hi shelly and welcome to TCS!

It's critically important that you know this: if you are going to give your cat any water or food with a syringe.....never, ever, squirt anything straight down a cat's throat....if something "goes down the wrong way" (if the cat breathes it in/"aspirates" the substance), that can cause a fatal condition. SO: tiny syringe squirts into the SIDE of her mouth!

This video may help you:

I do have the A/D canned food but she wasn't interested

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Well, whether/not she's interested, here's something else you need to know about cats: unlike you and I who can go without food (fast) and allow our system to rely on body fat as a source of energy, cats are uniquely different....a cat's liver cannot metabolize body fat properly and a cat's liver then develops another life-threatening condition. So, interested or not, she must be given food.

(And, if she's not interested when you're trying to syringe-feed....that's where a struggle usually ensues - and, where the dangerous chance of her choking can occur.)

Her being "wiped out" and sleeping would not surprise me...especially if the injectible antibiotic was "Convenia". Let her sleep? Well, yes, provided you're syringe-feeding every couple of hours.

What is the name of the antibiotic you're giving at home?

If she's had fluids 2 days in a row, she should be ok if you leave her be for a bit. Did the vet give her any pain meds? Sometimes that will make them feel like not eating. It took my cat a full day and a half after pain medication/fluids to start eating/drinking again.

The vet probably started with antibiotics to out an infection before doing more tests if they won't work. It's something you could ask your vet about.

CLAVAMOX

No he did not give her pain meds

I knows she's had subq fluids, but how long has it been since she's eaten or drank anything on her own?

shelly shaw said:

CLAVAMOX

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Clavamox is well known to cause upset stomach...and also diarrhea.

If you give some food first and the Clavamox afterwards, this can lessen the stomach issue......if you also give her some probiotics, that can prevent/clear up the diarrhea.

You can get a probiotic from your Vet - or, simply use a human-grade variety -  something high potency (in the billions) with several different strains of organisms and containing little to no dairy.

I was going to see if she would eat some vanilla yogurt. Am I not supposed to give her dairy products? I just need her to eat something so I can give her the CLAVAMOX.

4 or 5 days. She took 4 bites of her dry food when we got home from the vet yesterday but threw it up in the middle of the night

shelly shaw said:

4 or 5 days. She took 4 bites of her dry food when we got home from the vet yesterday but threw it up in the middle of the night

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That's a long time to go without eating for a cat. I would try the syringe feeding as suggested above. At this point, you need to be concerned with her developing fatty liver from not eating.

shelly shaw said:

I was going to see if she would eat some vanilla yogurt. Am I not supposed to give her dairy products? I just need her to eat something so I can give her the CLAVAMOX.

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Most cats are lactose intolerant, so dairy products may upset her stomach. However, some cats (including mine) are fine with a little plain yogurt. I don't think I would feed the flavored ones, but you could check the ingredients to see what else is in there. You want to make sure there are no artificial sweeteners or anything else that may be harmful to cats.

Thank you all for all of the helpful information. My kitty went back to the vet today and they are keeping her until Friday. When I took her in today it was a different doctor and she felt something in her stomach. Monday I paid $467.00, Tuesday I paid $53.00 and today I paid $200.00 of an estimate bill of $841.00. This is just to find the problem not to fix it. How are you suppose to know if they do everything they are charging you for? Every injection, every test. Are you just suppose to trust them?

If you are starting to doubt your vet, then your intuition may be telling you to get a second opinion.

I went through two weeks of my small 9-year-old male cat not eating last year. Had to force feed him. Blood work showed elevated levels of ionized calcium, a sign of cancer. Spent lots of money doing many tests and check-ups. He was given an appetite stimulant, which worked wonders to get him to eat. He is also an IBD cat, so we had a theory that it was possibly a flare-up, rather than cancer (this was my small hope). His diet is now supplemented with fiber (per vet's instructions to absorb excess calcium), probiotics, a limited ingredient diet, and multiple water fountains cleaned daily to encourage drinking. He hasn't had the appetite stimulant in four months and maintaining a weight of 8.5 lbs (that's probably his max). But we're still not really sure what happened during those two weeks.

Did the vet say anything about her calcium level? Did the vet examine the inside of her mouth for possible problems there?