My cat threw up a LARGE stick and is lethargic???

I'm told that my cat has recently thrown up a LARGE stick (it happened days ago and I wasn't there, my sister, who cleaned it up, didn't think to tell me about it till now) and seems lethargic. She spends a lot of time outside, and over the past few weeks she has been asking to go out more and more. I haven't seen her poo in weeks! I keep asking my family to not let her out so that she can go in the litter box but so far it's been pulling teeth. She has always had a habit of chewing things, plastic bags, rubber bands and leaves, but even her leaf eating hasn't been a problem. After hearing about the stick though I'm very worried that maybe is eating something while outside that she shouldn't. 

To confuse the matter even more, she is also on a new diet. A year ago she was overweight and reducing her kibbles did very little. Two and a half months ago I switched her to a "raw diet" that I make myself with chicken and a vitamin mix recommended by this website: http://www.catnutrition.org/ and she took to it immediately but caused her to be constipated so I added metamucil but I haven't been able to tell if it is working because she is now outside most of the day and has not pooped inside her litter box (although she is urinating) I attributed her wanting to go outside more and more to the energy gained from the food. I tailed her today and found that she is drinking from a foreclosed on neighbors pool that is very dirty. 

I don't know which if any of these things are linked, but I'm taking her to the vet tomorrow morning to get her checked out. Any ideas about what might be going on?

Thanks,

Kim

Oh boy.  I am glad you are taking her to the vet.  It could be any combination of those things.  Her throat could be irritated from trying to swallow a stick.  Perhaps your vet will be better able to convince your family that she needs to be indoors (at least till she is feeling better).  You might have to convince your kitty too!

Welcome to TCS!  I hope your kitty is feeling better soon!

Yikes! Good thing you're taking her to the vet! Keep her in until then, because you need to see if she vomits, or if she defecates and has anything weird -- object or blood -- in the vomit or feces. It's possible swallowing a stick could cause internal bleeding.

She may also have an upset stomach from drinking that dirty water.
Some cats have trouble with constipation after switching to raw due to the amount of bone. You might try decreasing that a little.
There is a section on constipation in Dr Lisa Pierson's article about making cat foodhttp://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood (Scroll about a third or a little more down the page.)
There is a section on this forum about raw feeding.

But with her habit of pica , there's also the concern she could get blocked from eating a non-food object. I would get an x ray at the vet.

I wonder is there a way you could build an outdoor cat enclosure for her so at least you could control what she has access to? Or just start keeping her inside? I'm sure she will protest but other cats have managed it. Here is a link for the American Association of Feline Practitioners ( cat vets ) page about environmental enrichment for indoor cats. Check out the links too especially Ohio State Univ. vet school's cat section of the Indoor Pet Initiative. http://www.catvets.com/healthtopics/wellness/?Id=213

Of course the first step is getting her feeling better.

I appreciate the quick replies! Thank you for the suggestions and the links, they are really helpful! I'm going to look into "environment enriching" and will read the info on raw feeding from this site as well, thank you again! 

I just took her in to the vet today, looks like it is kidney damage and may also be diabetic. the doc said her problem must have been going on for about a year. She was dehydrated when she came in so they put her on IV and ran blood tests on her all day. There is a real possibility that she may not get better. I can hardly believe this is happening. I wish I had taken her in when I first thought she was lethargic. The only ideas I have about what might have gone wrong are that she got stressed after I began reducing her kibble a year ago to get her to loose weight. Maybe her frequent outdoor visits were to alleviate stress? Maybe she ate something she shouldn't have? does anyone know what causes kidney damage in cats, or what could have happened in this particular case?

Some things cats can get into outside like especially antifreeze - can cause kidney failure . I'm even wondering if ingesting a bunch bacteria could cause an infection that in some way might then affect the kidneys?
 
Don't give up ( it doesn't sound like you are.) Give them a chance to get her rehydrated first. then see how it turns out. ( and you won't know right away. don't make any irrevocable decision based on what happens in the next few days. Or really for 2 weeks. unless she takes a turn much for the worse) i would want her on IV fluids for 2 days.
 

There have been cats with BOTH diabetes AND kidney disease live for years. i remember one that lived to almost 21. he had had both diseases for like 5 years , I think. Diabetes can definitely be treated; it is not a terminal disease, and many cats even can go into remission if kept on a very low carb diet. Kidney disease is a chronic progressing disease. but it can be treated too and can often be slowed down or stopped for quite a while. Stress can contribute to other diseases. definitely to diabetes. but I seriously don't think stress over the the diet would cause all this. But now I will bet that dehydration was part of the cause of the constipation. and the visits outside were probably because she had to urinate a lot. ( Both diabetes and CKD cause polyuria/ polydipsia. (peeing a lot / drinking a lot)
 

The dehydration may be throwing off the kidney numbers right now. Plus your cat's on a high protein diet right? They tend to have high BUN levels anyway. So don't worry so much about that one. look at the creatinine. and the urine specific gravity.
 

The diabetes being untreated can be hard on the kidneys. but hopefully maybe the kidneys aren't as bad as it may seem initially. I know my cat's kidney numbers went up at a time when he was really having trouble with the diabetes ( long story but he got pancreatitis.). But the kidney numbers ended up improving and stayed down just a bit elevated but not bad for his age. and he was on a high protein diet.
 

If I had a cat with both ( and this is something i have thought about myself, and discussed with the vet, due to having an older diabetic cat who as I mentioned was starting to show some worsening renal insufficiency), I would treat the diabetes first.
 

The old way of treating CKD was a low protein diet.. some very high carb prescription food. which would mean you would have a very very hard time regulating the diabetes... that would make kidneys work harder. Plus it can also cause anemia and muscle wasting. Some vets now think that the reason the low protein prescription diets have sometimes had success was really because of the lower phosphorus.
 

I would possibly slightly reduce protein and raise fat, but stay low carb. feed high quality easily digestible animal protein sources from poultry or rabbit -- which you may be already doing. and concentrating on limiting phosphorus. Actually Dr Lisa Pierson whose site you were just reading, She does consultations and will give you a custom diet for cats with multiple health problems like that. She also has a good intro to feline diabetes on that site. i would go ahead and read that. And a good site for feline kidney disease is http://www.felinecrf.org
Good luck -- will hope your cat will be feeling better

Our latest idea is that maybe she had eaten a leaf that had pesticides on it. Bug people come and spray out house every so often. She stayed at the hospital for two days and was still 7% dehydrated, but we had to take her home because of the expense. They sent us home with a ton of medications and syringes and food and bags of fluids. It's all pretty spooky. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it after a couple of days (and she should be off several medications within a week) I've already screwed up her dosage time for the insulin, I was a little confused about the material and thought I understood that she needed it only ONCE a day with her meal, yesterday I thought they had given it to her already and so I didn't administer it with her food. I contacted the doc about it and ended up administering it 3 hours later. This morning I was still brain dead and was still under the impression that she only needed it once a day and so didn't administer it with her 8 am breakfast, but I had a nagging and was a little panicky so I talked to the doc again and once again, gave her the dose 3 hours after her meal. My nerves are all wound up right now. Tonight is the first time I'll be administering the fluid and I'm a little spooked by that, I'm reading up about it right now to make sure I got it right. 

I'm definitely interested in getting her the right food for this situation, I don't trust all of the ingredients in the canned foods, I have an appointment in a few weeks to talk to a 'holistic' vet who may have some ideas about that. She seems to act very normal and seems to feel a whole lat better than she did before seeing the vet. Thanks so much for the link and the info!!