Help Serious Situation With No Answer Yet

The injection in her back that made her look like a hunchback was a saline solution to rehydrate her. I've given fluids at home for various reasons; it's ranged from once a day to once a week. Some kitties with kidney disease need smaller amounts of fluid up to twice a day.

A few sips of water isn't going to keep her hydrated. Those fluids probably made her pee, which is good. But at this point, I doubt they're still in her system.

I'll try to force feed when my girlfriend comes home. Things are more expensive in NYC unfortunately... She has eaten a bit I really hope she doesn't have fatty liver. Why would the vet tell me to wait 5 days to call back?

Do you suggest to immediately take back to the vet and ask for blood work?

Sorry, one last thought. I suspect the timing of the kitten and her illness are just coincidence. If she was sick the night of the day he came home, it's highly unlikely she got something from him. Most virus or bacteria take longer than that to take hold.

It is very common for a resident cat to get ill when a new cat comes home: the stress of having a new kitty in one's environment lowers immune function. All of us - people and animals - usually have bacteria or virus already in us that can make us sick, but our immune systems keep those things at bay. During times of stress, we get sick: the issue isn't necessarily one of "new" exposure, but of a weakened immune system. But again, this doesn't usually happen within hours.

bab00nback said:

I'll try to force feed when my girlfriend comes home. Things are more expensive in NYC unfortunately... She has eaten a bit I really hope she doesn't have fatty liver. Why would the vet tell me to wait 5 days to call back?

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Did she discuss anything about what to do if your kitty didn't eat, or couldn't keep food down? The vet probably assumed she'd start eating again. :dk:

You can't just try to swipe a little food in the corner of her mouth?

Personally, I think the urgency here is food.

I have 8 cats, and go through stuff like this on a somewhat regular basis, because I work with feral cats around my home, and I bring bacteria and viruses in here from time-to-time. When I have a vomiting cat, the first thing I do is fast them for 12 to 24 hours. Then I offer food. If they are very lethargic, won't eat, or can't keep the food down at that point, we're off to the vet. Well, actually at this point I have the anti-nausea medication on hand (in pill form). If that doesn't work, then we're off to the vet. The vet checks their colon, and does what she can to check the stomach (it's up under the rib cage, so very hard to feel). Sometimes (very) inflamed organs can be felt via palpation. If kitty is not in pain, has no stool in the colon, &etc. we're usually sent home without further diagnositcs. But if kitty exhibits pain, we do the blood work, x-ray, ultrasound routine. Just went through this in June with one of our cats. She had an inflamed pancreas (pancreatitis). We don't know what caused it, but I had to give her pain meds for several days, and feed her every 2 hours for 2 or 3 days.

So you're saying that if there's something in her system bothering her, force feeding will help push her bowels and cause her to flush her system? Correct me if I'm wrong. The problem isn't the kitten but the older cat. The kitten is doing fine but my priorities lie with the existing cat, I love her too much to let anything happen.

Fluids do a better job of flushing the system, but the a/d is probably about 80% water. So yes, having the food with the moisture in it moving through her system will help "flush," "lubricate," and provide much needed nourishment. It has extra potassium in it to help with hydration.

I was wondering did you look for a kitten or go just once?  If you were in and out of shelters/or rescues you may have picked something up that the older one caught. 

Just force fed her 1/2 oz of Hillis AD through a syringe. She seemed to be enjoying it and towards the middle even started lifting her cheek without me having to so I could administer food. Hopefully this will help things out. Will keep you posted. Thanks for the advice.

:bigthumb: That's great! I really hope she keeps it down. If she does, feed her half an ounce next, in half an hour or so.

How big is she? She'll need about a can a day? If so, get half a can in her tomorrow, again, divided up into small meals.

Her reaction says to me she feels very nauseous.

I would go ahead and call the vet tomorrow. Let the vet know she's still very lethargic, and she's not eating on her own. She might perk up with an appetite stimulant and the anti-nausea medication. There is a pill version you give at home, just 1/4 pill once a day. These might help get her eating on her own.

Catsallaround, that's a really good point. :nod:

catsallaround said:

I was wondering did you look for a kitten or go just once?  If you were in and out of shelters/or rescues you may have picked something up that the older one caught. 

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No we went ourselves to look for the kitten. Either way we didn't go to a shelter we went to our local Petco on National Adopting Weekend and the weekend after. We only brought her out one of those weekends for maybe 20 minutes. But she wasn't interested in getting out of the bag whatsoever so she didn't interact with the cats. We plan to feed her a whole can throughout the day today and surprisingly she didn't vomit what we fed her yesterday.

She needn't have been with you for you to potentially bring something home.

But whatever happened, I'm glad she kept the food down! How's she doing today?

She's doing waaaay better thank you. She was force fed half an oz in the morning and then during the day she was eating out of her food bowl by herself. She's was running around and playing with the kitten and drinking water. She went to the bathroom and was acting waaaay more like herself today. I feel so much more relieved. Thank you so much for the help and advice. I really really really appreciate it. I will post back tomorrow to update on how she is. In the meantime here is this which happened about an hour ago.

Awww..... :heart2:

I'm so glad she just needed a little "push" to get her going! What a relief!

Thank you. Can't imagine life without my Shenz!!!!!