Need help with my Duncan

Hello everyone,

I have a sick 8 year old male named Duncan. Back in November, my wife were coming home to vomit on the floor. Sort of like a semi circle. He would puke and move to the side and puke again. This would happen about every 2 weeks. He would never lose his appetite and would act normal. A couple of weeks ago we came home to the same situation but found Duncan crouched down looking very miserable. We knew we needed to take him to the vet. We took him on January 10th.

They did a blood test and urine analysis. Everything was okay. We were worried about renal problems but the tests showed his BUN and creatine levels were normal. His white blood cells were a little high but everything else was normal. They prescribed him Prednisolone and Metronidazole. Neither seemed to work. We took him back after a week and they injected him with an antibiotic. They also did X rays and didn't see anything.The next day he was back to his old self. He was eating, no longer miserable looking. We were happy to have our Duncan back.

Then this past Wednesday we found vomit by his bowl again. He lost his appetite. We decided to try another vet to get a 2nd opinion. He prescribed metoclopramide to help with digestion and Cyproheptadine to give him an appetite. The Cyproheptadine helped for about two days. Now he is no longer responsive to it. He still drinks water but he is losing weight and weak. We are trying to force feed him. We are going to see the vet tomorrow but are lost for answers. He seems to have a stuffy nose as he started sneezing a bunch when we were giving him the steroid Prednisolone. I know cats wont eat when they can't smell. We were wondering that since the injection of an antibiotic helped for about a week, should we get them to give him another. Maybe the initial dose didn't get rid of what is making him ill.

Any advice would be helpful. He isn't old and we aren't sure what is wrong. He is an indoor cat and goes outside a little but mostly during the summer. He comes in contact with no other animals and mostly just hangs out on our back deck when he goes outside.

Thanks.
Adrian

Hi Adrian,

So sorry you are going through all this with your cat.

It's strange that he doesn't have any symptoms that give me that 'gut' instinct about possibly what's going on.

The antibiotic shot is covenia likely, it's good for 2 weeks.

Sounds like he def. should be given another.

You are correct, if they can't smell it they won't eat.

However, there are a couple of things that might help here.

Tuna water smells strong, he may drink that.

Also a great one is chicken baby food, mix some water in it and heat it up very warm (not hot)

This is good, easy on his system and they go nuts for it. He may drink this on his own, and if not can be syringed quite easily.

It's a good thing for him to be drinking water on his own still, but he still needs to keep his body going in order to get over this illness.

You can help his nasal congestion with a steamy bathroom or a humidifier.

So he was given an x-ray? An ultrasound might show more, so this may be a consideration.

It seems to me that, as you said, he is not old at all, 8 is def. not old, although things do come up regardless of age.

You need the vet to be vigilant and relentless for kitty now, as there is something, somewhere out of whack, finding it is the hard part now.

Gosh I wish I had more to tell you.

The antibiotic you mean is convenia. Research it first....it has a lot of controversy with some bad side effects. Make sure you let 2nd opinion vets know what medications your other vet prescribed.

Thank you guys for the advice. I think an ultrasound is definitely what we are going to do next.

We have given him some tuna water last night and he actually got a little excited after trying it. We have done the baby food as well. He does lick some of it. We have used the syringe today. He has been to the litter box once today. He keeps drinking water every now and then.

He was given Covenia once for a bad UTI about 3 or 4 years ago. It helped for a week but didn't get rid of it. It came back and I had to give him oral antibiotics. That did the trick. That's why I wonder about his first shot. It helped about a week. Of course they are two different things but maybe convenia isn't strong enough for his system. We have brought the paperwork from our first vet each time.

We hope to get some answers tomorrow. I would hate to lose him and never know why. He still is strong enough to want to lay with us. He just came to the couch and I helped him on it. I gave him some good petting and he rubbed his head on me. Right now he islaying on his favorite blanket and we a are letting him sleep. He hasn't curled up much but he is right now. We put his blanket on him to keep him warm since he's lost about 3 pounds. He likes getting covered up. Lately he always seems to be just staying in the sphinx position looking uncomfortable.
Thanks again for the advice and help. I'll try and keep you posted.

I LOVE that he likes being covered up! My Krissy is just the same, she sleeps next to me at night with the blanket up to her neck like I do

Yes, it sounds like the next step would be an ultrasound, and I must say, it's only as good as the tech giving it, so not sure how to go about that but just an fyi...

He clearly has something going on, and is miserable and feeling badly from it, hearing it's weakened him is quite worrisome.

Time is of the essence, as I believe you know. A couple of small details tell me that he is NOT believing that he is dying, yet that is. I mean because this can change at any point and time, why it is urgent to find the problem.

But a cat who is sick and/or suffering, or even old age, will not lay on the couch or bed curled up, but would become sort of anti-social, occupied by his state, and would sleep in odd, more hidden, private like, out of the way places. Some who are able to, wander away.

They also don't get excited at drinking tuna water

The weight loss and weakness is bad though, and he can suddenly go downhill very fast. Which I believe you also know.

Has he had bowel movements lately? He vomits immediately after eating? Is it undigested foods? Is it ever digested food? Is it only when he eats, any other random times? Ever vomit water?

No blood, worms, etc it doesn't sound like.

The only thing that strikes me is that the x-ray missed a possible issue in his stomach. Whether it is a partial obstruction, or even cancer, it can be missed via x-ray, where-as  an ultrasound is much more sensitive.

There are also procedures where they can see fluid given as it travels through his body from his throat down, through the intestines and see where it stops.

I hope it's not stomach cancer.

You mentioned his white blood cells were elevated, can you give specifics? Which cells, and how high? This may tell something.

He hasn't had any bowel movements lately but he hasn't eaten a large amount in a few days. He would go when he was vomiting and felt better than he does now. There was never any blood.

I'm aware that cancer is still a possibility since it doesn't always show up on a x ray. I just hope it's not.

As for the lab results and his white blood cells, the EOS, which I've read is the inflammatory cell associated with parasitic disease, hypersensitivity and allergies, is at 1.04. It's supposed to be between .10 - .79. I'm not too good bright when it comes to the lab stuff. Maybe you are. His RETIC is 50.3. Just a hair over the areas that it should be at 3.0 - 50.0. His RDW was a little low, which is his red cell distribution width is at 17. It should be between 17.3 - 22.0. I've researched these things a little. I don't know if they are much to be concerned about.

Okay so his eosinophils are elevated, but only slightly.

As you said, these are a reaction to fleas, allergies, parasites.

They can actually be elevated from other factors, but 1.04 is not alarming at all.

I was wondering if it could be a parasite. It puzzles me that after his antibiotic injection, which was convenia, helped him feel better for a week. But all of this came back. Maybe it isn't strong enough for his system. He once had an injection of convenia for a UTI. It helped for about a week but came back and I had to put him on something stronger and it got rid of the UTI. But, I don't know if that can even be compared to this. I'm just wondering why that would be.

Does he appear to be drinking more water than normal? Is he a big boy I can't tell under the covers It maybe worth it to repeat his blood glucose levels or maybe a fructosamine test. It will show his blood sugar over the past few days. Diabetic cats are susceptible to UTI's and can be like you have described when sick. Just a possible. He is awful young for the "c" word. Hopefully that is not it.

He is not fat at all. He weighed 10.5 lbs. he was down to 8 last week. I assume he is a little lighter now. If he was diabetic. It definitely wouldn't be from being obese. Here's a photo of him at normal size.

I'm not sure if normal weight cats get diabetes mine was 12 lbs when diagnosed. Do you have a board certified cat specialist in your area? When mine have these kinds of problems it seems only the cat specialist can solve the issues. Though a lot of the symptoms you describe are like mine when her blood glucose was way off, it can just be a coincidence. I've found though regular vets are caring sometimes they are at a loss because they mostly see dogs. An ultrasound can oftentimes spot things a blood test doesn't yet. If the ultrasound is negative I would maybe take your cat to a cat specialist or send your cats records for a consult and in the meantime have you regular vet try to stimulate your cats appetite. Tuna juice is always a good choice and even Tuna when you can't get them to eat at all. Some food is better than no food. The water intake you describe is the puzzling part usually a cat that is in big trouble won't even do that. I assume his teeth are in good shape?

I don't know if there is a specialist or not. I'll look into it. He has been drinking some tuna juice. Sometimes he doesn't want it then we put some in his mouth then he drinks some more of it. Kind of like he can't smell but can taste a little. We just fed him some food through a syringe. It's just so much fun.

His teeth are good so I don't think that's a problem.

Thank you all for your responses. All of the input from you all has been helpful.

To clear up his nasal passages you may want to try to take him into the bathroom and run a hot shower to fill it with steam. Keep him in there for a few minutes and hopefully a few minutes later he will sneeze a few and at least clear things up so maybe he can smell a little. A kids humidifier will work as well. Hopefully you will find out what is wrong with him soon so he can be back to his usual self.

Are you planning to see the vet today or at least chat with him about how your kitty is not doing okay?

I think it's very important to get an ultrasound asap.

He's at the vet now. We had to drop him off. They are going to feed him and give him fluids. They at first said his kidney analysis numbers were high but thought that it just may be from dehydration. Then they have done it again and they have improved with fluids and they are not in the area of kidney failure which is great. That is where we are at. They are going to call us later. They may keep him overnight to check the tests again in the morning to just make sure his kidneys are fine. We are happy with this news for now. Our vet is gonna contact us later today to see where we go from here.

I'll keep you updated.

Hope they get to the bottom of it and he is ok!!

Yes, we will be wondering and waiting for any updates.

Surely hoping to get to the bottom of this soon!

I'm glad he is at the vets now too, sending great vibes to you and your boy.  

   

Thanks a lot you guys. I just heard from the vet that he will be staying overnight. They said he seems to be doing better. I guess we will find out more tomorrow. I'll keep y'all updated.

Overnight is a good thing.

He will always feel better after fluids, so try to keep that in mind, but it's a temporary fix and only lasts 2-3 days.

There is still something wrong, hoping the vet agrees with an ultrasound for him.

Let us know ! Will be wondering.

Well, here is our situation. It's snowing here in Atlanta. Chaos has ensued. We called the vet this morning and they were supposed to call us back. They didn't. And nobody is there now. He will be spending two nights there. Who knows what will happen tomorrow since temps are below freezing all day tomorrow. That is my update. I hope he is okay. He probably thinks he's been abandoned.