Cat Depression?

We had 3 cats, a brother/sister pair and a younger unrelated female cat.  Sadly, our older girl recently died.  We try not to anthropomorphize the cats, but we were really surprised how her brother didn't seem to notice her passing.  They always seemed to be so close.  Yet, our boy acted like she never existed.  Okay, whatever.  I thought, may be he never liked her after all.

Then, I came home Tuesday night (tonight is Friday) and found him curled up on our bed. Odd, I thought, but not that unusual.  Then I noticed that he never ate all day.  I gave fresh food, and chalked it up to simply odd.  The next day, he had gotten worse.  He suddenly was hiding, not eating, and not grooming.  He looked terrible.  It was too late to take him to the vet, so first thing yesterday we took him to the vet.  She tested him for everything, and could find absolutely nothing wrong.  She gave him fluids and something that she thought would help the appetite.  She called today, and my husband said that the "jury is still out."  I was like, really?  He hasn't eaten at all.  

I am going to call the vet again tomorrow, but has anyone experienced anything like this?  I have a cat that in theory is perfectly healthy, but something is clearly wrong.  Could it be that it finally hit him that sis is gone?

Cats grieve the loss of cat friends like we do.  It's very sad and difficult to watch.  Talk to your kitty and let him know it's okay to grieve and give him a lot of attention.  To get him to eat, try some plain meat baby food, either turkey or chicken with no garlic or no onions.  If you're super concerned and he doesn't start eating soon, get him to the emergency vet and ask for Science Diet a/d food.  That stuff is like kitty crack.

Thanks Stephanie.  We had been giving him lots of attention, and he actually started acting better.  He always watches over our son as he sleeps, which he didn't do Thursday night.  Last night, though, he was back at his post.  Problem was, though, he still wasn't eating.  

First thing this morning, I packed him and took him back to the vet.  On the drive over, he urinated in the crate, which isn't so unusual for him.  It is not the first time he has peed in the crate when going to the vet.  On the plus side, his kidneys were working, and I would think, although I didn't verify this with the vet, that he must of been drinking something for there to be so much urine.  The bad side though was that the urine was brownish orange.  It looked bad and it was.  He had bilirubin in his urine, which was a change from the prior urine test, only 48 hours earlier.  Oddly, when she tested his liver enzymes, they were "spot on" normal.  The vet said that obviously there was a huge problem, but it wasn't with the liver itself.  She said that this also indicated a problem with the blood, but when she looked at the blood itself it coagulated normally.  However, when she tested his pancreas that is when she finally found the problem.  He appears to have pancreatitis, although even that diagnosis is not definitive.    

He is spending the weekend at the vet to get IV fluids and nutrients.  We are going to regroup on Monday morning.  I wish I knew how he was doing, but it is impossible to reach them after hours.  

I asked if he stopped eating because he had pancreatitis, or if he had pancreatitis because he stopped eating.  The vet thought the former.  I do wonder if the vet had diagnosed him on Thursday if the outcome might have been better.  Right now, it is not certain that he will recover.  I am so sad, but hoping for a miracle.  

Oh no.  I don't have any experience with pancreatitis so I can't offer any thoughts--I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry about this and I hope he will pull through.  We have an 18+ year old kitty with kidney disease who lost his best friend, an 11 year old female who was not related to him but he was very bonded to her. He went through a while of not eating well, crying, diarrhea--he just got very off-kilter from her loss.  

He's doing better now, thankfully.  I wish the best for your kitty.  

Sorry you are going thru this and my prayers are with your cat.   Just wasnt mentioned in your first post if he saw his sister passing or did it happen at the vet so that he didnt know what happenned to her ?

His sister, Maydela, died in the hospital.  So from his perspective, his sister left and just didn't come home. 

When we got the "kitten," we did everything that we were supposed to do to introduce a new cat, but Maydela was ticked off.  That following Friday, she got out of the house and didn't come home, and that was before we had her microchipped.  We searched everywhere.  We called all shelters.  We were devastated, as was her brother.  He waited by the backdoor.  He didn't eat well, but he did eat.  He was visibly upset, so his nonchalant attitude following her death, truly surprised us.  That is why we think that he must have thought that we took her someplace and that she would come back.  

(Maydela's disappearance turned out to be a funny story, although we weren't laughing at the time.  Our next door neighbor had workers in their house and the house doors were wide open.  Maydela got in, and apparently kept out of their way.  They didn't realize that she was there, until that night when they go to bed and she jumped in to sleep with them.  They didn't realize that she was our cat, so they kept her for the weekend.  I still wonder how I would react if I didn't own a cat, and one night there is one snuggled up in bed with me.)

Well, the good news is he's getting the medical attention he needs and hopefully you'll be able to come up with a plan on Monday.  I have no experience with pancreatitis, but I know there are others on the board who do.  Here are the search results I found: 

http://www.thecatsite.com/newsearch?search=pancreatitis

Thanks for the link.  There was a lot of helpful stuff on it.  

The vet called and he is doing much better today.  He is eating and normal body functions are returning.  Tomorrow, she will re-do his blood work so we know where he is.  

tabbycatlover said:

 
His sister, Maydela, died in the hospital.  So from his perspective, his sister left and just didn't come home. 

When we got the "kitten," we did everything that we were supposed to do to introduce a new cat, but Maydela was ticked off.  That following Friday, she got out of the house and didn't come home, and that was before we had her microchipped.  We searched everywhere.  We called all shelters.  We were devastated, as was her brother.  He waited by the backdoor.  He didn't eat well, but he did eat.  He was visibly upset, so his nonchalant attitude following her death, truly surprised us.  That is why we think that he must have thought that we took her someplace and that she would come back.  

(Maydela's disappearance turned out to be a funny story, although we weren't laughing at the time.  Our next door neighbor had workers in their house and the house doors were wide open.  Maydela got in, and apparently kept out of their way.  They didn't realize that she was there, until that night when they go to bed and she jumped in to sleep with them.  They didn't realize that she was our cat, so they kept her for the weekend.  I still wonder how I would react if I didn't own a cat, and one night there is one snuggled up in bed with me.)

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Right, that probably explains why it took him a while to react and was nonchalant at first.