Hello,
A few days ago my 1-year-old mixed/Main Coon started going off his food. Whenever I put a bowl of fresh wet food down for him, he'll sniff it, then walk away. I've tried everything to try and tempt him to eat it - e.g. warming it up, sprinkling his favourite treats on top, bits of chicken, tried different brands etc but he's just not interested. I have been managing to get him to eat some of his dry food (or biscuits as I call them) by hand feeding them to him, and today he has started going over to his dry food bowl and eating bits himself. It's not like him to just eat bits of dry food though (I don't "free feed" him dry food - he has wet food in the morning and evening and I give him a snack of dry food in the afternoon, however I've left a full bowl of dry food out since he hasn't been eating his wet. But he absolutely loves it and would usually quite happily eat a full bowl if he was allowed to and usually cries for more). He's drinking water and I've also been managing to get some chicken broth down him, as well as feed him a few of those 80% meat treat sticks. So it's not like he's not eating anything, he just isn't eating enough, which isn't like him as he usually loves his food!
So I took him to the Vet on Friday. They examined him (teeth, mouth, ears, eyes, felt his abdomen etc) and everything was normal. However, they took his temperature and said that it was high. I mentioned to them that a remarkably similar thing happened to him when he was a kitten just after he had his first vaccinations (no physical signs of anything wrong apart from a high temperature and lack of appetite). He has been perfectly well for a year, but just had his booster vaccinations 3 weeks ago and this has happened again. This raised warning signs for the Vet who suspected that something may be wrong with his immune system if he was getting ill after his vaccinations (though he had been perfectly well all year) and they said they wanted to test him for FIV/FeLV, though warned me that the test was quite expensive. I instantly started to panic and agreed to the test and asked them to run a full blood test too. I nervously waited 30 minutes for the results and luckily the FIV/FeLV test was negative. Thank god. The only thing the blood tests revealed was that he was slightly dehydrated (probably because he usually gets most of his fluids from his wet food as I always mix extra water into it as he's not usually a big drinker) and that he was showing signs of fighting some sort of infection, but they didn't know what infection.
He was given a shot of antibiotics that they said lasts for two weeks (I told them it was difficult to get medicine etc down him as he's not the type of cat that likes to be picked up and fussed over, so they said they could give him this. Don't quite understand how it works though - has anybody heard of this? Does it just slowly/gradually release antibiotics over the two weeks?), injected with fluids under the skin to help re-hydrate him, and given a shot of Metcam. I was also given Metcam to carry on giving to him daily for 5 days, which I was worried about because it says mix with food and obviously because he's not eating this would not be possible. However, I mixed it with a little cat milk and luckily he's been drinking it all up.
The only other symptom besides lack of appetite was that he's been unusually quiet. He's usually a VERY VOCAL cat and loves to talk. However, today he's been meowing again. He's still up and about, running around, jumping up on things, playing and wanting to go out. But he's still not eating any wet food!!!
He's showing no signs of having a blockage - his abdomen feels normal, no vomiting, and he's pooping and urinating normally. He's showing no signs of an upper respiratory infection or anything like that.
So anyone have any ideas what this "infection" could be? Do you think it could be related to the vaccinations?
I absolutely hate it when he's not well and although I've been assured that the tests have ruled out anything serious, I'm still worried sick. Though as I said the only symptom as of today is that he's still not eating any wet food!
Thanks for reading.
Cheryl.
A few days ago my 1-year-old mixed/Main Coon started going off his food. Whenever I put a bowl of fresh wet food down for him, he'll sniff it, then walk away. I've tried everything to try and tempt him to eat it - e.g. warming it up, sprinkling his favourite treats on top, bits of chicken, tried different brands etc but he's just not interested. I have been managing to get him to eat some of his dry food (or biscuits as I call them) by hand feeding them to him, and today he has started going over to his dry food bowl and eating bits himself. It's not like him to just eat bits of dry food though (I don't "free feed" him dry food - he has wet food in the morning and evening and I give him a snack of dry food in the afternoon, however I've left a full bowl of dry food out since he hasn't been eating his wet. But he absolutely loves it and would usually quite happily eat a full bowl if he was allowed to and usually cries for more). He's drinking water and I've also been managing to get some chicken broth down him, as well as feed him a few of those 80% meat treat sticks. So it's not like he's not eating anything, he just isn't eating enough, which isn't like him as he usually loves his food!
So I took him to the Vet on Friday. They examined him (teeth, mouth, ears, eyes, felt his abdomen etc) and everything was normal. However, they took his temperature and said that it was high. I mentioned to them that a remarkably similar thing happened to him when he was a kitten just after he had his first vaccinations (no physical signs of anything wrong apart from a high temperature and lack of appetite). He has been perfectly well for a year, but just had his booster vaccinations 3 weeks ago and this has happened again. This raised warning signs for the Vet who suspected that something may be wrong with his immune system if he was getting ill after his vaccinations (though he had been perfectly well all year) and they said they wanted to test him for FIV/FeLV, though warned me that the test was quite expensive. I instantly started to panic and agreed to the test and asked them to run a full blood test too. I nervously waited 30 minutes for the results and luckily the FIV/FeLV test was negative. Thank god. The only thing the blood tests revealed was that he was slightly dehydrated (probably because he usually gets most of his fluids from his wet food as I always mix extra water into it as he's not usually a big drinker) and that he was showing signs of fighting some sort of infection, but they didn't know what infection.
He was given a shot of antibiotics that they said lasts for two weeks (I told them it was difficult to get medicine etc down him as he's not the type of cat that likes to be picked up and fussed over, so they said they could give him this. Don't quite understand how it works though - has anybody heard of this? Does it just slowly/gradually release antibiotics over the two weeks?), injected with fluids under the skin to help re-hydrate him, and given a shot of Metcam. I was also given Metcam to carry on giving to him daily for 5 days, which I was worried about because it says mix with food and obviously because he's not eating this would not be possible. However, I mixed it with a little cat milk and luckily he's been drinking it all up.
The only other symptom besides lack of appetite was that he's been unusually quiet. He's usually a VERY VOCAL cat and loves to talk. However, today he's been meowing again. He's still up and about, running around, jumping up on things, playing and wanting to go out. But he's still not eating any wet food!!!
He's showing no signs of having a blockage - his abdomen feels normal, no vomiting, and he's pooping and urinating normally. He's showing no signs of an upper respiratory infection or anything like that.
So anyone have any ideas what this "infection" could be? Do you think it could be related to the vaccinations?
I absolutely hate it when he's not well and although I've been assured that the tests have ruled out anything serious, I'm still worried sick. Though as I said the only symptom as of today is that he's still not eating any wet food!
Thanks for reading.
Cheryl.
