Something going around?

Dory had diarrhea yesterday morning.  She then ate her breakfast but has since refused food.  Only a few minutes ago did she eat some kibble on her own.  I syringed watered down baby chicken food into her earlier today.  Other than being slightly quieter than usual, she looks and sounds fine.  I'm hoping whatever upset her will soon pass.  Hopefully her interest in a small amount of kibble will lead to eating and drinking full bore soon.

Her sister, Josie, was doing fine until this morning.  She finished her breakfast as usual, but refused her lunch and she's usually the one to lick every plate clean.  Since then she's growling, obviously upset followed by vomiting.  I wonder if a virus is making its way through?

I volunteer with shelter cats.  My last shift was Sunday afternoon.  Dory started her illness Monday morning.  Could I have brought something back from the shelter cat?  Or was it food?  Water?   They're on prozac--maybe they got a bum pill?

Sigh.  I called the vet today so there is a plan to bring them in if things do not improve.  I so wish they could tell us what is making them sick!  I feel particularly bad for Josie who seems to be suffering from something very upsetting.  She sleeps.  Wakes, growling, vomits and goes back to sleep.  Her last episode was purely liquid so all the food is out.  I know I should leave her be for awhile and let her stomach settle.  But I so want to give her something to soothe her tummy.  Would a a tiny drop of boiled fennel water be too risky?  I'm also thinking about hairball gel just in case it's a massive hairball.  

So odd for both your kitties to be ill all of a sudden. Do they go outdoors? Has anything changed in your home that would affect them both? Food? Water supply?

I don't know how much truth there is to this, but I'm inclined to think that we can bring stuff home from shelters and adoption centers and give it to our cats. When my parents come over and pet my cats, I always remind them to wash their hands and change their clothes before cuddling with their own cat. My three have FHV and FCV. Even if it's not possible, better safe than sorry I guess. I'm mildly germaphobic. 

Sending good vibes and hope they both are feeling 100% better really fast.

Thanks all.  Dory is coming out of it.  She has been snacking on kibble.  She's always been difficult with wet food so I'm not surprised she hasn't eaten much canned.  The only way I can get her to eat canned is to limit the kibble.  Since she's only starting to eat--I don't want to take away what she readily will eat.

Josie is a little less grouchy this morning but still hasn't regained her voracious appetite.  I syringed some homemade hydration solution and that peeved her.  But I'll have to keep doing it until she shows interest in eating/drinking.  It took Dory about 30 hours to show signs of recovery.  Going by that same schedule, Josie should start nibbling this afternoon or evening.

We have had a number of people in and out of the apartment due to a troublesome dishwasher installation the last couple of days.  And they'll be back tomorrow, hopefully for the last time.  It's stressed out the the kitties and hasn't helped in their recovery.  Bad timing.

They are indoor kitties.  And nope there hasn't been any radical introduction of food.  I returned from my Thanksgiving trip last week but they have never reacted badly to my return from a trip.  The only thing I can think of is I brought something into the apartment whether from the shelter cats or shopping bag, etc.  Or I left something out that they licked or sniffed.  Or it was a bad can of food.  The possibilities are endless I suppose.

We have a vet appointment tomorrow afternoon but poor Josie is still vomiting and has shown any signs of improvement.  I'm seriously considering an emergency visit tonight.   I brought her a small plate of boiled chicken and just the whiff of it was enough to send her into a vomiting fit.

Did Josie eat or keep down anything at all today?

No.  She is sleeping in the closet and for now, I'm holding off the emergency visit.  But I will call the vet first thing in the morning and ask if I bring Josie in early rather than for the afternoon appointment.  The vet does surgeries on Thursday mornings so I doubt he will see Josie, but I'll ask if she can at least get some liquids.  I just wet my fingers and wiped them along her mouth.  I dare not give her anything to drink as I do not want to induce another vomiting fit.

Talked to the vet office and was ready to take Josie in early in the morning.  But she's slightly less touchy this morning and so far has kept down the microdoses of hydration solution I've given her via dropper and syringe.  So we are set to see the vet in the afternoon.  Hopefully Josie is starting her recovery.

Dory seems to have recovered completely...except her appetite is still not 100%.  She's always been a fussy nibbler of food so it's hard to gauge.  She does love kibble and since she's not taking advantage of the temporary free-feeding of kibble--it's a sure indication her appetite still needs to improve.  

How are they doing now? How did it go at the vet?

So sorry to hear about your two kitties not feeling well. Hope Josie is starting to recover and that Dory continues to do so. I know the pain one feels when their babies become ill and we have no idea what is wrong with them. It would be great if they could talk and let us know. Hope things went well at the vets!

Sorry to hear they were feeling under the weather. I do believe (having volunteered in many animal shelters) that you can bring things home from them. There are some common bugs going around a few of them, one starts with a c, it's a common shelter cat stomach bug - and my cats got it when I volunteered in a shelter that was later shut down for health issues. Another time my cats got colds when I volunteered at another shelter. With TLC and a lot of vet visits both times the cats recovered. I recommend changing clothes and washing your hands after coming home from volunteering, especially before playing with your own cats. It's not the shelter animals fault of course, and I would and have kept volunteering, but I was very careful after that to be extremely hygienic when I came back from volunteering. I hope they continue to do better, sorry you had to go through that. What's the saying 'No good deed goes unpunished'? I'm sorry to hear your cats were sick, but very glad their improving. Keep us updated if you can. 

Both times by the way, my cats got the bugs I believe from the shelter - they were entirely indoor, and the two different groups of cats showed no symptoms beforehand - just wanted to add that. 

Thank you all for your concern and well wishes.  I brought both cats to the vet.  Briefly, the doctor figured it was some kind of GI infection or upset and prescribed metronidazole for Josie.  Both cats received B12 shots to revive their appetites (hasn't worked so far) and Josie received subQ liquid.  Surprisingly, Josie didn't have any symptoms of dehydration!  That was a surprise.  I was happy to hear that of course, but I can't figure out how that's possible considering she had been vomiting for 48 hours with only tiny intakes of water.

Tentative good news is that I medicated Josie last night and gave her 1 10ML syringe of watered down baby food.  I woke up this morning and have yet to find evidence of upchuck.  I was skeptical about giving her metronidazole as it can cause stomach upset and that was the last thing Josie needed.  But so far it seems to have stop the vomiting.  Seems like there was definitely something in her GI tract that was wrecking havoc.  The downside is she is still very anti-food.  And the feeding process isn't helping either--I'll get into that later.

I brought up the shelter cat/contagion angle and the vet didn't think it was very plausible.  He said the infected shelter cats would have to cover me with spit and then my own cats would have to lick half my body for a virus transfer.  Who knows, I'm not entirely convinced myself of the doc's explanation.  Since I can't rule out a bad can of food or something else in our home, it's impossible to pinpoint anything.

Okay, please help me with SYRINGES.  Is it possible to find a syringe that can be reused more than a handful of times?  I swear every syringe I have used gets stuck after a few uses and washes.  I couldn't feed Josie this morning because the 10ML syringe died pitifully (stopped plunging, one hard yank pulled the plunger out and the seal stuck in the tube). I had only picked it up from CVS on Wednesday.  I switched to a smaller syringe but when I pushed some food into Josie's mouth, all the food squirted out in an explosion. Luckily it didn't hit Josie in the face but the pop frightened her.  I tried to feed a bit with the medicine dropper but Josie had had enough and was hissing at me. 

I will pay good money for a syringe (or any other assistive feeding tool) that stands up to repeated use.  Where can I find one?

Posted too soon.  Josie just used the litter box for a bit of diarrhea and then upchucked just as she exited.  It was green thick liquid.  Her metronidazole is green so I'm concerned she's not even absorbing her medication.  It's closing time here and my vet isn't in the office.  I may get a call from the other vet in the office though the receptionist didn't sound certain it was going to happen.

Do the syringes have a rubber ring on the plunger? I hate these.

I ended up buying these cheapy store brand ones: http://www.kmart.com/smart-sense-oral-syringe-with-dosage-korc-10/p-038W002271625000P. They work great; just not very big.

I've also seen these at my local Petco, but have not tried them: http://www.chewy.com/dog/four-paws-easy-feeder/dp/52757.

Were any tests run at the vet? Did you open a new bag of kibble, perhaps? Between the diarrhea and vomiting and it affecting the both of them to some extent, I'd be concerned about contaminated food. 

Go, yes all my syringes have the black rubber seals--I threw them out.  I bought a 10ML syringe with the plastic disk at one end.  It tends to "spurt" a bit but at least it's not getting stuck.  Making a few test runs, I can mitigate the explosive spurts by depressing the plunger very slowly and gently.  Getting rid of as much air as possible helps.  And I'm going to stop feeding with a little food left in the syringe as the last bit tends to spurt out forcefully.   I haven't used it yet as I just fed Josie with the finger to mouth method.  Fingers crossed she'll keep it down.

The vet didn't recommend any tests.  He examined Josie and said there weren't indications of an obstruction.  If we do head back to the office tomorrow morning, I don't see how we can avoid testing this time.  This has gone on for too long.

Dory's fine but still not eating enough.  Something must have really knocked their GI really hard.  That or the stress is too much.  Though she has been snacking--tonight, I assist-fed her to increase her intake.

In terms of food, we have been on the same giant bag of kibble for at least a couple of months now.  I store the kibble in tall glass bottles.  Maybe one of the bottles wasn't clean enough?  The only treat we use is Trader Joe's and it had been opened/slightly used for a few days before Monday when Dory first went down with symptoms.  I rotate among a handful of wet food--all familiar to the cats.  It's possible there was a bum can I suppose.

I had something go through all four of my cats in the last two weeks. Diarrhea, vomiting, hiding, no interest in food. The diarrhea was continuous. The vomiting and not eating lasted about 24 hours per cat. It seemed to go from one to another.  They went to vet and had full workup with stool studies for parasites, virus, and micro. All negative. Vet asked if we changed foods. We did not same dry food as always and our wet we do a rotation of a few brands. She asked if they were stressed of if new people or pets in our home. Nope, just us. The vet put them on a probotic and Prilosec.  I used the probotic with no change to the diarrhea. We did some receipt searching and realized just before they got sick we bought a new bag of the same brand/protein we always get. I get a large bag because my ferals eat the same as my house kitties.  I ran to pet smart and bought a small bag of same brand/different protein for them and stopped giving the big bag I bought. The diarrhea has stopped and they are all fine. My husbands boss sends has his cat foods tested before deciding if the brand/protein is good enough for his cats to eat.  He took a sample of our big bag to have tested so we will find out if it was contaminated with something.  I am so happy my husband has a great "Cat Man" as his boss. He has given me lots of "Big Brand" cat foods to donate to the Humane Society after being tested that are not acceptable enough for him to feed to his cats. Hopefully we will find a answer to our mystery illness.

Much to my relief, Josie made a full recovery, starting on Monday of this week.  I wanted to give it a few days before reporting triumph.  Though looking back she was back to her herself by Tuesday or Wednesday.

I think she did have the same 24-36 hour bug that Dory had--complicated by a hairball.  I also think my feeding probiotics was also a factor.   Sunday morning, Josie finally coughed up a dense hairball.  This was after 4 straight days of petroleum jelly (my cats lick PJ off my finger) application.  I had an inkling that a hairball was likely involved because Josie had undigested medication in her vomit.  After that I thought--aha, this is it.  Except she threw up later on Sunday.  There was a bit of fur but I think this episode was due to the addition of probiotics to her (syringed) food.  I added in probiotics as a counter to the metronidazole but I think the probiotics likely made her nauseous.  With the hairball gone and abatement of probiotics, Josie managed her to keep her late Sunday night dinner down.  And on Monday morning, for the first time in 6 days, she ate on her own.  I gave her smaller meals so as not to upset her overworked GI system but within a day she was bugging me for more food and pretty much back to her old self.  Thank goodness, I missed my nosey, bossy Josie!

A tip for syringe-feeding--I found that 5ML syringes were easier to use.  Yes, they are small so I ended using 4 of them at a time to feed.  I was able to control the output of food  from the syringes easily.  Since they are small, the "spurts" are less volatile and do not scare the cats nor make much of a mess.

I just have to say that this is so weird! Cleopatra has never really been sick before, and she is having horrible diarrhea! It's gross to say, but it's bright green. If she doesn't get better by Monday, I'm taking her in.