Cat Not Eating, Had HIm at Vet a Few Weeks Ago for Episode of Vomiting

A few weeks ago he thew up his breakfast at 5PM (among other things) and off the the e-vet we went.  All was well for the past three weeks and then this morning he won't eat.  Tried to entice him with other types of canned food  and he has no interest.  Like doesn't even want to smell it.  I wondered if he has been feeling well the last couple of days because he wasn't meowing bloody murder for his dinner when I got home from work.

As I posted before we noticed a change in his behavior in August, it was subtle, he just didn't seem to have the same kind of energy, not acting sick, but just sleeping more.  He also had very bad breath a few weeks before the throwing up incident, but it went away after a antibiotic shot from the vet.

I am taking him to the back to the doctor today, but does anyone have any thoughts?  He is peeing and pooping and doesn't appear to have a fever.   I don't have any plants in the house.  He's out sitting next to me and not hiding in his carrier.

Update:  OK he just threw up.  Pretty greulish consistency and no hair in it.  Not like last time, where he threw up and collapsed, he went up on his cat tree and laid down.

It is good that you are taking him to the vet.  Not eating is always something you have to take very seriously with a cat, since it really takes very little time for their not eating to have serious ill effects.

Beyond that, I can't really speculate about what might be wrong with him.  I definitely hope that the vet will be able to give you more info and advice- please let us know how it goes!

How old is your kitty?

They ran the usual blood/urine tests, nothing conclusive, gave him some sub-q and a b-12 shot.  He ate a little bit - maybe 1/4 of a can, when we got home.  I'm supposed to bring him to the e-vet tomorrow if he's still not eating and/or vomiting. 

Did they run the GI panel - B12 (cobalamin) / folate / spec fPLI (to check for pancreatitis)? Were at least x-rays taken? Anyone mention an ultrasound? I'd want that test and I'd want imaging if this were my cat. These symptoms can be caused by SO many things, you really need the proper diagnostics to narrow down things down.

In my kitty, blood work was normal. Yet he turned out to have a massive cancerous mass in his stomach. In my other kitty, all was normal in blood work other than T4, which turns out she was hypo-thyroid (rare in cats, but potentially indicative of chronic illness). So we opted for imaging. She had thickened intestines. Given the one thing off in her blood work, we opted for full surgical biopsy, as she wasn't diabetic, and not a candidate for IBD (in my opinion). Turns out she had small cell lymphoma, which is now being treated.

Just illustrations of why it can be important to pursue the diagnostic trail.

Of course, you can treat the symptoms: cerenia for nausea (which would be a standard part of the treatment if this is related to pancreatitis flares), cyrpo to stimulate the appetite. But those would be useful tools while figuring out what the actual problem is. :rub:

Yes x-rays were taken and sent out to a radiologist to be read.  Nothing abnormal.   She mentioned doing an ultrasound next.  He had a full blood work and a urinalysis three weeks ago when he was at the emergency vet.  She took samples and repeated some of the blood/urine tests based on the full panel.  Nothing conclusive.

Is a GI panel part of the blood work?  She mentioned IBD or pancreatitis, but he has always eaten like a horse and never had diarrhea except for the one incident three weeks ago when he vomited.

The bad breath incident still has me wondering, but she thought something with his teeth was highly unlikely.

She didn't give him anti-nausea because she didn't want to mask his symptoms.  Then again, if I have to bring him to the emergency vet tomorrow (I really, really hope not), I wonder if they'll give it to him.

I just tried to get him to eat again and he has no interest.  I bought some meat baby food  (god that stuff smells awful) but he's not interested in that either.  Should I try putting some fortiflora on it? 

I would.

I will let my cats go 24 hours without food, but at that point I assist feed. I do hope you don't have to take him to the e-vet. I understand not wanting to mask symptoms, but given they've found nothing I would think getting him eating while pursuing other reasons is important. :dk:

No, a GI panel is not part of normal blood work, and that is the first step in diagnosing either IBD or pancreatitis. IBD does not always present with diarrhea: it depends on why and where the inflammation is.

No luck with the fortiflora.  He has absolutely no interest,  He is sitting here next to me grooming himself though.

She didn't give him anti-nausea, but they did give him some pepcid.

I actually have an entire bottle of Metroclopramide for my other IBD kitty.  I agree, since she can't see him tomorrow, why not treat the nausea now. 

When you say assist do you mean syringe feed?  I had a hard enough time getting water into him. 

So sorry to hear about your baby! While I don't have any advice to offer on most of his symptoms, I do want to reiterate what LDG said about not waiting more than 24hours to assist feed (or syringe feed, as you put it). Allowing a cat to go that long without food could cause a whole host of other problems. 

As for the bad breath, I remember when my Mom's cat had breath so bad it made ME nauseous to smell it. Turned out, he had a growth/abscess in the back of his throat. He got a shot for it (I don't remember what because it's been so many years since this incident), but it helped. Not sure if the vet checked his mouth or not, but I would inquire just to be sure.  

Good luck to you and your baby! I hope they figure out what's wrong with him quickly!

Well good news, I got him to eat about 1/3 of a can very early this morning and 1/3 of a can about 10 AM.   I guess that means I can avoid the e-clinic as long as he stays stable. 

@wolfover:   THe oesn't seem to have difficulty swallowing, though I do wonder about if it's something with his mouth.  I hope they figure it out too!  When I was younger I don't remember my cats getting sick and not being able to figure it out.  Then again, that was when I had one cat and not 5.

Just for future reference, does anyone have suggestions about how to syringe feed a cat if you have to do it alone?

Yay for eating! Has he kept it down so far?

My Mom's cat didn't have any problem eating or swallowing, either. We just realized his breath was way worse than the normal kitty bad breath. 

As for syringe feeding, how to do it depends on your cat. Sometimes, less handling is better, sometimes more handling is better. You could start by just placing one hand on the side of his head to gently hold it, and from the other side, put the syringe in the side of his mouth and push some in. If he needs to be held more, you could try scruffing him with one hand and feeding with the other. If that doesn't work, you could wrap him up snug in a towel, and place him under your arm so he can't squirm very much. The arm will help keep his body still, and you can still use your hand to hold his head while the other one feeds. 

Yes he's keeping it down.  He followed me into the kitchen and so I fed him a little more, but he wouldn't eat more than a tablespoon or so. 

So anyway, I'm noticing when he eats he takes some in his mouth and turns his head to the side and it sound almost like - teeth grinding isn't the right word, but kind of like that.  I know cats often turn their head when eating, but I don't know if this is different from what he usually does.  Could be I'm just grasping at straws here looking for an explanation.  The consistency of the food is somewhere between a pate and a gravy wit chunks.

I do see quite a few videos on you tube about syringe feeding - I always forget to check there. 

I searched the site, and google, for teeth grinding in cats. Here are some links:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/193641/urgent-need-input

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/228068/eating-with-strange-horking-sound

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/grinding-teeth-while-eating.27039/

http://healthquestions.medhelp.org/teeth-grinding-in-cats

Seems like it could be anything, really. How old is he? If he's around the age that his adult teeth are coming in, maybe it could be his baby teeth getting loose and causing friction when he eats... I would suggest bringing this up with your vet. If he does have a lump or abscess in his mouth, it could change the way he eats, especially if it's on the gum line or in the back of the mouth at the join in his jaw. 

Well if you're able to, why not feed him the little bits very frequently? If he's having something like a pancreatic flare that's best anyway.

reba how's your kitty doing? :cross:

@wolflover326   Thanks for the links about the grinding, for some reason I don't always get update emails when someone posts. 

LDG he was back at the vets yesterday because he was eating, but not much at a time.  I took a video of him eating and sent it to her, he turns his head to the side to force the food into one side of his mouth.  Now she is thinking the might be something with his teeth, but not sure it's related to his lack of appetite and the vomiting.  He's never run a fever, even when he collapsed after throwing up a few weeks ago.  When he did eat he jumped up in his cat tree (as opposed to sitting on the couch with me) and looked kind of miserable.  His blood work his fine and his urinalysis is fine (a few white/red blood cells in the test from the e-clinic so she redid those).  Nothing is conclusive.

But today he is better again, I was met with the usual cacophony of meows for breakfast and when I walked in the door.  The plan is to wait a few weeks and see if he's stable and then bring him in for a dental.  They gave me the estimate on that - yee gads $500-$700 - and it's not covered by insurance.  Have you ever had that done? 

Yes. The baseline dental here costs $350, but if there are any extractions, those are additional. That $350 includes the pre-anesthetic blood work (to check organ function). I have two cats that need annual dentals at a minimum. The others I try to get them in every-other year, staggered (we have 10 now).

Dental pain - as you likely know - can be just horrific. Cats are great at hiding pain though. I'd feel badly for your kitty if it turns out this was a dental problem, because it means there's pain and discomfort now. BUT it would be nice if that were the solution!

Yeah, I'm sorry if it's true, but I really hope it's his teeth.  It would explain whey his behavior changed in August.  He's built like a mini-tank and would run to you whenever you called no matter what room he was in.  Then in August we noticed he stopped doing that and spent a lot more time sleeping, just seemed to have lost a lot his carefree spark. 

That said, I was playing with him last night and he put the toy in his mouth.   In fact I was putting off his dental before he got sick again figuring this was a sign that his teeth weren't bothering him.

I'm a little worried about the anethesia though, she said they put them in pretty deep, more so than his neuter, which didn't go well.

Is there a dental specialist near you? It might be worth it, as they use more sophisticated techniques and monitoring during the dental. It will cost more - potentially a lot more though. I'd consider looking into it and getting a quote.

Not nearby, I could take him to Tufts or Cornell, but I probably wouldn't reading some of the reviews.  I wonder if I could ask her if she could consult with a specialist after the dental xrays are taken.  They actually do that for the regular xrays which I like even though it is an extra fee.  My fear is them not being vigilant enough in figuring out what's wrong and missing something.  It puzzles me that dentists have to spend 3 years in speciality training and now your average vet is doing dental diagnosis.