Chula won't eat - need advice

Three and a half months ago, I adopted two year old siblings, Paul, a husky black 17 pounder and Chula a dainty torbie at 10 pounds.    I actually learned about them on TCS so they are true TCS kitties!

Within a month, Chula developed a UTI.  It took three antibiotics, over two months  and a switch to canned food before her urine appeared to be blood free.    Half way through this process, she started to vomit up her food (both canned and kibble) but vomiting stopped shortly after the blood vanished from her urine, so I assumed the vomiting was related to the UTI.  Now I am not so sure.

Two days ago she started vomiting up her canned food.  Yesterday she managed to keep down some kibble but today she won’t eat anything at all.  She is still actively playing and is not showing any obvious signs of discomfort but I know this is not good.  Her urine still appears clear and of normal amounts.

The problem is:  I  am retired, on a very limited and fixed income and can’t afford on going vet bills and lots of tests.  I had been assured both cats were healthy when I adopted them and had assumed I would have time to build up a vet fund for serious problems because they were only two.   I’ve had cats for decades and never had problems with one so young before.  Now from reading TCS, I realize this incredible luck gave me a skewed sense of reality and that I probably was not in a position to adopt but it is done now and I am not sure what to do.  At any rate, I can’t even take her in for an office visit until June 1, which fortunately is only a couple of days away. 

The last time the vet saw her, he recommended an ultrasound at $400 and I assume that will be even more important now.  I am going to try to scrape that up, although I am not sure I'll be able to do so.

  Here are my questions:

What other kinds of tests can I expect him to suggest?

What kinds of diagnoses might  he be considering with these symptoms? 

And most importantly:

What should I be doing between now and June 1?  I know it is dangerous for cats to go without food for even a few days.

As soon as I can figure out how to include photos of Chula and Paul, I will show them!

Thank you so much everyone and I’m sorry for the length of this!

EDIT:  Just switched avatars to profile Chula.  My little sweetie!

I'm so sorry no one responded to your post until now?

Did she start eating again?  Did you get her to the Vet?  What did they say?

You are so right in that cat's not eating is NOT good, so I'm guessing she must have starting eating again or you would either have found a way to get her seen, or started up another post here for help, which i didn't find.

Please let us know what happened.

Thank you so much for the reply!  Yes, Chula is eating again, thank heavens.  I offered her some hand held tuna and she sniffed at it and then went to her bowl to eat kibble.  She ate a few bites and then went back an hour or two later and ate a little bit more - within 24 hours she was eating normally again.  I never did take her to the vet because she now seems fine.   I did call her previous "owner" who told me that Chula sometimes threw up when she ate canned food because she gobbled it down too quickly so that may have been some of the problem.  Somehow I have to get her back onto wet food because of the UTI threat but for now, I've just been letting her eat the kibble (which is a Purina product for urinary health). 

Thanks again for the reply!

If you think the problem is that she eats too fat, you could try a couple of tricks for that (for both Wet or Dry. 

1)  raise her dish

2)  feed more often, but smaller meals.  this may not slow her down, but if her tummy isn't so full, it reduces the chances of throwing up

3)  put her food in small amounts in several bowls around the house so she has to walk around to get to them.  (may be difficult with another cat around though)

4)  spread her food around till it's almost flat on a plate so she has to lick all over to get it

5)  put a very clean plastic ball in the middle of her dish, or buy a special dish that has obstacles in it to slow her down.  (they make them!)  I'm talking about something like this:  http://www.thecatsite.com/products/eat-slow-bowl

A resounding yes to all the suggestions from @mrsgreenjeens! One of our cats also occasionally eats too fast and vomits (as she did this morning, oopsy!) and we do everything on the list but number 5. In our case, it also helps to serve a meal before the humans go to bed for the night... I have a feeling my "mistake" that resulted in this morning's vomiting was not setting out quite enough food last night that Edwina likes. 

@Margd: Yes, Chula is a very sweet cat! What a face!

LisaHE said:

 
A resounding yes to all the suggestions from @mrsgreenjeens! One of our cats also occasionally eats too fast and vomits (as she did this morning, oopsy!) and we do everything on the list but number 5. In our case, it also helps to serve a meal before the humans go to bed for the night... I have a feeling my "mistake" that resulted in this morning's vomiting was not setting out quite enough food last night that Edwina likes. 

@Margd: Yes, Chula is a very sweet cat! What a face!

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The early morning throw-up is usually from too much acid on an empty stomach and is normally clearish froth.  We get that in our house too, from our kidney cat.  I keep treats under my pillow to give her .  It's either that or wake up to that awful sound of her throwing up under our bed .  And I DO give them their final meal of the day around 10:30 p.m.   The boys are fine with that...just not Callie because she doesn't eat enough due to her illness.  But, yes, their least meal of the day should be a little more to tide them over, IMHO. 

mrsgreenjeens said:

 
The early morning throw-up is usually from too much acid on an empty stomach and is normally clearish froth.  We get that in our house too, from our kidney cat.  I keep treats under my pillow to give her

.  It's either that or wake up to that awful sound of her throwing up under our bed

.  And I DO give them their final meal of the day around 10:30 p.m.   The boys are fine with that...just not Callie because she doesn't eat enough due to her illness.  But, yes, their least meal of the day should be a little more to tide them over, IMHO. 

Click to expand...

She used to do that empty-stomach vomit, which is why we instituted the late-night meal. I'm pretty sure today's incident, which was food rather than liquid, was just her eating too fast: she's gotten much better about that, but weekend breakfasts are later than weekday breakfasts, which tends to make her over-eager. Meaning ravenous. (The cats were really swarming this morning because they were unhappy with their night food choice... I think she had enough to tide her over for the acid but not enough for the hunger. The cats have also been really riled up about June bugs. Ugh.)

We'll just hope it doesn't happen again soon!

I have to say that treats under the pillow aren't something to hide in a bag about!

Thank you mrsgreenjeans and LisaHE for comments and feedback!  Chula has had another bout of vomiting - threw up three times and then it was over.   This time she didn't stop eating or seem to feel crummy.  I had been giving her small frequent meals but had gone back to two meals a day - now that we are back to small meals, she seems to be doing better.    Thank you again - this website is great!