From healthy, active kitty to lethargic, sickly kitty overnight, please help.

Hi,

I am new to this community but I just need some kind of guidance here as I have never had to deal with this type of thing.  My cat, Clyde, is about 10 yr old black short-haired tabby.  He has been a healthy cat his whole life and has never had any issues.  Just recently, about 3 weeks ago, I noticed he was eating funny.  Upon inspection I notice one of his bottom canine teeth was loose and broken looking.  Not sure if he jumped out of a tree and hit his face or how it happened but I took him to the vet and they extracted the tooth and basically did a root canal to prevent infection.  They gave us antibiotics to keep him on.  By the way, he is an indoor/outdoor cat but mostly indoor and likes to prowl around at night and lay in sun during the day.

Everything has been okay sense the tooth was looked at, and he had actually been more active than ever and looking much more fit after a week or two which made me think maybe the tooth was a problem for longer than i thought.  Anyways for the last 4-5 days he suddenly has not been acting like himself.  Normally everyday when I get home from work he comes to greet me and follows me around and then after about 30 mins to an hour he will keep bothering me until I give him his wet food dinner.  After that he would go outside and play or sunbathe and just do normal cat stuff.

Well about 4 days ago I noticed he didn't come greet me.  I went to check on him and he was in the back bedroom just laying down.  I just left him alone until I noticed later that night he had never come out and didn't seem to want his dinner.  i thought maybe he had a bug and just needed a couple days so I have been just trying to keep him comfortable and give him tuna water and make sure he has no fever.  Well now its 4 days later and he seems to like the smell of food but cannot eat it for long and doesnt seem to want water at all.  He has not been going to the bathroom and he will not do anything but sleep and lay around.  If I pet him he will purr and he seems in decent spirits but he just will not move.  He doesn't appear to have a fever, any injuries, scratches or bites and I have put pressure all over him and no where caused him to yowl.

Clyde is my companion.  I rescued him about 10 years ago as a stray kitten that appeared to be starving and we have been a pair ever since.  I tried to set up an emergency vet appointment today but the earliest they can get him in is 5:30 this afternoon.  I am just dreading I am going to take him in and they will tell me his time is up or he requires some outrageously expensive surgery and even if I get it done he will not have great quality of life.  Anything is worth saving him though.  I just do not understand what happened to him and how quickly it happened.  I am just looking for some insight on if anyone may know what could be wrong with him and if I should brace myself for some bad news,  Sorry this post is so long and thanks in advance to anyone who responds.  I will update after his appointment today.

No idea what may be wrong but I hope the vet can figure it out Do you not have a walk in vet ER in your area? There are vet ERs where you can just walk right in with a sick pet. This directory may help: http://www.veccs.org/index.php?option=com_hospitals&nationid=1&Itemid=193

I agree with the idea of trying to go to an ER Vet.  If that is not possible perhaps you could try calling other vets in your area to see if anyone has anything available earlier.  I found the vet practice I currently use when one of my cats came down with a bad URI and my regular vet at the time was almost closed when I got home from work.  I did not have the funds available to do ER care so I went online and started calling every vet's office in my area until I found one that was open and would let me bring her in. She sounded so bad that she actually scared the vet office's receptionist and I wound up talking to a vet on the phone before I could get there. The vet I talked to was working until they closed that night.  Normally this place only does walk-in care for established clients.  I had an appointment scheduled but the vet told me that if I found transportation to get there earlier than the appointment to just walk-in and call when I when I was on my way there. My hubby was able to leave work early and we go there an hour before our appointment.  They took care of us immediately when we got there even though I had put the cat in a steamy bathroom and she sounded a lot better.  I was a new client and they did not even ask me to do any paperwork until they had taken care of my cat.  This is now the place I go to with my cats.

No luck finding anywhere reasonable to get him in so just going to take him to the 530, will keep you guys posted thanks for your thoughts.

Just checking in to see how your baby is doing.  Please update when you get a minute.

I sure hope you could get your kitty to his vet appointment. Hope it was nothing too serious and he was treated. I know how we worry when our precious kitties get sick.
Please update if you can!