On March 11 of this year, I adopted a 10 1/2 year old cat named Simba. He had been at the humane society where I adopted him from for over 5 years, so I decided he needed a forever home. I have two other cats that came from the same humane society (Spock and Buffy), though they never crossed paths with Simba.
Simba has several issues. First, he has ear polyps in both ears, most on the outer portion (though one vet I saw did say he has a few internally too). They don't seem to bother him too much, so both vets I've seen have said it's best to leave them alone, unless they start bleeding (which they haven't). Simba also came to me with an issue of throwing up... a lot...several times per day, in fact. However, it got progressively worse (to about 12-15 times per day), so I took him to the first vet. The first vet jumped to the conclusion that Simba had FIP, since he was positive for the coronavirus. I then took Simba to another vet, at the first vet's direction. The first vet wanted Simba to have a biopsy, but the second vet said she didn't want to poke him unless she really thought he needed to be; so, instead, she gave him an ultrasound. Both vets said all of his blood work came back normal and the second vet said she really didn't see anything abnormal on the ultrasound; she said she could see a few small lymph nodes, but nothing that worried her. The second vet diagnosed Simba with IBD, so he's now on Hill's Prescription Diet i/d formula (dry and wet). He seems to be doing well with it and has only thrown up 3 times since the visit with the second vet (which was on April 15, 2016). Simba is also on 1.8ml of amoxicillin (twice per day) and takes 1/2 of a tablet of Pepcid AC per day. Simba can be a picky eater, but he hasn't had a loss in appetite.
Within the past 2 days, Simba's behavior has changed a bit. I refer to him as my "grumpy old man," because he sometimes fusses more than my other cats, but recently he's gone beyond being just grumpy. He's started hiding under my bed and will hiss/growl at my other cats and myself if we get near him; last night when I tried to give him his amoxicillin for the night, he became extremely agitated and I had a hard time settling him down (I was able to finally give him his dose, however). This morning, he didn't put up his normal fight when I gave him his morning dose, which should be a good thing, but still worries me. I tried to see if he had a fever, but I don't have a thermometer I could use on him.
I don't want to call the vet if I'm completely overthinking this change in behavior, but I wanted to get some thoughts on if this is "normal" or not. Like I said, his appetite hasn't changed and his bowel movements are pretty normal from what I can tell. I'm just worried about my grumpy old man. Since I've only had him about a month and a half, I'm still not quite used to his "normal" behavior; according to the people at the humane society, he was never considered a lap cat and would have his grumpy moments. Any thoughts would be appreciated! (sorry for the lengthy post)
Simba has several issues. First, he has ear polyps in both ears, most on the outer portion (though one vet I saw did say he has a few internally too). They don't seem to bother him too much, so both vets I've seen have said it's best to leave them alone, unless they start bleeding (which they haven't). Simba also came to me with an issue of throwing up... a lot...several times per day, in fact. However, it got progressively worse (to about 12-15 times per day), so I took him to the first vet. The first vet jumped to the conclusion that Simba had FIP, since he was positive for the coronavirus. I then took Simba to another vet, at the first vet's direction. The first vet wanted Simba to have a biopsy, but the second vet said she didn't want to poke him unless she really thought he needed to be; so, instead, she gave him an ultrasound. Both vets said all of his blood work came back normal and the second vet said she really didn't see anything abnormal on the ultrasound; she said she could see a few small lymph nodes, but nothing that worried her. The second vet diagnosed Simba with IBD, so he's now on Hill's Prescription Diet i/d formula (dry and wet). He seems to be doing well with it and has only thrown up 3 times since the visit with the second vet (which was on April 15, 2016). Simba is also on 1.8ml of amoxicillin (twice per day) and takes 1/2 of a tablet of Pepcid AC per day. Simba can be a picky eater, but he hasn't had a loss in appetite.
Within the past 2 days, Simba's behavior has changed a bit. I refer to him as my "grumpy old man," because he sometimes fusses more than my other cats, but recently he's gone beyond being just grumpy. He's started hiding under my bed and will hiss/growl at my other cats and myself if we get near him; last night when I tried to give him his amoxicillin for the night, he became extremely agitated and I had a hard time settling him down (I was able to finally give him his dose, however). This morning, he didn't put up his normal fight when I gave him his morning dose, which should be a good thing, but still worries me. I tried to see if he had a fever, but I don't have a thermometer I could use on him.
I don't want to call the vet if I'm completely overthinking this change in behavior, but I wanted to get some thoughts on if this is "normal" or not. Like I said, his appetite hasn't changed and his bowel movements are pretty normal from what I can tell. I'm just worried about my grumpy old man. Since I've only had him about a month and a half, I'm still not quite used to his "normal" behavior; according to the people at the humane society, he was never considered a lap cat and would have his grumpy moments. Any thoughts would be appreciated! (sorry for the lengthy post)
