Cat sick, possible Calicivirus, in need of advice!

Our 10 year old male cat stopped eating, and drinking about a wk ago. He has also stopped relieving himself, I assume because he has nothing to relieve. We noticed him drooling excessively, with a foul odor that could be smelled feet away. We rushed him to our veterinarian. They checked his temp, no fever, did some blood work, nothing out of the norm, and did some xrays.The vet saw nothing to explain his symptoms aside from being dehydrated and what she explained was a smaller than usual liver. He has a preexisting bladder/crystal condition.  We were given Metronidazole and he received sub q fluids and sent home. Once we got home he drank a large amount of water, licked some of his canned food and used the litter box once. The following day he still was not eating, drinking, relieving himself but had stopped drooling. We took him to an emergency vet hospital. The vet noticed he had a fever (103) and was again dehydrated. The vet wanted to do an ultrasound, and a hospital stay, which we declined as the price was $3600 (we had already spent $1400 for the tests we had done). We recently adopted a kitten that ended up having a respiratory infection when we brought him home. The er vet noticed an ulcer like abnormality on our cats tongue. He suspects our ole guy has Calicivirus so we received some more sub q fluids, some pain meds, antibiotics, and appetite stimulants. That was 24 hrs ago. Since then our cat still has not eaten much tho he will lick small amount of his wet food and will eat his whiskas temptations cat treats. No drinking and still no use of the litter box. We have been force feeding him a mixture of his urinary food and water. Im concerned about his quality of life at the moment. Im wondering if anyone has had any experience like this with this virus or perhaps its something more serious? Im just at a loss. I have no idea what to do. We have exhausted all of our funds and been to the vet 5 times in the last week. Any advice?? Im desperate at this point.

just keep trying to feed wet food-try fancy feast classics turkey or liver flavor-he may not like the food=if the crystals are an issue just make sure to not feed corn type foods. fancy feast doesnt bother my girl and she has had crystals from corn meal in food. we found tractor supply indoor formula dry kibble seems to agree with them the best. they have canned as well. 

when you make the wet food-add hot water to mash with a fork-warmed up food smells better.

if your cat has been sent home with pain meds please use them-if a cat is in pain it wont eat. also the subfluids should have kick started.

Do you have a regular vet? IT sounds like the week without food  is causing liver issues and it can be very painful so make sure to get pain meds and also maybe an antinausea med like cerenia=its available as injection and most vets carry it. I would call the er vet you went to and ask if they would be willing to do an injection of cerenia to stop the nausea-it also has pain relieving properties. 

I don't have experience with that particular infection but I have lots of nursing experience with lethargic sick cats. And cried a ton.

All you can do is try to zen your emotions and keep trying to offer food. at this point its red alert and getting food into him is the most important thing.

 tuna or baby meat food is also helpful. don't worry about the diet=you need to get him eating to reverse any effects on the liver etc. Once you have him stabilized on eating=say 3 days=then retry the vet food but I hope a few members will chime in with food options as vet food is usually poor protein quality. I found fancy feast is better for them than vet food suprisingly.

Also it may be helpful to get your vet involved in the infortmation from those other appointments you went to-they may want to treat him with sub fluids every 48 hours to get past the hump. They can have a vet tech do the fluids so you dont pay a full exam price-its not much but every bit helps. 

If I repeated myself I apologize-I have short term issues and tend to speed read the original post so let me reread your post and hopefully I can answer any new questions you may have. 

I know its scary not knowing what is going on. The good news is the bloodwork is good. Thats a goal we all strive for.

My concern is the drooling-is the cat still drooling? A foul odor usually means infection. Did they really look in the mouth to see if abscess tooth? That would also affect appetite. The other thing is heart disease sometimes has these weird symptoms that dont show up on bloodwork.

If you could swing it an ultrasound of the heart and organs would be what I recommend If there is nothing wrong with his teeth. Did they xray his head to see if there's issues in the jaw bones? 

So sorry you are going through this. Hopefully we can help solve this problem.

Thank you so much for responding. Im terrified to lose him from the lack of food and water. His drooling has stopped, except after we give him the pain medicine. Its Buprenex, and we were instructed to squirt it under his tongue every 8 hours. The er vet told us to expect a bit of drooling as a result. Its not smelly anymore and its far less drool also. Im praying its normal. As its a holiday wkend our vet is out but the er vet did attempt to contact our vet to relay their findings for our follow up with our primary vet. Both vets did a mouth examination , our vet said the gums were healthy color and no ulcers at that time. The er vet found one lesion the following day  that he suspects was an ulcer. The Xrays were just of the abdominal region from my understanding. We requested a copy and were given a disk that somehow wasnt readable. We are trying to wait till our vet opens on tuesday to get a new copy to take back to the er vet. We are going to try the fancy feast food tonight and also some baby food. He will eat his treats, that he loves, so we have been letting him eat as many as he likes since it is the only thing he will eat and we are just concerned with getting food in him.

Did the vet check his teeth?  He could have something going on there.  How's he doing?  Are you still force feeding him?  Did the vet check for calicivirus or is he just guessing?

Both vets checked his mouth, just a visual exam. The first vet (our primary vet) used the wooden stick to hold his tongue examined his mouth. She said she seen nothing to indicate any issues and his gums were a healthy color. The following day we took him to another vet (emergency vet hospital) the vet there took him in the back so I wasnt able to see what exactly they did. However after checking him he said he noticed what looked to be some sort of an ulcer forming.  Based on all the tests we had done (Blood, Xray, urine, 2 diff vets exams) , his medical history, his symptoms and the addition of the new kitty (who is being treated for Upper Respiratory Infection) the er vet says he suspects Calicivirus. Today we have force fed him a combination of chicken baby food, and later we did some canned fancy feast. During the feeding we noticed a small lump like abrasion on his tongue, red in color. Its at the very tip of his tongue. I have just returned from buying some pedialyte as Ive read that may help with dehydration. I will administer the pedialyte tomorrow morning if he still refuses to drink. I dont want to jump the gun so to speak since he has had sub q fluid both yesterday and the day before and I dont know how long it takes to take effect or wear off. He seems to WANT to eat. He walks to his bowls ( we have several different foods out for his choosing) but will only lick a few times and walk away. 

I should mention we have 5 cats. This particular cat (Java) is my oldest, I have had him for 10 years. I do not know the age at the time I found him. He was a kitten I found abandoned on vacation. We recently fostered a stray mother cat and her 5 kittens until they were of age to be adopted. At that time we decided to adopt one of the kittens from that litter. None of those kittens or mother cat had been vaccinated at that time. The organization we fostered for and adopted from is also the same facility we use as our primary veterinarian. It is not equipped to handle emergency care but does general wellness checkups, shots, spay/neuter and Xrays. We went back a week after returning the kittens and mother to adopt one of the kittens. At that time he (willy) had already began showing Upper respiratory Infection symptoms. We adopted him, brought him home and began his medicine regiment. After just shy of 2 weeks of bringing willy home our youngest cat began showing the symptoms as well. His symptoms are less severe than willys and he currently has almost no symptoms aside from a few sneezes a day. At that same time our oldest, java, began to sleep a bit more than usual. 2 days after we noticed him sleeping more we noticed the drool and lack of appetite. Which prompted us to take him to our primary vet.

He seems to have ups and downs. He seems lethargic mostly, but has the occasional moments when he will get up, move around a bit n even attempted to jump on our bed. But these moments are few and far between. We are still force feeding him. The er vet recommend we do so especially prior to administering his meds. He is better than he was 3 days ago but thats still not saying much. He still hasnt drank on his own, used the litter box or eat, aside from the occasional lick at the food we presented him. I just fed him about 40 mins ago and he is actually grooming himself as I type. We have not seen him do this in a week. I plan on taking him back to our vet Tuesday when they reopen ( they are closed for the holiday), in the meantime I am just trying to keep him hydrated and fed. Its a labor of love, that both of us dont really enjoy. 

If I remember correctly, calicivirus is highly contagious and manifests as an upper respiratory infection.  I'm not sure his symptoms indicate he has an URI.  You mention he has a history or crystals/bladder condition.  Have his BUN and creatinine been checked recently?  Did the vet do a urinalysis to check for crystals again?  The drooling is what's throwing me off.  That's usually, though not always, a sign of mouth problems.  It could be several other things as well.  This is like a puzzle!

From my understanding our vet checked for the crystals specifically. I dont believe at that point she was looking for anything else since he had no fever and she believed his mouth and gums looked normal at that time.

Im looking at his lab results and the BUN/CREA says 16

Pinkjava said:

Both vets checked his mouth, just a visual exam. The first vet (our primary vet) used the wooden stick to hold his tongue examined his mouth. She said she seen nothing to indicate any issues and his gums were a healthy color. The following day we took him to another vet (emergency vet hospital) the vet there took him in the back so I wasnt able to see what exactly they did. However after checking him he said he noticed what looked to be some sort of an ulcer forming.  Based on all the tests we had done (Blood, Xray, urine, 2 diff vets exams) , his medical history, his symptoms and the addition of the new kitty (who is being treated for Upper Respiratory Infection) the er vet says he suspects Calicivirus. Today we have force fed him a combination of chicken baby food, and later we did some canned fancy feast. During the feeding we noticed a small lump like abrasion on his tongue, red in color. Its at the very tip of his tongue. I have just returned from buying some pedialyte as Ive read that may help with dehydration. I will administer the pedialyte tomorrow morning if he still refuses to drink. I dont want to jump the gun so to speak since he has had sub q fluid both yesterday and the day before and I dont know how long it takes to take effect or wear off. He seems to WANT to eat. He walks to his bowls ( we have several different foods out for his choosing) but will only lick a few times and walk away. 

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If he has a sore on the tip of his tongue, I would imagine that it hurts him to eat, just like when we get a sore on our tongues.

If it is calicivirus, something similar happened my Boo six years ago. He caught it from the other two that I adopted from the shelter. He was hiding under the bed (very unlike him) and drooling profusely. His mouth was clamped shut. The vet saw a huge ulcer on his tongue and a special blood test confirmed calicivirus (as well as feline herpes virus). He was in a lot of pain. Since the vet did not want me messing with his mouth, they put him on a Fentanyl patch for pain, which lasts for three days. Wow, what a difference that made. He ate as soon as I brought him home from the vet. I did bring him back one or two more times to get the patch put on again. They did give him some other medications, but I don't remember what they were. Onsior might have been one of them....for both pain and inflammation. I do have him on l-lysine also. There is a debate as to whether l-lysine helps with calicivirus, but he hasn't had a flare since.  ::knock on wood::

I hope your boy recovers soon. Sending lots of healing vibes!  

Thank you for the well wishes! Today is day 7 of his symptoms. Our vet should be back tomorrow and Im hoping they can squeeze us in. He is still refusing to eat or drink, so we are still syringe feeding him.  We started the pedialyte and hope that helps with the dehydration. I bought some l-lysine chews, as the vet tech recommended, but since he wont eat we have only been able to give him one, that we soaked in water till it was mushy enough to put in a syringe. We also skipped his dosage of the Buprenex. We noticed after administering it (squirt under the tongue) he would drool alot, which he otherwise had stopped, and his lips would quiver uncontrollably. He seems much better, though still not eating or drinking on his own. He is currenlty on our bed asleep with "daddy". I am concerned with his bathroom usage. He has only urinated 2 times since the onset of the symptoms. Again its been 7 days. I imagine we are not feeding him enough. I mix a can of his wet food with a can of water and attempt to feed him atleast half of that a day. He fights us so I let up as I dont want to over do it and Im unsure of the measurements to give. He will occasionally lick the gravy from the fancy feast broth that we put out for him. He also eats his treats (temptations) throughout the day. Today I began mixing a bit of pumpkin in his syringe. I read that it helps with constipation and is 90% water. I hope I am doing enough to keep him well until we can get to our vet again.

We have just returned from our primary vet. He concluded what we already expected, Calicivirus. We were given a new pain medication, MORE antibiotics, and sub q fluids again. His biggest concern is the lack of food so he advised us to continue the syringe feeding, and said at this stage it almost doesn't matter what we give him to eat just get something in him. So more baby food, "gruel" (a mixture of his kibble and water) and as much treats as he wants. Today is day 8 of his symptoms, and Tuesday. We have a follow up appt Thursday where our vet thinks we should talk about the prospect of euthanasia, if he hasn't improved by then. What an awful disease. I pray no one has to experience this. The vet tech told us she had 2 kittens that came in and tested positive for Calicivirus. Be careful, this is by far the ugliest, saddest thing I have ever seen my cat go through.

I'm so sorry you're going through this. I really hope your boy pulls through. Keep up the syringe feedings and make sure he's getting enough calories per day. Would a feeding tube be an option? Before deciding on euthanasia? It is not common for cats be euthanized because of calicivirus, at least in my experience, unless they have the extremely rare virulent strain of it called Virulent Systemic Feline Calicivirus (VS-FCV) where symptoms are much more violent and pronounced. Some cats take longer to recover from a flare than others. I think it took Boo a full week, but that pain patch really helped.

   

  I am so, so sorry that Willie and you are going through this awful time. I have had a couple of cats (former ferals) survive. You might consider consulting a holistic vet about using herb teas, esp slippery elm and marshmallow root plus Llysine. Praying for  good news!!

I remember one of my girls getting a bad URI and it took her THREE WEEKS to get better.

We did sub fluids-Cerenia-Zithromax=treats and baby food.

It sounds like the sore on the tongue is causing trouble.

I would ask about anti nausea meds- Cerenia or Zofran and there's another one but I never remember the name.

the licking at the dish and walking away is nausea or pain in the mouth.

the bupre should help with pain-yes some kitties get drooly. How is his pee and poop?

also look into lysine

Are you keeping this cat separate from the other 4 cats?

my cats have feline herpes which causes lots of problems when stressed which turns into respiratory infection like symptoms.

I hope you guys can keep up the home care-the food and fluids-also when my girl was ill she would only eat treats. and baby food. She wouldn't eat anything else. So the vet said let her eat as much as she wants. we also fed canned pumpkin to help keep her regular-since it has vitamins I wonder if your kitty would lick it off your finger like my kitty? It wont hurt. you can use this in other cats for diareeh or constipation. Its either a love or hate with canned pumpkin. I have 2 who eat it and one who fights me.

Keep coming here to ask questions and let us know how he is doing.

foxxycat said:

I remember one of my girls getting a bad URI and it took her THREE WEEKS to get better.

We did sub fluids-Cerenia-Zithromax=treats and baby food.

It sounds like the sore on the tongue is causing trouble.

I would ask about anti nausea meds- Cerenia or Zofran and there's another one but I never remember the name.

the licking at the dish and walking away is nausea or pain in the mouth.

the bupre should help with pain-yes some kitties get drooly. How is his pee and poop?

also look into lysine

Are you keeping this cat separate from the other 4 cats?

my cats have feline herpes which causes lots of problems when stressed which turns into respiratory infection like symptoms.

I hope you guys can keep up the home care-the food and fluids-also when my girl was ill she would only eat treats. and baby food. She wouldn't eat anything else. So the vet said let her eat as much as she wants. we also fed canned pumpkin to help keep her regular-since it has vitamins I wonder if your kitty would lick it off your finger like my kitty? It wont hurt. you can use this in other cats for diareeh or constipation. Its either a love or hate with canned pumpkin. I have 2 who eat it and one who fights me.

Keep coming here to ask questions and let us know how he is doing.

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A very ignorant question coming up. What is a URI?

Stewball said:

A very ignorant question coming up. What is a URI?

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It stands for Upper Respiratory Infection.  There are several that affect kitties, the calicivirus is one of them.

Denice said:

It stands for Upper Respiratory Infection.  There are several that affect kitties, the calicivirus is one of them.

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Thank you.