Hi all, I'm a longtime lurker and reader here, but I've never posted before. I hope it's okay to post for the first time in this folder.
I have a Siamese cat, Bijou, who will be 16 in September. I've had her since she was two months old and she has always been an indoor cat. This week she has seemed off. I have a vet appointment later today, but I've been doing a lot of reading and of course, I'm worried about outcomes.
Bijou gets regular checkups. She had one in December and got a clean bill of health. In fact, our vet said her health was exceptional for her age.
She got sick at the end of March and I took her back to the vet, who diagnosed her with a UTI and prescribed antibiotics. She tolerated the antibiotics well and bounced back quickly, but during that time she lost some weight. (She is a small cat. The most she has ever weighed was about 7 pounds.) Frankly, I didn't have her on the best diet. I did a lot of reading and we switched over to completely grain-free food. She and our other cat now get wet food morning and evening and a tiny bit of dry at night, which they pick at, but it usually just sits in the bowl. For about a month I also supplemented Bijou's diet with GNC NOURISHCAT, which I think is gross and she loves, and which gave her an extra 40 or so calories per day. It took a little while, but she did gain her weight back (and her coat has never looked better).
Everything has been pretty normal, but over last weekend I noticed that neither cat was eating as much, which I attributed to heat. We have air conditioning, but during high heat days our apartment doesn't cool off much and I've observed similar behavior during other summers. Yesterday I came home and my husband said Bijou had thrown up twice. I had seen both cats cough up hairballs kind of recently--again, normal for summer shedding--but he says these weren't hairballs. He also said she was sitting and looking at the litter box for a long time, but never went in. I have personally seen her use the litterbox this week, but I'm adding that behavior to the list as strange. She drinks quite a bit of water, and always has, so of course I would be alarmed if she was continuing to drink and not urinating.
I started putting some things together and realized she's been doing some other strange things recently:
- odd vocalizations, only twice, but still strange (she is a very talkative cat, but this kind of sounds like the "in heat" sound that cats make)
- wandering around
- spending a lot of time under the sofa, instead of lying on top of it in her favorite spot
- not running out when food is put down, unless it's the NOURISHCAT
All these things add up to my cat not behaving normally. My vet and I have discussed normal aging process, naturally, but I know from reading here and other places that cats can get very sick very quickly and not show symptoms. Anyway, just looking for moral support and that sort of thing. Thanks for reading and I'm happy to be here.
I have a Siamese cat, Bijou, who will be 16 in September. I've had her since she was two months old and she has always been an indoor cat. This week she has seemed off. I have a vet appointment later today, but I've been doing a lot of reading and of course, I'm worried about outcomes.
Bijou gets regular checkups. She had one in December and got a clean bill of health. In fact, our vet said her health was exceptional for her age.
She got sick at the end of March and I took her back to the vet, who diagnosed her with a UTI and prescribed antibiotics. She tolerated the antibiotics well and bounced back quickly, but during that time she lost some weight. (She is a small cat. The most she has ever weighed was about 7 pounds.) Frankly, I didn't have her on the best diet. I did a lot of reading and we switched over to completely grain-free food. She and our other cat now get wet food morning and evening and a tiny bit of dry at night, which they pick at, but it usually just sits in the bowl. For about a month I also supplemented Bijou's diet with GNC NOURISHCAT, which I think is gross and she loves, and which gave her an extra 40 or so calories per day. It took a little while, but she did gain her weight back (and her coat has never looked better).
Everything has been pretty normal, but over last weekend I noticed that neither cat was eating as much, which I attributed to heat. We have air conditioning, but during high heat days our apartment doesn't cool off much and I've observed similar behavior during other summers. Yesterday I came home and my husband said Bijou had thrown up twice. I had seen both cats cough up hairballs kind of recently--again, normal for summer shedding--but he says these weren't hairballs. He also said she was sitting and looking at the litter box for a long time, but never went in. I have personally seen her use the litterbox this week, but I'm adding that behavior to the list as strange. She drinks quite a bit of water, and always has, so of course I would be alarmed if she was continuing to drink and not urinating.
I started putting some things together and realized she's been doing some other strange things recently:
- odd vocalizations, only twice, but still strange (she is a very talkative cat, but this kind of sounds like the "in heat" sound that cats make)
- wandering around
- spending a lot of time under the sofa, instead of lying on top of it in her favorite spot
- not running out when food is put down, unless it's the NOURISHCAT
All these things add up to my cat not behaving normally. My vet and I have discussed normal aging process, naturally, but I know from reading here and other places that cats can get very sick very quickly and not show symptoms. Anyway, just looking for moral support and that sort of thing. Thanks for reading and I'm happy to be here.
