Help with potential pica?

Hi!

I have a year old kitty who I think may have Pica.  This started about a month after her twin brother got sick with pancreatitis (diagnosed with blood test, etc).  I finally got him healthy and she started out with loose poo, then full out diarrhea then vomiting blood prompting a trip to the ER vet.  They did x-rays, blood work and the whole 9 to find nothing.  A shot of Cerenia and 14 days of metronidazole later, and I find carpet fiber in her poo as she was on the mend.  This time we also put her on famotidine (tagament). She was 100% after a week.  A month goes by and the same thing happens.  Bloody vomit, ER vet, x-rays, blood work, etc.  This time the x-ray shows possible inflammation in the stomach lining but no clear blockages. I find my hair in her poo and fibers, again and this time I find a nest of torn up papers/tissue under the bed in a corner.  Same treatment.  Same result.  The vet said to keep her on the famotidine this time for 6 weeks. She's back to 100% in a week.  We did the tagament for a month but she's teeny, impossible to pill, and I have to make a liquid suspension to then hold her down and force feed her it.  It's awful for both of us and stresses us out.  This time we make it almost 2 months and I notice she's shredded the backside of a cardboard emery scratching board inside their ball toy.  I find the pieces under my window ledge in another kitty-nest.  I threw it all out, cleaned it up and preemptively called the vet.  They told me to resume the tagament and if I needed cerenia just bring her in.  They went ahead and wrote more metronidazole since the only symptom she had was loose poo at this point.  Within two days she started vomiting (no blood this time) so we went in for cerenia.  I told the vet about the 'nests' and the vet that was there was the clinic owner, not the regular lady I had been seeing.  He said maybe it's IBD but didn't seem to agree with pica.

I'm at a loss.  It's been 1.5 weeks since this last incident and she was 100% all week until tonight.  She finished her metronizdazole 2 days ago and is still on tagament.  More loose poo with a ton of carpet fiber in it.  I rent my apartment and they already told me I couldn't rip the carpet up. I'm not sure what to do.  Any advice is most welcome.  Tomorrow I'm picking up some kitty grass for her. I have long hair and I'm even considering a pixie cut at this point.  The worst part is I feel responsible because I'm in grad school and her episodes are lining up with major issues related to my dissertation/high periods of stress.  

Anyhow any advice on what I can do for her would be appreciated.  I have three cats total, her, her twin brother, and a 14 yr old.  The other two boys are in tip top shape.  All three eat royal canin high energy wet food and a small amount of kibble--nature's instinct with freeze dried raw bits chicken flavor (because when Oliver was sick I wasn't sure if he was having trouble with peas and it was the only pea-free food that was of decent quality). 

If anyone has any experience with this or advice, it is most welcome.  Thanks and sorry for such a long post!

So just to post an update, I ended up speaking to my vet again.  The only thing she said was to get her more scratching posts and remove the carpet from the apartment if at all possible.  I rent and am in grad school so that isn't really possible but I am ordering her a faux fur and rope covered cat tower to play with.  I also got her some cat grass which is a hit so far but her most recent carpet/fuzz eating has turned in to vomiting again.  No blood but she still did vomit twice tonight before eating her dinner.  Going to call the vet again in the morning and probably take her in, again. .

Ah, wow, @Xira...I just wanted to say that I feel for your 1 year old cat, and for you.

(I don't have specific experience with this type of pica, as I only had a previous cat who was felv+ and fiv+ and developed anemia before he died. He did start to lick the concrete basement floor and attempt to eat his clay litter, but I had read that it was common for cats with anemia to do this, as instinctually looking for some sort of mineral that they are lacking, or perhaps their taste buds are being affected.)

This is NOT the same as your cat, though.

• I was thinking that perhaps you could cover your carpet with some sort of tarp, or canvas type material,...or even those thicker plastic carpet runners....to make sure your cat does not have access to any loose carpet fibres. You'd have to make sure that she does not start eating these type of materials, as well.

            (covering your carpet will be a lot of work, even thick drop sheets might work, but it would reduce at least that part of her chewing/eating.)

• Another idea might be to ask your Vet, if adding some type of fiber to her food, would help her, or getting some type of raw or freeze dried treats that she could chew on instead.

             Perhaps the vet might suggest other brands of food, textures or flavours that might be helpful.

• Also making sure that her teeth and gums are not at all bothering her, causing her to want to eat the carpet, or shred cardboard and paper.

The thing I find strange is not the chewing, or shredding, but the eating of the non-food items.

I did go online, to search for anything useful, to explain pica, but only found these articles:

http://www.cathealth.com/how-and-why/pica-in-cats-why-cats-eat-strange-things

http://messybeast.com/pica.htm

http://icatcare.org/advice/problem-behaviour/pica-cats

• You've probably already seen them all, but perhaps writing some ideas out, to ask your Vet may be helpful.

             Hopefully, your vet would have more current research as to why a cat develops these issues.

• There's also no harm in asking a second vet for their opinion, or calling around for a cat-only vet, or the major universities that have vet schools associated with them.

I really hope that the cat grass, cat tower, scratching posts will help. Some cat toys, and interactive games may help to keep her busy, too.

Sending positive vibes that your girl cat gets better quick.