Help! Harry: throwing up blood and now missing

Hi Ginny,

Given the food change, i thought I'd mention I have a cat who threw up specks of blood due food allergies. It wasn't liquid blood, but basically the allergies caused a lot of internal irritation. Scared the heck out of me, but once we got him on a food that didn't including any offending ingredients, it cleared right up with no reoccurrence.

Usually, my vet said, cats have protein allergies, but through trial and error I determined mine has allergies to some common vegetable ingredients, so it could be something unexpected!

iceover said:

Hi Ginny,

Given the food change, i thought I'd mention I have a cat who threw up specks of blood due food allergies. It wasn't liquid blood, but basically the allergies caused a lot of internal irritation. Scared the heck out of me, but once we got him on a food that didn't including any offending ingredients, it cleared right up with no reoccurrence.

Usually, my vet said, cats have protein allergies, but through trial and error I determined mine has allergies to some common vegetable ingredients, so it could be something unexpected!

Click to expand...

That makes sense. Gosh it's awful hard to figure out just what he might be allergic to and to ensure Honey eats (she loves fishy foods) and that Nat gets his renal diet. That makes me feel a bit overwhelmed. They've always eaten together - I use 6 bowls so no one has to wait and they switch bowls while they eat which makes it hard to know who gets what unless I stay right there watch. Usually each bowl has two kinds of food in it. I've already cut out grain from their diet, for the most part. And they eat NVI duck/turkey kibble.

I'm not sure what else to do from here but whatever changes I make have to be really slow. Ther have been enough changes here lately.

Good luck! The food thing is hard. I still don't think the dry one I have my kitty on is the best, but it's one of the few that help w/ urinary crystals and also he doesn't have allergic symptoms from, so not much I can do.

iceover said:

Good luck! The food thing is hard. I still don't think the dry one I have my kitty on is the best, but it's one of the few that help w/ urinary crystals and also he doesn't have allergic symptoms from, so not much I can do.

Click to expand...

Harry threw up just a little bit ago.

There wasn't any blood though. I fed them small amounts of Friskies pate mixed grill/poultry platter/oceanwhitefish and tuna - with the probiotics mixed in and a little bit of water.

Ginny said:

Harry threw up just a little bit ago.

There wasn't any blood though. I fed them small amounts of Friskies pate mixed grill/poultry platter/oceanwhitefish and tuna - with the probiotics mixed in and a little bit of water.

Click to expand...

Is the probiotic helping much?

Aw, I'm sorry to hear about Harry but it's a bit of an improvement if there is no blood.  You take such good care of your kitties, hopefully you'll find an answer soon.   It seems you're on the right path with what you're doing.    Are you still thinking about changing vets?  

iceover said:

Hi Ginny,

Given the food change, i thought I'd mention I have a cat who threw up specks of blood due food allergies. It wasn't liquid blood, but basically the allergies caused a lot of internal irritation. Scared the heck out of me, but once we got him on a food that didn't including any offending ingredients, it cleared right up with no reoccurrence.

Usually, my vet said, cats have protein allergies, but through trial and error I determined mine has allergies to some common vegetable ingredients, so it could be something unexpected!

Click to expand...

y

LittleQuill said:

Is the probiotic helping much?

Click to expand...

I think it is helping some. I saw Honey go to the bathroom a few days ago. She had been having loose poos for quite some time, and this one had some solid pieces to it so I'd say it's helping her. And I guess it is helping overall since there is less vomiting. This morning I noticed it was partially digested kibble, so it may NOT have been Harry but Nat instead. When Nat vomits it sounds like the world is coming to an end it's so loud. Like the poor boy is heaving his heels up. Harry and Honey are very quiet. I did not hear who did it this morning and I normally awake easily especially when Nat vomits. My ears are attuned to that sound. I usually do not see Harry eating dry food, so I'm just not sure. It wasn't me!

To be clear, I've been mixing a probiotic called Jarrow Petdophilus for the past 6 or so months. Harry's vet wanted me to use Fortiflora, so I began using that as a topper a few days ago. So I'm using both. Is that too much? So far it doesn't seem so.

Margd said:

Aw, I'm sorry to hear about Harry but it's a bit of an improvement if there is no blood.  You take such good care of your kitties, hopefully you'll find an answer soon.   It seems you're on the right path with what you're doing.  :catguy:  Are you still thinking about changing vets?  

Click to expand...

I just don't have confidence in him although he's nice and very good to my pets. Harry didn't bite him and of all my kitties I thought he would. So his manner is very good with my pets. When he made the remark that the bloody vomit might just be the color of the food, I just kind of lost confidence. Maybe I'm overreacting? No, I'd never do that would I? Lol.

Ginny said:

I just don't have confidence in him although he's nice and very good to my pets. Harry didn't bite him and of all my kitties I thought he would. So his manner is very good with my pets. When he made the remark that the bloody vomit might just be the color of the food, I just kind of lost confidence. Maybe I'm overreacting? No, I'd never do that would I? Lol.

Click to expand...

I'd be taken aback at that remark, as well.  As if you don't recognize blood when you see it!  At the same time, Harry is quite the wildcat when it comes to carrier time, isn't he?  Are there any other mobile vets in your area?

Margd said:

 
I'd be taken aback at that remark, as well.  As if you don't recognize blood when you see it!  At the same time, Harry is quite the wildcat when it comes to carrier time, isn't he?  Are there any other mobile vets in your area?

Click to expand...

Harry was neutered when he was 8 years old so he spent a long time as a man with his manly hormones.  Lol.  Perhaps that's why he's more wild than the rest.  He's a really sweet kitty who just learned how to purr the year after he got neutered.  That's when I noticed he stopped looking at me as though I was the devil incarnate and actually started cozying up to me.  So he's come a long way, he really has.  He's just very easily scared, bless him.  

There are other mobile vets in the area.  One of them is a lady whom Nat bit.  She called him a brat.  That won't get you an invite back to my house!  Nat is the sweetest most gentle of all my kitties, he's not a brat!  There was another lady who was GREAT with Nat, but now she works for the Humane Society, last I heard. There is one more whom I haven't tried yet.  So I do have a back up if this one fails.   

Ginny said:

Harry was neutered when he was 8 years old so he spent a long time as a man with his manly hormones.  Lol.  Perhaps that's why he's more wild than the rest.  He's a really sweet kitty who just learned how to purr the year after he got neutered.  That's when I noticed he stopped looking at me as though I was the devil incarnate and actually started cozying up to me.  So he's come a long way, he really has.  He's just very easily scared, bless him.  


There are other mobile vets in the area.  One of them is a lady whom Nat bit.  She called him a brat.  That won't get you an invite back to my house!  Nat is the sweetest most gentle of all my kitties, he's not a brat!  There was another lady who was GREAT with Nat, but now she works for the Humane Society, last I heard. There is one more whom I haven't tried yet.  So I do have a back up if this one fails.   

Click to expand...

Is the reason you don't take him to a vet in a building because Harry won't go in a carrier? Why is that? Did a trauma involving a carrier happen? If you don't like your current vet, I'd change. It seems pretty silly for him to tell you that the redness is food. What about the vet you haven't been to yet? Also how's Harry today?

Harry is the most feral of my feral kitties.  I found them in my neighborhood when they were about 8 to 12 weeks old, started feeding them, worked to tame them somewhat, and then finally took them in when the neighbors called Animal Control to set death traps.  He's very nervous and runs much faster than I can run.  He hasn't thrown up any blood for a few days now and I'm not sure if it's him who threw up yesterday or not but it wasn't blood.  He acts normal, walks around, interested in what I'm doing.  He doesn't act sick, but I know cats are good at hiding.  

This morning Harry threw up just a hairball, no blood.  He is eating well.  I haven't heard back from the vet about whether or not the sample I collected is actually blood so I texted the vet yesterday.  Still waiting to hear!  I don't think it should take this long nor should I have to remind him I am waiting to hear from him.  

That's good news about Harry.  I hope he is recovered from whatever the problem was. As for your vet - no you shouldn't have to remind him you're waiting to hear from him.  Maybe he had an emergency yesterday.  (Giving him the benefit of the doubt.)   If he doesn't contact you today, it might be time to check out that other mobile vet.  

Well remember the night I started the thread about Honey?  I called him and left a message asking about giving Honey the expired normal saline solution as sub-q, but he didn't get back to me for several days after that.  I'm sure he is busy, but I do expect to hear from him in a reasonable amount of time.  He's not reliable time-wise.  He either shows up a little early or he shows up late without calling or texting. When he's been early he did text ahead of time though.  No one's perfect, I keep telling myself that so I'll simmer down.  But I think you may be right.   He looked right at that bloody spot and said it could be the color of the food.  I believe I know blood when I see it!  Between Nat and Honey and Harry, I'm $800 lighter just within a 6 week period!  Ouch!  That's a whole bunch of money.  So I'm really hoping I don't even need a vet for a little while so I can rebuild my savings.  

Just heard from the vet.  You're not going to believe this.  He said there were NO red blood cells noted!  How can that possibly be?  He said it was probably food dye.  Do they put red food coloring in cat food?  And if so why would the dye separate itself from the food and come out at the end of the vomiting piles starting with pink tinged and gradually increasing in color to red?  And with only saliva, no food?  I got a big sample and it was still liquid because it had just happened prior to the vet's arrival.  

Hmmmm. That really is strange.   I agree:  I'd expect that if it was red food dye, it would be associated with the food not the saliva.  I also think that as a nurse, you know blood when you see it.  It makes me wonder if he actually ran the test at all.  Hopefully you'll have a break from vet bills for awhile, now that everyone seems to be on the road to recovery.   But I'd at least check out the other mobile vet the next time something came up.   You need to have faith in your vet and you understandably have some real questions about this one.  

Also he was pooping blood.  If it's red food coloring why don't ALL his poos show up red?  Doesn't add up.  

Ok it' seems I only have one more option in town and that's the other mobile vet.  If he isn't good, what the heck will I do?

That's a good point about the "food color" in the poop.   That does pretty much confirm it's not food coloring.    If the other mobile vet isn't the answer,  maybe a new vet would prescribe something to calm Harry down so he wouldn't be so frightened of the carrier.  It might be hard to convince a vet to prescribe without seeing him first, though.  From what I understand, it wouldn't have to be a controlled substance.  Gabapentin apparently works very well in helping frightened cats stay calm.  Maybe you could take one of your crew who doesn't mind the carrier to a new vet and while you're there, mention the problem with Harry.  

I've also read that sometimes it helps get a cat ready for a trip to the vet if you leave the carrier out for a couple of weeks beforehand and gradually move the food bowl closer and closer until it's actually in the carrier.   Once Harry was willing to eat in there, it should be much easier to get him in for a visit to the vet.   Probably spraying it with feliway would be a good idea.

Good idea about the carrier.  I think i could get him to go in there for a treat but not for his meal.  He's way too suspicious for that.  He's the only one who will eat these protein only treats anyway.