Struggling with my 6 y/o, Violet. Mysterious GI issues, not eating.

On Monday night/Tuesday morning I guess, around 3 in the morning, my DSH Tuxedo girl named Violet began to vomit. First she vomited up the food she'd eaten, then bile or foam for a few hours every 20 minutes or so. I just figured it was a nasty hairball, because she gets them sometimes. She's been an overgroomer for the past 4 years of her life. She laid down and slept for a while, but come morning, she was vomiting foam and what looked like watery blood. I, naturally, went into panic mode. I got her into the vet around 2 that afternoon, at which point my vet gave her an injection of Cerenia, subq fluids for dehydration, and took some x-rays. The x-rays showed nothing, so she sent us home with Carafate to settle her stomach. She lapped up gravy off the food I offered her when we got home. I gave her a dose of the Carafate that night, which she did keep down, thanks I guess to the Cerenia.

Day 2 (Wednesday): I gave her a second dose of Carafate around 8 hours after the first, which she vomits up 20 minutes later, despite the Cerenia. She's not doing well, just kind of... sleeping, laying around. She seems uncomfortable. Back to the vet, who does bloodwork and when her bloodwork/enzyme test all comes back normal, decides that we should do an exploratory surgery to see if it's a blockage of some sort. She finds nothing, but takes a biopsy from her stomach, which she says is very ulcerated. I can't afford to have the biopsy sent off, but she's holding it in formalin for me in case I can send it off for pathology. She wants to know (again, because this question had already of course been posed to me) if there's anything liquid that Violet could have possibly ingested. I cannot think of a single thing. They're already treating her in the way that they'd probably be treating her if she HAD ingested something anyways, so it doesn't really matter. On day 2, she was running a low grade fever. She was not running that fever on day one.

Day 3 (Thursday): Still running the low grade fever, they're giving her meds and she drools when her throat is touched. They x-ray her throat and chest. Everything looks normal. They pass a tube from her throat to her stomach just fine, so no blockages. Vet thinks it could potentially be an abscess in her throat/esophagus and the next step would be an endoscopy, which would run around $2000 at a specialist, or we can just keep giving antibiotics and pain pills and anti-nausea stuff and trying to get her to eat. She hasn't eaten since vomiting in the middle of the night on Tuesday morning. They keep her another night. 

Day 4 (Friday): The vet gives her Valium to try and stimulate her to eat. It doesn't work. Her fever has come down, very very very slightly. They decide she should come home so we can try to get her to eat here, but if she doesn't eat here she needs to go back in the morning so they can force feed. As soon as I get her home, I was able to get a couple of treats into her, so excited about that but it was literally like 2 pounce treats and 2 temptations, maybe. Still no interest in her food. She played a little, rolled around with a new catnip toy I got her, and then went downhill again. Lays around, uninterested in anything except she comes up and rubs on me and purrs when I cry because I'm so sad and so so scared for her. She still really likes being brushed with my hairbrush. I gave her a dose of Carafate and she kept that down, then followed it up an hour later with a dose of Buprenex. I'm supposed to give her a Metranidozole pill, but I have no idea how to get a pill in her when she won't even take any more treats. She honestly seems kind of repulsed by food. I got a fingerful of wet food and tried to smear it in her mouth and ended up with most of it on me. I'm lost, clueless. The vet is clueless. I can't afford the endoscopy and I'm feeling really hopeless. She's only 6 years old. I'm not ready to give up on her, but I'm a part time retail worker and I've maxed out the Carecredit. She acts like she doesn't even understand how to eat anymore, she'll put her face really close and sniff a treat for a while and then just never open her mouth for it. I don't know if she's pooped at all since I first brought her to the vet... I forgot to ask. 

She always used to meow at me when I sneezed. She's always been concerned about me when I'm crying. She's not naturally a good eater anyways and never has been. I don't know if she's eaten a whole can of food once in her whole life. She was a bottle baby, one of two found in a parking lot at 10 days old. Her brother ate so much better than she did and he ran out the door when he was 2 and never came back. She's always been so stressed out and so anxious, I don't know why. She's my EVERYTHING and I can't afford the ideal care and the care I've been able to afford hasn't given me any answers at all. X-rays normal, bloodwork normal. I trust my vet, but I was so tired of getting phone calls telling me that nothing has changed with her condition. I just don't know what to do. She's purring so hard, but I can't help but think it's because she's in pain. And I just can't stop crying and I'm scared I'm affecting her with my own anxiety about everything. 

Thanks for letting me vent and get all of this out. 

I'm so sorry you are having so many problems with Violet. By any chance, do you have the results of the blood work that you could share?

Has Violet been pooping normally, or has she not been pooping at all?

This does sound very strange. Are you sure it's not the food you were feeding her? Throw out ANYTHING you were feeding her when she got sick. Treats, food, all of it. Try offering her tuna, tuna juice, or 100% freeze dried meat only treats, or baby food.  NO temptation treats, those are the worst, and have been linked to making pets very ill. At first I thought maybe IBD, but the sudden onset of symptoms seems odd and more likely something she ate. Nausea is a vicious cycle, she wont eat because she's not eating, and it gets worse. Cerenia should help, but it doesn't always work instantly. 

Here's some good treats to get to try. Whole life is widely available but theres also Bravo, too. Also try to find some baby food turkey, chicken, beef, no onions or garlic. Most cats love it. You can find this at most grocery stores. If you get tuna make sure to get tuna that is 100% tuna, you'd be surprised what weird stuff is in a lot of cheap "tuna." 

https://www.chewy.com/s?query=whole+life&nav-submit-button=


You need to pill her if she wont take the meds. You could try putting the pill in a little bit of unsalted butter, but your only other option is to open her mouth and pill her. Here's a video on how to do it. 

This morning we went to the vet again due to not eating very much last night. I am offering low quality treats at this point, because I'm desperate, but I've tried freeze dried chicken as well. I will say Violet has not been on her regular no grain diet the past few months and seemed to be doing fine. I feel terrible about switching her from her higher quality food (Farmina Natural and Delicious) to Science Diet (ugh, I know) but I lost my job for a little bit and couldn't keep up with her pricey food. When she seemed to be doing fine on the SD, we stayed on it. Violet is one of five and when everybody seems to be doing okay on a food, we stick with it. She was towards the end of the bag when she got sick, so I just don't think it was the food. 

At the vet this morning, desperate to get some food in her, they gave her a dose of Valium to stimulate her appetite and syringe fed some Purina critical care food. She didn't care for that, but did willingly eat around a third of a jar of turkey baby food that was offered to her. It wasn't much, but it was something. They also gave her subq fluids and said she at least wouldn't get dehydrated over the next couple of days. At home, she ate a whisker lickin (again, I know they're garbage) or two. I had to go to work for 8 hours after that, so I left down a selection of food (Purina prescrip, Sheba chunks with gravy which she usually loves, and the SD dry). I have probably 20 or 30 other wet foods of varying varieties to try with her, but she simply has no interest in anything I've offered. Tonight, she bit at a treat from my hand but didn't actually follow through with the eating of said treat. It's very strange. She shows interest and then immediately becomes disinterested. It's like she only has energy for a few moments. When I got home from work, she was happy to see me and rubbed up against me, but shortly thereafter just laid down. I know she's gotta be so weak. I've just given her another dose of Carafate and I feel so bad, she seems to become even more withdrawn after I medicate her. I hate it. 

Violet did poop a little poop while she was at the vet after her surgery. I don't believe she's pooped other than that, but she also hasn't eaten... so. I don't have the results of her bloodwork unfortunately, I was simply told that everything looked normal. 

She's still doing this thing where she curls up in a ball on her head like she's trying to sleep but her eyes just stay open. It's so unnerving. It doesn't really LOOK like that head pressing thing that I see online, but I think she looks like she's in pain... I don't know. My vet says she doesn't think she's in pain. 

I'm going to go buy her a bag of the Farmina food tomorrow and I'll see about picking up some other treats as well at my local high-end pet supply. 

I don't really feel like I know what to ask my vet about. I'm trying to just trust her. She's been doing this a long time. I'm just so at a loss. I can't afford the endoscopy. If it's an abscess in her esophagus, I don't know if it'll heal with only the antibiotics. I don't have a clue what to do. I'm so lost and so scared for her. She's meowing in her sleep(? maybe) all curled up on top of herself. This is new stuff. 

Vet isn't open again until Monday. She's been wonderful about payment, didn't even charge me for the two nights Violet spent there. Monetary resources are maxed, so I don't think an emergency vet would even see me at this point if something should change. It's just me and her until Monday morning. 

Thank you for your comments.

Try some of these tips and see if they help. I know the desperation to get a cat to eat, but if this is some kind of IBD flare low quality foods and treats make it worse.

http://www.foodfurlife.com/manage-nausea---the-role-of-food.html

http://www.foodfurlife.com/my-cat-is-vomiting---what-do-i-do.html

http://www.foodfurlife.com/medicating--assist-feeding-your-cat.html

Thanks for the links! I'll check everything out. I have a whole chicken in my pressure cooker right now without any seasoning, so maybe she'll have some interest in that, but she's never been a big meat cat (I KNOW, RIGHT? WHAT?) Even as a kitten when she was being offered a high protein grain free diet, if I was eating a roast beef sandwich, she wanted the bread off of it and not the beef. I was PLANNING on getting her a bag of her old Farmina food today, but the pet store that sells it near me isn't open on Sundays! I'm so torn, I hate offering her unhealthy food but I don't know if it's better to get any calories in her than no calories in her? It just seems like in the present, especially with her not having eaten a full meal in almost a week, anything has to be better than nothing even if it exacerbates that issue. Overnight, I left out a couple of spoonfuls of A/D and she ate some of it! Laying in bed at like 4 am, I heard her smacking at the food and I just laid there so still because I didn't want to disturb her. I put down a handful of her Science Diet food (I really hate giving her this shit, but again, I don't know if I should be focused on fixing whatever brought this on so suddenly or getting cals in her) and today she nibbled at it as well. Occasionally she'll be really active and when I offer her treats from my hand she'll eat them eagerly. They are crap treats, I'm not gonna front about that. 

She does seem to be feeling better today, really. I've definitely got to turn my focus over to getting a higher quality diet into her, but her inclination is towards dry foods and I don't have a higher quality dry food on hand today. I'm still giving Carafate intermittently, but after reading about Buprenex and seeing quite a few people say that it lessened their cat's appetite, I think I'm going to skip a dose of it and see what happens especially since my vet said that she doesn't even think Violet is in pain. For the most part, I don't think she seems like she's in pain either. 

I think since I at least know she's got SOME food in her right now, I'm going to really start focusing now on getting more quality food in her instead of just any food at all. Gonna put away the pounce and whisker lickins and temptatations and try only offering freeze dried chicken and real chicken. With the very sudden onset of this, it's so hard for me to imagine that it was the food, but that really is the biggest change in her life over the past few months. That and the addition of a new kitten who torments her already stressed out self   The only thing that's really confusing me is the fever. I could see the vomiting that she did initially and stomach issues as the result of her bad food, but would that cause a fever? I'd love to take it myself at home to see if it's still running high, but I'm crazy paranoid about doing it. 

You could make bone broth with the bones from that chicken with your pressure cooker. Very good for kitties.

http://www.rawfeedingforibdcats.org/bone-broth-for-ibd.html

Can you get some KMR? It's for kittens but it's calorie dense so it would help keep her hydrated and give her some calories if she'll drink it. I'm not sure how well adult cats like it but maybe you could get a small container. 

Most of the time when cats get violently ill quickly it's food. Not a food allergy but some kind of "bad" food. However, it's hard to say sometimes cats have a "crash" and you discover they have something like IBD. Since cats are obligate carnivores, wet food or homecooked is much easier for their tummies to digest than something like kibble. I know the struggles of a kibble addicted cat because I had two, that i slowly transitioned one to raw one to 100% canned. You're doing a great job so far. Just keep doing your best to get something in her body and hopefully her immune system will kick it and override whatever this is. 

I usually do make bone broth! I hadn't thought about giving it to her. She lapped at the broth from my bowl of ramen last night (the worst kind of ramen, not homemade ramen) and I was like.... this isn't even that good for me, there's no way it's good for you. But i didn't stop her. I bet she'd dig the bone broth. I actually probably have some in the freezer already now that I think about it. 

I don't have KMR on me, but I did buy a senior cat milk from GNC with the same thought in mind. I thought about buying KMR instead or maybe even goat milk. Like I said, she was a bottle baby, and we actually fed a lot of goat milk along with KMR. She never was a good eater, but she was never starving herself or even thin for that matter, so it's hard to find a line between what's normal for her and what's unusual. I also keep having to remind myself that cats do generally sleep a lot anyways, so just because she's sleeping doesn't mean she's feeling awful.

I'm just wondering if it's not something physically wrong with her mouth or nose. It seems to me like she could maybe be having a hard time chewing or a hard time smelling the food something. She does a lot of smacking her lips/tongue like there's something there that's bothering her... I hadn't asked the vet if she'd done an in depth exam of her mouth, I just had to assume that she would have? 

Yes goat milk is good too. Primal makes one that you can buy at some pet stores, or if you're lucky enough to live in an area where you can get raw goat milk that's even better. Lip smacking/licking is a sign of nausea, so is snuffing food and walking away, and acting hungry but not eating. Def have your vet check out her mouth but it sounds like she just feels very sick still. Def try the bone broth, as long as it's onion and garlic free, of course. 

I'm very panicked reading about FIP, because I feel like she has many of the symptoms, especially with the fever that doesn't respond to antibiotics, but with my vet saying that her bloodwork was normal I have to assume that meant she didn't have an elevated white blood cell count so there wouldn't be any indication of infection in that case. I just don't know. I have to stop reading things on the internet. 

If this were my cat, I would not go for the endoscopy, but rather an ultrasound.

These symptoms and sudden onset like this to me, point more towards an internal/tummy issue. I would also have assumed that a full mouth exam had been done in the beginning too, adding that vomiting doesn't coincide with a dental or oral problem. 

I think there's something in the intestines, abdomen that has happened.

Does she go outside ever? If not hopefully, then at least things outdoors that are possibilities can be ruled out.

Her positioning also feels like her attempt to find some relief, my strong guess is focusing on her tummy.

String, thread, dental floss, of course always be very aware of cats eating them, not because they meant to, but if it touches their mouth or a little lick, and it's likely gonna go down due to the structure of their tongues having tiny cups for water intake which is the rough side you feel, but run your finger the other direction and it's smooth.

Ultrasound would def be my next move. If you are able to swing it financially, be certain that the person who performs it is highly skilled and experienced, you wouldn't believe how one can miss something not obvious yet another will spot it, clearly she won't have something prominent show or the x-ray would have spotted it.

violetfields said:

 
I'm very panicked reading about FIP, because I feel like she has many of the symptoms, especially with the fever that doesn't respond to antibiotics, but with my vet saying that her bloodwork was normal I have to assume that meant she didn't have an elevated white blood cell count so there wouldn't be any indication of infection in that case. I just don't know. I have to stop reading things on the internet. 

Click to expand...

Yes, FIP also crossed my mind, but I think unless looking back you saw some small changes happening before the sudden 3am vomiting started.

Anytime there is a fever of an unknown origin, FIP comes to mind, and more-so if it does not respond to antibiotics.

You can always have a corona virus titer done on her, just for peace of mind in hopes that she has not been exposed to corona, if neg, fip is not possible, but positive, which most cats are going to be, only means fip can't be ruled out, it is not at all an indication that she does have fip.

Edit: I reread your first post and see she has had exploratory surgery, which is rather dramatic but would have/should have found something, as an ultrasound would have.

What does she think about a possible cause for the ulcerated intestines?

I know you said you can't think of one possible thing she could have ingested that would be poisonous, but just an fyi, her symptoms match with certain forms of poison.

Plants in the house would be one suspect too. Usually though a 6 yr old cat has no interest in knawing on plants, but there are some who will, especially if they have an upset tummy. Like eating grass.

She does not go outside, at least never intentionally and it's been probably 3 years since she's been outside unintentionally.

I'm not sure if an ultrasound is something my vet is able to perform or if she'd need a specialist. They did an exploratory on her, so I don't know what an ultrasound would see that they hadn't seen inside her actual guts during that? They did find that her belly is very ulcerated, which we can't identify the cause of, but I would imagine doesn't feel super awesome for her! She's on the carafate now to alleviate that, hopefully. 

I'll definitely ask about FIP and testing for coronavirus. Her fever has been fluctuating and going down by tenths of a degree the past few days, so I mean... there is that. As of yesterday, she was still running a low grade fever, but it was less of a fever than it had been, so I don't know. The only changes I've noticed are her maybe being a little grumpier the past few months, but we found ourselves with a new kitten in August who hasn't been neutered yet and he's kind of a pain. She's always been a high anxiety, stress-prone kitty and has never really been all that eager to associate with our other cats, so the fact that she was grumpier didn't really shock me. 

I'm definitely at a point where I'll take any diagnosis I think, even if it's not a good one. She's a wonderful cat and I love her so, so so much but in all truth has never really seemed like a happy cat. I absolutely don't want to sound like I'm in any way giving up, but her life didn't seem all that great before and it seems even worse now. So I just don't know. 

I can understand that.

Grumpier the past few months is definitely a possible indication that something is brewing in her.

Making the sudden onset of symptoms/vomiting not so sudden after all, but cats way of disguising their feelings striking again.

When the exploratory was done, was it her intestinal area mainly examined?

What place was the biopsy taken from?

You know, that might end up being the bottom line for diagnosis..........

Do they want an arm and a leg to send to a pathologist?

I can imagine what this all has cost you so far too, believe me.....

No anemia huh?

Yeah, her intestinal area and stomach. I know a biopsy was taken of her stomach, but she may have taken other ones as well. I can't recall, but I know we talked about it. I think the pathology cost was going to be around $200 which I can swing at some point, just not CURRENTLY. Since that gets sent out, I don't know if that's a charge to my vet or a charge to another party? I feel like my vet would probably let me pay half now and half off over time, but I'll have to ask. 

No anemia AFAIK. It definitely hasn't been mentioned to me, though she does have the symptoms of anemia. That's the worst thing about cat illnesses, pretty much all of them present with similar symptoms. 

Yeah that's right about what I just recently paid for the pathology report.

The vet collects it, not sure of course about half and half but your vet surely knows at this point things are very tight so fingers crossed on that.  

How is Violet doing?

I'm late to the party, so to speak, but we went through something similar with my Tumbles in the fall.  He started vomiting all his food one day, couldn't hold down water, lethargic, and running a low-grade fever. We got him to the vet, they did an x-ray which showed nothing but lots of gas in his intestines, no foreign bodies or anything like that, gave him fluids, a shot of Cerenia, and sent us home with fluids, an antibiotic, and prescription tummy food.  Turns out he had gastroenteritis.  We had recently (about a month previous) introduced a new food and it didn't agree with his tummy.  The build up of the gas in his colon and intestines was causing him to have an upset tummy, nausea, and throw up.  He wanted to eat, but wouldn't eat because he didn't want to throw up.  It was a vicious cycle. We took him back to the vet and they gave him an enema to help pass the stool in his colon as well as get the gas moving out.  We finally got him to eat by offering him Science Diet a/d (Rx food from the vet).  That doesn't agree with his system either (causes diarrhea), but at least he was eating and we starting introducing his tummy prescription food and he's done well since. 

Hey everybody! Thanks for all of your comments, they're so appreciated! On Sunday, I discontinued the Buprenex after reading about how one of its side effects was a lack of appetite. I gave Violet a few chunks of beef out of a stew and she gobbled them up and I guess that kickstarted her appetite. She's been eating well, using her litter box normally, and generally doing perfectly fine and normal since then. I'm so stumped on what went on with her to make her such a sick kitty just a week ago. I still definitely want to get down to the bottom of what could have caused her to have such an ulcerated stomach. I'm not sure if it being empty and her doing all the vomiting could have caused that? I wish I hadn't put her through two nights at the vet and exploratory sugery all just to not have an answer at the end of this. I also wish my wallet hadn't been put through that BUT WHAT CAN YOU DO? 

Stephanietx, your problems with Tumbles sound so similar to Violet's! Except for the gas part, she didn't see a lot of gas in Violet's stomach or intestines when she did the x-ray BUT Violet was really gassy when she first came home from the vet and while she was at the vet. They said she almost ran them out of the x-ray room, lol. I'm definitely going to ask about a sensitive stomach diet or maybe I'll just try to really bite the bullet and go back to her Farmina food which she seemed to do so well on. I'm torn! She also wouldn't really eat the a/d. She nibbled at it reluctantly, but doesn't really like pate foods, even this alleged kitty crack.After she turned her nose up at it, I offered it to my other cats, who would have eaten the paper plate it was on if I hadn't intervened. 

Also, Tumbles is such a cute name! Violet has a hamster sister named Tubbles who gets called Tumbles sometimes. 

Glad your baby is feeling better.  Tumbles is short for Tumbleweed.