Recently Adopted Cat - Throwing up after vet checkup

Hello.

Recently I adopted an adorable tortie girl from the Arizona Humane Society. With that came a follow up check up at VCA. I took her in and she said everything looked fine but she highly recommended a rabies shot. Since Arizona doesn't require it she didn't get one in the shelter I said yes since the vet recommended it. Since that day she has been unable to keep her food down and has low to no appetite. I've had to feed her wet food just to hopefully get something in her stomach even though she pukes it up. I've tried two brands of wet and her dry that she was eating from the shelter.

I'd like to give a timeline to help. I'm so stressed out about this, I adopted her for companionship in an already stressful time and I fell in love but I cannot afford to take her to the vet if they're not going to cover it.


Friday- Adopted around noon, everything went great.
Monday- bought some canidae cat food and mixed it with her shelter food they gave me.
Tuesday- Appointment, that night she pukes up her dry mix.
Wednesday- come home and she's thrown up again, I stop giving her the mix and go shelter only
Thursday and Friday are uneventful. Reintroduce canidae.
Saturday - Puke when I wake up. Take Canidae away.
Sunday - Puke when I get home from work. Wet food from breakfast. Stop serving wet.
Monday - No kibble eaten, some water foam puke. Serve wet food since she hasn't eaten. Pukes almost right away.
Tuesday- No kibble eaten, same water puke. Serve small amount of higher quality wet food and she pukes again.


I don't know what to do. I have some videos today and caught her puking and feel terrible. Please help!

This is her before puking in the second video. I only caught her because I was already recording for a friend. She seems normal personality wise.

What a gorgeous kitty.  She is really beautiful and looks like she's just as sweet as she is beautiful.   Is she improving at all?    You're right that cats can have bad reactions to rabies shots and vomiting is one of the symptoms they might exhibit.   Some cats require veterinarian intervention and some recover on their own. If she is still not eating and vomiting when she tries, she does need to go back to the vet.  Cat can develop a condition called hepatic lipidosis, also known as fatty liver disease, when they go without eating for more than 2 or 3 days.  The vet should treat her for the nausea and give her an appetite stimulant.

There are ways to tempt a kitty to eat.  Try feeding her chicken or turkey baby food (the kind with no added spices) after warming it up a bit.   Most cats have a difficult time resisting baby food and by warming it up, the aromas are released which provides additional enticement to eat. 

I understand you being worried about the cost of vet care.  Call VCA, explain that your cat is having a bad reaction to a shot they encouraged and request a free follow-up visit.  You'll probably have to pay for the cost of the medications but I've had vets waive the cost of follow-up office visits before and that's really not uncommon.

Since finances are an issue (and when are they not?) please look into pet insurance.  This can be a real life saver (literally in some cases) should a serious health issue arise. 

Hello Margd,

Thanks for the reply. She's hit or miss on eating, the problem is keeping things down. Up until yesterday she was pooping fairly normally, I noticed it was just one tiny poop yesterday. She actually ate some of her kibble and kept it down for a decent amount of time(2 hours) but then threw it up again.

This morning I gave her some wet, she was being super affectionate and mewing and I could hear her stomach growling. She didn't touch it, I know that not eating is bad but I can't rush her to the vet. I've got an appointment at 5PM and stated that I'm positive it's related to her visit there. It's strange that she was fine for 5 days and then instantly has problems after the visit there. Of course the vet won't claim responsibility, and said the rabies vaccine only affects them for about 40 minutes...everything I've seen says the opposite.

It's unfortunate that the vet won't even consider that your kitty's nausea and lack of appetite might be due to side effects from the rabies vaccine.  The Cornell Veterinary School, which is one of the best in the U.S. mentions that cats may (rarely) go into anaphylactic shock when a  vaccine is administered.  It lists other side effects, such as vomiting and lethargy.

 http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/health_information/vaccines.cfm

The article from Cornell doesn't claim these reactions are specific to rabies vaccines but lists them possible side-effects to vaccines in general.

There are plenty of reports out there of reactions to rabies vaccines but these seem to be largely anecdotal.  Check this thread out for a couple of those stories and information on how vets treated the side effects:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/253617/cat-had-a-bad-reaction-to-rabies-vaccine

All of the above is just to give you some information to aid you in making the point to your vet that your concerns are legitimate.  That's not really necessary if she gives you a free follow-up and treats your kitty even if she doesn't believe that rabies vaccinations can produce adverse reactions in some cats.

Your girl will be fine until her 5:00 pm visit.  I'm glad you're taking her in.  Poor little darling.  I hope she feels better soon!

I forgot to leave the date...it'll be tomorrow at 5PM. This was the soonest time they had available after I get off work, depending on how she is today when I get home I may just have to miss another day at work. It was just the vet tech? or receptionist that I spoke with that said it only lasts 40 minutes. I know from reading and googling a lot over the last week that it can last longer as you said.