graphic - cat very sick after ingesting a rat

My cat Morty ate a rat Thursday night. He vomited most of it back up within an hour or so, and seemed to feel OK Friday and Saturday morning. By Saturday afternoon he was breathing sort of rapidly and spent all his time just sitting, not really sleeping, looking miserable. His breathing returned to normal today, but he's still just sitting. He hasn't eaten since he started feeling bad. I wasn't alarmed at first because he typically doesn't feel well after eating rats (and sometimes after eating birds too), but this time he seems worse and it's lasting longer.

Should I be worried? He's always recovered in a day or so previously. I'll probably take him in tomorrow if he's not better. I guess my biggest concern is that maybe this rat had previously eaten rat poison somewhere before ending up in our yard. Or is this normal for hunting cats?

Thanks for any insight.

Paula

Please get your kitty to a vet now. This is not normal and it could be that the cat ate the gut sac thus getting nasty bacteria, or that the rat itself was sick or had gotten into poison bait.

If you worry about your cat why let it eat rats and birds? people poisen rats...odds are Morty will swallow some Dcon one of these days. I know of a cat who swllowed a bird and got a bone caught in its throat once, had to be put to sleep. DCon and other rat poisens make animals bleed to death inside i think . Good luck Morty !

Javern - I don't have the time or energy to defend myself and our family's decision to allow Morty outside. I will say though that it's a conscious decision, and a debate with you won't change anything.

Hissy, thanks for your concern. Morty seems to be moving around a little more, and used the litterbox, so we're hoping he's starting to feel better. I did call the emergency vet and talked to them about what to watch for in terms of him needing an emergency vet visit tonight. At this point we're watching him until tomorrow morning, and then will take him in if he's not significantly better.

Originally Posted by claudemorty

My cat Morty ate a rat Thursday night. He vomited most of it back up within an hour or so, and seemed to feel OK Friday and Saturday morning. By Saturday afternoon he was breathing sort of rapidly and spent all his time just sitting, not really sleeping, looking miserable. His breathing returned to normal today, but he's still just sitting. He hasn't eaten since he started feeling bad. I wasn't alarmed at first because he typically doesn't feel well after eating rats (and sometimes after eating birds too), but this time he seems worse and it's lasting longer.

Should I be worried? He's always recovered in a day or so previously. I'll probably take him in tomorrow if he's not better. I guess my biggest concern is that maybe this rat had previously eaten rat poison somewhere before ending up in our yard. Or is this normal for hunting cats?

Thanks for any insight.

Paula

Click to expand...

Just know Morty will be in my thoughts tonight!! Hope to have a positive post about Morty tomorrow.

Ok good to know that you called the vet on the this. I have active mousers here as well. They keep my grain bin cleaned out of rodents, but they also do become sick from time to time. Mostly with tapeworms. Thankfully we don't have rats here- dead mice are enough of a turn-off for me-

Good luck with Morty..... That must be scary to have your bestfriend ingest something like that.

When I got my cat Wayne he was a stray and was used to being outside so we let him out. That was always my concern- - him eating things he shouldn't and getting sick from them!

We recently converted him to an indoor cat and he seems to be adjusting well. We try to give him more things to play with and higher spaces to jump onto. I am not judging your decision to let Morty out. But in the future if he continues to do these things and your thinking of keeping him inside just know that it may not be as hard of a transition as you may think. I was really worried about keeping Wayne inside but after a couple weeks he seems to be doing good, and I worry less!

But anyway, good luck and let us know what happens with Morty.....

Morty is slowly recovering. I took him to the vet this morning, and they gave him some fluids (IV). He's started eating again, and is keeping it down. He's not looking as sick, and is moving around quite a lot and purring when we pet him on his head. He's not his normal old self, but is definitely better than yesterday or Saturday.

The vet, wanting to rule out his eating a poisoned rat (or mouse - wasn't exactly sure when I saw it), said we could do $170 worth of blood tests, but we're going to hold off since he's improving.

I'm still a bit concerned as this recovery seems to be taking so long compared to other times he's felt awful after catching prey.....but I tend to worry.

Thanks for all your thoughts and support.

Paula

I'm glad to hear Monty is recovering. It doesn't really sound like he was poisoned via eating a rat that ate rat poison. It sounds more like he got a bad rat...lol. There are several diseases that cats can get from eating rats, rodents, etc. The thing that I would be most concerned about is abnormal bacteria and parasites. Both of which can be treated with medications. As for the blood tests, don't bother getting them unless he's not better in a few days. Running a fecal sample would be much more worth your time and money to make sure Monty is in the clear with whatever the rat had. The IV fluids will also help move things through.
As for rat poison: D-Con is the most commonly ingested rat poison we get at our emergency clinic and most of the animals that get poisoned ingest it directly (ie getting into mom and dad's cabnet and eating it b/c it tastes good). Animals that ingest DCon have prolonged PT/APTT times (blood clotting times), and the main thing we do for these animals is supportive therapy with IV fluids and lot of Vit K. I would suspect that if a cat ate a rat that had ingested DCon there are lots of factors that highly vary as for whether the cat will get really sick or not. For one, it depends on the size of the rat and how much poison the rat ingested. Since your cat threw up most of the rat anyways, there's not much of a chance for any possible poison to absorb into the bloodstream (even if there was it would be a small amount b/c rats are small).
Anyways.........I hope Monty continues to get better! Keep us updated on how he's doing.

Originally Posted by LaceyDF

i'm happy to hear your cat is doing better! Please keep us updated!

Click to expand...

Ditto!!!!! I am happy to hear he is better!!!
Please kepp us updated!!