Kitten not eating...acting very odd

Hi...

I have had two kittens for a while now. I am tryig to socialise and rehome them...

There is a male and a female. This evening i named them. The boy is Billy and the girl is Mandy. Anyway, Mandy seems a bit off.

This morning she seemed fine... I let them out of their room to run around for a few hours... Then i put them back in for the afternoon. This evening i brought them both out again... and Mandy seems really odd.

She has not eaten anything. I've tried ground up chicken, some canned food, and some chicken meat. She sniffs the food and then licks her lips and then ignores it. She's just sitting there with her paws tucked under her and her coat all puffed up.

Her brother is fine.

I'm really really worried. If she gets ill how on earth will i medicate her?? I'm not even sure the vet can handle her for a check up

She has spent the whole evening lying down with her paws tucked under her. She looks like she's falling asleep most of the time.

I'm so panicked. I really don't know wat to do....

She licked a teeny bit of vitamin gel of my finger but that's all....
Last night she was eating, she ate this morning... And now she's not eatig at all!!!

They don't have felv or fiv... and they don't seem to be sneezing or anything, stool is fine too...

What should i do?

The oly thing i can think of that may have caused this is that when i came out of the shower ... i heard her sort of yelping a little and when i rushed over to se what was wrong she was in a wrestling match with her brother...
could he have bitten her?

?????????????

Can you get her into a trap and bring her into a vet? They may have to sedate her before they can evaluate her (which is why a trap would be a good thing to bring her to the vet's office in)...but at least you will get a vet's opinion.

Katie

well i'm not sure about the trap. i'd rather get the vet to come over here...
Just now i took a risk and picked her up by the scruff of her neck to carry her back up to the guest room where they sleep.
She didn't struggle at all. I supported her feet with my hands but just kept a good grip on her scruff...
I'm going to not leave any food in the room tonight, and tomorrow i will go in, in the a.m. and give her some chicken and see if she eats anything...
if not then i'll call the vet.

i'm so worried....
I hope it's nothing serious.....

Mabye she got real sick or has a fever! Call the vet immedietly whether it comes to your house or you go to the vet.

Does she let you touch her at all? If you ran your hands over her body (not touching her) but just right over her fur- above it actually- can that be done? If she did get bit, you would feel heat coming up to meet the palm of your hand, that is why it is important to not touch her when you do this, but run your hand all along above her body bare inches looking for hot spots. If you do feel heat, lower you hand slowly find the most intense spot of heat, part the fur and locate the wound. If their is heat, the cat needs a vet to have the wound debreeded and antibiotics given.

Licking the lips is a sign of nausea. Do you have plain yogurt in the house with active cultures? You might give her a teaspoon of this.

The only way to tell if she has a fever, is to take her temperature. If she is like any of my ferals, she is not going to take to kindly to this- but that is the only way to tell.

You said vitamin gel? For cats, or for people? Check the expiration date on the product to see if it might be outdated.

Otherwise, put her in a dark room with a soft bed to rest. Give her some pedialyte and of course be sure there are litter pans in the room, and then wait for the vet to open.

she actually let me scruff her and carry her upstairs *shock, horror!
I needed to let my cats back into their domain and luring her upstairs with food was obviously not working so ... i took a risk and reached for the back of her neck and picked her up gently and she didn't struggle at all. So i put her back feet on my hand and rested her against my chest and took her back to the guest room.

her brother seems to know she is not feeling right... he's been very gentle with her this evening.

she won't really let me touch her as in pet her but when she's not facing me she doesn't mind being stroked a bit so i can feel for hot spots on her back and sides...

i do have live sugar free yogurt. will try to give her some and see if she eats it.

she has retreated to a box on the bed which has a soft furry purple cushion (it was love at first sight between her and the cushion) and the box is covered with a thick blanket to keep it quiet.

their litter box has just been refilled and the vitamin gel is specifically for cats and dogs. i always keep some handy for emergencies.

i'm wondering what on earth the nausea could be caused by?

i must retrace their day in detail later... see if there's anything she may have gotten into without me knowing.

and she has politely declined the yogurt...

the same again this morning. brought in some boiled chicken and she was not interested. am going out to get some baby food. I have heard that that will get most cats to eat.

what worries me is that i don't know if she has been drinking any water... and i'm worried that force feeding her will just totaly stress her out even more....

she has started letting me touch her a bit... and she goes totally limp when you hold the back of her neck so i may be able to give her medicine if need be.

could it be cat flu?

theyhave been making a noise as if they are blowing air out of ther noses. it doesn't sound like a standard kitty sneeze. sounds like the noise cats make when a feather gose up their nose or something like that... it just occured to me that maybe it's cat flu.

is that curable?

Managed to bundle her up in a towel gently and syringe her 5ml of plain yogurt blended with some pedialyte and a drop of vitamin gel.

She was fairly easy to syringe... i kept talking to her gently and took billy out of the room while i was feeding her. once we got to the 3rd ml she seemed quite at ease with the taste. It's been about 30 minutes since i fed her and she has not thrown up yet.

hopefully this will settle her stomach.

am going to let her rest for an hour or so and then give her another 5ml of the same.


later this evening i will try some pureed chicken.

someone on the about.com board said that it could be due to a cat bite.

well anything is possible...

*more updates later

Lying much very still with paws tucked in as you describe this is typically for sick cats with some pain. So probably she is ill yes.

How is it with the third eye-lid? ie do you clearly see a white extralid on the eyes? - IF - then you are sure she is ill. But the third eye-lid isnt always to be seen in sick.

See she drinks at least. If she dont drink herself you may try with a spoon, otherwise you must forcefeed her water.
A syringe or a eye-dropper, in the corner of the mouth across the mouth, NOT straight in inte neck.

Sick cats usually dont fight against so much, very often they let you help them - even ferals.

Good luck!

The thrid eyelid is showing a little just at the corner of her eye... and when she closes it shows a bit more...

I just gave her another 8ml of plain yogurt and pedialyte. i'm on my way out now to get the baby food.

She definetly seems to be in discomfort... she is lying very still and seems to be generally uncomfortable. But i can't find any hot spots... and she seems to be fine with me touching her fur on most parts of her...

what is puzzling is that there is such a marked change in so little time. one moment she is fine and the next moment she is in the state she is in. there was no in between phase. It happened over a matter of hours...

I do have metacam (for pain- for another cat that had a tooth extracted) but am a bit hesistant to use it as i am unsure if it is pain or something else...

anyway i am going to email our vet now and i really hope she will do a house call tomorrow. i don't know if i want to risk moving her by car.

also heard a sneeze from her brother.
his appetite has being growing in leaps and bounds.... i hope he is not sick too!

Poor kitty! zazi ... my three are all at the vet today so I am in Nervous Mommy mode myself. lol I'll be thinking of your little snugglebunny and hoping she feels better soon. Let us know what the vet says.

Ah, so you do have access to a comptetent vet? Good!!! I didnt wanted to say too much if you didnt afforded... I didnt wanted to multiply your pain.
Besides, vets sometimes cant help before it get worse - sometimes they know first then what the sickness is...

she may perhaps have swallowed something. She may have stuck in something - a needle? - you wont see much and it wouldnt bleed much either.
Beginning of a sickness...

Hopefully not dangerous, but I would consult a vet if I afforded. Phone if possible to begin with.
Phone is better than mail - quicker. So do phone if possible.


Edit. Ps. Once again. Sick cats usually let you help them - even ferals. So dont worry too much about it. It is even known as a "window" - even untame ferals can be very quick tame and friendly to you if helped and handled during illness. When sick they are like small kids again - and the socialisation "window" opens (again).

But if she tries to fight against: do wrap her in a towel. Secure for you and secure for her. And when she feels she IS helpless she will cease fight.
You may also held her in the neck. Than she will be still.

Thanks stefanz. I'm not sure that it could be a needle. All my needles are kept well out of reach

I do have access to a vet. Vets here are very expensive but i'd rather pay than have the guilt of not paying hanging round my heart for the rest of my life.... i'm sure you know what i mean She is very prompt with her emails. I usually get a response within a few hours. Hopefully she will give us a good rate as she knows that we do a lot of rescue work.

hurray hurray...
well a small hurray anyway
i just called the lady that helps with the TNR program and asked her if there are any special rates available at all... and she said to call the main help line and leave a message. apparently in some circumstances they do help out with the vet fees up to 200$ or the fees are waived but you have to give a donation to "feline friends"... i guess they don't publicise this as they don't want people to take advantage of the system...

so i called. left a message.
i will call again first thing tomorrow morning if they don't call back.

i really hope that our fees get waived. it's hard to keep doing this sort of work without at least getting some discounts here and there.

i'll be happy if they just waive the consultation fees. our vet has a very reasonable consultation fee of 90$... but there are some vets who charge over 130$!!! just for consultation!!

She started eating again today and has suddenly returned to her usual self and is eating dry food too. She is no longer crouching and the licking of the lips was only after i had let her sniff a bit of food. it was not all the time... ... if i had not seen her yesterday i wouldn't think that there was anything wrong with her at all....

It's just so odd that she should suddenly be so quiet and so suddenly seem to recover or at least return to normal.... i noticed last night that she seemed a little brighter... this morning when i went in she jumped onto the bed and for the first time i did not have to hold her head and insert the syringe....

We called the vet and the vet said to bring her brother in to check him for the lymph problems so we did ... but he has no fever or any sign of flu... then she checked his teeth and he is teething in correctly. she said that that is what is causing the swelling at the jaw line...

She said to leave the female where she was and she would come round and check for fever, but that it was most likely to be a bit of bruising in a sensitive area since there were no other signs of anything else and she may also be teething incorrectly....

This evening she has been eating. I wouldn't say her appetitie is back to where it was but things have certainly improved.

I also have the other female with the huge abcess in the bath room down stairs. Tomorrow i am taking her out to the vet to have her treated. Thank goodness Feline Friends has approved the treatment up to a cost of 200. Beyond that we will have to pay which is fine... even if they hadn't approved it we would still have paid but it's just that i do so much work for them and all the costs are taken on by us... so i thought it would be great if they could help out some

Good she seems much improved! Hope she proceeds with the recovery!

Lucky you didnt immediately rush to vet for emergency consultation, 70 dollars would be off - perhaps for nothing you can see...

This shows again the old saying "wait and see" is correct in many cases and is not only said by lazy owners or lazy veterinarians. Many sickeness go over by themselves. Other sickenesses are unclear in the beginning and MUST develop, ie get worse for the veterinarian too see what is was...

I do remember read one doctor tell two classical physician-anekdotes.

1. Many diseases are going on a whole week. But the luck is many others are you sick in only seven days...

2. When called to a sick child, he always rushed to them as soon he could. Because of the danger for them? Nay, usually it was not that dangerous. To calm down the parents? Yaas, in some extenction. The main reason to hurry was to collect the payment before the children were healthy again *laugh*


Edit: Good anecdote and in some extent true, but we should still contact veterinarian or doctor when ill.


Good luck with all your animals!

You are doing a great job!!!

Stafanz, that was quite funny.

Thanks for your support.

Good luck, I have a kitten sick too. A little better today. I will be praying for the two of you.

Zazi...I`m so glad your kitty is better today....and I hope yours will be soon too Darla.
(It`s hard to have your kids be sick...whether they are kid-kids or kat-kids!