- Joined
- Jan 16, 2018
- Messages
- 25
- Purraise
- 37
Hello everyone. Long time cat owner here to rant a little and hopefully get a little advice.
I've been taking care of cats for a long time and almost all of them have lived to be teenagers.
We have four cats, two "euthanasia list un-adoptables" Tippy and Cornflake, ages 11 and 6 and two peaceful boys with FIV, Wilbur and Mr. Black, ages 6 and 17.
The two boys with FIV have neurological issues - and I think this was the start of my trouble. Because of this we cannot use any of the most recently released flea control products because they affect the nervous system. We have used Frontline Plus sparingly, but successfully along with diligent house cleaning and yard spray for many years. Until now. I applied Frontline at the beginning of August, it barely lasted two weeks and burned and blistered the cats' skin. Because my vets no longer carry it I purchased it at Walmart - checking with the company shows that it was legitimate product. The representative says the product hasn't changed and yet this is the first time I've had these issues.
Because we were scared to reapply the product before a month was over we started to apply diatomaceous earth to try and hold out until the beginning of the next month. The fleas are still here and we are trying to flea comb them out daily finding four or five fleas a day per cat. Bathing would be great but is an issue for two of our cats that all but have a nervous breakdown from it. Then about the time we were starting to deeply the house with vacuum cleaners and massive amounts of laundry washing, our 17-year-old FIV boy and the 6-year-old new guy, Cornflake, stopped eating their food. The old guy sort of got over it in a few days, but Cornflake started vomiting every time he attempted to eat and frequently door darted to run out to the yard to try to eat massive amounts of grass.
We thought maybe it was just nerves from the cleaning until the constant vomiting started - and thinking maybe we just had a bad batch of food or food that was damaged in the recent heat wave, I resorted to my default of using my instant pot to make plain chicken and rice to feed instead of regular food for a while. But when he started looking dehydrated with a bloated stomach we went off to the vets.
Then the comedy of errors that's not so funny began.
We don't have a lot of money, our vet knows this, the only reason we have the two "new" cats is because a friend asked us to save them and try to find them new homes, which in this day and age is impossible, so right or wrong they get what they get for as long as we can afford to keep them.
We have no medical history for Cornflake but we do know he's really bad for eating things he shouldn't, mostly plants, which we keep him away from, but he will even lick grass clippings off of shoes if you don't watch him.
We told the vet this and we told him our suspicions about bad food and our experiences with fleas and Frontline. He palpitated the cat and decided he needed an x-ray to see if he had a blockage, which we agreed to.
$300 and several x-rays later he decided all that he could see from x-rays was an inflamed small intestine, and that what he really needed was a barium contrast x-ray, that was going to be another $800 on top of the $300. If he had started with the radium contrast x-rays we may have been willing to pay that but having already spent $300 on regular x-rays we asked for alternatives, as we barely afford to keep $1,000 in emergency money for everyone, not just cats.
He then suggested an anti-nausea shot, intravenous fluids under the skin, and a bag of science diet ID. And to take the cat home and feed him the science diet and see how he was in a couple days. He also recommended we feed the ID to our other cat that had recently had a loss of appetite. He also gave me a very long lecture on how my homemade food wasn't a good idea because I "didn't understand what kind of fiber to protein to fat ratio was appropriate for the cat because each cat is different" and a whole lot of other stuff that just sounded like rambling after a while.
So we took Cornflake home, separated he and Mr Black from the other two and fed them the science diet that we were assured we didn't need to transition from the old food to, even though that doesn't make sense to me from years of cat owning experience.
They eagerly ate the food because it was new. And Cornflake was no longer nauseous but he continued to not "look right" to me. He managed to pass two big mostly solid poops, one of which looked like the new food, and plenty of urine, so we hoped that he was on the mend. But 48 hours later he looked even worse and refused to eat or drink, and he started hiding.
So we went back to the vets for more fluid and another anti-nausea shot, which did absolutely nothing, the poor guy still looks so poorly that we called the vet today and told him we were going to give him one good weekend and euthanize him next week provided he did not act like he was suffering or in pain, if he did we would be in for an emergency euthanasia.
Upon hearing that the vet suddenly had a number of suggestions of other things that might be the problem, including cancer and pancreatitis, or IBS, or severe allergies, and suggested that an inexpensive treatment that would relieve his pain and possibly give his intestine a chance to recover would be a steroid shot. Another thing that I kind of feel should have been suggested the first time around, kind of like maybe we should have started with a barium contrast if a regular x-ray had any chance of not working. I told him I'd let him know.
Then, our 17-year-old FIV boy, Mr Black, who is really too old and frail to get sick without severe consequences, started having painful explosive diarrhea, I'm assuming from the science diet that he was suddenly changed to because the vet assured me I did not need to do a transition. His stools before this were perfectly formed and very solid. He just lacked appetite for his regular amount of food.
And although this is getting very long winded I would also like to make note that I repeatedly asked the vet for help with the flea situation which got me a long description of how flea products work and how Frontline was no good anymore but that I couldn't use any of the products he currently carries on my two cats with neurological issues, with no suggestion as to what I should do with them.
So now I am at my wit's end. I have no idea what to feed my cats. Cornflake will eat tiny teaspoon sized amounts of food at a time. He has not thrown up even though his shot has worn off. But he still doesn't look right to me and he is still bloated and hiding most of the time. When he does come out he wants to go outside I am sure to try and eat grass which he is not allowed to do. I am terrified for my old FIV boy Mr Black. I also have no idea what to feed him. In the past it would be the chicken and rice mix until his stomach settles down maybe with fortiflora sprinkled on top. Then a gradual return to his normal food. But I've received a very long vet's lecture with an awful lot of scientific terms telling me why that is not right even though it has worked for me for more than 20 years. I have no idea if my other cat food is safe. Or damaged from the heat and the cause of these problems. It's all mail ordered so I can't just go to the store and buy more in our rural area. Oh, and also, tonight both Cornflake and Mr Black have decided they no longer like the science diet ID. So now neither one of them are eating anything.
And I am still battling fleas, with no inkling as to what to do about them. I hate to torment my cats with more blistering and skin irritation but I also can't have fleas over-running the entire house. I also don't know if the bad reaction to the Frontline is part of the issue with the loss of appetite!
I've had a mini nervous breakdown over all of this and spent most of the day crying while I wash my cat beds and vacuum my rooms.
I've been taking care of cats for a long time and almost all of them have lived to be teenagers.
We have four cats, two "euthanasia list un-adoptables" Tippy and Cornflake, ages 11 and 6 and two peaceful boys with FIV, Wilbur and Mr. Black, ages 6 and 17.
The two boys with FIV have neurological issues - and I think this was the start of my trouble. Because of this we cannot use any of the most recently released flea control products because they affect the nervous system. We have used Frontline Plus sparingly, but successfully along with diligent house cleaning and yard spray for many years. Until now. I applied Frontline at the beginning of August, it barely lasted two weeks and burned and blistered the cats' skin. Because my vets no longer carry it I purchased it at Walmart - checking with the company shows that it was legitimate product. The representative says the product hasn't changed and yet this is the first time I've had these issues.
Because we were scared to reapply the product before a month was over we started to apply diatomaceous earth to try and hold out until the beginning of the next month. The fleas are still here and we are trying to flea comb them out daily finding four or five fleas a day per cat. Bathing would be great but is an issue for two of our cats that all but have a nervous breakdown from it. Then about the time we were starting to deeply the house with vacuum cleaners and massive amounts of laundry washing, our 17-year-old FIV boy and the 6-year-old new guy, Cornflake, stopped eating their food. The old guy sort of got over it in a few days, but Cornflake started vomiting every time he attempted to eat and frequently door darted to run out to the yard to try to eat massive amounts of grass.
We thought maybe it was just nerves from the cleaning until the constant vomiting started - and thinking maybe we just had a bad batch of food or food that was damaged in the recent heat wave, I resorted to my default of using my instant pot to make plain chicken and rice to feed instead of regular food for a while. But when he started looking dehydrated with a bloated stomach we went off to the vets.
Then the comedy of errors that's not so funny began.
We don't have a lot of money, our vet knows this, the only reason we have the two "new" cats is because a friend asked us to save them and try to find them new homes, which in this day and age is impossible, so right or wrong they get what they get for as long as we can afford to keep them.
We have no medical history for Cornflake but we do know he's really bad for eating things he shouldn't, mostly plants, which we keep him away from, but he will even lick grass clippings off of shoes if you don't watch him.
We told the vet this and we told him our suspicions about bad food and our experiences with fleas and Frontline. He palpitated the cat and decided he needed an x-ray to see if he had a blockage, which we agreed to.
$300 and several x-rays later he decided all that he could see from x-rays was an inflamed small intestine, and that what he really needed was a barium contrast x-ray, that was going to be another $800 on top of the $300. If he had started with the radium contrast x-rays we may have been willing to pay that but having already spent $300 on regular x-rays we asked for alternatives, as we barely afford to keep $1,000 in emergency money for everyone, not just cats.
He then suggested an anti-nausea shot, intravenous fluids under the skin, and a bag of science diet ID. And to take the cat home and feed him the science diet and see how he was in a couple days. He also recommended we feed the ID to our other cat that had recently had a loss of appetite. He also gave me a very long lecture on how my homemade food wasn't a good idea because I "didn't understand what kind of fiber to protein to fat ratio was appropriate for the cat because each cat is different" and a whole lot of other stuff that just sounded like rambling after a while.
So we took Cornflake home, separated he and Mr Black from the other two and fed them the science diet that we were assured we didn't need to transition from the old food to, even though that doesn't make sense to me from years of cat owning experience.
They eagerly ate the food because it was new. And Cornflake was no longer nauseous but he continued to not "look right" to me. He managed to pass two big mostly solid poops, one of which looked like the new food, and plenty of urine, so we hoped that he was on the mend. But 48 hours later he looked even worse and refused to eat or drink, and he started hiding.
So we went back to the vets for more fluid and another anti-nausea shot, which did absolutely nothing, the poor guy still looks so poorly that we called the vet today and told him we were going to give him one good weekend and euthanize him next week provided he did not act like he was suffering or in pain, if he did we would be in for an emergency euthanasia.
Upon hearing that the vet suddenly had a number of suggestions of other things that might be the problem, including cancer and pancreatitis, or IBS, or severe allergies, and suggested that an inexpensive treatment that would relieve his pain and possibly give his intestine a chance to recover would be a steroid shot. Another thing that I kind of feel should have been suggested the first time around, kind of like maybe we should have started with a barium contrast if a regular x-ray had any chance of not working. I told him I'd let him know.
Then, our 17-year-old FIV boy, Mr Black, who is really too old and frail to get sick without severe consequences, started having painful explosive diarrhea, I'm assuming from the science diet that he was suddenly changed to because the vet assured me I did not need to do a transition. His stools before this were perfectly formed and very solid. He just lacked appetite for his regular amount of food.
And although this is getting very long winded I would also like to make note that I repeatedly asked the vet for help with the flea situation which got me a long description of how flea products work and how Frontline was no good anymore but that I couldn't use any of the products he currently carries on my two cats with neurological issues, with no suggestion as to what I should do with them.
So now I am at my wit's end. I have no idea what to feed my cats. Cornflake will eat tiny teaspoon sized amounts of food at a time. He has not thrown up even though his shot has worn off. But he still doesn't look right to me and he is still bloated and hiding most of the time. When he does come out he wants to go outside I am sure to try and eat grass which he is not allowed to do. I am terrified for my old FIV boy Mr Black. I also have no idea what to feed him. In the past it would be the chicken and rice mix until his stomach settles down maybe with fortiflora sprinkled on top. Then a gradual return to his normal food. But I've received a very long vet's lecture with an awful lot of scientific terms telling me why that is not right even though it has worked for me for more than 20 years. I have no idea if my other cat food is safe. Or damaged from the heat and the cause of these problems. It's all mail ordered so I can't just go to the store and buy more in our rural area. Oh, and also, tonight both Cornflake and Mr Black have decided they no longer like the science diet ID. So now neither one of them are eating anything.
And I am still battling fleas, with no inkling as to what to do about them. I hate to torment my cats with more blistering and skin irritation but I also can't have fleas over-running the entire house. I also don't know if the bad reaction to the Frontline is part of the issue with the loss of appetite!
I've had a mini nervous breakdown over all of this and spent most of the day crying while I wash my cat beds and vacuum my rooms.
