Cat vomiting AFTER STOPPING antibiotics?

[dkb817]

I know my posts are always long and somewhat rambly - but in addition to y'all providing useful advice, it's almost therapeutic to relay the story to other crazy cat people who get it. I'm including the information about weight loss, in case it is somehow relevant.

At Simon's yearly checkup in 2019, we were told we needed to try and ween him off of the dry food as he was a little bigger of a weight than the vet was comfortable with. He was very vocal about it at first, but he eventually adjusted to no more dry food and did really well on his diet of wet food only (This worked great, as we were able to mix his daily meds/supplements into the wet food and get him to eat them that way rather than having to kitty burrito him every day). I don't remember his exact weight at this time.

In late August 2020, we took him in for an early check-up and to have his ears cleaned/claws trimmed (The person who drives us to-and-from was going to be out of commission for 4-6 weeks). His weight was at the time was roughly 8.6 pounds - and while he felt quite boney to me, the vet assured us that he was just a smaller cat than my last (who weighed something like 17 lbs) and he was at a great weight/body size.

In October 2020, Simon went in for his yearly Rabies shot and Distemper booster. His weight was down to just above 8 lbs. The vet chalked this up to increased activity with some behavioral issues (which he has since gone onto prozac to try and manage), but when I asked when we should become concerned with said weight loss, the vet said we would need to take action if Simon got below 8 lbs. The vaccines caused the least desirable reaction including massive amount of vomiting and diarrhea. The treatment for this is covered in a previous post, if y'all are interested in that.

Shortly after that appointment, Simon started showing signs of an URI from the herpes flare-up, very similar to ones he showed with the initial flare-up two years ago. I gave it a week or so to clear itself up, but when it only continued to get worse, I contacted the vet who called in 'Clavamox', which is what we used with success last time. Probably 5-6 days in to the antibiotic, I noticed that Simon had stopped having formed stools and it was pure liquid. When I contacted the vet, I was told it was likely due to the antibiotic and that we had a couple options: Switch to a different med, up his probiotics, or just deal with it since it was likely caused by the antibiotic that was helping him. I didn't want to further upset Simon's stomach by switching to an entirely new med with just a few days left, so I finished out the 10-days of Clavamox, which was Friday (two days ago).

He threw up twice on Saturday - the initial time, I thought it was just because I was late with his breakfast due to illness on my part. When he threw up Saturday night, I thought it was a furball since it also contained hair and he HAS been shedding.

On Sunday (today), he has already thrown up at least three times - one of which really concerned me as it was darker yellow than his normal vomit, but our vet is closed on the weekend and we honestly just don't have the money to go to the emergency vet right now.

The vet is going to be getting a phone call first thing in the morning to see what he thinks, see if maybe it's just all due to GI irritation from the clavamox and see about getting a med to stop the vomiting and help with the loose stools. Of course my mind wants to jump to worst case scenario of something that requires surgery or (g-d forbid) Lymphoma, which we couldn't really afford either right now.

Any of y'all have this experience or similar experiences after antibiotic use? What meds were you giving to help with the throwing up?

 

[Mamanyt1953]

OK...the Saturday episodes might have been caused by residual medication in his system, but almost (note that "almost" certainly not the Sunday episodes. Was the darker yellow the last episode? Vomitus that is almost all bile can have a darker yellow color to it. It is VERY early Monday morning here. He should be fine until office hours today. But do mention that darker color to the vet.

Lighting a candle for your boy. Do, please, come back and let us know how he is. A sick cat is very much like a sick baby. You're frantic to help them, and they can't tell you where it hurts!

 

[dkb817]

The vet more or less agreed that the initial vomiting is likely due to his GI system just being super out of whack from the Clavamox (which, looking at past posts, was the same antibiotic that caused vomiting in my last kitty as well - that's a new med for the "never again if possible" list). He wants to try adding some Prilosec and Cerenia in to see if that helps, but said that the next step is blood work and that we'd need to decide by Wednesday, as he'll be out of the office on thursday and friday (and he doesn't work weekends). Having had a megacolon cat before, I'm no stranger to poo issues....they don't scare me, but I'd really like to get Simon some relief on the vomiting front.

Unfortunately, finances play a role as well, as any in-depth tests beyond blood work are just not something we can afford right now (and care credit, which is the card many vets recommend, is already in use for human medical needs, leaving no credit line for loans or things of that nature).

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Yeah. And I failed to connect the sad fact that vomiting often begets more vomiting as the tummy gets more sensitive. Vicious circle kinda thing. I can tell you that I take Prilosec (generic, omeprazole) and couldn't make it without it. Wonderful stuff.

 

[dkb817]

Oh I've been on prilosec before myself (GERD sufferer, Lansoprazole tends to work better for me), so I 'get' the mechanism behind it.

Simon didn't throw up yesterday (which was wonderful!), though he did still have a liquid stool which I could deal with until his system has time to sort itself out. I'm still debating on running him in to the vet, just to get some baseline bloodwork done to ensure that there's nothing going on that we're just masking the symptoms of, like hyperthyroidism or something, but that may wait until at least next week, as long as the cerenia keeps him from throwing up in the mean time.

 

[dkb817]

Well, Friday morning will be Simon’s last dose of cerenia (though I may ask the vets office about refilling it to at least get him through the weekend, so that if the vomiting comes back after stopping it, I’m not stuck without access to my vet for two days). To the meds’ credit, Simon hasn’t thrown up since taking the Cerenia, but his stools are still a lot looser to the point of being liquid (though, I’ll admit, the one he had Thursday morning appeared ever so slightly thicker than the previous few). He does seem to be very gassy, for lack of a more eloquent term - but when he goes, he almost always steps in it which results in a quick paw dip in the bathtub (not his favorite, but at least he will tolerate it for long enough for me to clean between his toes).

if he’s not straightened out by Monday or Tuesday, it’ll be time to reconsider the vets offer of blood work. Hopefully it’s something simple to handle, as I won’t force him to endure a lifetime of tests and medications because I find it too hard to let go like I did with my last chronically ill cat (who was probably ready to go much sooner than I let her go, but I had to try everything in my power, despite how visibly miserable she was).

This all sounds so cruel of me, but with the pandemic, I have to think five steps ahead in the event that the state goes back into lockdown and we CAN’T get in to the vet anymore since we are both immunocompromised and the only other people who could take him are frontline healthcare workers who are infinitely too busy. Our state has already gone back to tier 3, which means no more inside dining, limiting of gatherings or, as the governor put it, “If you don’t absolutely 100% have to leave the house? Don’t.”.

 

[dkb817]

I did contact the vets office and they've already gotten back to me, just to say that there isn't a vet in the office today (sometimes he has a "substitute" vet come in to cover the clinic when he can't be there, but apparently not today). I'm really hoping that he remains vomit free this weekend, but he's just acting strange today so I don't have high hopes.

It's so hard to describe to the vet when something is just off about a pet that you spend 24/7 with; We can tell when they're acting strangely for that particular cat, but to the vet, it might be nothing at all.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Going to light a candle for BOTH of you right now!

 

[dkb817]

Update: Simon had a somewhat formed stool this morning! It was still WAY softer than I'd like to see, but at least it had some shape to it rather than it being more of a puddle. It only took roughly 16 days (since the first dose of Clavamox), additional probiotics, cerenia, and Prilosec to get to this point

I'm not naive enough to think we're entirely in the clear on the antibiotics aftermath just yet, but we needed a win and today delivered.


For future reference, have you had any experience with other antibiotics that maybe didn't have as many side effects as the Clavamox? I know with the herpesvirus, it's likely that he will experience flare-ups in the future and it'd help to get a running list of meds to try (and ones to avoid, like the Clavamox unless it's a life or death situation).