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- May 29, 2022
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Hi everyone,
At a family gathering on Sunday, 27 out of 30 of us contracted norovirus. Yesterday was my worst day, I could not get out of bed, throwing up/diarrhea, fever, all that fun stuff. I have two personal cats, Kida and Lavender, who stayed in my room with me while I was contagious so I kept away from my mom, who was not at the family gathering. Lavender is on the older side and has FIV. Today when I cleaned out their litterbox I found some diarrhea (not entirely uncommon and out of the norm - sometimes they get too many treats, get into the other cats food etc.), and Kida threw up twice. Totally normal behavior from him attitude-wise though. Both of them ate this morning and according to my mom, Lavender was out and about until around noon which was when I finally got up and felt well enough to go about my day normally. Lavender is half-feral or a "ghost cat" as we like to call him. He was 100% feral when I trapped him for a TNR, but after finding out about his age and multitude of health issues the vet told me he probably wouldn't survive another winter outside. He was also deeply bonded with Kida and both of them were very nervous to be separated so I kept them both. Now, he comes out from under the bed (he has a whole world under there, beds, tents, toys, blankets) as he pleases, is very playful and takes affection only when he wants it which is fine with me - he does his own thing and he's comfortable enough around us to do so).
Now not once in the entire year and a half of me owning this cat, even during his first few very stressful days of living indoors, or after traveling an 8 hour car ride has he ever skipped a meal. He will not even so much as look at or sniff his dinner. Being a feral cat he has always had a veracious appetite and finishes Kida's food if he doesn't do it himself. I am so concerned for my boy especially because of him being immune-compromised. Does anyone have any tips or advice? Is this even possible or is it a coincidence? His vet said they don't know if cats can get it, and to call my human doctor to ask?? My personal doctor didn't know either.
At a family gathering on Sunday, 27 out of 30 of us contracted norovirus. Yesterday was my worst day, I could not get out of bed, throwing up/diarrhea, fever, all that fun stuff. I have two personal cats, Kida and Lavender, who stayed in my room with me while I was contagious so I kept away from my mom, who was not at the family gathering. Lavender is on the older side and has FIV. Today when I cleaned out their litterbox I found some diarrhea (not entirely uncommon and out of the norm - sometimes they get too many treats, get into the other cats food etc.), and Kida threw up twice. Totally normal behavior from him attitude-wise though. Both of them ate this morning and according to my mom, Lavender was out and about until around noon which was when I finally got up and felt well enough to go about my day normally. Lavender is half-feral or a "ghost cat" as we like to call him. He was 100% feral when I trapped him for a TNR, but after finding out about his age and multitude of health issues the vet told me he probably wouldn't survive another winter outside. He was also deeply bonded with Kida and both of them were very nervous to be separated so I kept them both. Now, he comes out from under the bed (he has a whole world under there, beds, tents, toys, blankets) as he pleases, is very playful and takes affection only when he wants it which is fine with me - he does his own thing and he's comfortable enough around us to do so).
Now not once in the entire year and a half of me owning this cat, even during his first few very stressful days of living indoors, or after traveling an 8 hour car ride has he ever skipped a meal. He will not even so much as look at or sniff his dinner. Being a feral cat he has always had a veracious appetite and finishes Kida's food if he doesn't do it himself. I am so concerned for my boy especially because of him being immune-compromised. Does anyone have any tips or advice? Is this even possible or is it a coincidence? His vet said they don't know if cats can get it, and to call my human doctor to ask?? My personal doctor didn't know either.
This is too quick of a change in behavior for me to think of chronic illness since he was so playful and active last night and this morning with all of his cat friends. It seemed very abrupt. Thank you for the recommendations on the immune supplements, I will look into getting one of those now. I guess I am more just nervous about how I can help him get through it when he doesn't have the help that a human has when they're sick. At least for me, I was on tylenol, advil, petpo bismol, zofran and fluids all day and still felt like death. Hydrating is definitely a concern for me as he won't put anything in his mouth and since he's not a human, he doesn't know how important it is to. 
