- Joined
- Jan 16, 2018
- Messages
- 25
- Purraise
- 37
I have lurked on here for many years - today I'd like some advice/opinions on my sweet boy Mr. Cole Black Kitty.
~LOOOONG STORY PLEASE BARE WITH!~
Some history: Mr. Black was hanging around our house, thin, partially bald and very beat up when we moved into our house 11 years ago. I'm a sucker so I immediately put out food and spoke nicely to him. We had two old indoor house cats (rescues) at the time, what was one more? It took about three years for him to trust us, all the while watching him get more beat up by the year. Finally he took to following me around the garden whenever I went out - then he never left our yard, and when he tried being petted one day, that was that. Most lovey dovey guy ever. I took him to a feral cat program for testing, vaccines and neuter - they called me to say they wanted to put him to sleep because he was FIV+. I said no - clean him up, fix him,and I'll take him in, finger crossed he wouldn't be insane in the house or beat up the other cats. They said he was approx. 8 years old, sick with URI, "rough" all over and argued for euthanasia - I refused. After a month in a bedroom he moved into the rest of the house without a care - never fought, never made a mess, never any trouble at all except for the occasional URI and chronically bad/yeasty ears. As he's gotten older - he refuses to be groomed (semi-longhair), has oversensitive skin and minor seizures. He's 16+ years now. If his fur get really bad we have him shaved, which he seems to love afterwards - no more matted itchy fur for a season.
He's done well for FIV cat with an awful start I think - but he seems to have a real problem now, and I feel the vets aren't helping. I have to say we are in a small midwestern town with "farm vets" - most of their clients are hamburger or porkchops in a year, but we have a enthused new gal fresh out of college who seems in love with all animals that I usually like, but she is REALLY into Hill's as a cure for everything and I often feel like I may know more about FIV than she does... but anyway...
Mr. Black has always done well with eating - no diarrhea, not a lot of vomit unless its hairball, not a lot of trouble with food changes, good appetite ALWAYS. I know he shouldn't, but if I go out to garden in the summer, he goes out too - never runs off, follows like a dog or sleeps in a sun spot on the deck all day, occasionally nibbles the grass, LOVES to drink out the hose faucet. He goes in when I do - never unsupervised. This summer has been no exception. Beginning of summer I changed his wet food to Earthborn Holistics Monteray Medley (fish) and Catatorri (chicken) to supplement the dry Purina One Sensitive he's ate for years and WOW - he's been a whole new cat for weeks.
Then last weekend, I topped off the dry food bowl Friday with a new bag of Purina One, and topped it off again the next day. The only thing they had besides regular food was a few Temptation treats that may have been stale. By the next day Mr. Black was refusing to eat. I caught him at the litter box straining, grunting and crying to pass two little puddles of cow pie like poop. The he acted like he could barely keep his wet food down at suppertime. One of my other cats vomited so much she started vomiting foam with blood flecks. My third one is younger and more robust but also had diarrhea and all three were lethargic and sickly. I took up all the food for 12 hours. Pressure cooked plain chicken Monday and started with that - added a bit of the Earthborn chicken to it Tuesday. I called Purina to see if the formula of the food had changed (I tossed the old bag and couldn't compare) they said- yes! (NOT made obvious on the bag - grrr!) They had added chicory root to it. I've not put it back down. The other two have somewhat recovered in behavior - the poops in the boxes are still wet but snakelike not splatty. Mr. Black is still very yucky, sleepy, and has started in with a runny nose, sore ear, and a swollen lymph node- I haven't managed to catch him at the litter box to see how that is, but he just acts sickly, so today off to the vet we went.
I wanted to know three things from the vet - Did they think this was the food or treats (any of it - even the canned) and should I be using some lactoferrin or kefir or something else THEY might have to help - and should I change foods? Did Mr.Black have a URI and/or ear infection to go along with the bad stomach and what to do with that - And most importantly, Did they think his straining was just diarrhea or could he have a blockage, from the new fiber in the food or some other thing?
This resulted in a palpitation that he DID NOT LIKE and he was clearly painful in the abdomen (she never told me if she thought he was possibly blocked - just asked me if he was likely to eat string or a toy and when I said no she was clearly done talking about it). Now I am honest with my vets, so she knew previously about his summer outside times. I told her everything I've said here and then some. That got me a long lecture on how I can't feed cats just chicken, like I fell off a turnip truck yesterday and hadn't looked after cats for a good 20+ plus years before she was even born (50 vs 22 years) and I just feed my cats people chicken day in day out (she knows better, but maybe it was a bad day). She then told me I needed to feed Hill's Biome and only HIll's Biome (spoiler alert - all my cats hate the stuff, and I had an elderly IBD cat die from a blockage two weeks after they insisted he needed that stuff as a solution to his diarrhea - they said there was no connection on that one) AND that because Iet Mr. Black outside, he had CLEARLY caught some nasty bacteria from the grass outside and gave it to the other cats and that was my problem. I kept asking about the food or the stale treats, she did not seem to think that was that big a deal but recommended two kinds of Hills for a solution if I "really" thought it was the food.
She then recommended Tylan for five days (though it causes vomiting and diarrhea in sensitive cats) to kill the grass-borne bacteria. Didn't look at his ears. Said the runny nose was o.k. Commented on the swollen lymph node but had no advice/ conclusions about it. At that point poor Mr. Black was so stressed by the palpitation he was having his twitchy seizures almost constantly. I asked if the seizures were from the FIV (it was a test - I know it is) - she didn't know and didn't seem to care that he was seizing badly. When I hesitated to jump up and down with glee over the idea of stuffing cow antibiotic down my cats' ravaged guts, I was told it was the best she could do as I hadn't bought in fresh stool samples (they won't take them unless they are less then half an hour old) and hadn't bought all three cats in for bloodwork ($600 per cat). Mr Black had blood work less than a month ago and everyone there was astonished at good it was for an old FIV cat - and I know it could be very different now, but I was hoping to try something else first as I am not made of money.
So 100 bucks and a very stressed and even more sickly cat later - I still don't know what to do. The Tylan sounds like a bad idea to me. I'm annoyed his ear, nose and nodes have been ignored. I don't know what to feed anyone. I bought some of the Biome home - they lick it a couple times and are done with it (which I mentioned to the vet and her idea is to just keep putting it down and waste cans and cans of it until they have to eat it). They all act hungry and want something in the dry food bowl, even Mr. Black. I worry the Earthborn food may be bad/wrong for them and its not the dry food change. I'm driving my self crazy at this point and I worry Mr. Black (who was fit as a fiddle and tearing around the house playing a couple weeks ago) will have to be put down as poorly as he is. Nearly everything that isn't Friskies, FF, Rachael Ray, or Hills has to be mail ordered or its an hour+ trip to the city for food. The next vet is 30-40 minutes away and no better than the one here. I have to go out of town tomorrow and I am so worried for my old boy. I don't know what to do.
ANY THOUGHTS OR ADVICE IS MUCH APPRECIATED!! Sorry for the long winded message.
~LOOOONG STORY PLEASE BARE WITH!~
Some history: Mr. Black was hanging around our house, thin, partially bald and very beat up when we moved into our house 11 years ago. I'm a sucker so I immediately put out food and spoke nicely to him. We had two old indoor house cats (rescues) at the time, what was one more? It took about three years for him to trust us, all the while watching him get more beat up by the year. Finally he took to following me around the garden whenever I went out - then he never left our yard, and when he tried being petted one day, that was that. Most lovey dovey guy ever. I took him to a feral cat program for testing, vaccines and neuter - they called me to say they wanted to put him to sleep because he was FIV+. I said no - clean him up, fix him,and I'll take him in, finger crossed he wouldn't be insane in the house or beat up the other cats. They said he was approx. 8 years old, sick with URI, "rough" all over and argued for euthanasia - I refused. After a month in a bedroom he moved into the rest of the house without a care - never fought, never made a mess, never any trouble at all except for the occasional URI and chronically bad/yeasty ears. As he's gotten older - he refuses to be groomed (semi-longhair), has oversensitive skin and minor seizures. He's 16+ years now. If his fur get really bad we have him shaved, which he seems to love afterwards - no more matted itchy fur for a season.
He's done well for FIV cat with an awful start I think - but he seems to have a real problem now, and I feel the vets aren't helping. I have to say we are in a small midwestern town with "farm vets" - most of their clients are hamburger or porkchops in a year, but we have a enthused new gal fresh out of college who seems in love with all animals that I usually like, but she is REALLY into Hill's as a cure for everything and I often feel like I may know more about FIV than she does... but anyway...
Mr. Black has always done well with eating - no diarrhea, not a lot of vomit unless its hairball, not a lot of trouble with food changes, good appetite ALWAYS. I know he shouldn't, but if I go out to garden in the summer, he goes out too - never runs off, follows like a dog or sleeps in a sun spot on the deck all day, occasionally nibbles the grass, LOVES to drink out the hose faucet. He goes in when I do - never unsupervised. This summer has been no exception. Beginning of summer I changed his wet food to Earthborn Holistics Monteray Medley (fish) and Catatorri (chicken) to supplement the dry Purina One Sensitive he's ate for years and WOW - he's been a whole new cat for weeks.
Then last weekend, I topped off the dry food bowl Friday with a new bag of Purina One, and topped it off again the next day. The only thing they had besides regular food was a few Temptation treats that may have been stale. By the next day Mr. Black was refusing to eat. I caught him at the litter box straining, grunting and crying to pass two little puddles of cow pie like poop. The he acted like he could barely keep his wet food down at suppertime. One of my other cats vomited so much she started vomiting foam with blood flecks. My third one is younger and more robust but also had diarrhea and all three were lethargic and sickly. I took up all the food for 12 hours. Pressure cooked plain chicken Monday and started with that - added a bit of the Earthborn chicken to it Tuesday. I called Purina to see if the formula of the food had changed (I tossed the old bag and couldn't compare) they said- yes! (NOT made obvious on the bag - grrr!) They had added chicory root to it. I've not put it back down. The other two have somewhat recovered in behavior - the poops in the boxes are still wet but snakelike not splatty. Mr. Black is still very yucky, sleepy, and has started in with a runny nose, sore ear, and a swollen lymph node- I haven't managed to catch him at the litter box to see how that is, but he just acts sickly, so today off to the vet we went.
I wanted to know three things from the vet - Did they think this was the food or treats (any of it - even the canned) and should I be using some lactoferrin or kefir or something else THEY might have to help - and should I change foods? Did Mr.Black have a URI and/or ear infection to go along with the bad stomach and what to do with that - And most importantly, Did they think his straining was just diarrhea or could he have a blockage, from the new fiber in the food or some other thing?
This resulted in a palpitation that he DID NOT LIKE and he was clearly painful in the abdomen (she never told me if she thought he was possibly blocked - just asked me if he was likely to eat string or a toy and when I said no she was clearly done talking about it). Now I am honest with my vets, so she knew previously about his summer outside times. I told her everything I've said here and then some. That got me a long lecture on how I can't feed cats just chicken, like I fell off a turnip truck yesterday and hadn't looked after cats for a good 20+ plus years before she was even born (50 vs 22 years) and I just feed my cats people chicken day in day out (she knows better, but maybe it was a bad day). She then told me I needed to feed Hill's Biome and only HIll's Biome (spoiler alert - all my cats hate the stuff, and I had an elderly IBD cat die from a blockage two weeks after they insisted he needed that stuff as a solution to his diarrhea - they said there was no connection on that one) AND that because Iet Mr. Black outside, he had CLEARLY caught some nasty bacteria from the grass outside and gave it to the other cats and that was my problem. I kept asking about the food or the stale treats, she did not seem to think that was that big a deal but recommended two kinds of Hills for a solution if I "really" thought it was the food.
She then recommended Tylan for five days (though it causes vomiting and diarrhea in sensitive cats) to kill the grass-borne bacteria. Didn't look at his ears. Said the runny nose was o.k. Commented on the swollen lymph node but had no advice/ conclusions about it. At that point poor Mr. Black was so stressed by the palpitation he was having his twitchy seizures almost constantly. I asked if the seizures were from the FIV (it was a test - I know it is) - she didn't know and didn't seem to care that he was seizing badly. When I hesitated to jump up and down with glee over the idea of stuffing cow antibiotic down my cats' ravaged guts, I was told it was the best she could do as I hadn't bought in fresh stool samples (they won't take them unless they are less then half an hour old) and hadn't bought all three cats in for bloodwork ($600 per cat). Mr Black had blood work less than a month ago and everyone there was astonished at good it was for an old FIV cat - and I know it could be very different now, but I was hoping to try something else first as I am not made of money.
So 100 bucks and a very stressed and even more sickly cat later - I still don't know what to do. The Tylan sounds like a bad idea to me. I'm annoyed his ear, nose and nodes have been ignored. I don't know what to feed anyone. I bought some of the Biome home - they lick it a couple times and are done with it (which I mentioned to the vet and her idea is to just keep putting it down and waste cans and cans of it until they have to eat it). They all act hungry and want something in the dry food bowl, even Mr. Black. I worry the Earthborn food may be bad/wrong for them and its not the dry food change. I'm driving my self crazy at this point and I worry Mr. Black (who was fit as a fiddle and tearing around the house playing a couple weeks ago) will have to be put down as poorly as he is. Nearly everything that isn't Friskies, FF, Rachael Ray, or Hills has to be mail ordered or its an hour+ trip to the city for food. The next vet is 30-40 minutes away and no better than the one here. I have to go out of town tomorrow and I am so worried for my old boy. I don't know what to do.
ANY THOUGHTS OR ADVICE IS MUCH APPRECIATED!! Sorry for the long winded message.
