Gastritis and Enteritis in 12 week only kitten

[lmcginley002]

Hi all,

My 12 week only kitten Bruce was just diagnosed with gastritis and enteritis after a couple of days of vomiting after eating and diarrhea. He lost almost a full pound in less than a week, I feel so bad for him. Does anyone have experience with it? I am not sure what could have caused it. He was at the emergency vet for it not his regular, we follow up later in the week. A couple of ideas:

• He is indoor only but caught a mouse earlier this week. Didn't eat it but killed and played with it. The vet seemed to think it was unlikely he could have caught something from it and he had no fever, but could the mouse have been poisoned by a neighbor or carried a parasite?
• His diet hasn't changed but we did introduce treats recently to start training him. He got temptations, maybe it was too much for him?

Any thoughts, ideas, or experience with this?

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. What tests did the emergency vet do to determine gastritis and enteritis? Did they treat him with anything? Did they check his electrolytes? Was he given fluids for dehydration? There are so many things that could cause his symptoms, from food allergies to parasites to viral or bacterial infections.

If he didn't eat the mouse, it would seem unlikely that he caught something from it, but a PCR fecal test could have been run to look for parasites as well as viral/bacterial infections. And, unless you were overloading him with treats, I can't imagine them causing so much vomiting and diarrhea.

How is he doing now? Eating/drinking/peeing/pooping normally? If not, you might want to check with your regular vet about getting him seen sooner. And, please get copies of whatever tests the ER vet did run to share with your vet.

 

[lmcginley002]

They didn't do any tests other than an x-ray. Tuesday is the earliest that he can be seen at his regular vet office. They did give him fluids and sent him home with metronidazole and prescription food, and told us not to give him food or water until tonight.
I am not with him right now as I am at work but my husband says that he is acting fine but has loose/flabby skin behind one front leg (maybe from the bump that has the subcutaneous fluids?)
It was nearly $500 just for the visit, x-ray, fluids and medication!

 

[FeebysOwner]

So, the ER vet is treating it as if it might be either a bacterial or parasitic infection. And, I am guessing they wanted you to wait a bit before feeding him to help settle his stomach. So, go slow with the food at first, so he doesn't eat it too fast. If the sub-Q fluids collected in that area, it should go down pretty quickly.

Hoping he tolerates the food well and gets back to eating!

 

[stephanietx]

My cat gets gastritis if we change his food. I would stop the treats. Use dry kibble as "treats" instead of Temptations. Most treats are very unhealthy for cats and cause a lot of weight gain. He may need to be on some kind of sensitive tummy food at least for now or you can mix in with what you're currently feeding him.

 

[lmcginley002]

Thank you! We are definitely stopping the temptations. Right now he is eating Purina proplan EN which the vet prescribed him. We are only giving him a spoonful at a time every few hours. He hasn't vomited since getting back from the vet and finally had a solid bowel movement so hopefully he is on the mend!