More hairball woes

[crystal dawn]

Poor Emrys, I'm giving him a hairball remedy from the vet.Laxatone I'm also brushing him daily really well but he's still struggling with them. He's been throwing up one a week since his vet appointment sept 20th, and I'm not sure what to do. More concerning, he tried to throw up about 20 minutes ago and nothing came out. He's drooling and seems uncomfortable now. He didn't eat much last night and seemed to be drinking a lot of water. The vet's office doesn't open for about 6 hours, and I'm torn between calling the emergency line or trying to wait it out.

 

[crystal dawn]

He seems like he's not as sick to his stomach anymore and seems to have settled down, but I can tell he's still not quite comfortable.

2:33am he's up grooming himself.

 

[crystal dawn]

I guess what I'm asking for help on is determining if this is an emergency or if it can wait another now 5 hours til the vet's office opens in my area.

Em's still unconfortableish. That could be somewhat due to where he's laying/trying to sleep as it's on a 12 pack of canned water. I'm not sure if I should move him somewhere else or if that would even work. I don't want him on the floor either as they're concrete covered by tile and ice cold.

Edit:Set up a box with a towel in the bottom and showed it to him. He moved into it on his own and seems happy with it.

 

[crystal dawn]

Em's sleeping in the box I set up for him. He's not distressed or anything at the moment, so planing to call the vet as soon as they open in about 4 hours to at least talk about options to keep him from constant tummy troubles and how often he's throwing up hairballs. As I think, once a week is a little too often. He seems to be grooming a lot, so that's likely the cause. He also has some bare spots. We treated for fleas roughly a week ago. Not sure if it did much of anything to actually get rid of them. If Em and everyone else continues doing okay. I'm going to try to do a deep cleaning of the house today and vacuum off the furniture and my bed and such.

 

[fionasmom]

Please let us know what happened.

 

[crystal dawn]

Of course.
Em seems to be fine now. I got him settled into a comfy box, and he slept for a few hours and that helped him feel better, it looks like. Hopefully his tummy stays settled tonight. I totally forgot to call the vet til the office already closed due to other stuff going on. I'm hoping the Laxatone or whatever it's called works and the hair starts going out the other end and Em's tummy settles down. I'm afraid to sleep or leave the house right now. Been like this for about 3 weeks now.

 

[crystal dawn]

Em had a bit of a coughing fit a few mins ago. He seems ok now. Deffinatly going to put in a call to the vet in the morning. Gotta do something about the hairballs or whatever is causing the coughing.

 

[fionasmom]

Laxatone may not remove a serious blockage, if that is what this is, but I would keep using it while you try to see the vet.

 

[noani]

Are the bald spots caused by fleas or could he be overgrooming?
You mentioned he does it a lot.

I've had an experience which sounds partly similar. My cat Charly is quite susceptible to stress which I wasn't picking up on. He ended up giving himself a bald hind leg and I was really freaked out. Vet ruled out fungus, fleas. She gave me some cream (Ribes something and cortipet - like "cat cortisone" she called it - she thought it was allergies maybe?). Didn't help, he was on it for months and I was like no this isn't it.

Then frequent retching started. He never produced anything. I was then really freaked out and did some studying and came across some papers on stress in cats.

We got him the feliway diffuser in the house, kept to a strict schedule of regular playtime about 15-20 mins every evening around the same time before dinner, and for a little bit I also gave him zylkene, a natural calming supplement. We started clicker training and implementing other small routines throughout the day. And then his fur started growing back slowly.

I also started brushing him daily (I know you are doing that which is good either way), giving him malt paste and grass tabs (like cat grass but dried in like a treat form).

He hasn't had any problems with bald spots since we started the stress reduction techniques, and the occasional hairball retching is down to maybe once every few months, in which case I give him a bit more malt paste than his daily few licks from the tube and all is peachy again.

Not saying this is Em's case of course, but might be something to consider/ask the vet about.

 

[crystal dawn]

Laxatone may not remove a serious blockage, if that is what this is, but I would keep using it while you try to see the vet.

I don't think he has a serious blockage, as he's not showing signs of one at all. I think something in the Laxatone may be what's causing the problem. As other than vomiting up a hairball one day a week, usually Monday or Tuesday he was fine. I started giving him the Laxatone and that's when he started retching and coughing.

 

[crystal dawn]

Are the bald spots caused by fleas or could he be overgrooming?
You mentioned he does it a lot.

I've had an experience which sounds partly similar. My cat Charly is quite susceptible to stress which I wasn't picking up on. He ended up giving himself a bald hind leg and I was really freaked out. Vet ruled out fungus, fleas. She gave me some cream (Ribes something and cortipet - like "cat cortisone" she called it - she thought it was allergies maybe?). Didn't help, he was on it for months and I was like no this isn't it.

Then frequent retching started. He never produced anything. I was then really freaked out and did some studying and came across some papers on stress in cats.

We got him the feliway diffuser in the house, kept to a strict schedule of regular playtime about 15-20 mins every evening around the same time before dinner, and for a little bit I also gave him zylkene, a natural calming supplement. We started clicker training and implementing other small routines throughout the day. And then his fur started growing back slowly.

I also started brushing him daily (I know you are doing that which is good either way), giving him malt paste and grass tabs (like cat grass but dried in like a treat form).

He hasn't had any problems with bald spots since we started the stress reduction techniques, and the occasional hairball retching is down to maybe once every few months, in which case I give him a bit more malt paste than his daily few licks from the tube and all is peachy again.

Not saying this is Em's case of course, but might be something to consider/ask the vet about.

We just treated for fleas. I'm still seeing a few live ones here and there and he has a history of strong reactions to them. Right now he has a rash on his belly and back of his rear legs and has thin fur/bald spots there and under his tail. I'm keeping an eye on it though it looks like it's starting to heal up now that we've gotten rid of most of the fleas.