Silent heat and lack of appetite?

[Antonio65]

Freya might be in heat, but she's silent and isn't showing any other classic signs of heat, at least that I can see. She's going to turn 10 months.
The only thing I have noticed in the last few days is that she is much less interested in food than she was .
She's a bit more affectionate and it seems she's looking a close contact with me more than in the past. She always jumps on my shoulder in the morning, but it seems to me she's rubbing more against it.

I would have liked to have her spayed at least two months ago, but in March she showed some weird and concerning neurological symptoms, so the vets thought it was safer to wait for any progress in the matter. The last time I spoke with the vet was three days ago. I called her to ask her for her opinion about the spaying, since Freya hasn't had any more neurological or behavior issues since mid May, but the vet told me they would like to wait at least two more weeks.

Last year I had a similar situation with the other cat, Giada. I wanted to have her spayed in March, then the pandemic broke out, everything that wasn't strictly necessary was postponed, then she had a few issues with the giardia and we had to wait, then we found out she has unusual clotting times, so we ran further tests that took time, and eventually she was spayed at the end of last September, when she was 13 months old. She, too, didn't show any signs of heat.

So, the question is, have you ever had a cat in heat with little or no signs of heat and that stopped being interested in food? She plays, is lovely and affectionate, everything looks normal, apart from the interest in food. She spends her days in the window looking at everything is out there.

 

[di and bob]

No, every cat I have had meows nonstop 24/7 and becomes a little Houdini. I would definitely listen to your vets. A loss of interest in food usually means an illness, so monitor her closely and get her in if she displays any other signs like further neurological signs or starts hiding.

 

[Antonio65]

Went home during my lunch break, still no interest in food. She was a bit too subdued, not very lively, nor her for sure.
So I took the thermometer out the drawer and measured her temperature, 104.5°F (40.3°C). Not good, but she's been staying in the window for a long while and the sun was beating on her. So I closed the window and let her rest on the sofa for at 40 minutes and then I read the temperature again, 103.8°F (39.9°C). I called the clinic, the first available slot is in three hours.

I'm in panic already!

 

[Kflowers]

Where I had two who alternated screaming, one all night, one all day, I have had four other cats who had silent heats. For three it was their first heat and one it was her second. One was more affectionate and did the little dance. She had no desire to go outside where the toms where. The toms were loud. The other three were part of a family and had their own two toms with them. Outside toms were hanging on the window screens going, "Hi'ya, babe, come on out." Our inside toms ignored them.

This was back when vets said to wait until they were a year old. They were 8 months when everyone went into heat.

 

[di and bob]

Antonio, try not to panic, it most likely is something minor. Hopefully an antibiotic and a steroid shot will take care if it. I know it did in a lot of my cats. I'm glad you're bringing her in.

 

[Antonio65]

UPDATE:
Last Friday I had an appointment at 5 pm at the clinic. I went home from work earlier, and I measured Freya's temperature again, still high, 103.4°F (39.7°C).
At the clinic, the vet read the temperature with my thermometer, so to minimize any reading error, and it was 101°F (38.3°). The temperature had gone to normal in an hour, weird. The vet trusted my words only because she knows me well and knows how meticulous I am. Moreover, I had photos of the thermometer readings.

The vet visited Freya, she found nothing, all clear. She took some blood for a complete panel and electrophoresis. The only thing outside the range was WBC, 21k (max 18k), but because there were no other symptoms or signs, the vet didn't presricred any medicine, only to take Freya home and keep her monitored. The electrophoresis result will be in on Wednesday.
At home she didn't want to eat either.
She only nibbled some wet food on Friday night, something more on Saturday and Sunday, but far from her usual. The temperature was always fine, between 100.4°F and 101.3 °F (38.0 and 38.5 °C).

On Sunday morning I called the clinic to update them, and I booked an appointment for an US scan on Tuesday (tomorrow). I believe she has an enteritis, or that she ate something that got stuck somewhere. She chews on everything she finds, and chases all kind of insects and spiders. So I believe she has something bothering her GI tract.

This morning, Monday, she didn't want to eat. Her temperature was 102.4 °F (39.1°C), high again. Apart from the lack of appetite and the temperature, she is perfectly fine, she's lovely, playful, purring, and all. She only drinks a lot!
She acts as she's starving, asks for food, but whatever I give her, she refuses it.
It seems to me she hasn't pooped since Friday, but I may be wrong. With two cats it is hard to know who did it in the litter box.

I will go home in my lunch break, and if she still has high temperature I will take her to the vet again. I will try to have the US scan today rather than tomorrow.

And this morning Giada, too, didn't want to eat, but everything else is fine with her. I'm going nuts!

 

[Kflowers]

How trying for all of you. At first I thought maybe Freya wasn't eating because she was in heat, but with Giada not eating now, that couldn't be it. I know you've tried other foods and treats. You can only keep trying.

Maybe it's the heat. Have you tried feeding them during the coolest part of the night? That would be around 4:30 am.

pets for both of them.

 

[Antonio65]

They have their first meal around 7 am, and this morning Freya didn't want to eat, Giada just nibbled.
At noon I tried again. Giada ate it all. Freya refused her wet, but she did eat her dry food. Why?
Next attempt at 7 pm tonight, and then midnight.

This morning at 8 Freya's temperature was 102.4°F / 39.1°C, at noon it was 99.9°F / 37.7°C. Even lower than normal. Rather weird.
She pooped before my eyes, so at last I know she isn't blocked. Her poop was normal, maybe a bit harder than her usual. What I noticed is that she walked into her covered litter box, thought it over and walked away. A few minutes later she tried again and succeded. I think she has some constipation, which will be no wondr if I consider what she chew on...!

Last night, at 11 pm, I ordered two bottles of Aloe Arborescens juice from Amazon, they delivered it this morning at 10 am, amazing!
On the way back home I stopped at the pharmacy and bought some Saccharomyces Boulardii powder. At home I mixed the powder with the juice and I gave it to her.
I had used the juice with Lola, and she had some relief. The powder was of great help in the first days with my kittens at home, when their poops were a little bad. It won't hurt her, I think.

Anyway tomorrow morning we'll be at the clinic!

 

[Kflowers]

Is Freya still in heat?

 

[Antonio65]

Is Freya still in heat?

We don't know that. She hasn't shown any typical signs of heat. She's going to turn 9 months of age, but we never witnessed anything that could make us think she was in heat. So she might be, or might not be, who knows?

Just like it happened with the other cat. Spayed at 13 months due to a series of health issues, but nobody would have thought she wasn't spayed, totally silent and quiet. Fortunately.

 

[Kflowers]

You're doing the right thing by keeping her inside just in case. As I said above, ours were silent and everything same as always except for the tom cats on the screens. Your courtyard cat is probably protecting your ladies. He would consider them his, just as he does your courtyard lady cat.

 

[Antonio65]

Well, Freya is still not eating!
She had a few kibbles on Sunday, and she ate about 40 grams of wet food last night. Then nothing.
She isn't eating her complete meals since Thursday.

This morning we had another check up, an ultasound scan. The vet found everything fine apart from a very slight inflammation of her ileum tract. Other than that, the rest is fine. He thinks she ate something that made her sick. The problem is that we don't know what it can be, because Freya eats just anything. We can't leave any kind of food out. If the packs are still sealed, she opens them up to eat the content. And she eats anything that can smell like food, even plastis or paper. And she eats insects, bugs, spiders, even dangerous ones. I'm at my wit's end with her. I keep saying she won't get old, she'll likely die from something she has eaten, no doubt!

No prescription given, because there's nothing to treat. The vet wants to check her up again in two weeks.
I took a sample of poop that Freya produced a couple of minutes before leaving home. The results will be in tomorrow.

Freya has lost 100 grams (3.5 oz) in a week, and she will lose more if she doesn't recover soon. Today she was 2.640 kg (a little more than 5.8 lbs), the same weight she was over a month ago!

This doesn't sound good.

 

[Kflowers]

This is terrible. All you can do is bring home every possible tempting kitty food and offer it. Maybe offer her raw egg yoke on your finger tip? Mine always liked that.

Did your vet think the recent rise in the weather temperatures might have something to do with her lack of interest?

 

[Antonio65]

No, the vet didn't mention the hot weather, even because in the last few days, where I live (northern Italy), the temperatures have dropped a bit, and yesterday, for instance, my area was the coolest in the country, only 26°C, opposite to 34°C a week ago (79°F vs 93°F) .

Last night Freya ate something more, both at dinner and before midnight.
This morning she ate her breakfast too.
I'm feeding her small servings of food. Just in case she would eat it all, I wouldn't like the rich meal to impact on her altered GI tract. I'd rather give her several small servings.
Her body temperature this morning was 100.6°F / 38.1°C.

 

[Kflowers]

She's eating, that's wonderful, and her temp is down. So good to hear.

 

[Antonio65]

UPDATE:
Freay is back to her normal self, she's eating everything no problem, and using the litter box.
I am giving her some Aloe Arborescens juice twice a day mixed with half a dose of Saccharomyces Boulardii. I don't know if this helped, but I will keep this habit for a while.
So, she's back to normal self, even too normal. She's back to her incredible and aggressive appetite, when nothing is ever enough.

Two days ago I came back home with some shopping. One item was a sack of litter for their box, then some items for us.
As soon as I put everything down, she was already chewing on the litter sack, plastic, and would like to eat it. I had to be quick and move the sack to another room, but meanwhile she had already chewed on a chocolate bar
I removed it from her reach, but she jumped on the pack of toast bread and wouldn' let go, she had teeth and claws in it, and was very aggressive, I had to gently slap her to make her give up!

According to the vet who ran the US scan, she might have eaten something wrong, even an insect or a spider. And she's back chasing everything, and lick on any surface! It's an endless loop.
This morning I woke up and when I went to fetch my glasses I noticed that the string was missing, only the two ends around the temples were still there, but the central part was missing, at least 13 inches of string!
I looked everywhere, for nearly an hour, I didn't found any fragment of it, so I am rather sure she ate it.

Now I have called the vet again, he said that it's too early to detect any linear foreign object in the bowels, I have to keep an eye on her for the next days. The string could have been cut in tiny pieces and it should pass in a few days, but if it's been swallowed in longer pieces, it could get blocked somewhere.

I never had so many headaches with a cat in all my life
As I said in a previous post of mine, I'm afraid this kitten won't grow old. And this morning the vet agreed.

 

[Kflowers]

now that she's eating again, I think you might want to feed her more than you were before. It sounds like she is getting ready to move into a growth spurt. If you feed her more, lots more, it's likely that her panic to eat everything in sight will calm down.

Our young kittens ate a 12 ounce can of food each a day along with milk and egg snack until they were 3 months old. They got rather large - 12 lbs for the ladies and 15 for the guys. But that's okay, isn't it?

It may also wrap around the string -- if she ate that-- and help it move along.

 

[Antonio65]

My wife kept looking for remnants of the string while I'm at work, but no luck. The chances she ate it are getting stronger.
I checked on her an hour ago, in my lunch break, she was fine, ate her kibbles, played, rolled in the sun in the window, then she went to sleep. I also poked her belly to see her reaction, and she had no reaction.
I will keep a close eye on her.

I also spoke with her veterinarian (the US scan vet is a different person), and she said that there are two more options to explore about her craziness for food. One is to check if she is hyperthyroid. She's only 9 months old, that would be usually out of question, but there have been rare cases of juvenile HT (and I'm prone to catch rare cases), so she suggested me to have her checked.
The other option is to spay her, regardless the issues we would have liked to assess prior to the surgery, and see if she's having some unusual, weird, rare reaction to her hormones.
So now we'll wait a week or so to understand what's going on with this string, then she'll be spayed.

 

[Kflowers]

Did you meet her parents? Was her father a very big cat? Are you and your vet absolutely sure she isn't just trying to grow? My 12 and 15 pound cats weren't fat, they were lean, they had sturdy bones and were quite long. At nine months Freya has a year and a quarter left of growing.

 

[Antonio65]

I don't know who her father is, the place where she came from (the backyard of a truck drivers restaurant along a main road) had 3 tom cats, but two were rather young, under a year. If her father is the oldest of the group, he's an approx 8-pound cat. I know her mother and she's a petite cat, her very long hair makes her look big, but she's around 7 pounds.
Freya's sister isn't much bigger, maybe half a pound more than her. Her brother is bigger, even heavier than his mother.

Freya has a small frame, it seems, her bones aren't big. She was tiny when I found her already, 1 lbs 2 oz at 6 weeks of age.