Weight loss/Antibiotic

[Veraclaythorne]

Hi, I'll try to keep this brief.

Earlier this month I noticed my 9yr old indoor cat, Dora, had lost a little weight. From 5.73kg (last weighed Mid-June) to 5.51kg (Sep 1st).

Then by a couple of weeks later, her appetite had decreased and showing obvious signs of nausea. Maybe slightly more lethargic, but not greatly.

Vets did full blood count which showed slightly elevated WBC. Given a shot of Convenia and told to monitor.

Not very good first 2/3 days. But by fourth day she really picked up. Was a lot perkier and appetite was starting to improve.

Over the subsequent 11 days, she's had a great improvement. Behaviour is back to completely normal and much better appetite.

Her weight is still a bit of an issue. From Sep 1st to 15th she was 5.15kg but the following week (4 days post antibiotic) she'd dropped slightly to 5.49kg. I weighed her last night and she's up very slightly at 5.50kg.

It's now two days after the Covenia should have come to an end and this morning I did notice a bit of fussiness with the food she usually scoffs.

So, I'm just looking for a few opinions. I have a cat with IBD, so am fully aware of further resting. Also, I know Covenia divides opinion, so not looking to get into that. But I was told, slightly abruptly elsewhere, that Convenia would have absolutely no effect on a gut infection.

I don't know if Dora has had a gut, or any other kind, of infection. But I do know that she seemingly responded very well to the antibiotic and I'm now wondering if this mornings lack of interest in food is due to it wearing off?

Does anyone have any opinions on this? Thanks.

 

[di and bob]

Her weight loss is most likely due to her fussiness about eating, or nausea that she may be experiencing. Convenia is used for bacterial infections, including skin and urinary tract infection, it is a somewhat broad-spectrum antibiotic, so treats a variety of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. They may have given it thinking she could have a UTI, but given she has had a slight improvement it did something. If they give you a different oral antibiotic to try, get a liquid and put it in pouched Hartz Lickable Treats in the stew flavors. I keep it around to give medications in and it has never been refused. Use a small amount and give the rest after she eats it. Sometime, when my cats are really sick it is the ONLY thing they will eat. 1/2 lb weight loss in 4 months is not good, but not extremely alarming since she was eating less. It takes many illnesses at least a week, often two to get through, so I hope she is on the mend and her fussiness is temporary. if she gets worse, try a different antibiotic and maybe a steroid injection. That has helped many of my cats. All the luck!

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. The antibiotic, as said above, is broad spectrum and used for a multitude of bacterial-type infections. It is used, with no other testing, in the hope that it kicks out whatever infection might be there. If Dora continues to lose interest in eating it just means that if there is/was an infection, the antibiotic used wasn't as effective as another might be.

To determine that, a basic urinalysis/culture and fecal test would either rule out or confirm if there is an infection involved, and if so help to identify a more appropriate antibiotic - or a longer duration of the current one. She probably should also have her WBC checked again to see whether it is high or back in normal range. All of these things would have to be done in order to determine what the next steps might be.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I agree with the above. Recently one of my guys had a bladder infection, and the first antibiotic (NOT convenia, but that doesn't matter) didn't touch it For 14 days I stuffed pills into him all to find out he still had the infection. So I had them run a culture to find out what we were dealing with and it turned out only 3 antibiotics would work on the particular bacteria he had, so we could have dosed and dosed him to no avail until we hit upon the correct medication. Luckily with that culture we knew what to use, and voila, another 14 days dosing and he was infection free.

Another cat once had a UTI and we used Convenia and it didn't get rid of it. With her, she got another shot of Convenia, and that did seem to work.

The problem with your little one is that they aren't sure what is causing her infection. The Convenia may have helped somewhat, but possibly not enough and now it's coming back...this is just speculation on my part since she is slowing down on her eating again.

As to her not gaining the weight back yet, did you increase her calories? If not, it would be hard for her to gain anything back. To gain, she needs more calories. You can try adding an egg yolk to her food a couple of times a week. Some cats love them! It can be cooked or raw, but if raw, don't include any of the whites.