throwing up food and water after Clavamox

[swampwitch]

I spoke with the vet yesterday morning about Lily, but am not seeing improvement like she said we would. I'll try to make the story short - any advice is appreciated!

Almost two weeks ago, Lily started squatting outside of the litter box, so I took her to her vet. They ran blood tests and urine culture, and found she had a UTI caused by ecoli, and also is in renal failure. (Her yearly checkup is in November and she checked out fine then!) She had no symptoms of renal failure, she is a big kitty with a very good appetite. She eats wet food with low phosphorus and low sodium anyway, but we will be gradually changing her diet to less protein to manage the renal failure.

First to take care of the UTI, she was put on 14 days of liquid Clavamox with food (1 mL every 12 hours), which she tolerated well. Good appetite, and was obviously feeling better. I gave her FortiFlora probiotics with each midday meal, and she liked that a lot.

On Day 12 (Friday), I gave her the evening Clavamox, and the next morning she ate a good breakfast but then threw it ALL up before I could give her the morning dose. I called our vet (this was Saturday morning) and she said to discontinue the Clavamox and give Lily 1/2 of a 10 mg Pepsid AC, which I did. She said hopefully Lily will feel better by Saturday night.

All of Saturday, and again this morning (Sunday) Lily tries to eat and drink, but throws it all up, pretty violently, after about 10-15 minutes. It's been 24 hours since the first throw up yesterday morning. I've given her a little cat milk a couple of times, and she LOVED it and drank it up, and threw it up each time. She drinks water and throws it up, she drank a little gravy from her food yesterday, and threw that up. Today she doesn't want any gravy but is still trying to drink water.

She also had a bout of diarrhea yesterday afternoon, poor little thing. I cleaned her up, and her next stool after that was a little firmer and also she didn't step in it, thank goodness. There has been no blood in her vomit or diarrhea, so far.

Do you think it is a good plan to see how things go today (Sunday), and take her to the emergency hospital early Monday morning if she's not better? That will be 48 hours since the first throw up.

Everything I read about Clavamox says cats eat again when you take them off it. Lily is eating, but can't keep it down.

If things gets better today, that will save her a lot of stress not having to go to the animal hospital. She must be absorbing some water since it takes 10-15 mnutes to throw it up. Do you think that is a reasonable plan?

Any other advice is welcomed, too! Thanks so much!

Lily, when she was feeling better, just look at that sweet face! 

LilyCS2.jpg

• swampwitch
• Jul 6, 2014

 

[swampwitch]

Update: Lily had a small pee and poop this morning, still diarrhea. Although she is obviously not feeling good, does not seem to be in great distress like when she goes behind the tv. She is sleeping on the cat tower.

Thanks in advance for any help / experiences.

 

[ldg]

I'm so sorry.

Is she still throwing up when she eats? Does she throw it up immediately upon eating? Those were the symptoms of pancreatitis in Ming Loy. If she hasn't been able to ingest anything, and has diarrhea, she is very likely dehydrated, which makes her feel worse. Have you tried giving her any pedialyte - either homemade or children's unflavored? A little by syringe? You should be able to pick up a syringe at a pharmacy (for children) or at a pet store.

How long has it been since she's eaten and kept anything down?

I would also recommend doing your homework on the kidney disease. The issue is not protein, but phosphorus (meat is high in phosphorus). There are ways to feed a high protein diet with low phosphorus. This prevents muscle wasting, which is what will happen if you feed the precription diet. Of course, it *really* depends on what state of kidney failure she's in. :heart2:

www.felinecrf.org - everything CKD.

Determining the stage: http://www.felinecrf.org/how_bad_is_it.htm

Feeding considerations if it is not late-stage - quality of the proteins: http://feline-nutrition.org/answers/answers-kidney-disease-phosphorus-and-raw-diets

 

[stephanietx]

This is exactly what happened to us a week or so ago with my Hannah.  She had an upper respiratory infection and herpes flare up and was given the liquid Clavamox.  After about 10 days or so, she started throwing up, having soft poops, and not wanting to eat.  We stopped the medication.  Once she stopped throwing up, we gave her some plain meat baby food with a teaspoon or so of plain baby pedialyte mixed in every 2-3 hours for about 8 hours until her tummy got settled and she started eating her regular food again.

 

[swampwitch]

Thanks guys! 

Lily is doing better! She kept water down all yesterday afternoon so in the evening I tried to give her a little gravy from wet food but she was scared to eat it. (Can't blame her - last few times she ate out of the dish she projectile vomited it all out a few minutes later.) So I dipped my finger in it, and she licked it off my finger. She had a little over a teaspoon of gravy that way.

I gave her a little more before going to bed last night, and this morning she meowed by the food dishes! So happy to hear that meow! She's had a little gravy and cat milk this morning - I had to let her lick it off my fingers first, but then she went for it in the dish.

 She groomed her face a little afterwards which is a very good sign.

She still has diarrhea, but I imagine that will take longer to clear up. Her eyebrow hairs are still droopy (a sure sign she doesn't feel great) but all these little steps are very positive.

LDG - many thanks, apologies I did not get a chance to answer yesterday it was a super busy day. And you are absolutely correct, I am going to do my homework before switching Lily's foods! I will probably be asking you some questions - you are more knowledgeable than any veterinarian around here. I wish I'd done my homework - or asked you - before giving her Clavamox, too.

I hesitate to bump up this thread since there are so many other urgent posts here, but wanted to share the good news.

 

[ldg]

Oh that's GREAT to hear!

Yes, in the future, do please ask for ANY other antibiotic other than clavamox. It creates problems for just soooooo many kitties.

BUT, the good news is that she's on the mend! :bigthumb:

And feel free to ask any questions, of course!

 

[stephanietx]

Yay!  Glad to hear she's improving!

 

[babydaisy]

I spoke with the vet yesterday morning about Lily, but am not seeing improvement like she said we would. I'll try to make the story short - any advice is appreciated!

Almost two weeks ago, Lily started squatting outside of the litter box, so I took her to her vet. They ran blood tests and urine culture, and found she had a UTI caused by ecoli, and also is in renal failure. (Her yearly checkup is in November and she checked out fine then!) She had no symptoms of renal failure, she is a big kitty with a very good appetite. She eats wet food with low phosphorus and low sodium anyway, but we will be gradually changing her diet to less protein to manage the renal failure.

First to take care of the UTI, she was put on 14 days of liquid Clavamox with food (1 mL every 12 hours), which she tolerated well. Good appetite, and was obviously feeling better. I gave her FortiFlora probiotics with each midday meal, and she liked that a lot.

On Day 12 (Friday), I gave her the evening Clavamox, and the next morning she ate a good breakfast but then threw it ALL up before I could give her the morning dose. I called our vet (this was Saturday morning) and she said to discontinue the Clavamox and give Lily 1/2 of a 10 mg Pepsid AC, which I did. She said hopefully Lily will feel better by Saturday night.

All of Saturday, and again this morning (Sunday) Lily tries to eat and drink, but throws it all up, pretty violently, after about 10-15 minutes. It's been 24 hours since the first throw up yesterday morning. I've given her a little cat milk a couple of times, and she LOVED it and drank it up, and threw it up each time. She drinks water and throws it up, she drank a little gravy from her food yesterday, and threw that up. Today she doesn't want any gravy but is still trying to drink water.

She also had a bout of diarrhea yesterday afternoon, poor little thing. I cleaned her up, and her next stool after that was a little firmer and also she didn't step in it, thank goodness. There has been no blood in her vomit or diarrhea, so far.

Do you think it is a good plan to see how things go today (Sunday), and take her to the emergency hospital early Monday morning if she's not better? That will be 48 hours since the first throw up.

Everything I read about Clavamox says cats eat again when you take them off it. Lily is eating, but can't keep it down.

If things gets better today, that will save her a lot of stress not having to go to the animal hospital. She must be absorbing some water since it takes 10-15 mnutes to throw it up. Do you think that is a reasonable plan?

Any other advice is welcomed, too! Thanks so much!


Lily, when she was feeling better, just look at that sweet face! :heart3:

LilyCS2.jpg

• swampwitch
• Jul 6, 2014

I use a teaspoon of can pumpkinwith no spices for potty problems or upset stomach. Cool wet white rice is ok too. If! They will eat it. I just now have a very sick crying kitty girl in reaction to clavamox drops. [emoji]128575[/emoji]

 

[inkysmom]

I have an adorable little 7 pound cat that I actually found as a stray 3 month old 3 pound kitten in Aruba and saved and brought back here. He's 6 years old now. He's been getting bald patches that he licks raw for a while now all over his body. He's had a few times of cream on them and antibiotics which clear up the sores but then he gets new ones. So last week I brought him to the regular vet who did allergy testing as well as blood and urine testing. His blood and urine were fine so she said no immune system problems and it takes a couple of weeks for the allergy testing to come back. There also has been mold in my apartment but this started before I moved here, he's had a lot of stress with some other older cats and my old dog dying in the past couple of years which I'm sure doesn't help.
Anyway, the vet put him on liquid clavamox last week to clear up his red raw looking sores since he constantly picks at them. Well he fights like a demon to take it and hides when I open the cans to feed him twice daily to give it with food. The first dose I gave him before feeding him and he threw up after. He seemed fine after that when I made sure he ate before the dose until today. This morning was the end of the 5th day of clavamox and he was starting to hide so I caught him and gave him the dose before he ate. The poor little guy threw up a lot of brown fluid twice and had very gassy diarrhea in the kitty litter all within an hour of that dose and wouldn't eat all day. I gave him some human baby food, nope. He did eat some human tuna which he normally loves tonight but didn't eat the can of cat food that was out today. He loves canned food and is always in the kitchen meowing and tripping me and he amd the other cat usually finish the small can omce or twice a day within minutes. I could tell he didnt have any because it was out all day amd it took the other at all day to finish it bh himself. It's been about 10 hours since the clavamox last dose, shouldn't he be eating more than a little tuna by now? At least he hasn't vomited again, don't know about the diarrhea. I called the vet and they said to stop the clavamox and offered to give him the injectable convenia instead since his wounds aren't gone but they look scabbed now and not raw. I don't want to put any more meds in him while his stomach is sick so I'll wait since his sores look better. I know it's bad for cats to not eat for a few days and he's so small. I know I get stomach issues after 5-7 days of antibiotics and can never take 10 days. Vet originally prescribed 9 days but not after he was so sick today. Is clavamox worse for little cats than other antibiotics? I've given it to dogs and larger cats before but never one with suspected allergies or one this small or from another country. If he doesn't eat more ahould he go to the er? Or go to the regular vet tomorrow?