- Joined
- Apr 26, 2020
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Hi all,
I wanted to seek some advice, words of comfort or just general what to do in this situation. This will be a long read but I want to track every part of her unpleasant journey so far.
For context, early March, my 10(ish) year old female cat completely went off food. She ate practically nothing over a weekend starting Friday morning, and was moving very slowly (going down the stairs step by step vs. her usual sprint down for food) sleeping a lot and was generally acting really unwell. Saturday night, however, she suddenly perked up and was playing as normal and completely acting herself again, despite not eating still, but was back to her sorry self on Sunday. She went to the toilet as normal, all seemed okay there.
Tuesday comes and I manage to get to the vet. He initially couldn't find anything wrong with her. Bladder was empty, temperature normal, gums all okay, no signs of abscesses etc. She did vocalise when he touched her front paw and found it clicked when he moved it. But she didnt vocalise again when he moved it to indicate she was in any pain. Regardless, he diagnosed a sprained ankle and gave her some pain killers for the next 5 days and a shot while there. I had my doubts over this diagnosis as previously mentioned she was playing like a kitten on Saturday, running up and down the hallway and showed no signs of limping or pain in her paw/ankle.
Get her home and she immediately eats the bowl of food we gave her. Great - I thought - she must be feeling better! But Wednesday morning comes and she is eating more but still not with her usual ferocity. (She is normally like a vacuum, eating everything within 5 mins of the bowl being put down).
Finish the course of painkillers and though she was moving, playing and acting mostly normal - she was still really off her food. She would eat mostly the same amount as she always did, just it takes her almost all day to finish her first packet of wet food and all night to finish her second.
She then had a couple of days of diarrhoea and started eating grass to make herself sick in the back garden.
I had a Skype call with the vet who said her gums are healthy, her eyes look bright, no dehydration and she looks otherwise okay, but prescribed a sensitive food for her and some probiotics.
Unfortunately she would absolutely not eat the other food and hated the probiotics. We tried 50/50 and 25/75 of the new food and her usual food and she would not touch any food that wasnt her usual. If she smelled that other stuff, she would walk away. If we put it underneath, she would just eat a bit of her usual food of the top and leave the rest. We also had to force feed her the probiotics which was an awful experience. We noticed her really getting significantly worse having to do all this, and the force feeding of the pro biotics just made her avoid us and as a result would not come to her food bowl. We are obviously self quarantined currently so this wasn't great as she was pretty much hidden under the bed for most of the day.
As the time went on, I could see her eating less and less food. We stopped the sensitive stuff and tried to get her on her favourite -Sheba in jelly. She was managing maybe a 1/4 of an 85g packet a day. Less than half of what she had eaten. I became really worried. Finally got her in for another checkup, and a blood test. (Wednesday 15th April) They also said a fecal test was recommended. At this appointment she weighed 4.45kg. Her bloods came back normal and I was sent home with 5mg of Omeprazole to be given once daily. I was able to provide a fecal sample on Friday 17th April that we are still awaiting the results from. Over the weekend she made no improvement, even went downhill. Again managing maybe 20g of food a day at most. Called the vet (Monday 20th April) who got her in for another blood test (to be sent off to a lab this time) and an appetite stimulant and a steroid shot. She still did not eat anything. The blood test results were supposed to come back the following day, and the day after that, and the day after that. I called the vet again Thursday (23rd April) chasing the results, who called her back in. He checked her glucose and said she was fine, eyes were bright and she was alert so had no concerns. Part of the bloods came back on Saturday 25th April (god knows when the other part of these bloods are coming back) and apparently showed signs of pancreatitis. The vet wanted to have her in overnight, so we took her straight there. They also noticed an issue with her kidney readings but said that was likely due to dehydration and nothing to be too worried about. Overnight she had IV fluids and a cacophony of medications which I couldn't name as I quickly signed a waiver and was ushered out the door due to social distancing measures. They called late Saturday and said she was doing well, had eaten some and was showing improvement, would keep her overnight and we would get her Sunday. Today is Sunday 26th April and I dont know about what they considered improvement but she definitely seems absolutely no better than before. We got her home and of course - she wouldnt eat. She has been given some gastrointestinal friendly food, tramadol for pain relief, some more Omeprazole and some Forti Flora to go on food. She is extremely stressed. Her tail is tucked right under her legs and wagging, shes purring to herself too (trying to calm herself down). She has eaten a few bites of food but the vet seemed to imply she was eating just fine by herself. We just tried to give her the pills, as she refused them in food, we tried force feeding her them. That was a disaster that resulted in her gagging and nearly vomiting and foaming at the mouth, most of the pills disintegrated into nothing and was flung away in her drool. Now she has ran and hid under the bed with what looks like rabies mouth! How on earth am I supposed to get my cat the treatment when she wont eat what we put it in and is so difficult to force feed?
She's scheduled in to go all the way to Hull (1 hr away) for an ultrasound next week but currently all these vet trips seem to be accelerating a decline in her. I will keep a close eye on her but her weight has dropped half a KG in a week which worries me (she now weighs 4.05kg - down from 4.45kg Wednesday 15th April). I'm at a loss, if she won't eat she wont get better, but she wont eat because shes in pain, and because shes in pain she wont eat anything we put the pill in to counteract that pain. I'm truly at my wits end. We are nearly £800 in and with absolutely no improvement.
I wanted to seek some advice, words of comfort or just general what to do in this situation. This will be a long read but I want to track every part of her unpleasant journey so far.
For context, early March, my 10(ish) year old female cat completely went off food. She ate practically nothing over a weekend starting Friday morning, and was moving very slowly (going down the stairs step by step vs. her usual sprint down for food) sleeping a lot and was generally acting really unwell. Saturday night, however, she suddenly perked up and was playing as normal and completely acting herself again, despite not eating still, but was back to her sorry self on Sunday. She went to the toilet as normal, all seemed okay there.
Tuesday comes and I manage to get to the vet. He initially couldn't find anything wrong with her. Bladder was empty, temperature normal, gums all okay, no signs of abscesses etc. She did vocalise when he touched her front paw and found it clicked when he moved it. But she didnt vocalise again when he moved it to indicate she was in any pain. Regardless, he diagnosed a sprained ankle and gave her some pain killers for the next 5 days and a shot while there. I had my doubts over this diagnosis as previously mentioned she was playing like a kitten on Saturday, running up and down the hallway and showed no signs of limping or pain in her paw/ankle.
Get her home and she immediately eats the bowl of food we gave her. Great - I thought - she must be feeling better! But Wednesday morning comes and she is eating more but still not with her usual ferocity. (She is normally like a vacuum, eating everything within 5 mins of the bowl being put down).
Finish the course of painkillers and though she was moving, playing and acting mostly normal - she was still really off her food. She would eat mostly the same amount as she always did, just it takes her almost all day to finish her first packet of wet food and all night to finish her second.
She then had a couple of days of diarrhoea and started eating grass to make herself sick in the back garden.
I had a Skype call with the vet who said her gums are healthy, her eyes look bright, no dehydration and she looks otherwise okay, but prescribed a sensitive food for her and some probiotics.
Unfortunately she would absolutely not eat the other food and hated the probiotics. We tried 50/50 and 25/75 of the new food and her usual food and she would not touch any food that wasnt her usual. If she smelled that other stuff, she would walk away. If we put it underneath, she would just eat a bit of her usual food of the top and leave the rest. We also had to force feed her the probiotics which was an awful experience. We noticed her really getting significantly worse having to do all this, and the force feeding of the pro biotics just made her avoid us and as a result would not come to her food bowl. We are obviously self quarantined currently so this wasn't great as she was pretty much hidden under the bed for most of the day.
As the time went on, I could see her eating less and less food. We stopped the sensitive stuff and tried to get her on her favourite -Sheba in jelly. She was managing maybe a 1/4 of an 85g packet a day. Less than half of what she had eaten. I became really worried. Finally got her in for another checkup, and a blood test. (Wednesday 15th April) They also said a fecal test was recommended. At this appointment she weighed 4.45kg. Her bloods came back normal and I was sent home with 5mg of Omeprazole to be given once daily. I was able to provide a fecal sample on Friday 17th April that we are still awaiting the results from. Over the weekend she made no improvement, even went downhill. Again managing maybe 20g of food a day at most. Called the vet (Monday 20th April) who got her in for another blood test (to be sent off to a lab this time) and an appetite stimulant and a steroid shot. She still did not eat anything. The blood test results were supposed to come back the following day, and the day after that, and the day after that. I called the vet again Thursday (23rd April) chasing the results, who called her back in. He checked her glucose and said she was fine, eyes were bright and she was alert so had no concerns. Part of the bloods came back on Saturday 25th April (god knows when the other part of these bloods are coming back) and apparently showed signs of pancreatitis. The vet wanted to have her in overnight, so we took her straight there. They also noticed an issue with her kidney readings but said that was likely due to dehydration and nothing to be too worried about. Overnight she had IV fluids and a cacophony of medications which I couldn't name as I quickly signed a waiver and was ushered out the door due to social distancing measures. They called late Saturday and said she was doing well, had eaten some and was showing improvement, would keep her overnight and we would get her Sunday. Today is Sunday 26th April and I dont know about what they considered improvement but she definitely seems absolutely no better than before. We got her home and of course - she wouldnt eat. She has been given some gastrointestinal friendly food, tramadol for pain relief, some more Omeprazole and some Forti Flora to go on food. She is extremely stressed. Her tail is tucked right under her legs and wagging, shes purring to herself too (trying to calm herself down). She has eaten a few bites of food but the vet seemed to imply she was eating just fine by herself. We just tried to give her the pills, as she refused them in food, we tried force feeding her them. That was a disaster that resulted in her gagging and nearly vomiting and foaming at the mouth, most of the pills disintegrated into nothing and was flung away in her drool. Now she has ran and hid under the bed with what looks like rabies mouth! How on earth am I supposed to get my cat the treatment when she wont eat what we put it in and is so difficult to force feed?
She's scheduled in to go all the way to Hull (1 hr away) for an ultrasound next week but currently all these vet trips seem to be accelerating a decline in her. I will keep a close eye on her but her weight has dropped half a KG in a week which worries me (she now weighs 4.05kg - down from 4.45kg Wednesday 15th April). I'm at a loss, if she won't eat she wont get better, but she wont eat because shes in pain, and because shes in pain she wont eat anything we put the pill in to counteract that pain. I'm truly at my wits end. We are nearly £800 in and with absolutely no improvement.