Hold on to your hats. Because my cat is taking us for a wild ride and we're all very confused by her!
Hopefully I get all the details clearly:
About 2.5 weeks ago my 3 year old ginger tabby went to the vet for lack of appetite and lethargy. After bloodwork, xrays & ultrasound and an overnight vet stay, I was told she was super constipated (her colon was large and full of poo) and likely has IBD and pancreatitis. Easy peasy, give her miralax, prednisone, gabapentin for pain and a probiotic and she'll be good. I also need to switch her food. I have her on Hills digestive healh dry kibble and PurinaOne sensitive skin & stomach wet food. INote that my vet wasn't 100% sure about her IBD diagnosis but this was the most likely diagnosis..but bloodwork came back almost perfect..just had low platelets and something else was elevated that is consistent with pancreatitis..I cant remember what it was though)
Kitty came home and ran straight to her food dish! We kept her separated in our bedroom from her 3 over bearing siblings to rest and heal. A day or 2 later and she was back to her constipated, sleepy, not hungry self. Its been almost a week since she pooped now. And feeding is a struggle. She was clearly hungry, but couldn't chew dry food and just liked gravy from the wet food.
Back to the vet we go. 2nd vet visit we got an enema and injections of: b12, nausea med, pain med, subQ fluids and steroid. She came home and was great! She pooped that night, and every day after. But her appetite still wasn't great..would eat a 1/2 can of wet food over the course of the day and she was still super sleepy. I watched her over the weekend and made sure she ate wet food and pooped. She did okay, better than 2 weeks ago but not back to herself. Now comes the drool. She started slobbering in her sleep! The day of her 2nd vet visit..I did end up plugging in classic Feliway the day of her 2nd vet visit. Hoping to calm her down..the drool seemed to start shortly after the Feliway was plugged in.
So back to the vet we go, 3rd visit. This was yesterday. We did more bloodwork and the vet is pleased. Her platelets are up and everything else looks great. My only concerns are the lack of appetite, still lethargic and now she's drooling. We figured the drooling is nausea from her IBD..maybe her stomach has too much acid and she just feels miserable after her pancreatitis and flare-up. She does turn her head to the side and does a weird thing with her mouth..so it's gotta be nausea because her teeth look perfect!
3rd vet visit she was given: nausea med, subQ fluids, and an appetite stimulant at the Vet. I was sent home with: probiotic, cerenia(for nausea) and eye ointment(I'll get into that at the end) She came home, and again, ran to her food dish. She was super hammy and loveable all last night and slept right by my face! She hasn't done that in weeks. I kept waking up to her pacing around my head chirping, purring and drooling. Breakfast time rolled around and she ran out to the food dishes with the other cats like old times (she's been eating separately for weeks..had no interest in eating with them)
She ate a little dry kibble and walked away. I gave her her nausea med & eye ointment. And she walked around the house the rest of the morning with globs of drool coming out. I assume from her nausea med....but then again before breakfast she was purring and drooling in my face. She's never been a drooler before. So I'm curious if the newly plugged in Feliway is doing this? Is she so doped up from the pheromones that she's drooling? The time frame makes sense....but then there's the eye issue...
At the beginning of all of this..I noticed she was holding her right eye shut (she also used to turn her head to the right and lick her moth exaggerated when eating) her right pupil was a bit smaller than her left and her 3rd eye lid was showing. At the 1st vet visit the vet didn't notice this..so I let it go (it wasn't as bad when she stayed the night there) When she came home, her eye was acting funky again and I brought it up at visit #2. Now the vet noticed it and they flushed out her eye with saline. Gunk came out of it and I was given the choice to take home an ointment just incase it was something that needed cleared up. Stupidly I declined. But at vet visit #3 they gave me the ointment. My vet is just a GP & was very honest in saying she has no clue what's going on with her eye because everything appears fine..and doesnt know why she's holding it shut..or why her 3rd eyelid is showing. It could be Horner's Syndrome..Her pupil does respond to light and dilates/constricts appropriately..just a lot less than her left eye. She'll refer me to a specialist if her eye doesn't get better with the ointment..she's not oozing anything. This cat shows no clear signs of illness and my vet is at a loss.
One more odd symtom...head tremor. I noticed this only after vet visit #1. She was on gabapentin for pain (constipation can cause pain..) I was able to record a tremor and show my vet at visit #2. At this time she only had 1 tremor/episode. My vet and the tech that came in the room both said it's not common..but they've seen animals shake after gabapentin like my cat. The tech has a dog that does it on occasion. I was happy with that answer because my cat stopped doing it.
Until after vet visit #2 - I started giving gabapentin again and she started with the head thing (again, on occasion..maybe once or twice total). This past Saturday I decided I stop giving the pain med and see if her tremor stopped..and it did! I figured it was definitely from the med.
Until...Vet visit #3. This time my Kitty's head tremor started when the Vet was talking to me! My vet saw it and I let her know she hasn't had gabapentin for 2 days...so now my vet is perplexed. My cat is alert and the tremor lasts a few seconds, not quiet seizure activity. And its only been a small handful of times the last 2 weeks
With her drooling and funny eye..I'm thinking it's something neurological especially with her head shakes
But what are the odds that:
Her drooling is related to Feliway..since it didn't seem to start until I plugged it it.
Her head shakes are due to stress...since this only every happened at the vet and after a stressful ordeal of oral med injections
And her eye is simply Horner's Syndrome. Another side effect of stress all from her IBD/constipation/pancreatitis
Note that my kitty is doing better than she was 2 weeks ago. Her personality is coming back, her appetite is still iffy, and she's finally popping
My Vet is truly confused by my cat and hasn't seen anything like this. I'm terrified to take her to a specialist and find a brain tumor or something worse than my above mentioned scenarios
Hopefully I get all the details clearly:
About 2.5 weeks ago my 3 year old ginger tabby went to the vet for lack of appetite and lethargy. After bloodwork, xrays & ultrasound and an overnight vet stay, I was told she was super constipated (her colon was large and full of poo) and likely has IBD and pancreatitis. Easy peasy, give her miralax, prednisone, gabapentin for pain and a probiotic and she'll be good. I also need to switch her food. I have her on Hills digestive healh dry kibble and PurinaOne sensitive skin & stomach wet food. INote that my vet wasn't 100% sure about her IBD diagnosis but this was the most likely diagnosis..but bloodwork came back almost perfect..just had low platelets and something else was elevated that is consistent with pancreatitis..I cant remember what it was though)
Kitty came home and ran straight to her food dish! We kept her separated in our bedroom from her 3 over bearing siblings to rest and heal. A day or 2 later and she was back to her constipated, sleepy, not hungry self. Its been almost a week since she pooped now. And feeding is a struggle. She was clearly hungry, but couldn't chew dry food and just liked gravy from the wet food.
Back to the vet we go. 2nd vet visit we got an enema and injections of: b12, nausea med, pain med, subQ fluids and steroid. She came home and was great! She pooped that night, and every day after. But her appetite still wasn't great..would eat a 1/2 can of wet food over the course of the day and she was still super sleepy. I watched her over the weekend and made sure she ate wet food and pooped. She did okay, better than 2 weeks ago but not back to herself. Now comes the drool. She started slobbering in her sleep! The day of her 2nd vet visit..I did end up plugging in classic Feliway the day of her 2nd vet visit. Hoping to calm her down..the drool seemed to start shortly after the Feliway was plugged in.
So back to the vet we go, 3rd visit. This was yesterday. We did more bloodwork and the vet is pleased. Her platelets are up and everything else looks great. My only concerns are the lack of appetite, still lethargic and now she's drooling. We figured the drooling is nausea from her IBD..maybe her stomach has too much acid and she just feels miserable after her pancreatitis and flare-up. She does turn her head to the side and does a weird thing with her mouth..so it's gotta be nausea because her teeth look perfect!
3rd vet visit she was given: nausea med, subQ fluids, and an appetite stimulant at the Vet. I was sent home with: probiotic, cerenia(for nausea) and eye ointment(I'll get into that at the end) She came home, and again, ran to her food dish. She was super hammy and loveable all last night and slept right by my face! She hasn't done that in weeks. I kept waking up to her pacing around my head chirping, purring and drooling. Breakfast time rolled around and she ran out to the food dishes with the other cats like old times (she's been eating separately for weeks..had no interest in eating with them)
She ate a little dry kibble and walked away. I gave her her nausea med & eye ointment. And she walked around the house the rest of the morning with globs of drool coming out. I assume from her nausea med....but then again before breakfast she was purring and drooling in my face. She's never been a drooler before. So I'm curious if the newly plugged in Feliway is doing this? Is she so doped up from the pheromones that she's drooling? The time frame makes sense....but then there's the eye issue...
At the beginning of all of this..I noticed she was holding her right eye shut (she also used to turn her head to the right and lick her moth exaggerated when eating) her right pupil was a bit smaller than her left and her 3rd eye lid was showing. At the 1st vet visit the vet didn't notice this..so I let it go (it wasn't as bad when she stayed the night there) When she came home, her eye was acting funky again and I brought it up at visit #2. Now the vet noticed it and they flushed out her eye with saline. Gunk came out of it and I was given the choice to take home an ointment just incase it was something that needed cleared up. Stupidly I declined. But at vet visit #3 they gave me the ointment. My vet is just a GP & was very honest in saying she has no clue what's going on with her eye because everything appears fine..and doesnt know why she's holding it shut..or why her 3rd eyelid is showing. It could be Horner's Syndrome..Her pupil does respond to light and dilates/constricts appropriately..just a lot less than her left eye. She'll refer me to a specialist if her eye doesn't get better with the ointment..she's not oozing anything. This cat shows no clear signs of illness and my vet is at a loss.
One more odd symtom...head tremor. I noticed this only after vet visit #1. She was on gabapentin for pain (constipation can cause pain..) I was able to record a tremor and show my vet at visit #2. At this time she only had 1 tremor/episode. My vet and the tech that came in the room both said it's not common..but they've seen animals shake after gabapentin like my cat. The tech has a dog that does it on occasion. I was happy with that answer because my cat stopped doing it.
Until after vet visit #2 - I started giving gabapentin again and she started with the head thing (again, on occasion..maybe once or twice total). This past Saturday I decided I stop giving the pain med and see if her tremor stopped..and it did! I figured it was definitely from the med.
Until...Vet visit #3. This time my Kitty's head tremor started when the Vet was talking to me! My vet saw it and I let her know she hasn't had gabapentin for 2 days...so now my vet is perplexed. My cat is alert and the tremor lasts a few seconds, not quiet seizure activity. And its only been a small handful of times the last 2 weeks
With her drooling and funny eye..I'm thinking it's something neurological especially with her head shakes
But what are the odds that:
Her drooling is related to Feliway..since it didn't seem to start until I plugged it it.
Her head shakes are due to stress...since this only every happened at the vet and after a stressful ordeal of oral med injections
And her eye is simply Horner's Syndrome. Another side effect of stress all from her IBD/constipation/pancreatitis
Note that my kitty is doing better than she was 2 weeks ago. Her personality is coming back, her appetite is still iffy, and she's finally popping
My Vet is truly confused by my cat and hasn't seen anything like this. I'm terrified to take her to a specialist and find a brain tumor or something worse than my above mentioned scenarios
