Cat not eating due to his brother's illness/behaviour?

[bowshi]

Hi everyone, last Friday our cat Bowser got hit with a bout of acute pancreatitis (suspected based on symptoms and bloodwork), which screwed up his appetite. We immediately got him seen by a mobile vet at our home as soon as he showed signs of lethargy and abdominal pain, and they administered subQ fluids and a few pain/nausea meds, which made him feel better almost right away. He only recently started getting somewhat back to normal this week, eating about half of his food at each meal. The vet prescribed buprenorphine yesterday to accelerate his recovery, and we've given this to him twice. His appetite is now back, but the medication is making him bounce off the walls and generally terrorize the house (in a very adorable way). However, my question is not about this, as we expected this to happen while he was on the buprenorphine, which is an opioid painkiller.

My question is rather about my other cat, his brother Sushi. Sushi did not have any illness from what we could tell. However, his appetite has also been a little off ever since Bowser started feeling unwell last Friday. He will eat most of his food at some meals, and other times will not touch his meal at all. He does not have any other signs of illness, and is playing and running around like he normally does. Is it possible that he is getting stressed or overwhelmed by his brother's erratic behaviour, causing him not to want to eat? He's always been the more subdued one of the duo, and whenever playing/giving treats to both of them, if Bowser decides he wants more, Sushi will back down and let him have his way. I tried giving Sushi some squeeze treats this morning which he always loves and seemed to want, but then Bowser butted his head in for some and Sushi walked away.

It's been a wild week of vet appointments (both my boys have congenital heart conditions and they were both taken for follow up echocardiograms last week, on top of the pancreatitis issue), maybe Sushi is thrown off because of the craziness of the last week?

Any insights would be helpful. We will take him to the vet if this continues, but until then, wondering if anyone has any similar experiences.

For those of you who remember my boys and their heart conditions, a general update - no significant progression since last echo, which is a relief as they are now full grown size. Bowser's pressure gradient did increase a bit but he was also more wiggly during the ultrasound this time while the vets were holding him down. Last time he was so chilled out from the gabapentin and didn't really struggle. I'm sure that has something to do with it.

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[stephanietx]

It's possible the stress of having the mobile vet in the house and the issues with your other kitty are impacting his appetite. Do you run any calming agents in your home to help? Is he using the litter box appropriately? Have you changed their food?

 

[bowshi]

It's possible the stress of having the mobile vet in the house and the issues with your other kitty are impacting his appetite. Do you run any calming agents in your home to help? Is he using the litter box appropriately? Have you changed their food?

Thanks Stephanie, yes we did consider that maybe mobile vet would make them feel like their territory is being encroached upon. The tradeoff is that they do not have to go through the stress of getting in a car and into a vet's office which they're not as familiar with. We don't run any calming agents - I do have Feliway spray which I can use perhaps. Litterbox behavior is normal. Regarding changing food, we did try to change them to adult wet food last week after the cardiology appointment, as they are still on kitten wet food. But after Bowser's incident, we are keeping them on the kitten food they're used to until it all resolves.

 

[fionasmom]

I definitely remember your boys! I agree that it could be the strangeness of everything from the mobile vet to the meds that Bowser is on which are making him act differently. As I recall, they are natural brothers, so there could be a predilection to similar health conditions, but I don't know about pancreatitis hitting both of them on the same day. Going back to the old food and observing Sushi's behavior is probably the best first step.

 

[bowshi]

I definitely remember your boys! I agree that it could be the strangeness of everything from the mobile vet to the meds that Bowser is on which are making him act differently. As I recall, they are natural brothers, so there could be a predilection to similar health conditions, but I don't know about pancreatitis hitting both of them on the same day. Going back to the old food and observing Sushi's behavior is probably the best first step.

Thank you fionasmom and nice to hear from you! Sushi was still acting a little strangely last night but at least he was still playing when we engaged him, and he ate about half of his meal at night. It's really interesting seeing how our boys are affected by situations that we would not be phased by. I guess to him, all he sees is his brother acting crazy and he has no idea why

Bowser still isn't completely 100% but pretty close. So we have to keep giving him the meds until he is back to normal. We'll see how Sushi does today, fingers crossed.