Cat sick, possible Calicivirus, in need of advice!

[stephanietx]

Have you tried offering him plain meat baby food?  Just plain baby food with no veggies or anything in it.

 

[pinkjava]

We are on day 18 now (Euthanasia is the absolute last resort). We've seen many improvements in him since our last vet visit. They gave us cerenia, and it worked wonders! Hes his usual upbeat self, walking round, jumping on and off our bed, no more hiding. At a glance his ulcers look much better, but I never thought they looked so bad he would refuse to eat or drink. Maybe he is just being stubborn? So the good news.. he is using his litter box, urinating a couple times a day. Though its not as much as he normally would, its definitely a win for us. Last week he defecated in the box, the first time in 12 days! We were way too excited by this! He probably wasnt too thrilled he had an audience

. The bad news is he still wont eat or drink on his own. Today we did get him to lick some condensation off a cup, which is one of his favorite things to do. We tried the baby food (turkey and water, then chicken and water, and pumpkin and water) he wont eat them on his own but he allows us to syringe feed it to him. We also have been doing a bit of KMR and still using some pedialyte. Last week we found a bisque made by hartz. Since its already a liquid texture it was very easy to syringe feed it to him. We always give him the option to try eating on his own before we syringe feed it to him. He seemed to like it. I think it may have been the trick to get him to defecate too. So we will continue to feed this to him, as it has all the nutrients he needs unlike the baby food. We have read that the virus usually lasts between 14-21 days, and we are at 18 now (tho it seems like MUCH longer). We have reached out to a place that does feeding tubes and we will follow up with them if he still isnt eating after the 21 day period. We do give all our other cats l-Lysine supplements but its harder to give to this guy. We have only found them in chewable form and they dont dissolve well enough to fit in the syringe. Ive even tried putting them in the food processor. In any case, he is showing improvement, so we will just keep at it, he may just need time? He finished all of his meds, so he is on his own now (with a little help from us

). All in all he has had; Cerenia, Metronidazole, Clavamox, Metacam, Sub q fluids, Buprenex, and Mirtazapine. Its very strange, he has none of the URI symptoms that Ive read about. No sneezing, or breathing issues, no discharge from the eyes. While the kitten did have all of those symptoms and none of what this ole guy has. I dont understand it. But he continues to get better. The last couple days he has tried drinking from his water fountain. Again not as often as his healthy self, but we have been syringe feeding his all liquid foods, and plenty of water. So we will begin to reduce the amount we give him and see if he'll drink more on his own. As of this morning he began to scoop his food out onto the floor and attempt to eat that on his own as well. I will keep an eye on him and maybe skip a syringe feeding today, see if he'll get hungry enough to give it a go all by himself. Thank you all for the advice, support, well wishes and general care! I was so lost and hopeless.  This site and members really helped me focus and guided me give him the best care I could, THANK YOU ALL!! He has his follow up visit next week, and Im sure he'll be all better by then.

 

[sjanes913]

If it is calicivirus, something similar happened my Boo six years ago. He caught it from the other two that I adopted from the shelter. He was hiding under the bed (very unlike him) and drooling profusely. His mouth was clamped shut. The vet saw a huge ulcer on his tongue and a special blood test confirmed calicivirus (as well as feline herpes virus). He was in a lot of pain. Since the vet did not want me messing with his mouth, they put him on a Fentanyl patch for pain, which lasts for three days. Wow, what a difference that made. He ate as soon as I brought him home from the vet. I did bring him back one or two more times to get the patch put on again. They did give him some other medications, but I don't remember what they were. Onsior might have been one of them....for both pain and inflammation. I do have him on l-lysine also. There is a debate as to whether l-lysine helps with calicivirus, but he hasn't had a flare since. ::knock on wood::

I hope your boy recovers soon. Sending lots of healing vibes!

Can I ask how long it before you noticed Boo’s mouth wasn’t bothering him anymore? I have a kitty named Sur in a very similar situation as the cat in this thread. I got him a kitten within a week he was opening his mouth very wide after eating sometimes pawing at it clearly in pain. He stopped eating. Sub-Q fluids, labs, anesthesia to examine mouth and throat, onsior, cernia, buprenex, antibiotics, 11 days, and $1000+ dollars he is eating more, acting more like himself, but his mouth still bothers him 50% of the time and he paws at it and starts hacking after eating....