Diarrhea And Hairballs, But Eating And Nothing In Bloodwork?

[alzycat]

Update: I just called the vet and I was right, they are completely booked for today & said they would have no way to see her. They are closed until Wednesday, so I booked an ultrasound for 9am on Wednesday. Even if she gets better over the weekend I am still bringing her in for the ultrasound- I'm sick of these ups and downs with her health & I just need to know what's going on, even if it's just for my peace of mind. She just drank some lactose-free milk and didn't throw up, so if anything that'll get some calories into her.

 

[dustydiamond1]

Update: I just called the vet and I was right, they are completely booked for today & said they would have no way to see her. They are closed until Wednesday, so I booked an ultrasound for 9am on Wednesday. Even if she gets better over the weekend I am still bringing her in for the ultrasound- I'm sick of these ups and downs with her health & I just need to know what's going on, even if it's just for my peace of mind. She just drank some lactose-free milk and didn't throw up, so if anything that'll get some calories into her.

Poor dear girls, both of you. I hope you can continue getting calories and fluids into her. and prayers that all goes well with her.
Warm wishes for a Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year.
Keep us posted, even if you just need to vent.

 

[alzycat]

Poor dear girls, both of you. I hope you can continue getting calories and fluids into her. and prayers that all goes well with her.
Warm wishes for a Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year.
Keep us posted, even if you just need to vent.

Thank you very much. She didn't eat at all during the day, and got sick once more. she threw up what looked like bile. About an hour ago, I tried to get her to eat some raw food but she refused. I decided to try offering her the canned food she was eating before the raw food that I got at the vet, and she went crazy for it. I only gave her quarter of a can though just in case she couldn't keep it down. That was about an hour ago though and no messes yet. I'm at a crossroads here because the raw was helping her with diarrhea, but now she seems to not want it & was throwing up maybe because of it? But I suspected the canned food of giving her diarrhea so I don't know what to feed her. She has to eat though so if she'll eat the canned food then I will give it to her.

 

[mschauer]

What happened with the S boulardii? Have you received it yet?

 

[alzycat]

What happened with the S boulardii? Have you received it yet?

Nope I haven't recieved it yet.

 

[dustydiamond1]

Thank you very much. She didn't eat at all during the day, and got sick once more. she threw up what looked like bile. About an hour ago, I tried to get her to eat some raw food but she refused. I decided to try offering her the canned food she was eating before the raw food that I got at the vet, and she went crazy for it. I only gave her quarter of a can though just in case she couldn't keep it down. That was about an hour ago though and no messes yet. I'm at a crossroads here because the raw was helping her with diarrhea, but now she seems to not want it & was throwing up maybe because of it? But I suspected the canned food of giving her diarrhea so I don't know what to feed her. She has to eat though so if she'll eat the canned food then I will give it to her.

 

[alzycat]

So over the weekend she has seemed to improve. She is still vomiting/having hairballs at least once a day, usually once in the middle of the night, but that is much better than on Friday when she would puke up everything she ate. Her stools aren't completely liquid, more like pudding, and only happening a couple times a day so that's good. She is now refusing to eat the raw food and will only eat the canned food, so I've been giving her that. Still haven't received the S. Boulardii. She has an ultrasound tomorrow morning so hopefully that can help us figure out what's going on.. I'm really nervous (she has never had an ultrasound, and I've never had a pet need one) and I hope they don't find anything very serious. I'm so confused with what could be causing this since it isn't consistent; some days she has horrible diarrhea, and then the next she seems much better. Then this weekend she had a whole day of vomiting, but since then she has been eating plenty and playing, but still vomiting once a day. I'm looking forward to having some answers so we can treat this and get her feeling better, but I'm very nervous as to what that answer may be.

 

[dustydiamond1]

So over the weekend she has seemed to improve. She is still vomiting/having hairballs at least once a day, usually once in the middle of the night, but that is much better than on Friday when she would puke up everything she ate. Her stools aren't completely liquid, more like pudding, and only happening a couple times a day so that's good. She is now refusing to eat the raw food and will only eat the canned food, so I've been giving her that. Still haven't received the S. Boulardii. She has an ultrasound tomorrow morning so hopefully that can help us figure out what's going on.. I'm really nervous (she has never had an ultrasound, and I've never had a pet need one) and I hope they don't find anything very serious. I'm so confused with what could be causing this since it isn't consistent; some days she has horrible diarrhea, and then the next she seems much better. Then this weekend she had a whole day of vomiting, but since then she has been eating plenty and playing, but still vomiting once a day. I'm looking forward to having some answers so we can treat this and get her feeling better, but I'm very nervous as to what that answer may be.

Is there anything around your house she might be getting into on occasion? Any plants etc..?
Good luck tomorrow.

 

[alzycat]

Is there anything around your house she might be getting into on occasion? Any plants etc..?
Good luck tomorrow.

Nope there isn't. And thank you She is at the vet right now and I am anxiously waiting to hear what's happening.

 

[alzycat]

Update: Just heard from the vet and everything in her tummy is fine. No tumors, no thickening of the intestinal wall, no abnormalities The only thing they said was that it looked like her kidney(s?) had a bit too much fluid in them? I don't know a lot about this so I'm not sure what that means. They're going to do another blood test to check on her enzyme levels then I'll be able to pick her up in a couple hours.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

Hi alzycat , did you ever do one or more stool tests, even whether or not the poo was firm?

So sorry to here your kitty is still struggling!

 

[alzycat]

Hi alzycat , did you ever do one or more stool tests, even whether or not the poo was firm?

So sorry to here your kitty is still struggling!

Hi, no we never did end up doing that. I wasn't able to get a good sample from her since her stool was so runny, it would get covered in litter instantly. The blood test came back totally fine, yet again, and her kidneys are fine, so the vets think it must just be a dietary thing. Her regular vet is going to call me tomorrow once the ultrasound specialist fills her in on what she found (or didn't) to discuss what else we can do.

 

[alzycat]

Update: The S. Boulardii came in today & I gave her half of the powder in one pill, and she didn't seem to mind it so that's good! Hopefully that'll help her with the pudding poop. She had another hairball last night (this is now the 6th night in a row that she has had a hairball in the middle of the night). I didn't hear from the vet today but I'm not too bothered since I don't know what they could tell me at this point . I picked up some of that hairball gel that you can get for cats & gave some to her, I'll keep giving it to her every day to see if that helps. She seems fine for now though, eating and drinking and playing like normal.

 

[alzycat]

Update: Today she is not so great. The S. Boulardii hasn't seemed to help yet; she is still having diarrhea. Maybe it just needs more time. Yesterday was a great day for her- she was very playful and loving, I had family over & she was cuddling with everyone, she ate all of her food and didn't get sick at all. Today, however, I woke up to her sleeping by herself in the basement (unusual, she always sleeps with me) and she was not interested in food. She threw up bile and refused to eat anything. I've managed to get her to eat a little bit of raw chicken but barely anything. She seems very unhappy and lethargic. She is normally very cuddly but she only lets me pet her a couple times before she walks away today. I haven't been able to give her the S. Boulardii today since she won't eat. I don't know what to do & it's so frustrating to have one day being great and the next being not so great. The vet also called me a couple days ago and said to just book a follow-up appointment in a month. They have no idea what could be wrong.

 

[Cggwildcat]

Update: Today she is not so great. The S. Boulardii hasn't seemed to help yet; she is still having diarrhea. Maybe it just needs more time. Yesterday was a great day for her- she was very playful and loving, I had family over & she was cuddling with everyone, she ate all of her food and didn't get sick at all. Today, however, I woke up to her sleeping by herself in the basement (unusual, she always sleeps with me) and she was not interested in food. She threw up bile and refused to eat anything. I've managed to get her to eat a little bit of raw chicken but barely anything. She seems very unhappy and lethargic. She is normally very cuddly but she only lets me pet her a couple times before she walks away today. I haven't been able to give her the S. Boulardii today since she won't eat. I don't know what to do & it's so frustrating to have one day being great and the next being not so great. The vet also called me a couple days ago and said to just book a follow-up appointment in a month. They have no idea what could be wrong.

Hi! I am new to the site and my cat is having similar problems with loose stool and hair balls. The only thing blood work has revealed is high triglycerides. I was just wondering if you would mind sharing if you ever received a diagnosis or resolved your kitty’s problems? Thank you!

 

[alzycat]

Hi! I am new to the site and my cat is having similar problems with loose stool and hair balls. The only thing blood work has revealed is high triglycerides. I was just wondering if you would mind sharing if you ever received a diagnosis or resolved your kitty’s problems? Thank you!

Hi! Welcome to TCS!

I'm sorry to hear that your cat is having these problems. It's so frustrating when we know that they are not well but just can't pinpoint what's causing it.

I think I left this thread after Yoshi had her first ultrasound back in January, & I posted saying that it didn't reveal any serious issues. As you can see from my last few posts here, Yoshi was still having trouble. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I think after her first ultrasound & she wasn't improving, her eating just stopped completely. I ended up taking her back to the vet where she had to stay for a couple days to get fluids. She was still having really loose stools, vomiting bile, & having hairballs, so clearly something was wrong. She was worsening too, which was really scary (eventually blood was coming out along with the loose stool). They did another ultrasound & finally found what was wrong- her intestinal wall had thickened. For Yoshi, this meant that there were 2 possible diagnoses: Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) or small cell lymphoma. A couple posts back I mentioned how the first ultrasound revealed some issues with her kidneys; my vet said this could either be polycystic kidney disease or just the lymphoma attacking her kidneys. So the likelihood that she had both IBD & polycystic kidney disease was pretty low.. the vet explained that it was much more likely that she had lymphoma & it was causing all the problems.

The only way to diagnose between the 2 would be to do a biopsy, which is expensive & invasive. I would have done this but my vet explained that chemo wouldn't be an option for Yoshi because of her kidney problems, so there was no stopping the cancer anyway. I decided not to do the biopsy since a firm diagnosis wouldn't change anything since I wouldn't be able to treat the cancer. So we just started to treat her as if it was IBD, keeping in mind that she would be lucky to live 6 more months if it is lymphoma. My vet prescribed Prednisolone, a steroid that treats IBD, & vitamin B12 injections. This was well over 6 months ago & since starting the treatment, Yoshi seems completely back to normal. She is still alive & well, has an amazing appetite, & doesn't seem sick at all anymore. Since she's beyond the 6 month lifespan & shows no signs of slowing down *knock on wood* I think it's IBD & not lymphoma. She's back to her chubby & funny self!

Sorry for the long post! We still technically don't know what's wrong with Yoshi but she is so much better now thanks to the Prednisolone. She still has soft stools every so often, but rarely vomits or has a hairball, & she's actually getting a little overweight (she was very underweight before) from her huge appetite.

 

[Buddies mom]

Hi! I am new to the site and my cat is having similar problems with loose stool and hair balls. The only thing blood work has revealed is high triglycerides. I was just wondering if you would mind sharing if you ever received a diagnosis or resolved your kitty’s problems? Thank you!

I went through so many months of diareah with my cat going up to 15 plus times each day, if he drank water, he was going. I read everything I could get my hands on, I followed my vets orders to the letter. I decided to try the Freshpet chicken in the roll. It was a Miracle to my cat. It is free of preservatives and grain, all natural with minimal additives. I fed him several small meals a day.

 

[Cggwildcat]

Hi! Welcome to TCS!

I'm sorry to hear that your cat is having these problems. It's so frustrating when we know that they are not well but just can't pinpoint what's causing it.

I think I left this thread after Yoshi had her first ultrasound back in January, & I posted saying that it didn't reveal any serious issues. As you can see from my last few posts here, Yoshi was still having trouble. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I think after her first ultrasound & she wasn't improving, her eating just stopped completely. I ended up taking her back to the vet where she had to stay for a couple days to get fluids. She was still having really loose stools, vomiting bile, & having hairballs, so clearly something was wrong. She was worsening too, which was really scary (eventually blood was coming out along with the loose stool). They did another ultrasound & finally found what was wrong- her intestinal wall had thickened. For Yoshi, this meant that there were 2 possible diagnoses: Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) or small cell lymphoma. A couple posts back I mentioned how the first ultrasound revealed some issues with her kidneys; my vet said this could either be polycystic kidney disease or just the lymphoma attacking her kidneys. So the likelihood that she had both IBD & polycystic kidney disease was pretty low.. the vet explained that it was much more likely that she had lymphoma & it was causing all the problems.

The only way to diagnose between the 2 would be to do a biopsy, which is expensive & invasive. I would have done this but my vet explained that chemo wouldn't be an option for Yoshi because of her kidney problems, so there was no stopping the cancer anyway. I decided not to do the biopsy since a firm diagnosis wouldn't change anything since I wouldn't be able to treat the cancer. So we just started to treat her as if it was IBD, keeping in mind that she would be lucky to live 6 more months if it is lymphoma. My vet prescribed Prednisolone, a steroid that treats IBD, & vitamin B12 injections. This was well over 6 months ago & since starting the treatment, Yoshi seems completely back to normal. She is

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response. You are right - the frustration of not knowing what is wrong when you can tell something is just not right with these babies is so difficult.

I have always thought it might be possible that Kentucky has IBD, so it was very interesting to hear your story. I am so glad to hear that your Yoshi is doing well! I am sure you are enjoying every minute you have together

 

[birdie1953]

Certainly sounded like IBD. Esp. the smelly loose stools.My rocky had IBD his stools had blood in them as well. He started taking the prednasole and prescription rabbit and pea food from royal Canin and he was fine. I also used some Probiotic RX for pets daily.

 

[alzycat]

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response. You are right - the frustration of not knowing what is wrong when you can tell something is just not right with these babies is so difficult.

I have always thought it might be possible that Kentucky has IBD, so it was very interesting to hear your story. I am so glad to hear that your Yoshi is doing well! I am sure you are enjoying every minute you have together

If Kentucky keeps having issues then I would definitely recommend an ultrasound. Other than having to get their tummy shaved, it's not too stressful for the cat & should show if there is any wall thickening that would point to IBD. Let me know how everything goes!