Hi all. I'm new to the site, having signed up recently after finding a great post on building a cat tree...but my reason for coming today is much more serious.
My 7-8 month old kitten Ned (a farm stray found 4 months ago) recently got sick around 2 weeks ago in the middle of the night. He started off by drooling excessively (he has been known to drool a little due to teething), breathing ,a bit more forcefully (still through his nose), and here's the scariest part....his balance was really affected, weaving and tipping over. He also seemed really disoriented. This all transpired in the middle of the night, of course, and I called the emergency clinic. At the time I didn't know about the balance, so she advised based on the drooling and slightly hard breathing that I just watch him until morning. That was a long panicky night for me, as I'm new to cats and have had this impending fear that something would go wrong with such a fragile tiny looking creature, he is small, weighing in at about 5.5 lbs. Our dog is a big goober that rarely gives me reason to panic, so I was beside myself. Plus, Ned is unusual in that his distress caused him to come closer to me and pitifully beg that I make him better. At his worst, he actually bit my nose as I wasn't doing my part apparently. When your baby wants you to make him better, emotions run high.
In the morning, his drooling finally stopped, and he seemed a bit more alert, and got out of bed to follow me into the hall. That's when I saw the balance problem. Even though he started to purr a bit, and seemed on the mend, I scooped him up and took him to our regular vet. They did not like his balance problem either, or that the food I had feed him 12 hours ago was still in his stomach, unmoved apparently. After 800 dollars!! worth of tests and IV fluids and xrays, etc., they said he was okay and must have gotten into something. Let me take a moment to show my displeasure with this bargain. They've gouged me before on routine things, I have no doubt they may have taken the opportunity to spend as much as possible during my extreme distress and desire to find what was wrong. But Ned was back to normal, and full of energy and quite agile again. I will say that up until today, I was convinced (with no competing theory from the vet) that he was reacting to a bad batch of food. I had fed him a single can of Wellness Turkey that night, just hours before his symptoms. I'm not bashing Wellness, he eats Core kibble and Science Diet Kitten, but certainly any brand could have a bad batch from improper canning or some weird issue. He hadn't had canned food before that. The vet seemed unconvinced by this coincidence, and kept saying he must have gotten into something.
As I didn't see him get into anything that night, nor could I find evidence of him tampering with anything scary, I just didn't believe it. Until last night.
Again, he has the same symptoms, and he hadn't had any canned food yesterday. Only Science kibble. Again, drooling, balance, disorientation. And I did not see anything that looked dangerous that he's gotten into. We were in bed, and I awoke to find my sweatshirt very wet from wicking his drool. As the vet didn't find any viruses, infections, etc. I'm watching him closely. He's getting better again, drooling is gone, but balance is still terrible, and he is hissy if I bother him. Like he did to the vet (which he hates), but he is normally a VERY Laid back affectionate cat. I guess he figured out that mommy can't fix him this time, so back off. He have come by my feet, somewhat normally but doesn't like my hand coming close. He has drank a little water, so dehydration may not be a worry now.
I know this post if very long, but I'm just at a loss now. I do have a bunch of dried branches of winterberry (i think) that i bought at the farmers market. Even though it is in an out of the way place and I've not seen any berries fall off, or him near it (seems like he wouldn't be interested in a red berry anyway, he only likes meat), I'm eyeing it suspiciously. I'm also starting to wonder if any insectide residue from killing the random spider or straying hornetmay be lingering. I haven't used anything in months, but the residue could be in the carpet or on a baseboard?
The vet did throw out the idea that maybe Ned has a underdeveloped cerebelum and his balance could go out of whack when he is suffering something that would normally give off milder symptoms. He is normally a bit clumsy, knocking things off tables, falling off ledges sometimes. I also told the vet that I have seen him on rare occasions with a bit of a head wobble when he's zoned out. Just a little side to side wobble that I thought was normal for kittens, but the vet said no way. So maybe he is underdeveloped, but what the hell is setting him off this way????
Please, if anyone has ideas or similar experiences, please brainstorm with me..the vet has no answers, and I can't take another 800 dollar bill to come up with nothing.
My 7-8 month old kitten Ned (a farm stray found 4 months ago) recently got sick around 2 weeks ago in the middle of the night. He started off by drooling excessively (he has been known to drool a little due to teething), breathing ,a bit more forcefully (still through his nose), and here's the scariest part....his balance was really affected, weaving and tipping over. He also seemed really disoriented. This all transpired in the middle of the night, of course, and I called the emergency clinic. At the time I didn't know about the balance, so she advised based on the drooling and slightly hard breathing that I just watch him until morning. That was a long panicky night for me, as I'm new to cats and have had this impending fear that something would go wrong with such a fragile tiny looking creature, he is small, weighing in at about 5.5 lbs. Our dog is a big goober that rarely gives me reason to panic, so I was beside myself. Plus, Ned is unusual in that his distress caused him to come closer to me and pitifully beg that I make him better. At his worst, he actually bit my nose as I wasn't doing my part apparently. When your baby wants you to make him better, emotions run high.
In the morning, his drooling finally stopped, and he seemed a bit more alert, and got out of bed to follow me into the hall. That's when I saw the balance problem. Even though he started to purr a bit, and seemed on the mend, I scooped him up and took him to our regular vet. They did not like his balance problem either, or that the food I had feed him 12 hours ago was still in his stomach, unmoved apparently. After 800 dollars!! worth of tests and IV fluids and xrays, etc., they said he was okay and must have gotten into something. Let me take a moment to show my displeasure with this bargain. They've gouged me before on routine things, I have no doubt they may have taken the opportunity to spend as much as possible during my extreme distress and desire to find what was wrong. But Ned was back to normal, and full of energy and quite agile again. I will say that up until today, I was convinced (with no competing theory from the vet) that he was reacting to a bad batch of food. I had fed him a single can of Wellness Turkey that night, just hours before his symptoms. I'm not bashing Wellness, he eats Core kibble and Science Diet Kitten, but certainly any brand could have a bad batch from improper canning or some weird issue. He hadn't had canned food before that. The vet seemed unconvinced by this coincidence, and kept saying he must have gotten into something.
As I didn't see him get into anything that night, nor could I find evidence of him tampering with anything scary, I just didn't believe it. Until last night.
Again, he has the same symptoms, and he hadn't had any canned food yesterday. Only Science kibble. Again, drooling, balance, disorientation. And I did not see anything that looked dangerous that he's gotten into. We were in bed, and I awoke to find my sweatshirt very wet from wicking his drool. As the vet didn't find any viruses, infections, etc. I'm watching him closely. He's getting better again, drooling is gone, but balance is still terrible, and he is hissy if I bother him. Like he did to the vet (which he hates), but he is normally a VERY Laid back affectionate cat. I guess he figured out that mommy can't fix him this time, so back off. He have come by my feet, somewhat normally but doesn't like my hand coming close. He has drank a little water, so dehydration may not be a worry now.
I know this post if very long, but I'm just at a loss now. I do have a bunch of dried branches of winterberry (i think) that i bought at the farmers market. Even though it is in an out of the way place and I've not seen any berries fall off, or him near it (seems like he wouldn't be interested in a red berry anyway, he only likes meat), I'm eyeing it suspiciously. I'm also starting to wonder if any insectide residue from killing the random spider or straying hornetmay be lingering. I haven't used anything in months, but the residue could be in the carpet or on a baseboard?
The vet did throw out the idea that maybe Ned has a underdeveloped cerebelum and his balance could go out of whack when he is suffering something that would normally give off milder symptoms. He is normally a bit clumsy, knocking things off tables, falling off ledges sometimes. I also told the vet that I have seen him on rare occasions with a bit of a head wobble when he's zoned out. Just a little side to side wobble that I thought was normal for kittens, but the vet said no way. So maybe he is underdeveloped, but what the hell is setting him off this way????
Please, if anyone has ideas or similar experiences, please brainstorm with me..the vet has no answers, and I can't take another 800 dollar bill to come up with nothing.