Do I take my cat to the vet when stress may be his reason for....

Picky_Piki

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Mar 19, 2021
Messages
30
Purraise
27
Good day!
What I want to know is if I should take my 2 year old cat to the vet, causing more stress, or wait it out a little longer.

So here's the situation.
I'm going to try and be concise......ha.

We got a new kitten on Friday. We've kept him in the bathroom and covered the bottom of the door so our 2 year old couldn't see him. But I made some pretty dumb cat owner mistakes. The previous Saturday I took our 2 year old (Picard) to get his shots updated. I also noticed his food was running out (royal canin indoor cat) and my husband and I wanted to switch him back to his original adult food and so I bought Nulo. But instead of buying the flavor her grew up with. I stupidly bought duck and cod. I spent all week slowly mixing the nulo in with the royal canin. I noticed he was eating a little bit of the Nulo but preferred his Royal Canin. The royal canin are larger pieces he has to chew and the nulo he swallows whole. They are the size of kitten pellets.

So by Thursday he wasn't really eating the primarily Nulo food.

So in review |
So Saturday he got a shot. Sunday I began switching his food and bought his a "gogurt" nulo treat. Sunday he vomited everywhere a couple hours after the gogurt treat. I schedule feed. Once at 8am and Once at 8pm.By Thursday I noticed he was really not interested in the Nulo. Friday we brought home our 6 month old kitten. The first time they've even seen each other was through a crack in the door of the bedroom on Monday and Tuesday we quickly opened the door to show the older cat and shut it back.

Friday, Picard was scared and normally he's a confident kitty. Loves new people. Curious about all kinds of things but when he'd hear the kitten meowing from the bathroom. He'd go hide under the couch. Picard didn't eat his food that night.
Saturday Picard was no longer hiding by staying on the other side of the room and looking towards the sounds of the meows. He was barely eating. Then vomited up a GIGANTIC hairball but just a hairball with a slight amount of bile.

I then made more mistakes. In an attempt to show Picard more attention and love I gave him tiny tiny bites of plain cooked chicken. Like TINY.
Well now he's not interested in eating at all. And when the kitten meows all his attention is towards that door. Up to this point I've had feliway diffuser going and that day I put a calming collar on him which out of the package he ran from because he hated the smell....mistake number..what10?? haha

So I bought him his original royal canin that he'd been eating all week, around the nulo and now he won't touch that either. I even tried making it soggy and pouring a little tuna juice on it. He keeps meowing and asking for food.

Sunday he wouldn't eat. Sunday night He wouldn't eat. Monday morning he won't eat. I call the vet and she said to try heating up the food. Try getting him to eat something anything, fancy feast, wet food.

So I buy royal canin wet food, fancy feast, I buy his original adult nulo food chicken flavor and the wet food to match. I buy calming spray. I'm spraying the calming spray around the doors of where the kitten is.


Finally he eats! He eats the Nulo hard food and half a can of Nulo but as I anticipated, because it was all new, he vomited it all up the next morning. He won't eat Tuesday morning. He won't take ANY of the food options on tuesday night. So I email the vet.

But this morning I was able to do our "routine" where I come out to the living room and he comes and lays on my chest for about 20 mins and then TA DA He went and ate his breakfast! but now the vet has a very concerning email from me and wants me to bring Picard in.

I don't want to seem like a bad owner but I'm really worried putting him in the crate which he fights us on and taking him to the vet where he hisses the whole time... would set us back and add to his stress.

What should I do?!

(also, he's never stopped drinking water, using the litter box, he is not hissing at the kitten and is now trying to put his paw under the bedroom door when we pull the kitten out of the bathroom into our bedroom to play with him.)
He has been a little more lathargic but still will be interested in playing just not for very long.

The kitten in all of this? He's fine...hahaha
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3

Picky_Piki

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Mar 19, 2021
Messages
30
Purraise
27
Is he a large cat? Just curious. You should bring him in. He can wind up with hepatic lipidosis from not eating. He could also have an obstruction.
He is a big boy. He is 18 pounds. He does have a harder time with his weight. He's like between ideal and over ideal. He has a low hanging belly but still has hips and a curve inward from above. He's not round. So he's probably a 16/17lb cat???

He did eat this morning and still hasn't been sick from it.
 

Kflowers

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 28, 2018
Messages
5,771
Purraise
7,615
If you didn't take that calming collar off him, you should. Since the calming scents don't help you might want to put them away. They don't calm all cats, some they make more tense.

But Silent meowlook is right, he needs to see the vet, so much can go wrong so quickly and this has been boing on a long time in cat terms.

Low hanging belly is normal for cats regardless of their weight, it's the way they are built to protect them in fights.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #6

Picky_Piki

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Mar 19, 2021
Messages
30
Purraise
27
What did you decide to do?
I ended up taking him to the vet because he stopped eating again. He never threw up what he ate for breakfast but I could tell he was still not feeling well....
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #8

Picky_Piki

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Mar 19, 2021
Messages
30
Purraise
27
Awww, poor guy! What did they say?
Exacccctlllyyy what I anticipated. haha.All his blood work is great. There are no obstructions. He was given fluids and something to fill his stomach and sent home with digestive ease wet can food and a prescription of royal canin calm which he used to be on.....

So poor guy I could hear screaming bloody murder through 3 rooms and 3 sets of doors. The whole clinic heard him and so they had to sedate him....

As you can imagine I have been given back a rather unhappy, stressed kitty and an astronomical vet bill...BUT butttt now I know that there isn't anything wrong with him and that it is just an upset tummy from all the change. but reallyyyy I mean REALLY.....Picard Buddy.....really??
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #9

Picky_Piki

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Mar 19, 2021
Messages
30
Purraise
27
They also did say we were doing it right with the way we're introducing the new cat and actually think all his behaviors towards the new cat are very good. Except for not eating. So we're still taking it soooo slow.

So here's a funny picture of my poor drugged kitty with cream on his eyes. Better to laugh than cry about the situation.
 

Attachments

Top