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- Jan 5, 2018
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There are multiple things happening with my cat and I don’t know if they’re related or what they mean...
Charlie is a neutered 10 month old domestic shorthair that I adopted from the shelter about three months ago. He’s super sweet and affectionate and very very attached to me (he follows me everywhere and sits behind the toilet when I use it), and he is also very playful and energetic. About a month ago, I came home from work and I noticed he was acting very lethargic, crying when I picked him up, and breathing really fast constantly – not after he played, when he was just sitting around. I took him to the vet and they thought they heard a heart murmur but he was too stressed from being at the vet to tell for sure. They took x-rays of his upper half and said his heart looked slightly enlarged but it was nothing to worry about and sent me home with pain medication to give him every 12 hours.
He stopped crying when I picked him up and got his energy back, but he is still breathing at a very rapid pace all the time. The vet looked at his gums and they didn’t seem pale to him so they didn’t think he was anemic, but can’t be sure without a blood test. Charlie also sometimes poops both in and out of the litter box – think 3 of the 4 turds are in the box and 1 is behind it, on the rug, a combination of both, and probably smeared around. I clean the box religiously and it is in a private place where he has multiple forms of escape. Also, not anywhere near his food and water and I have never changed the litter or the box on him.
He also meows and cries at night. He likes to pounce and chew on my feet under the blankets so I kick him out of the room, and he meows at the door for about an hour and comes back a few times throughout the night to do it again. He meows a lot all the time, but he sounds frantic at night and won’t stop. I tried using the squirt bottle when he was in bed and it worked for a while but he isn’t so impressed by it anymore and continues hunting my feet.
LONG POST SHORT – he is acting strangely and I’m not an experienced cat owner, and I really want my fur baby to be happy and healthy. The vet told me that the next step to figuring out what is wrong with him is lab work and I don’t want to put him through the stress of any more vet visits than I have to. Any thoughts?
Charlie is a neutered 10 month old domestic shorthair that I adopted from the shelter about three months ago. He’s super sweet and affectionate and very very attached to me (he follows me everywhere and sits behind the toilet when I use it), and he is also very playful and energetic. About a month ago, I came home from work and I noticed he was acting very lethargic, crying when I picked him up, and breathing really fast constantly – not after he played, when he was just sitting around. I took him to the vet and they thought they heard a heart murmur but he was too stressed from being at the vet to tell for sure. They took x-rays of his upper half and said his heart looked slightly enlarged but it was nothing to worry about and sent me home with pain medication to give him every 12 hours.
He stopped crying when I picked him up and got his energy back, but he is still breathing at a very rapid pace all the time. The vet looked at his gums and they didn’t seem pale to him so they didn’t think he was anemic, but can’t be sure without a blood test. Charlie also sometimes poops both in and out of the litter box – think 3 of the 4 turds are in the box and 1 is behind it, on the rug, a combination of both, and probably smeared around. I clean the box religiously and it is in a private place where he has multiple forms of escape. Also, not anywhere near his food and water and I have never changed the litter or the box on him.
He also meows and cries at night. He likes to pounce and chew on my feet under the blankets so I kick him out of the room, and he meows at the door for about an hour and comes back a few times throughout the night to do it again. He meows a lot all the time, but he sounds frantic at night and won’t stop. I tried using the squirt bottle when he was in bed and it worked for a while but he isn’t so impressed by it anymore and continues hunting my feet.
LONG POST SHORT – he is acting strangely and I’m not an experienced cat owner, and I really want my fur baby to be happy and healthy. The vet told me that the next step to figuring out what is wrong with him is lab work and I don’t want to put him through the stress of any more vet visits than I have to. Any thoughts?