Briefly, Friday night, one of my two kitties started behaving oddly.
I found her hiding behind the dinner table against the wall, and once I finally coaxed her out, she only relocated to hide behind my desk (also against the wall.) Saturday morning she was back to her old self again but by Saturday night, she ran out of the room when I announced it was "Treat Time!" rather than rush to my feet as always (I did coax her later to eat a few treats), followed later by the sound of her barfing in the middle of the night. The next morning, I threw away the new dry food I bought her out of concern there was something wrong with it.
All day Sunday/today, she was lethargic (ie: normal. She's a cat after all), but just a short while ago I discovered she barfed again on her way out of the litter box (couldn't she have barfed IN the litter box and not on my carpet?). I give my cats two different dry foods to choose from and the remaining bag was nearly finished, but since I had already tossed the other old food, I dumped out the second bowl as well and substituted wet food.
I lost another cat just over a year ago following the exact same pattern. The thought of going through this again is a nightmare. What do I do for a kitty with an upset stomach? (Please respond ASAP before it becomes chronic/fatal.)
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Here's why I'm avoiding the vet. It's a long sad story. Skip all this if you don't have the time.
As noted above, I had another cat (her brother) that went through the EXACT same thing in November of 2012. The first night he got sick, I thought nothing of it. The second night got me very concerned and after vomiting for the third night in a row, I rushed him to the vet, who suggested he had an infection of the pancreas and prescribed antibiotics.
But the vomiting returned a few days later so I took him to another vet. She felt his spleen was enlarged and ordered a needle biopsy. The biopsy found "mast cells" and diagnosed my poor cat with "cancer". I knew my cat did NOT have "cancer". All of a sudden? The vets explanation was that "it had probably always been there." Absurd. So I spent literally thousands of dollars taking him to other vets seeking a second opinion, but all they ever did was look at the first doctor's findings, agreed with them, and took my money, not once doing a second test.
Long story short, it took AN AUTOPSY 2-1/2 months later to discover my cat never had cancer but instead died of a completely curable stomach ulcer. The constant convulsions were injuring his spleen, explaining why it was flooded with non-cancerous Mast cells when they did the biopsy.
So pardon me if I think all these vets are full of cr@p with "cancer on the brain". What, do they just leap to the diagnosis of "cancer" when they haven't the foggiest what's wrong???
2-1/2 months after that, my mother was diagnosed as having cancer. Long story short, we buried my mother three weeks ago. An autopsy found NO SIGN OF CANCER IN HER SYSTEM (as I suspected, which is why I ordered the autopsy).
Now, just three weeks after all that, I have a sick cat again putting me through the exact same ordeal all over again! I just can't go through that again!
Any suggestions as to how to diagnose and treat a cat that is otherwise healthy but suddenly can't keep anything down?
I found her hiding behind the dinner table against the wall, and once I finally coaxed her out, she only relocated to hide behind my desk (also against the wall.) Saturday morning she was back to her old self again but by Saturday night, she ran out of the room when I announced it was "Treat Time!" rather than rush to my feet as always (I did coax her later to eat a few treats), followed later by the sound of her barfing in the middle of the night. The next morning, I threw away the new dry food I bought her out of concern there was something wrong with it.
All day Sunday/today, she was lethargic (ie: normal. She's a cat after all), but just a short while ago I discovered she barfed again on her way out of the litter box (couldn't she have barfed IN the litter box and not on my carpet?). I give my cats two different dry foods to choose from and the remaining bag was nearly finished, but since I had already tossed the other old food, I dumped out the second bowl as well and substituted wet food.
I lost another cat just over a year ago following the exact same pattern. The thought of going through this again is a nightmare. What do I do for a kitty with an upset stomach? (Please respond ASAP before it becomes chronic/fatal.)
.
Here's why I'm avoiding the vet. It's a long sad story. Skip all this if you don't have the time.
As noted above, I had another cat (her brother) that went through the EXACT same thing in November of 2012. The first night he got sick, I thought nothing of it. The second night got me very concerned and after vomiting for the third night in a row, I rushed him to the vet, who suggested he had an infection of the pancreas and prescribed antibiotics.
But the vomiting returned a few days later so I took him to another vet. She felt his spleen was enlarged and ordered a needle biopsy. The biopsy found "mast cells" and diagnosed my poor cat with "cancer". I knew my cat did NOT have "cancer". All of a sudden? The vets explanation was that "it had probably always been there." Absurd. So I spent literally thousands of dollars taking him to other vets seeking a second opinion, but all they ever did was look at the first doctor's findings, agreed with them, and took my money, not once doing a second test.
Long story short, it took AN AUTOPSY 2-1/2 months later to discover my cat never had cancer but instead died of a completely curable stomach ulcer. The constant convulsions were injuring his spleen, explaining why it was flooded with non-cancerous Mast cells when they did the biopsy.
So pardon me if I think all these vets are full of cr@p with "cancer on the brain". What, do they just leap to the diagnosis of "cancer" when they haven't the foggiest what's wrong???
2-1/2 months after that, my mother was diagnosed as having cancer. Long story short, we buried my mother three weeks ago. An autopsy found NO SIGN OF CANCER IN HER SYSTEM (as I suspected, which is why I ordered the autopsy).
Now, just three weeks after all that, I have a sick cat again putting me through the exact same ordeal all over again! I just can't go through that again!
Any suggestions as to how to diagnose and treat a cat that is otherwise healthy but suddenly can't keep anything down?
