Help - Perfectly Healthy Cat Suddenly Sick, Vet Says I May Lose Her

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Scott_01

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Thanks for all of the great suggestions and responses. Fingers still crossed. She is more than a day out of the surgery now and still not recovering the way my vet had hoped, even though the mass is now out of there. She is still completely lethargic and not eating. He decided to let me bring her home today, hoping that just letting her sit at home now undisturbed and left stress free will help her pull out of this and start eating.

He did say that he had managed to finally get her to take a tiny bit of the Hill's Prescription A/D off a Q-tip so he thought that was the start of *something*, at least. I warmed a little bit of skinless rotisserie chicken, which she loves and she still showed no interest in it however. He said that the fact that she is resting calmly at her favorite spot looking over the patio is a good sign however.

If she doesn't pull out of this though, there are not many options left. He said he's had 3 other vets look at her as well and none of them had any other ideas about what could be wrong with her. He said the only other next step would be to take her to the specialty vet practice in our area. That's many thousands of dollars more than I can afford however so that's why he has been going to truly heroic measures to try and save her for me.

I've made peace with the fact that I still may lose her and it's looking more and more like the original vet wasn't far off the mark. He had just cut to the chase right away.
 

fionasmom

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It is early and she is recovering, so keep your spirits up. She is home and with you which is where she wants to be. Will your vet allow you to try to feed her Gerber's baby food meats? Those are often very appealing to cats, or any of the stew/topper type foods?
 
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Scott_01

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It is early and she is recovering, so keep your spirits up. She is home and with you which is where she wants to be. Will your vet allow you to try to feed her Gerber's baby food meats? Those are often very appealing to cats, or any of the stew/topper type foods?
Thanks. My vet said that anything at all that I can get her to eat right now would be positive and the Gerber Baby Food is one of the foods he mentioned. I don't have any of that on hand at the moment and I don't want to leave her alone yet to go off too the market and get some now. Anything else that I can get her to eat now would be fine too he said...ice cream, milk, beef...anything at all to get her started.

I still have the rotisserie chicken which she loves and I have some ham, ice cream and cheese on hand which she also loves as a treat. I will keep trying with those over the next hours or so. I also have plenty of the Hill's Prescription a/d on hand too which he says is the top choice if i can manage to get her to take some.

Also, the vet left me his cell phone number in case anything else comes up with her over the weekend.
 

Talien

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An easy way to prevent hairballs is add a few drops of olive oil to her food in the morning. Since she eats canned food it's much easier than if she was a kibble eater.

Just make sure it is first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, as that minimizes potential contaminants.
 

stephanietx

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How is she doing? If they gave her fluids during her stay and surgery, that can make a kitty feel full. Also she may just not feel great from pain meds and the like. You can try plain pedialyte mixed with wet food to keep her hydrated and get some nutrients in her.
 
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Scott_01

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Thanks for all of the interest, concern and suggestions. I brought her home from the vet yesterday (Saturday) afternoon after the surgery. The vet and I hoped that having her at home and able to relax in her own surroundings over the rest of the weekend would help her calm down after the surgery. Indeed, there has been much, much less vomiting and the 3 times she has vomited during that time was yellow fluids. It's my understanding that it is bile from her stomach and GI tract not having any food in it. If she could just get some food in her stomach, I suspect he will tell me that will fix this last remaining bits of vomiting.

She has also seemed to be in much less distress and seems more relaxed in her favorite surroundings. She has even let me rub her cheeks now. She has managed to pee in her litter box a little but of course there is nothing in her GI tract to come out. She is still refusing to take any food by mouth. The vet did say that he managed to get her to take a little bit of Hill's a/d yesterday on a wooden tongue depressor but I just recently tried to get her to take some Gerber's baby chicken meat food on a popsicle stick but she wouldn't take it.

She seems with it and otherwise alert now though. I opened the back bedroom door a little while ago and she came walking in from the living room as soon as she heard the door open. She always recognizes the sound of that door and follows me in when she hears it. I thought that was probably a good sign. I can't help but think that if we could just manage to get her to start taking some food now, she might come around alright.

I'll be talking to her doc tomorrow morning and we'll figure out the next steps. I had asked him about her teeth previously and he did say that while she did have problems with her teeth, he didn't think they were significant enough to cause the problems. I am going to ask him about that again tomorrow and also about Mirataz, an appetite stimulant that you put on a cat's ear.

I have attached some pics below of her in better days.

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Scott_01

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I had thought things were looking up this weekend and she was finally coming around. When I talked to the vet this morning he said that the the kind of vomiting she was still having was not normal and she should have started eating on her own by now as well. He said that there had to be another problem besides her GI mass still going on and told me to bring her in and he would spend another day with her.

Unfortunately, she attacked me very severely again when I was loading her into the cat carrier, even much more severely than previous times. He and I had a long talk and we both decided that between the fact that her medical issues kept continuing (and going to a specialist was financially out of the question for me) and her behavioral issues, it was time to let her go.

She is gone now and I am both heartbroken and emotionally whipped.
 

fionasmom

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I am so sorry for your loss. You fought the good fight for your girl and I hope that you will be able to find some consolation in the fact that you did everything possible. Going to a specialist might not have been the magic solution either. There may have been the discovery of other underlying and unresolvable issues or the acknowledgement that your vet did as much as a specialist could have done.

She told you that she had gone as far as she could and you did the hardest and most honorable thing you could have which is to release her peacefully.
 
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Scott_01

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I am so sorry for your loss. You fought the good fight for your girl and I hope that you will be able to find some consolation in the fact that you did everything possible. Going to a specialist might not have been the magic solution either. There may have been the discovery of other underlying and unresolvable issues or the acknowledgement that your vet did as much as a specialist could have done.

She told you that she had gone as far as she could and you did the hardest and most honorable thing you could have which is to release her peacefully.
Thank you. That is so wonderfully put.
 

betsygee

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So very sorry to read this sad news. We'll lock the thread now out of respect for your loss, and we invite you to post a tribute to your sweet kitty in our Crossing the Bridge forum.
 
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