Mystery Illness With Vomiting And Lack Of Appetite

chicy724

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Hello,
My sweet 13 yo female, Daisy, has been sick for a few weeks or so.
We noticed she was vomiting about daily and then wasn't really interested in food.
She had lost about 1.5 pounds since her checkup in March. :(
We brought her to the vet last week and had an exam and blood work. During the exam, the Dr. noted her intestines felt inflamed. Then the blood work came back and her eosinophils are through the roof, and her amylase it quite elevated. Otherwise, her sodium is a tad high but everything was normal (including PrecisionPSL for pancreatitis, WBCs and Lymphocites).

Concerning Values:
Eosinophils: 27% - Normal range is 2%-12%
Absolute Eosinophils: 2484 - Normal range is 0-1000/ml
Amylase: 1793 - Normal range is 100-1200 U/L

He prescribed Mirtazapine (4 doses- 1 per 3 days) and Panacur (5 days).
He said that treating for parasites was the first effort since the eosinophils are elevated and it was no harm, no foul to treat for those and see if that made her better.

Her symptoms are:
-Vomiting
-Lack of appetite
---Is drinking water
---She will just about always go for treats, though. (junk!)
-Inflamed intestines
-Seems to sleep/rest a lot but she's a cat... sometimes she's her spunky self, especially at night when we're trying to sleep.. ;)
---When we come home in the evening she's usually up and seems somewhat peppy.
-She does socialize with the others a bit when we open the door
-No diarrhea
-Seems to pee and poop normally

Her eating was getting a bit better (I think the Mirtazapine was helping that), but I have to keep switching out what we give her because she decides she doesn't like stuff every couple/few days. I am sure providing so many different foods isn't helping but I don't know what else to do. I want her to eat if she ever feels like it since she hasn't been eating much. We give her wet food and first things first is she licks all the gravy/sauce off. Then munches on some meat here and there but it can take forever for her to finish one tray of meat, if she finishes.

Here is what we've fed her. I am really trying to not get foods that have added colors or wheat gluten since we think it could even be allergy related:

(Wet Food)
-Fancy Feast Purely Natural (tuna, chicken varieties usually)
-Natural Balance Platefuls (turkey/duck, chicken, chicken/turkey/duck, etc.)
-Friskies Indoor (this one was a chicken variety if I remember correctly.. I wasn't home)(I was first attributing a food allergy due to this stuff so I stopped feeding it to her.. but hubby got confused and fed it to her on Friday and she vomited it up soon after.. rice and all). She is not getting this one any more!

(Dry Food)
-Nutro Max Cat Indoor Chicken (stopped that a few weeks ago when this started)
-Purina One Indoor Turkey
-Purina One Beyond Grain Free Ocean White fish & egg
(Both Purina One varieties are the only two dry she's been getting recently)
(I have both a turkey and fish variety because she seems to change her mind on which she likes randomly)

She has puked almost every day, and there were 3 days she didn't, leading up to the Friday (6/8) she received the Friskies Indoor junk.

Most days recently, the puke comes many, many hours after she's eaten.
Recent days it's mostly been clear with some particles of food perhaps, that have been digested down a ton. Previously it was almost always a brown color.
--However 2 days ago it was a completely brown colored pile in one room, and a small amount of clear in another. But in general lately, it's been mostly clear'ish, and it does seem less quantity than it has been but it's still happening.

We do have a new kitty in the house, who arrived in February but was quarantined for 2 months for hookworm treatments and introductions. Starting in April he was behind a baby gate for viewings, but not integrated. Since May 19, 2018 he has been free-roaming with the rest of the Pride, and Daisy has been sick just about since.
I thought maybe stress was part of it but she had the most interaction with him from the other side of the gate while the other two ignored him. So I really thought she was going to be OK with him. But she's actually been a grumpy butt towards him when he comes in the room. We've been keeping her segregated most of the day because we know she doesn't feel well. When she does see him now, she doesn't swat at him like she was, and growls a little. Maybe stress is exacerbating whatever is going on? Or maybe it has no effect? I just wanted to give this detail because it's part of the entire case!

My heart is hurting knowing she feels ill. She is my sweet baby kitty even though she's 13. She's my cuddle bug, snuggle butt. I NEED her to be OK and find out what is going on so we can fix it!

Any thoughts are appreciated, and any questions are welcomed! Thank you so much!
 
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Furballsmom

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chicy724

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Hello Furballsmom Furballsmom ! You've helped me so much with introducing Fluffmaster Flex! ;)

We have tried some calming products. We have Comfort Zone Feliway in the closet where she's been resting most, and in various other areas of the house.
I also have Thunderease diffusers.
We have a calming spray we use sometimes.
I started using Bachs Rescue Remedy but when I went to the vet with Daisy last week, he suggested I stop using it on her just in case.

Thanks for the other links- I will check them out!
 

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So sorry Daisy isn't feeling well! I don't have anything to add other than support. :vibes::redheartpump: I hope you find out what's going on soon. I totally understand a sick kitty, our guy Trin is going through some changes due to likely IBD (we had to switch him off chicken, his most favorite food ever. I think he might rather be sick ;)). It's stressful, and we just want them to be ok. Here's hoping she gets better soon!
 

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Oh, that's you--Thank you, I'm so glad!
But now, poor Daisy!
A couple thoughts, you could try crumbling her treats on to food you want her to eat, and bonito flakes and fortiflora can also work as enticements.
 
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chicy724

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KarenKat KarenKat :
You say you had to switch Trin off chicken due to IBD... I'm starting to wonder if Daisy has a similar issue. As I've been looking through posts about the eosinophils, I'm seeing many links to IBD and chicken allergies.
Tonight I'll give her turkey/duck or fish.

I feel like this is a chaotic mess since I have so many varieties of so many foods since she's not only sick- she's picky.

And thank you!

Furballsmom Furballsmom :
I will try crumbling the treats. I know if I just put treats on top, she will fish through and just eat the treats. The same goes when I try to mingle a fish flavor dry with a turkey dry. If she doesn't like turkey that day, she fishes out the fish. And vice-a-versa if she decides she doesn't like fish that day. Eep.
 
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Furballsmom

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There are so many sick kitties that will eat treats when they forego everything else - I really wish I knew the ingredient or ingredients!!
Sometimes I think it might be fortiflora or some other version of the animal digest, since that seems to be almost universally loved by felines, but I don't know...

Try taking a pate type food, about half a small can, and add a tablespoon of hot water, stir and see if that'll be eaten.

I don't remember if there were any food toppers discussed in your other thread, so just in case not here are some other toppers you could try, to try and entice your cat to eat or even see if something here helps get some nutrition into her (apologies if I'm listing something you've already tried);
  • Chicken or beef flavored baby food such as Gerber Stage 2 - make sure there is no garlic or onions in the ingredients
  • Tuna and/or the juice, a low mercury brand is called SafeCatch
  • Salmon
  • Sardines (make sure there are no bones)
  • boiled cut up chicken or turkey with no seasonings
  • canned kitten food any brand - it's usually smelly. See if it's eaten on its own, then maybe mix it in or put on top
  • Try mixing in Kitten Milk Replacer - there are recipes on the internet
  • Fish, tuna or BBQ flavored canned wet food (I personally have never seen BBQ flavors, but...)
  • Lickable cat treats or pouch treat gravy poured over the food
  • kitten glop (recipes are on the internet, look for some with goat milk)
  • Bonito flakes
  • fortiflora
  • goat milk, or low/no lactose cow milk
  • whole cooked eggs (the white must always be cooked) or raw egg yolk now and then
  • broth with no salt and no garlic or onion or seasonings of any kind
  • There are also commercial toppers, Applaws is a brand that can work well as a topper, Tiki Cat has a mousse
 
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Ask the vet about IBD. Inflamed intestines plus vomiting clear liquid are pretty good signs. An ultrasound is done to check out the intestines. A biopsy will confirm IBD or other issue but some people opt not to do that because it is expensive.

Avoid chicken if you can. Many IBD cats are sensitive to it. Stick with novel proteins like rabbit and venison. Duck and turkey may or may not cause a flare up. Every cat is different. Canned food is less likely to cause a flare up than dry food.

Raw Feeding for IBD Cats
IBDKitties – Helping Save Lives…One Paw at a Time
 

KarenKat

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C chicy724 We did switch Trin off of chicken. The NB wasn't too bad on his stomach (I think because it's mostly green pea for the protein), but we were experimenting with wet food. We always gave him cooked chicken as a treat, so we picked all chicken flavors and topped the food with cooked chicken so he would eat it, and added in Applaws Chicken and Asparagus for treats. His poop during this time was practically liquid, and once in a while he was obviously in distress from an upset tummy.

After switching back to kibble only, his poop did not get better. We did some blood tests which showed elevated liver enzymes (AST and ALT) and low B-12 which generally means lymphoma, IBD or pancreatitis. Another blood test ruled out pancreatitis, and the vet said only an endoscopy could determine between lymphoma and IBD. An ultrasound came back with nothing abnormal.

We switched him to the rabbit dry food, started giving him weekly B-12 shots and his poop became nearly perfect. We chose not to do the endoscopy at this time. The vet said that since he reacted so well to the B-12 (the diet change hasn't been long enough to have made such a drastic improvement), lymphoma is less likely. The 'scope would have also cost $2k, which for a diagnostic tool to rule out a less likely ailment was not worth it to us.

Sorry about the book, but since the situations are pretty different in some of the bloodwork, I wanted to give you the full story.
 

cat1967

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I don't have much knowledge to offer here as my cats up to now have had no illnesses or problems. I recently lost one though after so many tests and ultrasounds a.s.o. From what the vet told me in some cases the food a cat takes is much more important than any medicine. I would try to provide what she prefers for the time being and when things are better I would stick to a diet which would be healthy for the cat. I know this sometimes is like impossible because our beautiful babies are so stubborn and may stop eating which is another problem, but make an effort.

All I can say right now is that I will pray your baby gets better soon and does not suffer all the vet visits which can be so stressful for a cat. xx
 

UnconventionalTheories

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Hello,
My sweet 13 yo female, Daisy, has been sick for a few weeks or so.
We noticed she was vomiting about daily and then wasn't really interested in food.
She had lost about 1.5 pounds since her checkup in March. :(
We brought her to the vet last week and had an exam and blood work. During the exam, the Dr. noted her intestines felt inflamed. Then the blood work came back and her eosinophils are through the roof, and her amylase it quite elevated. Otherwise, her sodium is a tad high but everything was normal (including PrecisionPSL for pancreatitis, WBCs and Lymphocites).

Concerning Values:
Eosinophils: 27% - Normal range is 2%-12%
Absolute Eosinophils: 2484 - Normal range is 0-1000/ml
Amylase: 1793 - Normal range is 100-1200 U/L

He prescribed Mirtazapine (4 doses- 1 per 3 days) and Panacur (5 days).
He said that treating for parasites was the first effort since the eosinophils are elevated and it was no harm, no foul to treat for those and see if that made her better.

Her symptoms are:
-Vomiting
-Lack of appetite
---Is drinking water
---She will just about always go for treats, though. (junk!)
-Inflamed intestines
-Seems to sleep/rest a lot but she's a cat... sometimes she's her spunky self, especially at night when we're trying to sleep.. ;)
---When we come home in the evening she's usually up and seems somewhat peppy.
-She does socialize with the others a bit when we open the door
-No diarrhea
-Seems to pee and poop normally

Her eating was getting a bit better (I think the Mirtazapine was helping that), but I have to keep switching out what we give her because she decides she doesn't like stuff every couple/few days. I am sure providing so many different foods isn't helping but I don't know what else to do. I want her to eat if she ever feels like it since she hasn't been eating much. We give her wet food and first things first is she licks all the gravy/sauce off. Then munches on some meat here and there but it can take forever for her to finish one tray of meat, if she finishes.

Here is what we've fed her. I am really trying to not get foods that have added colors or wheat gluten since we think it could even be allergy related:

(Wet Food)
-Fancy Feast Purely Natural (tuna, chicken varieties usually)
-Natural Balance Platefuls (turkey/duck, chicken, chicken/turkey/duck, etc.)
-Friskies Indoor (this one was a chicken variety if I remember correctly.. I wasn't home)(I was first attributing a food allergy due to this stuff so I stopped feeding it to her.. but hubby got confused and fed it to her on Friday and she vomited it up soon after.. rice and all). She is not getting this one any more!

(Dry Food)
-Nutro Max Cat Indoor Chicken (stopped that a few weeks ago when this started)
-Purina One Indoor Turkey
-Purina One Beyond Grain Free Ocean White fish & egg
(Both Purina One varieties are the only two dry she's been getting recently)
(I have both a turkey and fish variety because she seems to change her mind on which she likes randomly)

She has puked almost every day, and there were 3 days she didn't, leading up to the Friday (6/8) she received the Friskies Indoor junk.

Most days recently, the puke comes many, many hours after she's eaten.
Recent days it's mostly been clear with some particles of food perhaps, that have been digested down a ton. Previously it was almost always a brown color.
--However 2 days ago it was a completely brown colored pile in one room, and a small amount of clear in another. But in general lately, it's been mostly clear'ish, and it does seem less quantity than it has been but it's still happening.

We do have a new kitty in the house, who arrived in February but was quarantined for 2 months for hookworm treatments and introductions. Starting in April he was behind a baby gate for viewings, but not integrated. Since May 19, 2018 he has been free-roaming with the rest of the Pride, and Daisy has been sick just about since.
I thought maybe stress was part of it but she had the most interaction with him from the other side of the gate while the other two ignored him. So I really thought she was going to be OK with him. But she's actually been a grumpy butt towards him when he comes in the room. We've been keeping her segregated most of the day because we know she doesn't feel well. When she does see him now, she doesn't swat at him like she was, and growls a little. Maybe stress is exacerbating whatever is going on? Or maybe it has no effect? I just wanted to give this detail because it's part of the entire case!

My heart is hurting knowing she feels ill. She is my sweet baby kitty even though she's 13. She's my cuddle bug, snuggle butt. I NEED her to be OK and find out what is going on so we can fix it!

Any thoughts are appreciated, and any questions are welcomed! Thank you so much!
Hi sorry your baby is sick, perhaps I may have some suggstions. Instead of actually giving her can food, visit your local grocer store, head over to the baby food dept, and pick up a jar of any of the meats. Example, Turkey dinner, beef roast, chicken, nothing with pork. I know you might not want to hear this, but cut off all dry food, and the treats. I would give it two days or less and your car should stop throwing up.

I would like to take this time to warn all of you cat lovers, they are putting things in your cats dry food, almost like lab rats. Im not sure why it seems as though the dry food has become like crack to the animals. I read a while back there are about 7 different ingredients in drive food, that re cat is already allergic too.
I want to share 2 things with you guys, when I was a kid, kitten ran out of the corn field right into my dads baseball glove, my dad let us keep him. 3 or 4 years went by, back then cats hated dry food ad we used to have to mix it with can food to get them to eat it. Then one day I went shopping with my mom, and with my own money I bought the cat these treats by "pounce". A day or so later my cat suffered his first epileptic seizure, it was terrifying, it would be a couple of years before I figured it out, and my older brother did as well. These treats somehow triggered epilepsy in our cat, btw that cat lived to be around 21 years old.
The point I want to make regarding today's dry food, has to do with my current cat. She was given to us too young in age, she is quite the handful on regular days. But since going into heat the first time, it would become a nightmare of reoccurance.
I plan to get her fixed, don' get me wrong, but this was like nothing I'd ever seen. She would go into heat on a Monday, and maybe if we'd lucky by Saturday shed be coming out of it. Sunday shed be fine, Monday shed start acting strange, bam Tuesday she was going into another cycle. Week after week, then it would stop, a couple weeks, then restart the craziness.
There is always a plausible reason for things, we just have to pay attenion to small changes, and what we feed our cats.
My cat put on a good 10 lbs of weight, and I thought I was crazy but she would eat her dry food like she was addicted to it

6 weeks ago after the cat was done with her cycle, I told my boyfriend that's it, no more dry food. My cat was behaving terribly, she never used to go on the floor, and she was, her litter box would be clean. She was acting nervous, she didn' sleep the whole time shes in heat. It' been 6 weeks and she hasn' gone into heat, at all. She stopped going potty on the floor, and she' calmed down, a complete 180. I would highly recommend not using the kitten dry food ever! It seems to be the worst, whatever hormones they are putting in the cats food, literally effects all aspects of ther personality.

We experienced her going thru what seemed ike withdrawal the first two weeks we stopped giving it to her. Parasites are no joke, look into getting a bottle of oregano extract that's cat friendly, and adding to her water to remove the parasites. Be cautious to the food and treats you buy them, see what type of ingredients are in the food you pick up. The more complicated words, the more chemicals.

I hope this helps, and let me know if there's any change in your cat.
 
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chicy724

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Hi! Thanks so much for checking in :)
She had her ultrasound yesterday (and now has a cute bald belly :D). We will go this evening to go over the results. I am so nervous. :(

She's been enjoying her ocean fish flavored food. She's moved on from turkey flavored that she was enjoying last week. I have not seen any vomit since overnight on the 12th, so we're 2 days without vomit thus far. I went on the hunt around town for foods without chicken components yesterday and MAN that is tough, but I found some. Even most of the stuff that is duck/beef/ocean whitefish has chicken in it. :confused2:

Hoping and praying that she continues to not vomit and the U.S. results are ok!
 

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Good luck! I hope you find out what's going on, and that it's a simple solution.

Yes, it's super hard to find no chicken! Not sure where you are, but the Rawz brand tends to only have one protein (they have Beef, Chicken, Turkey or Salmon flavors, and someone posted yesterday that they will be coming out with a Rabbit and a Duck flavor soon). It can be hard to find, but bernalbeast.com carries cases of it. It also doesn't have gums or carrageenan which some think can irritate/inflame.
 

cat1967

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I am so glad she hasn't vomited and I hope and pray that her u/s results are ok. Yes I know about this bald belly. The skin is really soft there, isn't it. Do let me know what the vet said about her results. I am sending you all my best wishes for a quick recovery of your beautiful kitty.
 
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chicy724

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Daisy vomited at some point during the day while I was at work. :(

We had our consult. The results are worse than expected.
She has a mass behind her kidney which could be a lymph node or other, as well are much inflammation and concerns.

-Liver is prominent, coarse and mixed echotextured loss of adventitial markings.
-Gallbladder is mildly thickened.
-Stomach is distended with mixed echotextured debris, gas distraction which could be normal depending on last meal or is indicative of slow emptying, foreign body, hairball or obstruction.
-Small bowel has variable thickening and loss of musocal layering distinction - gastritis, gastropothy, enteritis, IBD or infiltration.
-Proximal duodenum has variable thickening, gas and echotextured debris as with duodenitis.
-Ileo-ceco-junction is thickened, dark, thickened and muscularis is thickened, dark, as with infiltration or reactivity.
-Pancreatic changes suggest chronic smoldering pancreatitis or triaditis without an abscess or mineralization.
-Mesentery is hyperchoic and coarse as with reactivity and there are multiple, variably sized lymph nodes which could be systemic inflammatory, systemic infectious, lymphosarcoma or other.

Our vet suggested we see a University oncologist at University of Florida or Auburn University. Both are hours away, but that's ok.
I don't know either of these from a hole in the wall, so I don't know if I should choose one over the other.
For now, he's reaching out to Auburn, but if we want to go to U of F we just have to tell him soon. My hubby's family is in New Port Richey (3h from Gainesville) and Auburn is 4.5 hours from me so the distance isn't really a factor. Hubby may not be able to come with me.

He said he could aspirate the mass, but it could take a week to get results and he doesn't think that is best time wise.
And the University can create a care plan, whereas he doesn't find he is suitable for that.
He is calling for a referral.

I don't know what to think right now.

He isn't saying for certain, but he seems to be leaning towards her having lymphoma.

I was not prepared for this. She is too young. She's been my baby kitty for basically my entire adult-hood. I can't even imagine my life without her little snuggly-butt. :(
 
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