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My cat, Nagini, has been sick since last Wednesday night, and the vets have no idea what's wrong, and my wife and I are just at our wit's end hoping and pleading she's okay.
tl;dr -- Nagini is 11, otherwise been healthy, stopped eating and drinking Thursday 8/30 and making nonstop gagging sounds, licking her lips until she has a raw spot. Bloodwork came back fine (elevated glucose, Coronavirus antibodies but vet wasn't too concerned). Prescribed antibiotics, antihistamine, and L-Lysine but couldn't get Nagini to eat so couldn't administer. Force-fed her water and little bits of food but by Sunday she still hadn't eaten or drank on her own and she was wheezing when she breathed a lot, still gagging/licking, so took her to emergency. They did x-rays, ultrasound, endoscopy, bloodwork, and put her on IVs and a nasal feeding tube. STILL don't know what's wrong. x.x;;;;
The long story with more details:
Nagini is 11 years old, has been otherwise healthy until now. About 4 weeks ago, she and our other cat (male, also 11) stopped eating randomly and she had one bout of explosive vomiting. We took them to the vet, but she got better a day or so later after we gave her some 1-ingredient baby food (Beech Nut, chicken) and then slowly added her old food back in (1 can Fancy Feast per day + 1/2 can of Whole Earth Farms per day). She's been fine since, eating normally, using the litter box, playing.
Need to also mention we brought a foster kitten into the household about 4 weeks ago. It was the same day that Nagini had explosive vomiting, but she had done that before we brought the kitten home, so I doubt it's related.
Last Wednesday, Nagini didn't finish her dinner, which is odd for her bc she has a VERY healthy appetite normally. She started making these weird little gagging sounds and I was concerned but figured she just had a hairball. On Thursday, she refused breakfast, continuing to make gagging sounds also making this really awful LOUD cough/gag sound that freaked me out (sounded like a hack to get something out of her throat but also kind of like something falling on the hard floor). I took her to the vet that day. Lungs and heart were fine when they listened to them, xray didn't show anything worrisome (no blockage or anything like that) except a lot of gas, bloodwork came back well (high glucose, antibodies for Coronavirus but we are pretty sure we got her vaccinated so we were thinking maybe that's why and the vet also said that's not indicative of her having it), so they figured it might be a Upper Respiratory Infection. They prescribed antibiotics, antihistamine, and L-Lysine. She still wasn't eating, so getting the meds to her was impossible. Managed to give her a couple doses of the antibiotics and crushed up the antihistamine and forced it to her in water.
On Friday, I fed her via spoonful about 2-3 tablespoons of Rad Cat raw food, because I knew she loved it and wanted to stimulate her appetite. She tolerated that but after the 2nd spoonful, she started to gag and hid under the bed. Forced about 2 ounces of water into her throughout the day. She had normal pees and 1 normal poop.
On Saturday, she ate maybe 20 tiny little kitty food treats (Party Mix) and drank some water on her own (we think, couldn't be 100% sure). I again forced her to drink a little water, tried tuna juice, tried goat's milk. Nothing. She saw a silverfish in our hallway and hunted/played with him for a bit, so we thought maybe she was feeling better but still no eating or drinking and continued gagging/wanting to hide under the bed.
Sunday, I finally broke down and took her to the emergency care. He was worried right away when we mentioned how little she'd eaten and drank and asked to keep her at least overnight. They ran more blood tests, did xrays and ultrasound. They saw something weird in the ultrasound in her throat somewhere so asked if they could do an endoscopy to check it out. We agreed. Nothing found there either. They did see some lesions on the back of her throat which they couldn't explain or figure out. After the endoscopy, they also put in a nasal feeding tube and hooked her up to IVs.
Monday, they called and said she's wheezing a lot when she breathes and the vet was concerned maybe we should biopsy her throat to see what's going on and if there's cancer or something. We haven't yet tho bc she's always been a heavy breather and they haven't seen any issue in her lungs and wanted to wait until today when more doctors were in the clinic to discuss since it was a holiday yesterday. They said alternatively, they could try giving her steroids to help any inflammation go down, but if they did that and then we wanted to do the biopsy, they might not see evidence of cancer if it's there.
Needless to say, we're at our wit's end over this. Our poor girl has been so sick for so many days, and I'm just freaking out that they can't diagnose it.
Does anyone know what else this could/might be? Anyone have similar situations with their kitties? Please keep Nagini in your thoughts and let me know if you have any ideas.
tl;dr -- Nagini is 11, otherwise been healthy, stopped eating and drinking Thursday 8/30 and making nonstop gagging sounds, licking her lips until she has a raw spot. Bloodwork came back fine (elevated glucose, Coronavirus antibodies but vet wasn't too concerned). Prescribed antibiotics, antihistamine, and L-Lysine but couldn't get Nagini to eat so couldn't administer. Force-fed her water and little bits of food but by Sunday she still hadn't eaten or drank on her own and she was wheezing when she breathed a lot, still gagging/licking, so took her to emergency. They did x-rays, ultrasound, endoscopy, bloodwork, and put her on IVs and a nasal feeding tube. STILL don't know what's wrong. x.x;;;;
The long story with more details:
Nagini is 11 years old, has been otherwise healthy until now. About 4 weeks ago, she and our other cat (male, also 11) stopped eating randomly and she had one bout of explosive vomiting. We took them to the vet, but she got better a day or so later after we gave her some 1-ingredient baby food (Beech Nut, chicken) and then slowly added her old food back in (1 can Fancy Feast per day + 1/2 can of Whole Earth Farms per day). She's been fine since, eating normally, using the litter box, playing.
Need to also mention we brought a foster kitten into the household about 4 weeks ago. It was the same day that Nagini had explosive vomiting, but she had done that before we brought the kitten home, so I doubt it's related.
Last Wednesday, Nagini didn't finish her dinner, which is odd for her bc she has a VERY healthy appetite normally. She started making these weird little gagging sounds and I was concerned but figured she just had a hairball. On Thursday, she refused breakfast, continuing to make gagging sounds also making this really awful LOUD cough/gag sound that freaked me out (sounded like a hack to get something out of her throat but also kind of like something falling on the hard floor). I took her to the vet that day. Lungs and heart were fine when they listened to them, xray didn't show anything worrisome (no blockage or anything like that) except a lot of gas, bloodwork came back well (high glucose, antibodies for Coronavirus but we are pretty sure we got her vaccinated so we were thinking maybe that's why and the vet also said that's not indicative of her having it), so they figured it might be a Upper Respiratory Infection. They prescribed antibiotics, antihistamine, and L-Lysine. She still wasn't eating, so getting the meds to her was impossible. Managed to give her a couple doses of the antibiotics and crushed up the antihistamine and forced it to her in water.
On Friday, I fed her via spoonful about 2-3 tablespoons of Rad Cat raw food, because I knew she loved it and wanted to stimulate her appetite. She tolerated that but after the 2nd spoonful, she started to gag and hid under the bed. Forced about 2 ounces of water into her throughout the day. She had normal pees and 1 normal poop.
On Saturday, she ate maybe 20 tiny little kitty food treats (Party Mix) and drank some water on her own (we think, couldn't be 100% sure). I again forced her to drink a little water, tried tuna juice, tried goat's milk. Nothing. She saw a silverfish in our hallway and hunted/played with him for a bit, so we thought maybe she was feeling better but still no eating or drinking and continued gagging/wanting to hide under the bed.
Sunday, I finally broke down and took her to the emergency care.
He was worried right away when we mentioned how little she'd eaten and drank and asked to keep her at least overnight. They ran more blood tests, did xrays and ultrasound. They saw something weird in the ultrasound in her throat somewhere so asked if they could do an endoscopy to check it out. We agreed. Nothing found there either. They did see some lesions on the back of her throat which they couldn't explain or figure out. After the endoscopy, they also put in a nasal feeding tube and hooked her up to IVs.Monday, they called and said she's wheezing a lot when she breathes and the vet was concerned maybe we should biopsy her throat to see what's going on and if there's cancer or something. We haven't yet tho bc she's always been a heavy breather and they haven't seen any issue in her lungs and wanted to wait until today when more doctors were in the clinic to discuss since it was a holiday yesterday.
They said alternatively, they could try giving her steroids to help any inflammation go down, but if they did that and then we wanted to do the biopsy, they might not see evidence of cancer if it's there.Needless to say, we're at our wit's end over this. Our poor girl has been so sick for so many days, and I'm just freaking out that they can't diagnose it.
Does anyone know what else this could/might be? Anyone have similar situations with their kitties?
Please keep Nagini in your thoughts and let me know if you have any ideas.
I wish I had any idea on how to help you, the only thing I can think of is what LTS3 suggested. 
