Sick kitty

becky

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Aug 6, 2002
Messages
3
Purraise
0
I adopted an older (8ish) cat from the shelter about 6 weeks ago. She was a stray. She has stopped eating, is losing fur on her chest and back legs and on her neck. She isn't wearing a collar, so that isn't rubbing her neck. She threw up white froth twice on Saturday. We went to the vet yesterday. He ruled out FeLV, and sent blood the the lab to get tested. We should hear something today. She is on antibiotics also. I haven't had a cat as an adult, so I never had to get medicine down one. Of course, she fights it, but my husband and I manage to get it down her. Anyone have suggestions to make it easier? It is liquid in a dropper. We also used a childs medicine syringe to get some water and cat food gravy down her yesterday. She was kind of mad at me this morning when I left for work, but she did go downstairs and use the litterbox for the first time in over 24 hours! She hasn't had any accidents that I can tell.

She is such a sweet cat. The vet checked her out right after I brought her home, but he says that she may have been sick when she joined the family. She didn't act sick! She brought socks from the basement upstairs in the middle of the night and would run to the fridge whenever she heard the door opening!.

Just wanted to talk about this.
Thanks!
 

hissy

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Feb 19, 2001
Messages
34,872
Purraise
76
Hi Becky,

The easiest way to give meds to a cat, is to kneel on the floor and cross your feet behind you. Make a wedge between her legs by seperating your knees, put your kitty between you legs so that her back is to your body. Take one hand, and place it on her head push back gently, this will raise her head and flatten her ears. Take the dropper and insert it gently into the side of her mouth until she opens her mouth then squeeze. You want to be sure if it is liquid you do not squirt it all at once into her mouth as you could flood her lungs. (you mentioned you gave her water and cat gravy)

Her course of action will be to back pedal against you, this works in your favor because she will raise her head higher, and she will be trapped between your knees and unable to get loose. Make sure that you don't squeeze her or hurt her, and give her a special treat when it is all over to chase away the badness of the medicine and not make her afraid of you.
 

sandie

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Nov 29, 2000
Messages
5,464
Purraise
7
Location
CT
I would just sit tight until the bloodwork is back from the lab. That will be the tell all to whats going on with her. The hair loss could be an allergy or a stress disorder, but you always want to rule out an organ failure. Let us know how the tests come back.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #4

becky

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Aug 6, 2002
Messages
3
Purraise
0
Our sick kitty, Data, passed away last evening. Her blood test came back showing extremely elevated liver counts. Here billiruben was 1400 when normal was around .5. The vet said that maybe she was older than we thought and she may have had liver problems when we adopted and that something (tumor?) may have finally grown and blocked her bile ducts.

Even though we only had her for six weeks, she was a great cat. I will miss her.

Thanks for the replies.
Becky
 

yola

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 29, 2002
Messages
1,592
Purraise
12
Location
Reading, UK
Becky - I'm so sorry this has happened. The little darlings do work their way into our hearts very quickly.

Hopefully we'll hear from you soon when you've had a chance to get over Data's passing.
 
Top