Sickness from atopica - please help!

[hillyy13]

Hi everyone, we finally gave in to giving our 2-year-old cat atopica for his skin allergies yesterday. He had it at about 1.30pm, drooled a fair bit but seemed ok. Come dinner time, he tried to eat a bit of dinner and vomited. Since then, he has vomited several times. My partner had to stay downstairs all night as he was vomiting through the night, along with mild diarrhea. He also seemed very out of it - wasn't responding to his name, just sleeping and hiding a lot.

This morning he was no better, not eating at all and drinking lots of water then vomiting it straight back up. So I called the vet and took him straight in. The vet checked him over and said he wasn't dehydrated so gave him an anti-nausea injection and that was it. We are now back home, he's still sleeping and not eating... just not himself at all.

Do I just wait for him to sleep it off and hope he is better tomorrow? How long should this take to clear up? Or is there something else I should be doing? I feel so helpless knowing he is obviously feeling very sick and there's nothing I can do about it. If he has had a reaction to the atopica does he not need something to flush it out? So many questions and I feel like my vet just brushed it off, gave him a jab and sent him on his way any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[hillyy13]

Update - he's had a few small mouthfuls of chicken and (hopefully) managed to keep it down. So it seems the anti-sickness injection is kicking in... fingers crossed he's on the mend!

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Just saw your post. I have no experience with atopica, but did a search on this site for other members who might have. Here are the results (see below) in case they can be of any help to you while you wait for others to come along with their firsthand experiences.
Search Results for Query: atopica | TheCatSite

 

[fionasmom]

Fourteen of the 205 cats (6.8%) were withdrawn from the studies due to the occurrence of an adverse reaction. Adverse reactions in these 14 cats included weight loss, anorexia, vomiting, diarrhea, hypersalivation, lethargy, hepatic lipidosis and jaundice, upper respiratory signs, ocular discharge, cough, toxoplasmosis, lymphopenia, anemia, bacterial dermatitis, seizure, ataxia, and small cell gastrointestinal lymphoma.

The most commonly reported adverse reaction was vomiting. In most cases, vomiting spontaneously resolved with continued dosing. Adverse reactions occurred most often with daily dosing compared to other dosing regimes.

Adverse reactions reported with greater than 2% frequency in the two field studies.

The above is the final section of drugs.com
Atopica for Cats for Animal Use - Drugs.com

Your cat certainly has been hit with some of the side effects, it seems. Please do not think that because others are listed that they are going to happen to your cat because it sounds as if he is on the mend. Those cats in the study received Atopica for up to126 days; also a hugely qualifying factor in the more serious side effects.

As to if he will sleep it off, that is likely. However, you are there with him and if something seems wrong, get additional help. You aren't going to put him on the 126 day plan, so he should recover.

 

[silent meowlook]

I had my cat, Rusty on Atopica for allergies that didn’t respond to the immunotherapy injections. It did stop the itching but it made him sick and he developed severe rhinitis afterwards that never went away. I do remember there was a lot of testing I had to do on him first. Toxoplasmosis as well as routine bloodwork. I personally feel it contributed to his kidney disease he developed shortly afterwards.

I am not a fan of Atopica.

 

[Meowmee]

Sorry he is not feeling good. Keep a close eye on him and return maybe to another dvm if he gets worse or does not get better. I am hoping he will get better in a few days and have no longterm adverse effects. Definitely stop the atopica for good and find another way to treat his symptoms.

 

[neely]

Should you decide to take your cat off Atopica I would check with your vet about whether to taper him slowly as opposed to stopping it suddenly.