Hi friends,
Please bare with me.
I have a 15 year old kitty who has just had a two month long vet adventure. This is info heavy but ultimately my question is about food
She went to the vet in May for a UTI, where she was not eating, throwing up, vocalizing loudly at the litter box, and eventually peeing blood while looking for human help. She was treated for this and recovered well, but we did not know what caused it. The only change was in her litter, so I swapped it back to okocat wood. They noted she may have oral lesions but forgot to follow up on it.
This Tuesday she came back after a five day vet venture with four of the days being in the 24h emergency clinic.
The prior week she was intermittently throwing up, until she started refusing to eat. After the second day of having nothing to eat, I called the vet and she went in for blood work. She had to go back the next morning as she had nothing in her bladder. There was suspicion of pancreatitis, or the oral lesions, but also mild concern that something else may be being missed (cancer, growths, blockages). She had blood in her bladder. That afternoon she was taken to the 24h emergency clinic for dehydration and anorexia. She stayed over the weekend for supplementary care and to wait for the radiologist to come back to work that Monday for an ultrasound.
The diagnosis was pancreatitis, and there was no sign of cancers or blockages on the ultrasound or xrays. I briefly wondered if the antibiotics from the UTI may have helped set this in motion, but she is on more now; or just a lingering affect from the UTI in general. I'm considering buying some raw goats milk but I'm afraid of giving her an upset stomach.
She is eating better now, but still in a lot of discomfort. It's far from how she used to eat. She also still cries at the litter box. I'm also still no closer to figuring out how to prevent these things from happening to her in the future. Especially with her age. This venture cost $6500 in total, in part because the local vet forwarded the wrong blood work and the emergency vet had to run all the diagnostic tests a second time. I'm trying to figure out an action plan that doesn't involve just throwing money at everything and hoping it sticks. Because I'm not sure if she should keep eating the same food, or transition to something else. I've suspected her aversion to poultry might be an allergy and not just personal taste, as she frequently had a furless belly pouch. There is money to fund it, I just don't want to make her suffer for no reason (ie throwing up new foods).
On top of all this, she has had teeth removed twice due to oral lesions. We suspect she may have one or two affecting her currently. The original plan was to have her teeth done, but we were worried something else was going on besides her teeth bugging her.
She's a very anxious cat and I am not sure if it is worth putting her through more sorrow so soon after her ordeal by having her put under again for dental xrays, transfer to a dental specialist, and/or allergy testing. Especially since she's starting to eat again and still has antibiotics to finish.
Some background info:
Food -
Primary foods are freeze dried raw and kibble. She likes Orijen fit and trim, and was swapped to this from the Orijen Regional Red because she is over weight (currently 15lb, was 17lb--her whole litter and family line had trouble with weight management and died early from digestive or urinary issues).
She likes Stella and Chewy's Chicken and Salmon freeze dried, which was previously mixed into Honest Kitchens prowl to last longer - however she does not like prowl and prefers the first by itself. She was swapped to this after Feline Natural's freeze-dried began making her throw up.
For treats she likes Orijens freeze dried treats and Inaba Churu purees. She has had a lot of churus during this latest venture because it was the one thing she would try to eat. She currently willingly takes her antibiotics with the churus.
From 1-5 years old she ate with our family cats and constantly had diarrhea on their Nutro kibbles. After the family cats had kidney complications, I tried swapping her off kibbles onto various wet/raw foods that took a while to adhere to. She did very well on most of them. She loved Feline Natural freeze dried and raw elk, venison and other red meats. She did not like raw poultry of any kind. She stopped having diarrhea, but I discovered that she would either eat kibbles/commercial wet and get diarrhea, or eat raw and get constipation. The best in-between for stool consistency was on Orijen kibble, but did not solve hydration, and still occasionally would have litter trouble.
She's been tried on a large variety of other foods that were canned, raw or freeze-dried. In the past few years I've tried to keep her more consistent on foods that worked for her and she would eat.
Fruitables pumpkin digestive / urinary health treats / pumpkin patch ups were ordered once or twice a year due to constipation issues. During her UTI episode we were so desperate that we went to a 24h store to buy sweet potato baby food.
Below is a rough history of some order histories I have access to from one place I order from:
2022 -
She eventually ate the prescription kibble diet (Hills) at the emergency clinic, and would pick at the gastrointestinal EN (purina) wet but not eat it fully--gravy.
Prior to this we tried her on fancy feast out of desperation with the same result, eating gravy but no content.
She's currently eating her orijen/stellas, just very little of it and has to be prompted to.
May, after the UTI:
- KOHA Chicken Pate wet - wouldn't eat
- Tiki Velvet Mousse Chicken wet - wouldn't eat, and threw up when she did
- Tiki Cat Succulent Chicken wet - wouldn't eat
April:
- Orijen Fit & Trim dry, her main kibble/calorie intake (bag is still in use; wouldn't eat during this episode) - started throwing up after the uti
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken freeze dried
January:
- Orijen Fit & Trim dry
- KOHA Duck Pate wet - ate it but not a fan
- KOHA Chicken pate wet - ate it but not a fan
2021 -
November, in response to some constipation:
- BFF Tuna & Beef Baby Cakes wet - wouldn't eat, and threw up when she did
- BFF Tuna & Duck Devour Me - wouldn't eat, and threw up when she did
- The Honest Kitchen minced chicken in bone broth - wouldn't eat
September:
- Orijen Fit & Trim dry
- Honest Kitchen's goats milk
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken freeze dried - rehydrated with water/goats milk - likes this but I suspect too much of it caused the november constipation
June:
- Orijen Fit & Trim dry
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken freeze dried
April:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
January:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Honest Kitchen prowl (chicken) - she began hating this
- Boreal chicken, duck and salmon wet - she likes this but it is hard on her teeth and hard to find in stock
2020 -
October:
- Honest Kitchen prowl
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
September:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Boreal chicken, duck and salmon wet
August:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
May:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
March:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
February:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- NZ Meow Lamb & Hoki freeze dried - she liked it but threw it up once, so swapped back to stella and chewy's
- Honest Kitchen goats milk
2019 -
December:
- NZ Meow Chicken & Salmon
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
October:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Boreal chicken, duck and atlantic wet
- Feline Natural chicken & venison wet - tried their canned after their freeze dried line began making her throw up, she was so-so with it
- Honest Kitchen prowl
August:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
June:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
April:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
March:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
- Boreal chicken, lamb and beef wet
- Honest Kitchen turkey bone broth - hated it
- Orijen Fit & Trim
January:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen goats milk
- Boreal chicken, lamb, beef wet
- Orijen Fit & Trim
2018 -
October:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Boreal chicken, duck, salmon wet
- Boreal chicken, lamb, beef wet
- Feline Natural chicken and lamb freeze dried - she had previously been on this for years but began throwing it up and having worse constipation
July:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Feline Natural chicken and lamb
- Primal venison freeze dried - she liked these but they were not as readily available, and she did not like them nearly as much as the frozen raw venison or elk available locally
June:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Feline Natural chicken and lamb
- Feline Natural green tripe booster - hated this
February:
- Canada Fresh red meat canned - she liked this but it was hard on her teeth
- KOHA kangaroo wet - she liked this and it was very soft
- KOHA chicken and kangaroo wet - so-so
- KOHA duck stew wet - wouldn't eat
- Feline Natural chicken and lamb
- Primal chicken and salmon freeze dried
- Boreal chicken, lamb and beef
January:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Feline Natural chicken and venison freeze dried
- Feline Natural chicken and venison wet - ate this but so-so
- Feline Natural chicken and lamb wet - so-so
- Canada Fresh chicken wet - ate this but hard on her teeth
I have her blood work/diagnostics but I am not 100% sure on how to read some of it. Some out of reference range values:
June 18
LYM 0.97 (1.5 - 7)
MON 1.57 (0 - 1.5)
NEU 16.36 (2.5 - 14)
MPV 11.0 (12 - 17)
ALP 172 (10 - 90)
ALT 202 (20 - 100)
AMY 1116 (300 - 1100)
GLU 10 (3.9 - 8.3)
TP 82 (54 - 82)
June 20
LYM 0.75 (1.5 - 7)
NEU 16.81 (2.5 - 14)
ALP 165 (10 - 90)
ALT 237 (20 - 100)
GLU 10 (3.9 - 8.3)
AST(SGOT) 155 (10 - 100)
ALT(SGPT) 180 (10 -100)
Alkaline Phosphatase 168 (6 - 102)
PrecisionPSL 345 (8 - 26) <-- pancreatitis
WBC 17.5 (3.5 - 16)
Platelet Count 138 (200 - 500)
Neutrophils 80 (35 - 75)
Lymphs 8 (20 - 45)
Monocytes 6 (1 - 4)
Absolute Neutrophils 14 (2.5 - 8.5)
Absolute Monocyte 1.05 (0 - 0.6)
Absolute Eosinophil 1.05 (0 - 1)
Sorry for the long list / data dump. Think I needed to just type it out because I am frustrated.
Nobody said anything to me about IBD, so I am not sure if that is a concern: Her stomach gastric wall was 5mm thick. Intestines - duodenum 3mm, jejunum 3mm, ileum 3mm, colic 2mm. The report said this was normal.
In short, I am torn between returning her to just her orijen kibbles + stella and chewy's because I am concerned this back and forth between constipation and dehydration is causing ongoing issues. And between ordering a bunch of foods she's tried in the past, in fear of upsetting her digestion - or adding foods with too much bone content (red dog blue cat raw kangaroo and venison, boreal pork wet, beef bone broths, raw goat milk, raw elk).
Suppose I am looking for some insight and suggestions.
tldr;
1. cat had a uti, not sure from where. what's good for preventing future utis?
2. cat was having trouble seeing water in her stainless steel bowl so she was bought a catit fountain that she likes. how do i keep her drinking?
3. cat gets diarrhea and constipation. life long battle. should I keep trying to swap her food?
4. chicken allergy?? she likes red meat, do I just give her that? rabbit? continue the food she has had forever (chicken)?
5. has pancreatitis. from what? IBS, IBD? unlucky? no action points? do nothing? much confuse. what's good for preventing pancreatitis and other digestive upsets? recovery?
6. oral lesions. maybe? wait and see, go for vet? It would be a long wait and multiple visits (vet busy, not specialized in dental, still recovering)
Please bare with me.
I have a 15 year old kitty who has just had a two month long vet adventure. This is info heavy but ultimately my question is about food
She went to the vet in May for a UTI, where she was not eating, throwing up, vocalizing loudly at the litter box, and eventually peeing blood while looking for human help. She was treated for this and recovered well, but we did not know what caused it. The only change was in her litter, so I swapped it back to okocat wood. They noted she may have oral lesions but forgot to follow up on it.
This Tuesday she came back after a five day vet venture with four of the days being in the 24h emergency clinic.
The prior week she was intermittently throwing up, until she started refusing to eat. After the second day of having nothing to eat, I called the vet and she went in for blood work. She had to go back the next morning as she had nothing in her bladder. There was suspicion of pancreatitis, or the oral lesions, but also mild concern that something else may be being missed (cancer, growths, blockages). She had blood in her bladder. That afternoon she was taken to the 24h emergency clinic for dehydration and anorexia. She stayed over the weekend for supplementary care and to wait for the radiologist to come back to work that Monday for an ultrasound.
The diagnosis was pancreatitis, and there was no sign of cancers or blockages on the ultrasound or xrays. I briefly wondered if the antibiotics from the UTI may have helped set this in motion, but she is on more now; or just a lingering affect from the UTI in general. I'm considering buying some raw goats milk but I'm afraid of giving her an upset stomach.
She is eating better now, but still in a lot of discomfort. It's far from how she used to eat. She also still cries at the litter box. I'm also still no closer to figuring out how to prevent these things from happening to her in the future. Especially with her age. This venture cost $6500 in total, in part because the local vet forwarded the wrong blood work and the emergency vet had to run all the diagnostic tests a second time. I'm trying to figure out an action plan that doesn't involve just throwing money at everything and hoping it sticks. Because I'm not sure if she should keep eating the same food, or transition to something else. I've suspected her aversion to poultry might be an allergy and not just personal taste, as she frequently had a furless belly pouch. There is money to fund it, I just don't want to make her suffer for no reason (ie throwing up new foods).
On top of all this, she has had teeth removed twice due to oral lesions. We suspect she may have one or two affecting her currently. The original plan was to have her teeth done, but we were worried something else was going on besides her teeth bugging her.
She's a very anxious cat and I am not sure if it is worth putting her through more sorrow so soon after her ordeal by having her put under again for dental xrays, transfer to a dental specialist, and/or allergy testing. Especially since she's starting to eat again and still has antibiotics to finish.
Some background info:
Food -
Primary foods are freeze dried raw and kibble. She likes Orijen fit and trim, and was swapped to this from the Orijen Regional Red because she is over weight (currently 15lb, was 17lb--her whole litter and family line had trouble with weight management and died early from digestive or urinary issues).
She likes Stella and Chewy's Chicken and Salmon freeze dried, which was previously mixed into Honest Kitchens prowl to last longer - however she does not like prowl and prefers the first by itself. She was swapped to this after Feline Natural's freeze-dried began making her throw up.
For treats she likes Orijens freeze dried treats and Inaba Churu purees. She has had a lot of churus during this latest venture because it was the one thing she would try to eat. She currently willingly takes her antibiotics with the churus.
From 1-5 years old she ate with our family cats and constantly had diarrhea on their Nutro kibbles. After the family cats had kidney complications, I tried swapping her off kibbles onto various wet/raw foods that took a while to adhere to. She did very well on most of them. She loved Feline Natural freeze dried and raw elk, venison and other red meats. She did not like raw poultry of any kind. She stopped having diarrhea, but I discovered that she would either eat kibbles/commercial wet and get diarrhea, or eat raw and get constipation. The best in-between for stool consistency was on Orijen kibble, but did not solve hydration, and still occasionally would have litter trouble.
She's been tried on a large variety of other foods that were canned, raw or freeze-dried. In the past few years I've tried to keep her more consistent on foods that worked for her and she would eat.
Fruitables pumpkin digestive / urinary health treats / pumpkin patch ups were ordered once or twice a year due to constipation issues. During her UTI episode we were so desperate that we went to a 24h store to buy sweet potato baby food.
Below is a rough history of some order histories I have access to from one place I order from:
2022 -
She eventually ate the prescription kibble diet (Hills) at the emergency clinic, and would pick at the gastrointestinal EN (purina) wet but not eat it fully--gravy.
Prior to this we tried her on fancy feast out of desperation with the same result, eating gravy but no content.
She's currently eating her orijen/stellas, just very little of it and has to be prompted to.
May, after the UTI:
- KOHA Chicken Pate wet - wouldn't eat
- Tiki Velvet Mousse Chicken wet - wouldn't eat, and threw up when she did
- Tiki Cat Succulent Chicken wet - wouldn't eat
April:
- Orijen Fit & Trim dry, her main kibble/calorie intake (bag is still in use; wouldn't eat during this episode) - started throwing up after the uti
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken freeze dried
January:
- Orijen Fit & Trim dry
- KOHA Duck Pate wet - ate it but not a fan
- KOHA Chicken pate wet - ate it but not a fan
2021 -
November, in response to some constipation:
- BFF Tuna & Beef Baby Cakes wet - wouldn't eat, and threw up when she did
- BFF Tuna & Duck Devour Me - wouldn't eat, and threw up when she did
- The Honest Kitchen minced chicken in bone broth - wouldn't eat
September:
- Orijen Fit & Trim dry
- Honest Kitchen's goats milk
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken freeze dried - rehydrated with water/goats milk - likes this but I suspect too much of it caused the november constipation
June:
- Orijen Fit & Trim dry
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken freeze dried
April:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
January:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Honest Kitchen prowl (chicken) - she began hating this
- Boreal chicken, duck and salmon wet - she likes this but it is hard on her teeth and hard to find in stock
2020 -
October:
- Honest Kitchen prowl
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
September:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Boreal chicken, duck and salmon wet
August:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
May:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
March:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
February:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- NZ Meow Lamb & Hoki freeze dried - she liked it but threw it up once, so swapped back to stella and chewy's
- Honest Kitchen goats milk
2019 -
December:
- NZ Meow Chicken & Salmon
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
October:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Boreal chicken, duck and atlantic wet
- Feline Natural chicken & venison wet - tried their canned after their freeze dried line began making her throw up, she was so-so with it
- Honest Kitchen prowl
August:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
June:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
April:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
March:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
- Boreal chicken, lamb and beef wet
- Honest Kitchen turkey bone broth - hated it
- Orijen Fit & Trim
January:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen goats milk
- Boreal chicken, lamb, beef wet
- Orijen Fit & Trim
2018 -
October:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Boreal chicken, duck, salmon wet
- Boreal chicken, lamb, beef wet
- Feline Natural chicken and lamb freeze dried - she had previously been on this for years but began throwing it up and having worse constipation
July:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Feline Natural chicken and lamb
- Primal venison freeze dried - she liked these but they were not as readily available, and she did not like them nearly as much as the frozen raw venison or elk available locally
June:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Feline Natural chicken and lamb
- Feline Natural green tripe booster - hated this
February:
- Canada Fresh red meat canned - she liked this but it was hard on her teeth
- KOHA kangaroo wet - she liked this and it was very soft
- KOHA chicken and kangaroo wet - so-so
- KOHA duck stew wet - wouldn't eat
- Feline Natural chicken and lamb
- Primal chicken and salmon freeze dried
- Boreal chicken, lamb and beef
January:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Feline Natural chicken and venison freeze dried
- Feline Natural chicken and venison wet - ate this but so-so
- Feline Natural chicken and lamb wet - so-so
- Canada Fresh chicken wet - ate this but hard on her teeth
I have her blood work/diagnostics but I am not 100% sure on how to read some of it. Some out of reference range values:
June 18
LYM 0.97 (1.5 - 7)
MON 1.57 (0 - 1.5)
NEU 16.36 (2.5 - 14)
MPV 11.0 (12 - 17)
ALP 172 (10 - 90)
ALT 202 (20 - 100)
AMY 1116 (300 - 1100)
GLU 10 (3.9 - 8.3)
TP 82 (54 - 82)
June 20
LYM 0.75 (1.5 - 7)
NEU 16.81 (2.5 - 14)
ALP 165 (10 - 90)
ALT 237 (20 - 100)
GLU 10 (3.9 - 8.3)
AST(SGOT) 155 (10 - 100)
ALT(SGPT) 180 (10 -100)
Alkaline Phosphatase 168 (6 - 102)
PrecisionPSL 345 (8 - 26) <-- pancreatitis
WBC 17.5 (3.5 - 16)
Platelet Count 138 (200 - 500)
Neutrophils 80 (35 - 75)
Lymphs 8 (20 - 45)
Monocytes 6 (1 - 4)
Absolute Neutrophils 14 (2.5 - 8.5)
Absolute Monocyte 1.05 (0 - 0.6)
Absolute Eosinophil 1.05 (0 - 1)
Sorry for the long list / data dump. Think I needed to just type it out because I am frustrated.
Nobody said anything to me about IBD, so I am not sure if that is a concern: Her stomach gastric wall was 5mm thick. Intestines - duodenum 3mm, jejunum 3mm, ileum 3mm, colic 2mm. The report said this was normal.
In short, I am torn between returning her to just her orijen kibbles + stella and chewy's because I am concerned this back and forth between constipation and dehydration is causing ongoing issues. And between ordering a bunch of foods she's tried in the past, in fear of upsetting her digestion - or adding foods with too much bone content (red dog blue cat raw kangaroo and venison, boreal pork wet, beef bone broths, raw goat milk, raw elk).
Suppose I am looking for some insight and suggestions.
tldr;
1. cat had a uti, not sure from where. what's good for preventing future utis?
2. cat was having trouble seeing water in her stainless steel bowl so she was bought a catit fountain that she likes. how do i keep her drinking?
3. cat gets diarrhea and constipation. life long battle. should I keep trying to swap her food?
4. chicken allergy?? she likes red meat, do I just give her that? rabbit? continue the food she has had forever (chicken)?
5. has pancreatitis. from what? IBS, IBD? unlucky? no action points? do nothing? much confuse. what's good for preventing pancreatitis and other digestive upsets? recovery?
6. oral lesions. maybe? wait and see, go for vet? It would be a long wait and multiple visits (vet busy, not specialized in dental, still recovering)