What In The World Is Wrong With My Cat?My cat has some kind of digestive system illness.
He had this exact same illness at this exact time last year, but last year he beat it and this year he's having trouble.
Here are the stages:
1. He uses the litter box at the very start of the illness and it smells very unusual -- a fair amount like a dead animal.
There is no abnormal smell during later defecation -- only during this first time at the start of the illness.
2. He stops eating, drinking & cleaning and he lays around looking ill and has very little energy.
3. We give him some wet food that he really likes and he eats it but it results in diarrhea.
Over a period of 12 hours he becomes less and less willing to eat the wet food and eventually won't eat it at all.
4. We begin squirting water and liquid nutritional supplements, in small amounts, into his mouth to keep him hydrated and strong.
At first he keeps the water and supplements down for about and hour then he vomits most of it up.
Over the next 8 hours, he's able to keep the fluids down for shorter and short lengths of time until he starts vomiting them up with minutes of swallowing them.
5. At this point he is becoming increasingly dehydrated and we have to take him to the vet where he is put on an IV.
6. Over the next two days he remains on the IV to keep him hydrated while he experiences regular diarrhea that would kill him if he weren't on the IV.
He has no fever and the vets can find absolutely nothing wrong with him, after running extensive tests, except for a slightly elevated white blood cell count.
7. After two days on the IV, the diarrhea stops and he comes home and he's fine.
But not this year.
This year, everything is exactly the same except for that he's now on his fourth day on the IV and still has the diarrhea and he has even started vomiting while on the IV.
It is his fourth day without eating anything and we're very worried that he's going to become too weak to fight off whatever is causing this.
Does anybody know what might be causing this???
Right now, our guess is that it's some unknown bacteria or virus that he got from the fleas which started appearing at this time last year and this year.
But it could be something else that also comes with the summer or hot weather.
I hope somebody out there knows what might be causing this.
Sorry, I forgot to mention that he is an indoor cat.
He's never been outside and we don't wear our shoes into the house.
I should also mention that this is the second summer that we've lived here and, as I said, it's the second summer that it's happened.
We suspect that the fleas around here carry something that they didn't carry where we used to live.
Also, the vets aren't doing everything they can.
They don't really seem to care about my cat's life at all.
They show virtually no interest in finding out what's wrong with him.
We had to push for additional tests and we had to tell them to put him on an IV.
They were pretty much ready to give up from the start.
My cat is on the road to recovery now.
Once again, we still don't what the cause was.
As mentioned above, the doctors really didn't seem to care about my cat's life at all.
But, considering that they run an animal hospital, you would think they'd be interested in finding out what caused this illness for future reference at their hospital, or for submission to their headquarters' information database.
However that wasn't the case.
They genuinely weren't interested in finding out what the cause was.
Perhaps that's because such information would only be useful towards a speedy recovery, and a speedy recovery isn't the most profitable recovery.
Or it could be that they simply don't know how to go about performing the tests necessary to find the cause of this illness.
They refer to a cheat-sheet for instructions on how to test for a few common bacteria and viruses and, beyond that, they're clueless.
I think it's probably a combination of the two.
Greed and incompetence.
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My conclusion for this year is that it's probably bacteria carried by fleas or some other summertime insect, such as springtails, which first appeared the same time as the fleas.
It could also be bacteria in his food that was able to spread to a dangerous level because of the summertime heat, but this is the less likely possibility.
It could have been a virus, but our cat should have built up some level of immunity from last year if it were a virus so I'm leaning towards bacteria or some other parasite.
But, of course, it could still have been a virus.
I don't think it's Giardia as mentioned in the answer below, because the symptoms don't quite match up.
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Whatever the initial cause was, the thing that caused most of the problems for our cat actually turned out to be stomach acid.
That acid was discovered after it had already eaten away his GI tract for 4 days while at the vet.
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So ...
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The antibiotics and IV were likely necessary to save our cat from the bacteria.
And it was Prilosec and kitten milk that saved him from the acid and starvation.
He was started on Prilosec and antibiotics via IV while at the vet.
When he came home, we continued the Prilosec (1/4 of a standard OTC Prilosec pill every 24 hours) and antibiotics (1 Orbafloxacin pill every 24 hours).
Both pills had to be completely pulverized and dissolved in water, then mixed with kitten milk and given via a dropper and followed by water in a dropper
We didn't give the Prilosec and the antibiotics at the same same.
Also, we didn't give the 1/4 tablet of Prilosec all at once -- we divided it into 4 parts (1/16 of a tablet) and gave him one part per hour for four hours.
We had to do this to simulate time-release because, with a pre-dissolved pill, you lose the intended time-release property of the pill.
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At this point, he receives water, kitten milk and liquid chicken every two hours.
We use the cap of a 2-liter of soda for measurement.
He receives half a cap of milk, half a cap of water and a full cap of liquid chicken.
The liquid chicken is made using Gerber chicken baby food.
It's just a jar of chicken paste with no salt, flavorings or anything else.
We add just enough water to the chicken paste to produce a consistency that can be sucked up with the dropper -- no more, no less.
Every day, we increase the amount of water, milk and chicken by a small amount.
His GI tract was badly damaged by the stomach acid, so he can't eat anything solid for another weak, while he heals.
Posted by Connie S
you don't mention if this cat goes outside. If so, you might want to think about potential toxins. People tend to put chemicals on their lawn this time of year and it might be something he got into.
Since you are saying this is an annual thing, it probably isn't a chronic condition such as an allergy or IBD.
Posted by queenjeanarlene
I don't know what is wrong with him either. sometimes things just aren't fixable. it could be an allergy or as you surmised a bite from some bug or flee. I know your vet is doing all he can to support the Little fellows life. Ask the vet what his chances are?
I do hope you all the best for this dear Little pet.
Posted by naps with cats
Have you taken in a fecal sample yet?
It sounds like Giardia which causes severe diarrhea and dehydration.
You can order fluids, drip-sets and needles on line for MUCH cheaper than the Vet by the way. I've been doing Sub-Q (under the skin) fluids for my Hypercalcemic cat for over 2 years and she's still goin' strong. (The fluids can be done IV or under the skin, i.e., "subcuntaneously" - "Sub-Q" for short).
First i would definitely call around to all vets in your area and find the best one. Take that back, take the cat to emergency - needs fluids now. THEN look up the best vet in town (most compassionate, caring and knowledgeable) and switch. Forget the uncaring vets you are seeing now.
Praying your cat is going to be okay!!! Sounds like Giardia to me. Poo-poo smells REEEEEEEEEEALLY bad!
I would take in a fecal sample if you haven't already done so and ask them to test for Giardia and every other kind of parasyte. Giardia can be passed from one cat to another - even to humans if feces isn't handled correctly.
If you have more than one pet, I would isolate your sick one (maybe make up a cozy bed w/blankets on the floor, some toys and litter box, food and water in the bathroom for the sick one until you find out what's up).
P.S. If your cat has fleas (You mentioned fleas), get a "Capstar" from the emergency Vet you go to today (Starts killing fleas dead in 30 minutes), then follow up 24 hours later with Frontline; use frontline every 3 months. Make sure all bedding, cat bedding, blankies, etc. have been washed. I would also consider flea-bombing the house with all people and pets out of the house if you do have a flea problem.
I've never had a flea in my house (thank god) except with my first set of foster kittens who were sequestered in the bathroom - took care of that immediately - too many fleas can cause anemia, diarrhea, dehydration and all sorts of yuck-yuck as well.
Embarrassing Bodies - Digestive System Camera
Dr Christian tests out a new way of filming the inside of his digestive system with a miniature camera.
Orignal From: What In The World Is Wrong With My Cat?
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