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My cat is sick, and I'm not sure what to do...

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cmd2014

Ideal_Rock
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Aug 6, 2014
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I'm hoping someone else has been through this. About 6 months ago Max started barfing more than usual. He's an 11 year old orange tabby. He's healthy and has always been a barfy cat (couple times a month, usually associated with stress or hair balls), but this has gradually increased to 2-3 times per day. It's also not when he first eats anymore, it's hours later. He's pretty much an indoor only cat (he comes into the backyard with me but he's supervised and there's little chance of him having gotten into anything). I've had him to the vet 4 or 5 times now. His blood work is normal, his urine is normal, he's had X-rays (normal) and repeat X-rays (also normal). He's eating ok, using his litter, and is otherwise acting normal apart from wanting more attention than usual. About a month ago he started having small amounts of blood in his vomit. The vet thought it was an inflammatory bowel issue, so we started him on dexomethasone. The barfing stopped completely, but recurred when we tried to wean his dose. We increased it again, and the barfing stopped again, but on Friday it started up despite his being on a full steroid dose. Only now it's worse and bloody again. And he's been sneezing a lot now too. We're heading back to the vet again (this will be visit 5 or 6) and I'm feeling at a loss of what to do. Has this happened to anyone else? Does this sound like it could still just be inflammatory bowel issues? I'm worried it might be something worse...
 
I have a cat with IBD. It took an entire year to get him stabilized. In addition to being on prednisolone for quite a while, he was on a prescription kibble containing duck and pea. It took quite a while to wean him onto the prescription diet. I had to grind the kibble in a coffee grinder to a powder and sprinkle tiny amounts on his usual food and gradually increase the amount of the powder. Then I slowly started adding kibble pieces to his regular food and slowly decreased his regular food until he was eating just the prescription food. He is off the prednisolone and eats a combo of the prescription diet and raw meat. My cat's IBD was brought on by an allergic reaction to quail which was his favorite food. Three years after diagnosis, I have started giving him tiny amounts of quail and he's doing well. Sometimes the condition goes into remission, sometimes not, but it is manageable with proper diet and in some cases, medication. We also slowly weaned him of the prednisolone over a 3 month period. Thankfully, he doesn't need the prednisolone anymore. He sometimes gets an upset tummy which we control by giving him Pepcid.

The blood in your cat's vomit could be due to the frequency of vomiting which may have agitated tissues. Your cat may have pancreatitis which is diagnosed via ultrasound. X-rays won't show either pancreatitis or IBD. IBD is diagnosed through biopsy. Absent an ultrasound or biopsy, a diagnosis of either is made when all other causes of symptoms have been eliminated.

IBD is an autoimmune disease and there could be many other symptoms that arise from it. If your vet is not experienced diagnosing or treating either pancreatitis or IBD, ask him/her to contact Cornell Vet School for advice if there isn't a specialty vet in your area who can advise.
 
Thanks Matata. It helps to know that this isn't unusual for this type of issue. I'm just freaked out because my previous cat had lymphoma when he started vomiting and we lost him about 6 months later, so I can't help going there. They've all said they don't think this is what's going on. He's my baby more than my husband's, so I'm having a hard time with this.

We're back from the vet. We're keeping him on the steroid, starting him on a hypoallergenic food, and they will schedule an ultrasound in the next week or two if the barfing doesn't settle down (and possibly a scope). He's also starting an antibiotic for the sneezing. Our usual vet (not the one we saw tonight) said she was fairly confident in being able to rule out pancreatitis based on his clinical exam and blood test results, and she did say that IBD might need aggressive management via diet. The vet we saw tonight didn't think we needed to take immediate action with further diagnostic tests (or I would schedule them tomorrow) but suggested we wait and see how he responds to the change in food. Are there allergy tests for cats, or is this trial and error to see what foods do/don't work? I can't help but think that this all started when we switched him to Blue Wilderness cat food in the hope that he might lose some weight (he was 19 pounds at the time). He had been on a salmon based food prior to that and seemed to be doing well (apart from being huge).
 
Sorry to hear your kitty is sick. I hope you get to the bottom of it.
 
For food allergies, unfortunately, the only way to determine the culprit is to put the cat on a novel protein -- such as rabbit, duck -- for a year (that's the time frame my vet gave me) and then add in other foods and watch for a reaction.

Fish-based diets are not good for cats. Fish has an enzyme in it that destroys thiamine which can lead to thiamine deficiency. Although commercial fish-based cat food has thiamine and other vitamins and minerals added into it, there is also the risk of heavy metal contamination. Fish as an occasional treat is ok.

I have a strong prejudice against kibble and advocate at least a good quality canned food (with protein listed as first 3 ingredients), and optimally, a raw food diet, preferably whole prey. You can find excellent info here catinfo.org about raw vs kibble diets. Dr. Pierson has worked with a friend of mine whose cat has liver issues that were life threatening and advised him on creating a diet that brought him back to good health. I have the utmost respect for her.

Blue Wilderness has had a number of recalls these past 2 years of their dog food. No reports of cat food recalls that I can remember, but I don't trust the company.

I hope your fur kid does well on the hypoallergenic food.
 
He's been on canned food for most of his life (because he's large, its always been recommended that we keep him on a high protein, low carb diet, which is impossible with kibble). He was on the canned Blue Wilderness food too, but I became suspicious with the timing of his symptoms and the fact that he started refusing to eat it (and he eats everything). I'm hoping the new food helps too. I'd feel terrible if we inadvertently caused this.
 
Hi,

We had a problem with one of our cats that was similar to yours. He was allergic to the room deodorizer spray that we used in our house. So, beside food being the irritant, think chemicals you use around the house. Our cat had been like yours, always , we thought , fur balling, but it got worse and we found he was allergic to the spray.

Annette
 
Annette, that's a good thought. We don't use much due to my allergies, but we recently changed cleaning services, so I'll check what they are using (I'm pretty sure it's just vinegar and water for the floors and dry dust cloths, but I'm willing to chase any lead).
 
Is kitty vomitting if you go back to the prior brand of food?

If kitty is not a grazer maybe measure out small portions a few times a day.

Fingers crossed...
 
cmd2014 I am so sorry about your sweet kitty and I hope Max makes a full recovery. Matata has given you excellent advice. Sending lots of healing dust and good luck to sweet Max.
 
I know nothing about cats but I hope you can find the issue. healing vibes to the kitty!
 
Oh gosh... sorry to hear about your cat! Hope the vet receives some clarity on how to diagnose/treat the problem.
 
Just thought of something - check the wet food ingredients for carageenan. Apparently it wreaks havoc on the digestive track? I try to buy carageenan free food but I often fail lolol (forget to look at labels).
 
Thanks everyone. Today's been barf free, and he loves the new duck and pea protein hypoallergenic food. I hope this means we are getting somewhere.

And, I've almost forgiven him for the way he behaved with the vet last night. He had a MELTDOWN and decided to scream at the top of his lungs any time the vet touched him. Pat him, scream. Talk to him, full volume scream in her face. Try to listen to his heart/lungs...scream. Rectal thermometer....scream like your nails are being pulled out and curl up into a ball - after making sure the thermometer couldn't go where it was intended (who knew cats could squeeze their tushies so hard). It was so bad we heard a little girl in the waiting room tearfully ask her mom what they were doing to the cat. (Nothing...she was just fluffing his hair to look for fleas as I had mentioned that he's been twitching and grooming like he might have some). Seriously, my ears hurt it was so loud. He was not trying to be brave AT ALL. There was mention of sedatives for future appointments. It was mortifying. My husband was almost in tears. I think part of it was he was holding Max rather than me as I'm still on lift limits post-surgery (it's been that kind of month). He's never been a stoic cat, but this was beyond anything I've ever seen.

I have to thank you Matata. It's funny, 3 different vets have all told me it's IBD and that it's going to take some time to get this managed, but I feel so much better now after hearing from you. I've been so worried that they were missing something, and I've felt a huge weight off me today. I was randomly bursting into tears the past few weeks worrying (it's been a tough slog since Easter between several deaths in the family, my surgery, and this), so this is huge.

So since I'm home for another week with my own recovery, I can give him small amounts through the day (he's not a grazer, and with the steroids he's convinced that I'm determined to starve him). Once I'm back to work though it will have to be morning and night. I'm not close enough to feed him at lunch.

But he seems happy today. Hanging out on the bed with me:

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Napping in the forbidden chair (he's figured out I can't pick him up and give him the boot):

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Enjoying all the toys he pulled out of his box (because one is just never really enough):

IMG_0130.JPG
 
What a sweetheart and so handsome too!:love:
Glad Max is stable right now and sending buckets and buckets of healing dust and good thoughts his way.
 
That's a terrible vet experience. Have you thought about taking him to a feline-only practice? They're often more knowledgeable and more gentle when it comes to scared kitties.
 
ecf8503 said:
That's a terrible vet experience. Have you thought about taking him to a feline-only practice? They're often more knowledgeable and more gentle when it comes to scared kitties.
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Oh no, it wasn't the vet. It was Max. He's been going to this practice since he was a kitten because I love his vet, and although he normally doesn't love the experience (well, except for the treats he gets afterward), he's usually limited it to verbalizing like a normal cat. Ok, he's not known for being stoic, so maybe it's a bit more than a normal cat. Usually though he can be chuffed around a bit to come around, and the treats and the new toys help. This time was just different because I've had to have him in to the vet 4-5 times over the last couple of months, and each time he's needed IV hydration (which has to hurt because they put huge amounts of water under the skin), a whole bunch of needles (some of which they warned me would really sting), blood draws, x-rays, and a catheter for urinalysis, and he's just had enough. I can't say I blame him. He was making his feelings known the whole way there. I felt bad because the vet was doing her best to give him time, give him pats, talk to him, let him sniff her, and generally be kind, and he was (understandably) having none of it. In the end she said that she didn't think that trying harder to do an exam would give more benefit than continuing to stress him out would cause harm, so we called it a day. So yeah, it was pretty horrible, but I really don't think the vet could have done anything differently to have made it better. It's probably my fault. Being that he's an only child, he's a pretty spoiled baby. It's just hard when they don't understand that you're trying to help them.
 
cmd2014 said:
I have to thank you Matata. It's funny, 3 different vets have all told me it's IBD and that it's going to take some time to get this managed, but I feel so much better now after hearing from you. I've been so worried that they were missing something, and I've felt a huge weight off me today. I was randomly bursting into tears the past few weeks worrying (it's been a tough slog since Easter between several deaths in the family, my surgery, and this), so this is huge.
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I'm happy I could bring you some measure of relief. This is the 2nd cat I've had with IBD. My first one developed it at the age of 14 yrs after her life long companion died. She went from a healthy weight to near death in 3 days. I had a biopsy done to determine that she didn't have lymphoma. Prior to this, I'd never had a cat develop the syndrome. She was a tough one to get stabilized and I thought she was going to die. The vet started her on metronidazole before starting the prednisolone. Metronidazole tastes horrible and induces intense salivation. Poor kitty was miserable for a week. Then the vet put her on a canned food (can't remember what it was) and she developed severe diarrhea and nearly died again. I put her back on her whole prey diet and she stabilized within days.

Neither of my cats had either the chronic constipation or chronic diarrhea that is often a symptom but they did have projectile vomiting within seconds of eating. That of course, even though both were seen by the vet on the 2nd day of onset of symptoms, had irritated their esophaguses and they didn't want to eat. It was a bit of a merry-go-round between not eating, eating-vomiting-intermittent diarrhea until the meds kicked in.

Stress can induce an episode and you'll need to keep your antennae up if Max has a flare up to try to determine if it's due to stress or just a cycle in the illness.

My boy does better with 3 meals a day. Normal sized breakfast and dinner and a snack before bed. There are automatic feeding bowls you can buy if you think Max needs a meal between breakfast and dinner. If not, I think it would be good to feed him a meal (full portion or 1/2 to 1/4) before bed. That might mean giving him smaller portions for breakfast and dinner if his weight is an issue.

If you haven't already talked to your vet about Pepcid, you might want to do so. It helps settle the stomach and might be worth giving him at least for the first month he's on the steroid and at times when he is having an episode should symptoms recur.
 
One more thing, is he on canned or kibble prescription food? If it's kibble, you can buy a kong and fill it with the kibble and he'll at least get some exercise batting the kong ball around trying to get the kibble out. It will also slow down his eating which is better for the IBD. And, it is better for cats with this disease to eat from an elevated dish. I bought mine here https://www.classycatdishes.com/
 
This all started when he was stressed. First, he developed some arthritis in the base of his tail and was on anti inflammatory meditation, which clearly upset his stomach. He started being sick with that, so we stopped giving it to him, and the vet treated it with a steroid instead. He was ok for a while, and then we left him with a cat sitter (a good friend of mine who loves him to pieces) while we were on vacation for 2 weeks, which is when the barfing started in earnest. And then we were away again shortly after to attend funerals, and there were unfamiliar people in the house. And then my surgery...so it's been a lot of disruption for him. He dropped 3 lbs in a month with all the vomiting, and then he refused to eat, so I'm happy he's eating again and has regained some weight (you could argue he really doesn't need it back on, but I'm not going to worry about him being overweight right now). Thankfully no constipation or diarrhea.

The vet did mention Pepcid, but it doesn't taste good so we can't mix it into his food, and wrestling pills down him is near impossible, so she suggested that we try this first. If it doesn't work, I'm willing to dissolve it in water and squirt it into him like we do any other meds we can't hide in food. We're doing that with his antibiotic at the moment.

Truthfully, he's such a pest about food that we do normally give him breakfast, dinner, and some before bed. I can see how not having an empty stomach would help keep irritation down.
 
cmd2014 said:
he vet did mention Pepcid, but it doesn't taste good so we can't mix it into his food, and wrestling pills down him is near impossible, so she suggested that we try this first. If it doesn't work, I'm willing to dissolve it in water and squirt it into him like we do any other meds we can't hide in food.
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Try pill pockets http://www.greenies.com/cats/pill-pockets.aspx Vet's usually have a supply in their offices, PetSmart, Amazon, Chewy's also carry them.
 
Yeah, we've tried those too. He won't eat them and he's a spitter. Even when the vet has given him pills, he's managed to work them back up and out. Liquid is pretty much the only way to guarantee it stays in him unless its tasteless enough to mix into his food. He's my 4th cat and I've never struggled with any of the others the way I do with him. I would have said I was an expert cat pill giver before this (both of my last two cats lived to be geriatric kitties and were on regular meds by the end). I love him, but he's difficult. He's a rescue cat, so he came to us with some quirks.

He's on prescription canned food. I will get him an elevated dish for sure, and will buy some Pepcid. If it tastes anything like Zantac, he'll hate me, but I'm willing to do pretty much anything if it helps him stabilize.
 
cmd2014 said:
I love him, but he's difficult. He's a rescue cat, so he came to us with some quirks.
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I have one of those two. Quirky, not a rescue. Maliik can't be picked up/handled in any way -- he bites and scratches really bad. He's a large cat at 22 lbs and very strong. Has to be anesthetized for something as simple as a yearly exam. My vet and I discussed years ago, that if he came down with any illness/injury that required long-term medication, we'd have to euthanize him. He's had to be on meds in the past for an abscess. My only option was hiding it in his food. I was successful at getting him dosed less than 50% of the time and both of us were lucky he managed to recover. So I have that hanging over my head, scared spitless that something will happen to him that we won't be able to treat and he'll die when he otherwise could recover if he weren't so difficult.
 
It's a good thing we love them, even when they're difficult. Dogs are way easier...
 
So far so good. The only barf has been a hairball, and one episode after he ate grass (lots of it). Otherwise he seems well. Fingers crossed...
 
If the issue is vomiting, ask you vet about trying Cerenia (it is an anti nausea med, usually given to dogs with motion sickness - it blocks the signal to the brain that he needs to throw up). My cat, Seth, has kidney disease and about every 9 days he has a 12 hour long puke fest. Its terrible, but he recovers. I've been experimenting with Cerenia. The cat dose is a quarter of a 16 mg pill (easy to break). I dose him on days 8, 9, 10 and that seems to be working. He has been puke free since June 14th. Some members of my kidney group give it to their cats continuously - 5 days on, and then 2 days off. I haven't gotten that far yet, but I may try it the next time I talk to my vet.

*Edited to add that Seth also takes Pepcid AC twice a day.
 
I just wanted to give an update and to thank all of you for your help. We lost Max last night. He had been doing really well on dexamethasone and the hypoallergenic diet and up until Wednesday had been back to his normal self. Just last week he was catching mice and giving me sass. But he stopped eating much a couple of days ago and started rapidly losing weight and becoming weak. I spoke to the vet on Thursday and we started giving him Pepcid and had an ultrasound scheduled for Tuesday, but by yesterday he was lethargic and weak so we took him in on an urgent basis. Our hope was that they would rehydrate him and he'd perk back up the way that he always had, but diagnostic testing showed that he was bleeding internally from what was now apparent as multiple masses indicative of lymphoma. We weren't able to save him and we had to let him go. My heart is broken. He was dearly loved and I will miss him so much.
 
HI:

CMD--of course you are heart broken. Sad news about furry Max.:(2

Healing vibes across the miles--Sharon
 
Oh no, I am so very sorry cmd2014. It is so hard to lose a furbaby. We lost our precious lab a few years ago under similar circumstances so I empathize with you. You provided Max with great care and he enjoyed a good quality of life because of it. Sending you lots of thoughts of comfort and support, and hugs too.
 
I am so sorry for your loss!:cry2:
 
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