Sick cat, not eating

Status
Not open for further replies.
G

Gracie85

Active Member
Lamborghini is 15 years old, was bordering on diabetes but changing him to a strict low-carb diet headed that off. He's also gone through being hyperthyroid, then treated and ended up hypothyroid and now on meds, has FORL with only about 4 teeth left (up front), gone through bladder issues in the past (filled with sludge, this was pre-diet change and thyroid issues), has arthritis, made it through a bout of neuropathy that had him shuffling on his hind legs for a couple months--he's been through quite a bit and always survives to keep doing his thing (eating, sleeping, peeing, and splashing the water bowl all over the room, not drinking, paddling in it for entertainment).
Three weeks ago one of our other cats spent the day at the vet's getting her teeth cleaned. A few days later, she came down with a "cold", sneezing and runny eyes. Consensus is it's a virus and just like with humans, you wait it out. This cold spread to the other cats (we have 4 total), and several days ago, Lamborghini got it too. We were hoping that since he pretty much keeps to himself he wouldn't, but he did.
Poor old Lambors is severely congested, despite getting Claritin twice a day as vet recommended to help him (and the others). He stopped eating about two days ago, so we thinned down his food and syringe-fed him, and he quickly started licking it right off the syringe, but only a small amount at a time, so we attempted feeding him frequently yesterday. By late in the day he was licking up the liquid-y food off a plate by himself. But today he won't even take the syringe food. I can hear his breathing across the room. He goes through rounds of wandering the house, sometimes following me. We keep washing off his nose with a warm, damp washcloth.
How long can he go with minimal food? He's fatter than he should be, but he's old and has been through so much.
Vet said we could make an appointment and they'd see if there was anything they could suggest or do. We're worried about the stress that will put on him, taking him in. I don't want him to die. But I really don't want him to die alone and stressed in a vet's cage if they say they think they should keep him and do IV or something, especially as it's the weekend coming.

(and, we don't have much confidence in their facilities right now, along with the other cat coming home with the virus, we suddenly just this week found that our cats have tapeworms, our indoor-only, no-contact with other cats, no mice in the house, no fleas, no nothing, cats...just over three weeks after the one cat spent the day at the vet....guess how long the tapeworm life cycle is...never in 40 years of owning cats have we ever had tapeworms before.... grrr!)
 
It is important that your kitty keeps taking in food, even if you must syringe feed and it's a battle. Some of it has to get in. Can you get some A/D (recovery) food from your vet to feed? It's very palatable and has a lot of calories. It's designed for cats that are sick and/or recovering. Many cats will eat this on its own because it tastes so good to them. I recently had to get some for a cat who would not eat. Royal Canin also makes a recovery formula -- but I've always had the best luck and interest with cats on the Hill's A/D formula. I always keep a couple of cans on hand here for emergencies. It is very smooth and can be easily blended with water for syringe feeding. Keep up the feeding because you don't want hepatic lipidosis to deal with (then you'd probably need a feeding tube).
 
What kind of BG numbers do you get on Lamborghini at home? If not testing at home -- what kind of Fructosamine numbers have you gotten from the vet?
 
It's also important that you keep Lambor hydrated? IF Lamborghini does not have heart problems (very important,) you could ask your vet about giving sub-q fluids at home. You've had a lot of cats so hopefully you know how to do this. I always keep supplies (Lactated Ringers solution/needles, etc.) at home for this as well. Or they can show you how to do it at home. Does he seem dehydrated? How long since he ate food on his own? Is he drinking water at all? When you lift up the skin on his scruff, does it stay there a long time or go back down quickly? Can you touch a finger to his gums? Do they feel slick and moist or dry and tacky? These are tests for dehydration?

A lot of times when cats are completely congested they will not eat. Also, if he has a fever, he most likely will not eat. The supportive care of syringe feeding should be able to get him over this hump. I would try syringe feeding several times a day to get nutrition into him. If he's taking in a lot of water with the syringe fed food and he's not dehydrated (per the tests above) then you may not need to do any sub-q fluids. More in another post coming.
 
We don't test at home, the vet has always said the fructosamine numbers are good, but I don't remember what they are; we have him tested for his thyroid medication levels about twice a year and get the rest of the bloodwork done at the same time. We never let him cheat on his diet, and up to now even measure out his food because he's a feline piggie and was getting fatter and fatter, so we've reached a compromise between making him miserable and reducing him to optimum weight (so he's a little fat now but not hungry all the time.) Luckily for us, not him, his arthritis means he can't jump up high, so the younger cats get fed up on a special table, and he can only eat his portion we put down on the floor. Normally he gets four meals a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner, bedtime, because he scarfs his food and if the portion is too big, he does the scarf'n'barf thing.
 
Half a Zyrtec regular strength allergy tablet once a day might help the congestion and act like an appetite stimulant. My vet said it’s fine to give. Because your cat is a little overweight it’s even more important he eat enough so he doesn’t get fatty liver.
 
To help with congestion. You can put Lamborghini in a room with a humidifier to keep the environment more moist and comfortable. You can get started by running a shower on hot in a bathroom and steaming it up in there, but one of the "cool mist" humidifiers that you can buy at most stores/pharmacies are very good at humidifying even a large bedroom.

You can get "Little Remedies Saline Spray +Drops" they are pediatric saline spray/drops that are even safe for newborns. You take kitty's head and tilt it back slightly and just put a drop at the opening of their nostril and let it kind of roll into the nose. They do not like it and will probably sneeze, but it can help.

If congestion is very severe, you can also buy the "Little Remedies Decongestant Nose Drops" that contain Phenylephrine HCL nasal decongestant. I have used this short term in a VERY congested cat. I have an FIV+ cat and he was sick for an entire month with an upper respiratory infection so I had to use these on him -- but only for about two days at a time. Those nasal decongestant drops can have a "rebound" effect (even in humans) if they are used long term. You should check with your vet on this, of course. Different vets will have different ideas about all this (I see yours recommended Claritin... I've never had luck with either Zyrtec or Claritin except that they make my cats sleep all the time).

Another thought, but this would require something from the vet. You can get some medication from the vet (liquid) to put in a nebulizer that hooks onto the inside of a cat carrier and plugs in to an electrical outlet. Cat goes inside carrier and you put a towel over it. The medication is nebulized into the carrier and the cat breathes it. I've also had to do this with cats that had pneumonia. It worked very well. I bought a portable "desktop" nebulizer from Amazon (vet may have something too).
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
It's also important that you keep Lambor hydrated? IF Lamborghini does not have heart problems (very important,) you could ask your vet about giving sub-q fluids at home. You've had a lot of cats so hopefully you know how to do this. I always keep supplies (Lactated Ringers solution/needles, etc.) at home for this as well. Or they can show you how to do it at home. Does he seem dehydrated? How long since he ate food on his own? Is he drinking water at all? When you lift up the skin on his scruff, does it stay there a long time or go back down quickly? Can you touch a finger to his gums? Do they feel slick and moist or dry and tacky? These are tests for dehydration?

A lot of times when cats are completely congested they will not eat. Also, if he has a fever, he most likely will not eat. The supportive care of syringe feeding should be able to get him over this hump. I would try syringe feeding several times a day to get nutrition into him. If he's taking in a lot of water with the syringe fed food and he's not dehydrated (per the tests above) then you may not need to do any sub-q fluids. More in another post coming.
Click to expand...

I think it is the congestion keeping him from eating, it's really bad. yesterday he was taking from the syringe and then licking off a plate, today he's said no so far. Hubby is out at an appointment right now, when he comes back I think maybe we'll try the steamy bathroom thing to help him out, and keep trying to feed him. I have a really bad back, Lambors is about 15 pounds and uncooperative when he doesn't like what you're doing, and has those really really big, thick, heavy duty claws that come with thyroid issues.

We've pulled out the fancy feast pate fish flavors, but so far today he's not interested.
 
tiffmaxee said:
Half a Zyrtec regular strength allergy tablet once a day might help the congestion and act like an appetite stimulant. My vet said it’s fine to give. Because your cat is a little overweight it’s even more important he eat enough so he doesn’t get fatty liver.
Click to expand...

Giving him half a Claritin twice a day, as our vet said. Still so "snorggy". I'm scared for our poor old boy. He deserves to fall asleep in his own bed and quietly never wake up, not go by struggling with snot and starving, or scared to death at the vet's.
 
Gracie85 said:
I think it is the congestion keeping him from eating, it's really bad. yesterday he was taking from the syringe and then licking off a plate, today he's said no so far. Hubby is out at an appointment right now, when he comes back I think maybe we'll try the steamy bathroom thing to help him out, and keep trying to feed him. I have a really bad back, Lambors is about 15 pounds and uncooperative when he doesn't like what you're doing, and has those really really big, thick, heavy duty claws that come with thyroid issues.

We've pulled out the fancy feast pate fish flavors, but so far today he's not intereste
Click to expand...

Good luck. I understand how difficult it can be with a big, strong, uncooperative cat! Highly recommend the Hill's a/d from the vet. It's worth a shot. If he eats nothing for a few days (it doesn't always take three days) then you could be looking at hepatic lipidosis. I hope the congestion will clear before then. It's such a huge worry when they won't eat.
 
Don't give up. I also recommend L-Lysine which is effective at treating herpes-related infections. Some vets say it's useless, but I have found with my MANY cats (and ferals I feed and foster kittens) that it does help with a lot of different URIs and is quite helpful if the eyes are involved too. I use Viralys powder, but it comes in treat form as well. If syringe feeding then it can be mixed into that food. Mix in baby food too -- by the way, have you tried Gerber HAM baby food? That's another of the "Big Guns" we try to keep on hand for emergencies. It's the HAM one that is usually the favorite, although you can try Gerber's chicken or turkey, too. I don't think Beech Nut has the ham? I never see it. But any all meat baby food with just water, meat, broth is okay to give them (no onions or garlic, but I never see that in baby food anyway... )
 
We have canned dog food topper which is JUST turkey, was considering trying to slurry up some of that and see if it made a difference. But I really think it's just that he's so congested he can't smell the food, and has difficulty eating and breathing at the same time. Normally, ol' Lamborghini will eat until he explodes, before we had to start separating the cats when feeding, I'd seen him eat so much, so fast (trying to gobble everybody's bowl before they finished it) that he projectile barfed right back into the bowl while still eating. The Supreme Scarf'n'Barf cat. Never refuses food, no matter what. Even tries to steal the dog's food right out from under them.
 
tiffmaxee said:
Try tuna on top. Try Gerbers 100% protein 2nds or another baby food that’s all protein no garlic or onion added. It’s easy to syringe also or finger feed.
Click to expand...

Have messages hubby to get the decongestant drops and baby food on the way home. Afraid to give real tuna, he has no teeth to chew with and is already all choked up, but we have ff salmon pate and other smelly fish flavors here already; yesterday they worked, today, not doing it. Just cleaned his nose off again. Hoping I can get him to follow me into the bathroom and lock him in while I shower. He keeps wandering, and coming up to me as if asking for help, (normally he just sleeps and demands food) so maybe....otherwise we will steam him when hubby gets home.
 
Cats won't eat what they can't smell. So this is a big problem with cats and respiratory issues. Sometimes warming food up helps. If your trying syringe feeding and that's not going well you probably have a bigger issue here. He has to eat and he has to drink. If it's been several days of this he needs fluids. I understand you not wanting to take him in but you may be at a point you either don't have a choice or you need sub-q at home if you know how and can do it at home. A cat that old and with so many health issues does not have a wide margin of error to wait and see.

Try baby food. Cats love it and sometimes it's enough to get them going. Plain chicken or turkey flavor baby food - nothing else added to it. If that's a bust ask for an appetite stimulant from your vet. They don't work for long term issues but it may be enough of a boost to jump start is desire to eat. But you've got to get those sinuses opened up or he is just not going to want to eat. The hot shower works. Get a bathroom good and sauna like and take him in there just like you do for infants for about 10 minutes several times a day. Then try to feed him after you've done the sauna treatment when you've got the best shot of the mucus being broken up.

Have you tried any kind of snot sucker to clean him out? You can get puppy and kitten aspirators on Amazon- I'd order one and try it out and try to help suck that stuff out of his nose. Don't get the human baby ones or the bulb turkey baster ones - they don't work. The the ones made for puppies and kittens and be gentle.

And get the tape work cleared up ASAP. Even though they don't go outside and you don't have an active flea problem it can happen. A flea in your house that one cat gets can give one cat tape worms then they all get them. Happened to me :(
 
Gracie85 said:
We have canned dog food topper which is JUST turkey, was considering trying to slurry up some of that and see if it made a difference. But I really think it's just that he's so congested he can't smell the food, and has difficulty eating and breathing at the same time. Normally, ol' Lamborghini will eat until he explodes, before we had to start separating the cats when feeding, I'd seen him eat so much, so fast (trying to gobble everybody's bowl before they finished it) that he projectile barfed right back into the bowl while still eating. The Supreme Scarf'n'Barf cat. Never refuses food, no matter what. Even tries to steal the dog's food right out from under them.
Click to expand...
Try warming the food in the microwave to give it more aroma. Try that ham baby food! Even warm it a little. Try just the water from a can of tuna over over the top of some food.
 
Cats got Droncit from the vet the day we first saw a worm emerge. Going to insist on a second dose as soon as it is okay to do so, without even testing, I want those worms GONE forever! So creepy.

Have been cleaning his nose, have been warming his food. Have been offering him food frequently.

No ham baby food to be had in our town, luckily I had an appointment in another town and we did find some there. No baby dose decongestant drops in any store or pharmacy in our town or the other one we went to, but did find adult strength; going to dilute them and then use that (former research chemist and biologist here, so it will be done right, don't worry).

He ate some syringed food this morning, but an hour later didn't want any more, even tho he should be feeling like he's starving at this point. Just got back from my dr appt, so going to clean his nose, give some drops, and then try feeding him again shortly thereafter, ham baby food, seafood flavor fancy feast, turkey dog food, whatever we have.
 
Thank you for the update. I am concerned about Lamborghini. I feel like he will improve though. Keep us posted. I will be thinking of you all.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
If congestion is very severe, you can also buy the "Little Remedies Decongestant Nose Drops" that contain Phenylephrine HCL nasal decongestant. I have used this short term in a VERY congested cat. I have an FIV+ cat and he was sick for an entire month with an upper respiratory infection so I had to use these on him -- but only for about two days at a time. Those nasal decongestant drops can have a "rebound" effect (even in humans) if they are used long term. You should check with your vet on this, of course. Different vets will have different ideas about all this (I see yours recommended Claritin... I've never had luck with either Zyrtec or Claritin except that they make my cats sleep all the time). .
Click to expand...

How often can we do the decongestant? It seems to have really helped.

He's eating some ham, he's eating some salmon FF, he's getting water in with the food as we are syringing it to him.
Right now he's walking up to the various water bowls and looking at them, so hubby is about to syringe him some water, guessing he can't smell the water, either, so his poor ol' brain isn't telling him to just drink from what he knows must be there? (He was never the brightest cat, and age has done him no favors in that department. But he's always been our big ol' goofy boy.)
 
I am so glad the decongestant drops have helped. I am looking at the instructions for the pediatric drops right now, and they say not more often than every 4 hours. Personally, I would only do every 12 hours in my cat. Also says not to use for more than three consecutive days. There are warnings on the box about using if patient has high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and thyroid disease so use with caution…. Sparingly. Hope he fights this off soon!
 
UPDATE: Every new thing we did seemed to be working--he'd take some of the new food from the syringe, drank some water from the syringe, the decongestant drops seemed to help, and we were encouraged--and then the next time we tried, they wouldn't and he'd refuse it all.
So today we begged the vet to squeeze him in, as they are only open in the morning, and they did (after offering me an appointment Monday, to which I replied, "He'll either be better or dead by then," and then they found us a time slot for an hour later.)
Vet said that anything with snot crusting the nose was bacterial and gave us antibiotics. Gave him a huge dose of subcutaneous fluids, said it was enough to last him 48 hours. He didn't have a fever, and it wasn't in his lungs. He's down almost 2 pounds from the last time we weighed him, about a month ago, guessing much of that is the dehydration. Gave us a couple cans of the recovery food. Did say that everything we were doing for him was right--the syringing, the claritin (1/2 pill twice a day) and the baby decongestant could be used 2-3 times a day for a few days until he cleared up, the smelly fish flavor food, baby food, whatever he would eat.

He was sitting on the sofa after dinner, with his head facing out towards the room, so hubby took a mug of hot water over, tossed a light towel over his head and steamed him for a bit. He was not amused by the towel, and then started trying to drink the steaming hot water. So hubby brought him a cup of cold water to drink, then went back to steaming him when he was done drinking. He's never been the brightest cat in the house, but he has definitely been the most tolerant of doing weird stuff to him (kids were 10 and 6 when we got him, and he was so good with them.)

It's now been about 12 hours since the vet visit, and he looks better. Instead of the syringe, he is eating water-mushy food from a spoon, hubby had to touch it to his mouth to get him to recognize it, but then he ate 1/4 can willingly. And just now, he went over to the water bowl, which is a big wide wide bowl (we also have medium-size dogs, so need bigger water sources) in a tub in another tray, and started splashing in the water and yanking the bowl around inside the tub in a tub (which is all rigged up that way because he DOES splash water all over the room, regularly), and when I yelled at him and made him stop, he stared at me a bit, then walked to the next room over where there's a small bucket of water in a tub, our second water bowl for everyone, and started pawing that water all over the place.

So I think we can cautiously say he is doing better.

Thank you all for all the help and advice.
 
I'm really happy to read this update! So glad that all the interventions were helpful and that you got him to the vet for some antibiotics!!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top