another friend lost one of their orange tabbies a couple days ago. hope you get another 15
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I’m posting this from the parking lot at the emergency vet.
I was here Sunday, when my cat was showing signs of a UTI. She got an antibiotic, and I made a follow-up appointment with her regular vet for today (earliest they had that didn’t conflict with a work meeting; emergency vet had recommended 10 days…)
She’s turning 19 in a couple weeks. So when she was slow to improve, I was concerned but not surprised.
Yesterday, she didn’t show much interest in the food – first time she’s let me sleep to my alarm since she was put on prescription canned food which she loves – and I started to get worried that this was the beginning of the end. Perhaps an overreaction on my part, but…
Then when I woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of her vomiting…I got up, noticed blood in her box, and decided we didn’t need to wait for the afternoon appointment…
So here I sit, in the cold (waiting room is closed in the overnight hours), waiting while they run blood work…
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…and just spoke with the vet again. They didn’t see anything new or concerning under the circumstances. While they offered to keep her under observation, the vet said she’d recommend taking her home with some different meds and see how she does.
Not as immediately dire as I was afraid of, but the watchful waiting and worrying continues.
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Here’s hoping for less stressful bonus time with a long-loved pet.
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Update on my fur-baby:
She didn’t want to eat after getting home. Mentioned her lack of appetite to her regular vet on Friday, who prescribed Mirataz, giving me the instruction that if that didn’t bring back her appetite in 24 hours, I should take her back to the emergency vet, as they have a few more diagnostic tools (and would be adequately staffed over the weekend).
Saturday morning, after a bout of orange-colored diarrhea, I didn’t think we needed to wait the full 24 hours. We went, and they kept her overnight for observation (since the other next step would be an ultrasound, and there wasn’t an veterinary ultrasound tech on duty in the area over the weekend).
This morning, I checked in on the status, and they observed that personality and behavior-wise, she not only didn’t seem ill (aside from not eating), but she didn’t seem like an almost 19-year-old cat. She apparently developed quite the fan club (Burmese are that way). So, we decided to bring her home, and see if being in familiar settings would help her appetite.
She’s still a bit off – restless, quieter than normal, and a bit more unsteady than normal – but she did have a couple of bites of food before going to bed when we got home, and she asked for dinner which she ate a little bit of. Definitely better than last week, aside from lack of appetite.
They think the ultrasound tech will be in tomorrow (although staff on duty today weren’t positive, due to the MLK Day), so I’ll probably be dropping her off again tomorrow morning, in between my 7am and 9am meetings.
I’m happy that I’m not looking at an empty kitty-bed in my office, and I’m happy she ate a little something…but still worried.
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If you are looking for something to entice your cat to eat, Churu treats are hard to resist
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Couldn’t hurt. Now have a few arriving tomorrow, Amazon willing.
This is the pickiest, least food-motivated cat I’ve met. She doesn’t like treats; she doesn’t like scraps. We had a miracle when she was put on a prescription diet – she decided almost immediately that she LOVED some (but not all) of the available flavors.
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Concur on the Churu.
Suggest just cutting a small corner and pushing it out, letting them lick it like a popsicle. They seem like quite a bit to give to 1 cat - this way you could put it in a Zip-lock and save for later. Or just tape it.
Is there anything that can be tried at home for kitty diarrhea? Spoilered description for the squeamish.
I’m talking wet stools with some form
Is it likely food related? He doesn’t act sick at all. He eats a mix of wet and dry food & drinks water from the dog’s bowl.
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She didn’t like the Churu.
She ate about 1/3rd of a can of her prescription food after an ultrasound yesterday (after having had to fast from midnight – I felt cruel when she asked for breakfast for the first time in a few weeks), before I picked her up. She didn’t do much with dinner after I got her home. I offered her a second dinner just before bedtime, trying to tempt her by bringing it to her in bed. She had a couple of bites of it…and she did eventually eat most of it overnight (I left it in her usual food spot).
She didn’t demand breakfast this morning (presumably because of how late she had second-dinner), but she did eventually have about 2/3rds of what I offered her, albeit without her usual gusto.
(I’m also supposed to be spiking her food with probiotics, after a bout of orange diarrhea…but she not only refused my attempt…she actually turned her bowl over so that she wouldn’t be offended by her tainted food.)
Still waiting to hear back on the results of her ultrasound. Hopefully I can go back to “love her while we can” from “I’m afraid I’m saying good-bye”.
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I think limited, bland food is the usual non-prescription remedy.
If it’s prolonged, the vet can prescribe an anti-diarrheal and perhaps probiotics while they figure out whether there’s something else that needs treatment.
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What is considered “bland food” for kitties?
I assume hypollargenic dry food?
I don’t know about wet food. I don’t have much experience in that area for our cats.
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For dogs it’s chicken and white rice, so maybe chicken and rice baby food?
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I’ve heard that rice can be mixed right into their food, just encourage you to Google it. I’m sure it ought to be cooked and maybe there’s a max recommendation for them to have to not be bloated.
I know it works for me with colitis so (shrug) why not kitties?
There also is cat versions of Fortiflora and Propectalin. They’re over the counter but may not be the easiest to find in person.
Boiled chicken is what I used with my prior cat. I’ve also seen reference to some forms of baby food.
I think it’s fortiflora that the emergency vet gave me for my cat (and which caused her to completely reject a bowl of her preferred canned food)
EDIT: BTW, if you have pet insurance…I got a spam email from my pet insurer (Nationwide) advertising what I think is essentially a vet telehealth service, which sounds appropriate for this sort of thing.
Got the call while driving through an ice storm on the way back from my wife’s doctor’s appointment today (40 miles away through the rain at 26°F; fun!). Evidence that the UTI made it to her kidneys; she gets to stay on antibiotics longer. Nothing worse that would be causing her loss of appetite. She’s just not been feeling well.
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