Sick Cat- Advice Please? *gross warning*

[NightAngel]

My kitty, Jade, seems to have had a stomache/intestinal disagreement with some cat food. We stopped feeding it to her yesterday and she only ate it for 2 days total.


Here's where it gets gross:
She vomits about an hour after she eats, has had diarrhea and last night she farted and a clear, gelatinous ooze came out. WTF is that?!

I have decided to not give her any food for 12 hours- only water. I'm doing this because when my children have had stomache/intestinal problems/flus in the past the doctors have always had me do this to clear their systems. After 12 hours slowly work back up to regular food.

ANY help here would be appreciated.

(unfortunately I cannot take her to the Vet right now as I am totally broke- as in I only have some loose change kind of broke.)

And thank-you for reading this and bearing through the nasty.

[MaggieTheCat]

First, a link:

http://www.peteducation.com

They have a lot of articles written by veterinarians on pets, and there are two articles for vomiting in cats and diarrhea in cats. I skimmed through the vomiting one just to confirm what I was thinking.

First, withhold food for about 24 hours. Offer small amounts of water frequently and keep a close eye on the cat. After 24 hours of no food, if she hasn't gotten any worse, offer her a bland died. This is a starch mixed with a protein with nothing else in it. The most basic one is rice mixed with cooked ground hamburger. You can also use boiled or mashed potatoes in place of rice and a different kind of meat (like chicken) in place of hamburger. It will depend on your cat's preference. Do not add anything to it, like salt or seasoning. I would recommend not using a boxed potato mix for this reason. Also, whatever kind of meat you cook, make sure you drain it thoroughly of fat, as much as possible. Offer this in small doses for a few days until she seems to get better, then slowly start offering her regular food again as normal.

There's a chart in the article about vomiting in cats that lists possible causes of vomiting, and "food intolerance" is one of them that is often seen with diarrhea, so without further testing or a vet's consultation, I would guess that's what happened. There's something in the new food that she can't handle, maybe she's allergic to one of the ingredients in there. Anyway, I would not offer her the new food again, at least until you can get her to a vet for a more thorough evaluation.

Also, if you are established with a vet in your area (like if you take your cat in once a year for shots somewhere) they may be able to give you some info over the phone without charging you. I know a few weeks back, my cat was acting strange and ill so I called my vet to ask if I should be concerned and they gave me a whole bunch of info regarding the symptoms we were seeing and what to look for to indicate it was getting worse and that he needed to be seen. If your cat doesn't get better and you've tried the bland diet, etc., call your vet and explain what's going on, sometimes they will accept payment on your next payday if it seems there's an emergency situation.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

[crazyofficeclerk]

My mom once had a cat that had that problem when he would eat anything with salmon. One time we switched his dry food without checking all the way down the ingredients list. Bo started to randomly throw up and had very loose bowels. Thats when we got the cat food bag out of the trash and read all the ingredients. We threw out the new dry food and went back to what we had given him in the first place.

[NightAngel]

Thank- you!

[Red_Dazes]

I'm gonna be unhelpful and agree with everyone so far. If the problem started with the new food, then stop the new food. Even a full day with out food would be helpful... don't worry, it is not cruel... it's actually good for their digestive tract to have a day of fasting. Normally cats only eat 5-6 days out of the week when on their own... we've kinda conditioned them to expect food every day. Big Cats ((lions tigers etc)) always get a day of fasting when they are kept in a zoo. It is better for them all around.

So maybe skip a whole day of food stuffs and give the kitties tummy time to "reboot". Kitty will be HUNGRY after wards, since I assume it is used to food every day. But it will hopefully help.


**wow... guess I was a little more helpful than I thought

Let us know how kitty does

[NightAngel]

Well, we made it about to about 7PM last night before having her claws sunk into our calves every step got a little old. The meowing was pitiful- she was nearly starved to DEATH by her accounts.

So, we gave her a little of a different food, she had the dry heaves once but now seems to have evened out and back to normal.

She has also forgiven me and is sleeping on my lap as I type this.

Thanks for all the help and advice everyone. I am a Cat Novice.

[MaggieTheCat]

Glad your kitty is feeling better! Our female cat is very used to eating twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, and if we are late in feeding her, she goes CRAZY. It sounds like a good idea to give their tummies a break once in a while, but this little girl would die of starvation first!

[Rapscallion]

Still geting better?

Rapscallion

[NightAngel]

Still geting better?

Well, last night she threw- up once and she's gone from diarrhea to constipation. Although, she is better than she was. Not sure why it took so long for it to start up again.

We've read up on the interwebz a bit and we decided to put armor on our calves and withhold food for 24 full hours.

I think, honestly, this is really my fault and I feel awful. I'm just back to work after summer layoffs and I'm trying to catch up the bills. My Aunt has several cats and offered me some regular adult cat food. I had been feeding her a special kitten mix with teeny- tiny bites. I don't think she's ready for the adult cat food or the large pieces.

I kind of wonder if she was the runt because she's really quite tiny despite having nearly doubled in size since we found her. She may never be able to eat regular sized pieces.

I have rice and a bag of the kitten mix ready for when the 24 hours is up. (This is what I get for trying to be a cheapskate.)

In other news I finally figured out which house she escaped from. It looks like her father is a sleek, black Egyptian Mau (or very similar to) and her mother a fat Tuxedo.

[NightAngel]

She was okay all day yesterday but...

Oh man, I am SO grossed out right now. I just discovered she has worms. *puke*

Going to get dewormer.

[AdminAssistant]

Ew.

My dog (that lives with my parents but he's mine gosh durn it) had worms when he was dumped on us. On one hand, it was pretty gross and sad that he was sick. On the other hand, he was so rolypoly that it was pretty darn cute.

[NightAngel]

I think this is he first pet I've ever had with worms. While I am very grossed out- I'm glad to finally know what's been causing her problems so I can take care of it.

Can we get it?

Oh, geez... I hadn't thought of that...

EDIT:
She visits the Vet wednesday morning. There's a local doc that is very, very cheap but good. He was the vet we took all our pets to when I was growing up- I had nearly forgotten about him. $25.00 (maybe less depending on worm type) gets her exam, all her shots and her worm treatment.

[MaggieTheCat]

Oooh...I had forgotten from your other post that she was a kitten. All cats get worms as kittens, from feeding from their mother (something to do with mom's milk having eggs in it, so both her and the kittens get worms and need to be de-wormed several times while she's nursing them.) It's pretty standard for anyone who has kittens to do this, but if I recall, you found her on the street, so I bet she hasn't been de-wormed at all. Hopefully getting some meds in her will clear her right up.

[NightAngel]

Yeah, I found her on the street and I'm a total noob at cats. If she had been a puppy- we'd have been all good.

My current theory is that the 24 hour period of fasting made some of the parasites decide to... exit... thinking the source of food was drying up. Which is good- because now that I know and they can be erradicated.

[NightAngel]

Kitten Update:

Took her to the Vet- he gave her a full physical, Distemper shot and, of course, a worm treatment.

She is in excellent health. Currently she is expected to live a long kitty life.

(Despite the worms which should be gone soon enough.)