# Please help! Cat not eating, lethargic...



## Nyxi

First off, we head to the emergency vet's in 50 minutes. The vet's on a call right now.

Sickey hasn't eaten anything, less one or two temptation treats in at least 24 hours. He's turned to skin and bones overnight. He's fed a canned diet that he simply licks the moisture out of. His favourite treats that he'll do anything for, yucky Temptation treats still hold interest (he hears the bag and comes running, conditioned behaviour no doubt) but he can't eat them, or like just now, simply has no interest once they're in front of him.

He's still drinking.

He's been hiding in a back bedroom in one of our dog's beds, which is not a usual behaviour for him.

After some reading I'm praying that this is not kidney failure. He's only 3 years old. He has the herpes virus and recently was on antibiotics for another type of virus that causes mouth ulcers?

What could this be? What type of testing should the vet be doing? 

Please, any type of advice or information is greatly appreciated!


----------



## catloverami

Give us an update of vet visit. Hope he can pull through this, whatever it is.


----------



## Nyxi

Just got back from the vet, Sickey is staying the night with IV fluids.

Bloodwork was done, nothing is wrong with his kidneys, his pancreas levels (I don't know what) are a tad-bit high. Not too big of deal the vet said though. He's not on any kind of high fat diet (at least I don't think so, he eats Merricks, EVO, Natural Balance, BG canned foods).

No symptoms of a tumour, at least in his throat. No drooling, she can't see anything. He is severely dehydrated though (which is odd because in the past day that's all he's been doing is drinking).

She said it's possible he's just gotten himself dehydrated and now doesn't feel well to eat. He might just magically "get better" with IV fluids and that's all it was.

The other possibility is he has a stomach tumour, of which he'll be x-rayed tomorrow if he doesn't perk up with fluids.

I'm glad that it's not kidney failure or insufficiency, but at the same time, what the heck could be wrong with him? He's lost 1lb in the past 3 days. I weighed him myself and he was 10.5, just now at the vets he was 9.2. That's a significant amount of weight loss in that amount of time and it's very noticeable.

I'll definitely update with what happens tonight and tomorrow, at the least in case someone ever goes through this with their cat.

Thanks catloverami!


----------



## katlover13

I'm sorry you and Sickey are going through this. You must be worried sick. Possibly since he is dehydrated some of the weight loss could be water?
I hope you get good news and the IV fluids help him a lot.


----------



## Cindley

Pancreas levels test for diabetes in the cat. Your vet probably tested for that since some of the symptoms are weight lost and thirsty. I hope your kitty gets better soon.


----------



## Nyxi

The more I'm reading the more I'm wondering how thoroughly she tested for diabetes.

He came home early this morning. They couldn't get an iv in him, well they got it in and taped, then he freaked out until he ripped it out. He got sub-q fluids a few times through the night at the office, he ate a bit of wet and dry food, than came home. She gave me the dry food he was eating but he hasn't eaten one piece yet today. 

He's gone straight back to just wanting to lie away from everyone. I just took him outside for a quick look around with his brother in the yard and he perked up. I was hoping that would build up his appetite but nothing. He's only peed in the past 24 hours. 

I'm at a loss at what to do here. He'll probably be going back to the vet tomorrow, but I don't know what they'll do either. Maybe it's a virus? He's on clavamox just in case it's some type of infection or virus.


----------



## RachandNito

It's important to get him to eat. Have you tried tempting him with tasty things like tuna maybe? I've used plain meat gerber baby food to get sick cats to eat.


----------



## laurief

Clavamox can be very hard on the stomach and make many cats nauseous, esp. if it's given on an empty stomach. When you speak to your vet tomorrow, ask if you can switch him to amoxicillin, which generally has fewer gastric side effects for most cats.

It is very important that he eat, so you may need to assist feed him if he won't take food on his own. The following links will help with assist feeding:

http://www.felinecrf.org/persuading_cat_to_eat.htm
http://www.assistfeed.com/

It sounds like he may be adequately hydrated at the moment, but if he doesn't start drinking tomorrow, you should ask your vet to teach you how to administer subQ fluids at home to prevent him from becoming dehydrated again. I can provide you with links to online tutorials for administering subQ fluids if you'd like to acquaint yourself with the procedure. It's really not difficult, and it can definitely be life-saving.

There are appetite stimulants that can be given to try to help get him eating again. Cyproheptadine worked well for my Billy at a dose of 1/8 pill once or twice daily. Mirtazapine is another drug used for appetite stimulation in cats, though it's important to start it at a low dose of 1/8 pill once every 3 days (in spite of the fact that most vets prescribe it at a higher dose). Higher doses cause some extremely unpleasant side effects in some cats, so it's always safer to start at the lower dose and increase slightly only if the lower dose is not effective. 

If Sickey's blood glucose was elevated in his bloodwork, it'd be advisable to request a fructosamine test to check for diabetes. If his blood glucose was in normal range, then you needn't worry about diabetes.

Rapid weight loss and excessive thirst are also symptoms of hyperthyroidism, though that is typically (but not always) accompanied by ravenous appetite. It's not common for such a young cat to develop hyperT, but it's not unheard of, either. It wouldn't hurt to run a Total T4 to check his thyroid function, just to rule it out.

Laurie


----------



## Nyxi

I'll check those links out once I'm done here  Thanks for all the info.

I have tried feeding him everything I have. His absolutely favourite canned food in the world is Natural Balance's Tuna and Shrimp. He won't touch it. I've tried 3 or 4 other canned favourites he wants nothing to do with them. The dry food (no doubt Science Diet) that he ate at the vet's last night, he won't touch. I tried feeding him Temptations, he picks them up in his mouth, but when he goes to "huck it" into the back of his throat to bite it, it just falls out. I tried Mighty Lion treats, a bit more sucessful but he only ate one than lost interest. Lastly I tried feeding him hot dogs, absolutely nothing. 

From the way he's having trouble eating the Temptation treats, I thought maybe there was something wrong with his teeth, but the vet said she checked his mouth and throat thoroughly last night and there was nothing to indicate there was a problem.

Right now, he still hasn't eaten, but he's at least wanting to lie around us like normal. I've been doing the pinch test regularly and he's still hydrated so I guess that's good news.

Thank you so much laurief for the info to ask my vet tomorrow. I'm definitely going to insist on some more bloodwork, possibly x-rays and to see if they have appetite stimulants available.

I'm going to read those links now. It's been over 12 hours since he's eaten last. Thanks again!

ETA - I've done everything I can mentioned on the page other than "assisted feeding". (some things I can't do because it's 12:30am here and I would have to go to the store). So I'm going to mix up some of his favourite canned and try to force it down. How much should I be trying to squirt down there? A tablespoon to start? More?


----------



## laurief

First, don't squirt or force anything down his throat. When assist feeding, it is very important to slowly dribble food *across* his tongue rather than aiming it toward the back of his throat. By administering food across his tongue from the side, you give him time to properly position the food for swallowing. This is important because you don't want him to accidentally aspirate the food into his lungs.

The amount of food you give him depends on his cooperation and on how often you can feed him during the day. The goal is to get about 6 oz of canned food into him daily (or however much he usually eats), so just split that total amount into as many feedings as you can handle during the day.

You can use either an eyedropper or a needleless syringe for assist feeding. You can feed pretty much any kind of pate-style canned food through the dropper or syringe, though you'll probably have to puree it with a little water in your kitchen blender first to make it smooth enough to go through a syringe. Don't use too much water, though. It's a lot easier to syringe feed a thicker gruel than a really soupy one that your cat will be able to drool out easily. Also, your cat will be less likely to aspirate a thicker gruel. Keep it as thick as possible that will still go through the syringe.

From your description, and since the vet found nothing wrong inside his mouth, it sounds like he's feeling really nauseous. Poor baby. I hope he can hold the food down. If he can't, x-rays would be a good idea to check for signs of intestinal blockage.

Laurie


----------



## Nyxi

Assisted feeding did not go well last night, not because of Sickey! I chose a Merrick's canned because they're already so wet and added some warm water. I was using an old needleless Metacam syringe and it kept getting blocked! We got a lot of nasty wet cat food all over the place but we got one little syringe full in, and he was licking some straight out of my hand. It wasn't nearly enough and I wasn't willing to push him anymore late last night.

He hasn't been drinking again today so I used the syringe to get some water into him and it worked just fine. He's much perkier than Sunday, but from the pinch test I can tell he's not drinking as he should be, or he's "over peeing". I'm just waiting to hear back from the vet now about whether she can arrange for x-rays today or if she wants him in there now.


----------



## laurief

If you have a kitchen blender or can borrow one from a neighbor, you can make regular canned cat food syringeable by pureeing it in the blender with a little warm water. Alternatively, you can pick up sone canned prescription A/D from your vet or another vet who carries it. A/D is formulated specifically to be smooth and syringeable when mixed with a little water.

Syringing water orally can be risky because it is so easily aspirated into the lungs, and that could potentially cause an aspiration pneumonia. It's really much safer to administer supplemental fluids subQ, which your vet can teach you to do.

It's great that Sickey is acting perkier. Hopefully he'll continue to improve and get back to eating on his own very soon. Since he was licking some food out of your hand last night, perhaps he'd be willing to lap up some warm canned food gruel today. Give it a try.

Laurie


----------



## Nyxi

We went to the vet's yesterday and he had a high temp. so she's pretty sure he has some type of infection. Why it didn't show up in the blood work beats me. She thinks it's possible I got him in so quickly that we didn't really give anything a chance to show up in blood work.

I've still been force feeding him (unfortunately he doesn't like it so assisted feeding is heavily sugar coating it! lol) BUT, finally today improvement. He's coming back to us slowly but surely. He's been wandering around the house, is now sitting in front of the window. Still no interest in eating on his own but thankfully the more pate style of canned is making it much easier to deal with. I also got a larger needleless syringe!

I'm not sure if it's necessary for me to be using a syringe to get water into him at this point, but I don't want to take the chance. I've been very careful to have the syringe sideways and allow him time to swallow (he licks as well).

Thanks for all of your help. I'm pretty sure the fact that I got a decent amount of food in him last night despite his unwillingness is a large reason why he's feeling so much better today!


----------



## Nyxi

Back at the vet's again today. 

After a few days of antibiotics Sickey's really no better so he's back at the vet's now.

He still has absolutely no interest in food and force feeding is getting harder. To the point where I think it could be doing more damage (mentally) than any help it's giving him nutritionally. He was severely dehydrated last night, I laid off syringing water for the day to see what happened, so I had to resume that last night.

We'll receive his blood test results tomorrow. We specifically are re-testing for FLV (he was tested for this as a kitten), CBC and a pancreas enzyme test. Now my hope out of my options is it's pancreatitis. He's getting x-rays right now to hopefully rule out tumour/cancer.

Diabetes was apparently ruled out in the first CBC.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers while we try to figure out what's wrong with my Sickey boy.


----------



## Nyxi

I know there hasn't been much activity on this thread but I figured I'd update it just in case someone googles or searches this website with similar problems in their own kitty. 

It's been a week and a half since I noticed Sickey was acting strange.

We've had:

- 2 CBC's run (the first showing a slight elevation of glucose and pancreas levels, the second showing very high pancreas, liver and neutrophils)
- 2 x-rays (the first showing little definition of organs either from inflammation of the organs themselves or fluid retention FIP)
- FIP, FeLV, FIV, thyoid panels run all came back negative

Sickey now is believed to have hepatic lipidosis/fatty liver disease. We were in contact with an internal board surgeon who was going to do further testing to determine what was wrong with Sickey (ultrasound and liver biopsy), but after looking all of the testing we've done over, she's quite sure it's HL.

The second x-rays done today, show his liver to be enlarged to twice the size as normal.

He's been on prednisone since Saturday (we were thinking it was pancreatitis/triaditis) as well as sub-q fluids at home 4 times a day since Monday. He's been on Clavamox for over a week as one of our initial thoughts were a bacterial infection, which the heightened neutrophils suggested especially once his FIP test came back negative.

Sickey is now being force fed, hopefully 1 can per day and the continuation of sub-q fluids. He is off of the prednisone for the time being, if his condition worsens while still getting his caloric requirements and fluids he'll go back on the pred.

I've by passed an e-tube and peg tube for the time being. We're both starting to get syringe feeding down and I feel due to Sickey's personality and state if I can keep up with what he needs this is what's best for him mentally.

I'll continue to update this thread, if it is HL perhaps there are people who are looking for information and hopefully (this will be) success stories and regiments followed.


----------



## katlover13

Please continue with your updates. I have been watching this thread and hoping poor Sickey will rally and end up with a full recovery. I know how intense and stressful caring for a very sick cat can be. Lots of good thoughts coming your way!


----------

