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Hello goons, I'm just hoping to get a little bit of advice on my cat's situation to make sure that we're going down the right path... Brief history, the cat is about 3 or 4 years old, female, siamese, spayed, rescue cat. She is an indoor only cat. She has never been a big eater, we always have dry food and water out for her and she grazes throughout the day. She has a seemingly chronic runny nose that flares up about every month or so. Previous vets suggested it was cat herpes, but she has never been tested for the virus. We've treated it with antibiotics before with some limited success. The cat is very loving, cuddly, and craves human attention. TLDR: Our stressed out cat got a really stuffed up nose and stopped eating for a couple of days, we took her to the vet and got an IV and some antibiotics, but she's still not really eating and hides from us after we give her medicine. Obligatory photo  Long version: My wife and I recently had a baby and we've obviously been pretty occupied with that. The cat has generally been pretty disinterested in the baby, although we decided it was best that the cat no longer slept in our bedroom, so she would occasionally meow and jump at the door. Once last week and once earlier this week the cat puked on the floor (which is kinda normal, but usually only happens every couple of months). On Friday night I noticed that the level of food in her dish hadn't moved in some time. The cats runny nose had flared up and was pretty clogged. She had kinda laboured breathing and she wouldn't play with her favourite toys, which is very unusual. We monitored the problem Saturday and she didn't eat or drink. She ate a tiny bit of turkey meat that I hand fed her, but she wouldn't even sniff the wet food we offered. Yesterday we took her to the vet. We did blood work and had some swab tests done (trying to confirm the herpes or something else). They gave her fluids, and prescribed antibiotics, some 'immuno support' liquid to be given with an eye dropper, and a can of fancy wet food. We came home and gave the cat the drugs etc. but she freaked out afterwards and hid under the bed. Overnight she came into our bedroom and chilled on the bed, but in the morning we had to give her the meds and she has again gone into hiding. The issue with the nose is already looking better, I think, just back to the regular runnyness. She had a tiny bite of the vet food, but I still don't think she's eaten or drank in several days. I'm just hoping you experts might have some advice or suggestions to get her eating again. Obviously we're going to go through with giving the full treatment of the meds, but it seems counter intuitive to stress out a cat that isn't eating because of stress? Could the stuffed nose be a red herring for some other problem? I appreciate the help!
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Sep 5, 2016 17:49
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 09:12 |
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First of all, congrats on the new baby, and it sounds like you're doing the best you can for your girl despite everything that's on your plate right now, so kudos for that. You're right, stress probably is playing a big part in her illness. My sister just went through the same thing with one of her cats where he got a URI after they moved into a new house. You won't really know anything for sure until the labwork comes back, and maybe not even then, because cats. The anorexia is likely tied at least in some part to the fact she probably can't smell very well right now, so as her snot issues start clearing up, her appetite will probably come back. Have you tried heating up the food the vet gave you in the microwave a little bit? (I'm assuming they gave you a/d or E/N or something along those lines.) That'll make it stinkier and it might entice her to nibble at it.
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Sep 5, 2016 18:13
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Seconding the 'warming it up makes the smells stronger' and maybe see about mixing in the drainoff from a can of tuna or chicken? (contact your vet first and make sure that's okay with the prescription food). The stinkier the food is, the more it'll cut through the congestion and she can smell it as food.
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Sep 7, 2016 08:44
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Thanks for the advice guys, so here's the update... Turns out the symptoms were a red herring after all Our cat made minor health improvements with the medication -- the stuffed nose went away quickly, but she still hadn't eaten. All of the tests came back negative. She didn't have cat herpes, cat chlamydia, or cat AIDS (WTF seriously they were all named after STD's? Did they think I was loving my cat or what???) The vet recommended force feeding and they gave me this giant plastic syringe. Fortunately before we got to that point, we saw the cat eating some dry food and having a bit of water so we decided to wait and see for one more night... A couple hours later I found some cat puke on the floor and in the puke I found the real culprit of all of this:  It's about the size of a cubic centimeter, green, squishy, and obviously doing great harm to my cat. But what was it??? Turns out we were missing a pacifier... And we after looking we found the other part of it:  So yes, my cat stole my 4 week old daughter's pacifier, and sucked on it like a giant furry baby, before swallowing half of it and then almost dying. What a ridiculous thing to happen. We're very fortunate she puked it up, because we hadn't even thought to do x-rays of her stomach. That cat reverted back to her old self right away seemingly, so all is well! Thanks again for the advice, and thanks for reading about my stupid cat.
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Sep 9, 2016 00:38
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Hahahaha this happened to someone else! Magic. A few years ago I found a baby bottle with the teat chewed off but neither cat was acting up, and then about three weeks later my black cat took a dump inside and as I went to clean it up I noticed the top of the turd was capped with the missing teat. Absolutely count myself lucky that it passed through his system without causing any issues! (Beyond staying in his gastrointestinal tract far too bloody long)
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Sep 9, 2016 01:30
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 09:12 |
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That's amazing! Pretty much the best outcome you could have. You'd be surprised how long pets can walk around with a gastric foreign body without anyone knowing.
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Sep 9, 2016 14:44
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