What's wrong with my kitty??? UPDATE 8/23

He has been throwing up, just food for about a week now. He is acting fine otherwise. We are assuming it's just him and not our other cat because we saw him actually throwing up one time. I tried switching foods to see if that was the issue but he threw up again overnight last night :(. One of the 3 spots had a big hairball in it but would he be throwing up for a week now from a hairball? I am bringing him to the vet tonight after work but I'm so nervous of what they will tell me. Does anyone know what it could be? He is acting fine - playing, eating, drinking, etc...

Message edited 8/23/2007 9:48:10 PM.

Re: What's wrong with my kitty???

Well, it is good that you are taking him to the vet. It might have been the furball, one of mine gets them and she'll keep on barfing till it finally comes up, she too acts normally. If he gets furballs on a regular basis ask the vet about Laxatone, its a paste that you shove in their mouths and it helps break up the furballs. Good luck, I'm sure your kitty will be fine

Re: What's wrong with my kitty???

Thanks. I'm so nervous about bad news. He had transitional diabetes when he was a kitty and I had to give him insulin for a month and I cried everytime - it was terrible. I don't think that came back. I haven't been brushing him lately, I hope that's the issue. I am thinking my fat kitty is eating too fast too because some of the food barely looks chewed.

How many times would your kitty barf before the hairball coming up?

Re: What's wrong with my kitty???

One day a couple of weeks ago she barfed about 6 times, I was ready to rush her to the vets and then bingo up came a furball that looked like a breakfast sausage Its funny cos the other cat rarely gets them and they are twin sisters. Try not to worry, I know its hard, I get manic about my furbabies

Re: What's wrong with my kitty???

Awwww. Well, back from the vet. No answers really just yet. First...he had to be weighed...he was such a good boy. 22 pounds. She said "I don't know if you noticed...but he's gained quite a bit of weight since he was here last..."

So anyway, she said could be a few things, but as far as diet goes, he has to be put on one. And she said dry food is bad, for the carbs so just give them wet food only. He had a physical and seems healthy but he seemed a little dehydrated on his gums, but might be from barfing. She said they would like to do xrays (they would have to hold him down on his side with sandbags and tape), blood work to check his glucose and other stuff, and have him fast and give him a shot of fluids. She said it could be the food, it could be gorging himself, it could be eating the weed things from a fake plant and one is causing blockage, or could be other things. All those tests, including xrays could come back inconclusive. And would cost almost $400. So I said I will check his glucose at home on a pee strip and see what happens on the wet food, giving him a little at a time to see if he gets sick again, becuase the other day on wet food he didn't get sick and if he gets sick again i'll bring him back for testing.

Re: What's wrong with my kitty??? UPDATE 8/23

He vomited again twice today. So...a long visit to the vet tonight and no answers yet. A few possibilities. I am so sad. His sugar is fine, so no diabetes. They took xrays. It took a few tries because he's so chunky they couldn't get clear views and had to try again. So the xrays looked okay but the last one was questionable. Nothing metal in there or plastic. And there is poop waiting to be passed. But there was a clouded area which could be pancreatis. The only way to find out about that is to do surgery and a biopsy and then he'd need hospitalization and treatment. It could also be nothing the clouded area.

There was another spot which might be a doodie in the intestines or it could be the intestines sort of tangled by a string or something. DH is wondering if he ate dental floss while or something...but if it keeps tugging it can cause a whole and he could die. So the xrays...basically told us nothing.

They will have the rest of his blood test results tomorrow morning like liver, etc. She is guessing they will probably come back fine. He's acting normal. SO...the plan was tonight we have to keep him isolated, no water or food for 24 hours, then after 24 hours give him water, then a few hours later give him a TINY bit of food...and take it from there. But then after seeing the last xray and hearing he's been throwing up for 1 1/2 weeks, she wanted to keep him overnight to get him ready with IV fluids if he does have to have surgery :(. I didn't want to do that, I wanted him home and said I'll bring him back if I have to. I am guessing he won't throw up tonight because he's not going to eat. So it seems like I'm not really getting any answers. So if they do exploratory surgery and there is no object there...then they would take a biopsy of just about every organ in him to be tested.

She also mentioned it could be a colitis, intestinal issue. I just don't know what to do now.

Re: What's wrong with my kitty??? UPDATE 8/23

Hmmm, did they suggest an enema? I know Bolly had some hard poo in there once which showed on x-ray, she also kept vomiting, but her liver values were through the roof - they should be like, I can't remember maybe 40 or something like that and they were in the 900's She ended up in the vets for a week, we never discovered what caused it, she may have ingested something which is odd as we are very careful with stuff in the house and they don't go outside. They just kept her there under observation, kept her on IV and kept testing her levels.

Sounds like your vet is covering all the bases. I have to say when Bolly was ill that time, she was not normal at all, she kept wailing, which is why we ended up at the vets at 2am in the morning. I would wait and see what the vet says, if all the blood comes back normal maybe the exploritory surgery is the way to go. It is so hard when they are sick, I'm sorry you & kitty are having a bad time