Kitty has gone a bit batty... (is ill most likely)

Kitty has gone a bit batty... (is ill most likely)

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Otispunkmeyer

Original Poster:

13,057 posts

162 months

Friday 24th June 2011
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So this week...

Monday: fine

Tuesday: Cat scoffs its breakfast so fast it ends up hocking it up on the carpet. Clean up + lots of carpet cleaner (dark brown slurry on a nice cream carpet). 5 Minutes later we're tripping over her in the kitchen because she's begging for more food!

Wednesday: Cat chucks up its breakfast again. But then proceeds to keep trying to be sick. We think hairball, but she just keeps brining up bile. Spends the rest of the day looking a bit rough and generally being very quiet.

Thursday: Bright as a button, normal activity levels, eats normal, plays normal

Today: Wakes us up at 4 am. Sprints out the room once she has checked we are still alive. 5 minutes later I hear familiar chunder bus noises but the birds tweeting outside seem to be making similar noises. Wake up at 8. Cat sick absolutely everywhere!.

Spent ages cleaning it up and as we are doing that, she saunters over to the litter tray, gets in and then proceeds to have a piss. She completely misses the litter box and pisses over the side of it on to the kitchen floor. Great! cat piss and sick everywhere!!

I dont know why she is being like this, no change in circumstances, no traumatisation, same food etc... everything is as per routine.

I was thinking hair ball. There could well of been some hair ball amongst the piles of sick this morning. Unsure though, I just wanted to clear it away pronto. Took her to the vet and they think the same. Give her a shot to calm her bowels and some weird laxative in paste form to help the cat pass any hair balls out the other end. She's moulting a bit more too.

Vet said moulting is just because its summer (I hope so) and that if the cats been trying to be sick for a while, it them becomes part of their routine and they will do that regardless of hairballs trapped in the stomach.

She seems fine now... We are relatively new to the looking after a cat business and it was pretty worrying to see her vomming every day.


What if she continues to be sick tomorrow? What should I do?

Shes an indoor cat so cant of eaten something bad outside. We keep a clean house so I dont think she will have eaten anything bad inside either. We've decided to reduce her food portions though. We didnt give her loads to begin with, but maybe it was still a bit much in one go. We give her 1-2 table spoons of felix, 3-4 times a day. Sound like enough? too little?

fwaggie

1,644 posts

207 months

Friday 24th June 2011
quotequote all
Sorry to hear your cat isn't well, but

Otispunkmeyer said:
Shes an indoor cat
Why?

Would you like being kept inside all your life? Just in case you got injured / killed outside?

Please reconsider, cats like to have a "patch" a few square miles if lucky, they certainly like to make friends with the neighbours (both feline and human), and they're not that stupid they'll make a bee line for the nearest motorway.


Personally both of mine (16 yrs old) are free to roam, and the neighbours cats are free to come in my house. At 6 months old one got hit by a car and broke it's leg and it was heart rending to see it wanting to go out, even though the stupid thing was in pain. If I lived somewhere where there was too much traffic to let them out I'd give them to family rather than trap them inside.


Anyway, back to your point, both of my cats have had "bad days" where they've obviously eaten something bad and barfed up all over the place, sometimes for more than one day.

Once one appeared to get a bone/something stuck in his throat and he was dry retching for over a day, took him to the vets and they couldn't find anything. Fed him his favourite ham / chicken and soft foods, milk, water, just soft foods and liquids, and he settled down.

But both of mine are very sensitive to changes in food. If I change from one brand to another it's normally accompanied by a good 'ol barf the first time they try the new food (I think they love the change and just eat it waaaay too quick)

And one doesn't normally eat dry food, so if I change brands of dry food and he likes it, he hasn't got enough sense to only munch a bit, eats far too much, it swells up like All Bran and, err, exits... smile

paintman

7,765 posts

197 months

Friday 24th June 2011
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Don't worry about getting into the outdoor cat/indoor cat argument. Crops up regularly.

Our tom had a spell of eating then throwing up not long after as a kitten. Invariably with dry food. Reduction of dry portion & increase in wet food solved the problem. Think it was the same as above, eats lots of dry food quickly which then swells = cat feels uncomfortable = cat throws up = cat feels better.

Edited by paintman on Friday 24th June 23:18

Piersman2

6,640 posts

206 months

Friday 24th June 2011
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Otispunkmeyer said:
Took her to the vet and they think the same. Give her a shot to calm her bowels and some weird laxative in paste form to help the cat pass any hair balls out the other end.
...

What if she continues to be sick tomorrow? What should I do?
Take her back to the vet for another episode, I'm sure she'll soon learn that puking and pissing directly results in a jab and a laxative paste attack from the vet laugh

okgo

39,362 posts

205 months

Friday 24th June 2011
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Nice to see the inside/outside argument starting already!


Otispunkmeyer

Original Poster:

13,057 posts

162 months

Saturday 25th June 2011
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I thought that might crop up.

We do take her outside... she doesnt exactly like it, though it will just take time for her to get used to it. She runs crying for the door the minute we leave. We live in an apartment block, there really is no way of allowing the cat to come and go freely. If she wasnt there waiting at the door downstairs at 9 am when we leave then she's stuck outside till lunch time when we come back for food. If shes not there then, then she has to wait till tea time and so on...

We would have no problem letting her go outside, however there are 3 heavy fire doors, stair case, 17 other residents and a code locked front door standing in her way. short of building a cat escalator off the balcony (she loves the balcony) or a series of cat flaps (which the housing association who owns the building certainly will not allow) there is no reasonable way of letting her out safely. So while agree cats should be outdoor things.... its not feasible in this case.

I suppose the next question or statement will be we shouldn't of got a cat in the first place. Maybe so, but put it this way its a better life for her than living in those little boxes they have at cats protection. Even they said she was more an indoor cat (info from previous owners who had to leave her behind as they were moving country).

Besides, this arrangement is temporary.... we will be moving into a proper house with a garden in the not too distant future.




I remember staying at a family friends house in the US. She had 5 pedigree cats..... declawed, not allowed outside. Poor things bolted for even the slightest crack in any opening to the outside.

Ours seems to like sticking its head out the window and looking over the balcony. But we've had her a few months now and she still doesn't seem to have had the courage or inclination to properly scope out the whole flat. Its only a 2 bed flat!! she's only recently plucked up the balls to want to go outside into the hallway and inspect the vast expanse of grey carpet, the lift doors and smell the aroma's coming from the other 5 residents doors on this floor.

Edited by Otispunkmeyer on Saturday 25th June 01:02

Jasandjules

70,510 posts

236 months

Saturday 25th June 2011
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What is she being fed?

Have you tried rice and chicken? One of my cats had a condition (took us a good month or two of a lot of vet time and even a barium test) which eventually it was discovered that her stomach dind't really process food that quickly, so it built up in the stomach then when she ate, it was rejected i.e. she puked back up but was always hungry!

She was given movicol in each meal as a laxative and some metacloprimide (sp?) as well. Her food was then sent through quickly enough and all was well....

Thevet

1,805 posts

240 months

Saturday 25th June 2011
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How old is your cat? These probs are less likely to be serious in a young cat than an old one. The vet findings and the normal behaviour between pukes are encouraging but don't make the clean up any easier. Missing the litter tray is not really significant, how often have you missed the toilet and sprayed the seat, and that's when you can see where you're aiming! Most likely causes are fur balls (treated with the katalax you've got) dietary changes or intolerance (try and find a formula that works for your cat) eaten something it shouldn't although that is less likely in an indoor cat. If there are any more bouts of multiple puking, then back to the vet and check it out.
As for indoor/outdoors, our 17yr old moggie used to love being outside, but now is exclusively an indoor cat, our 10yr old hunter disappears for days if the weather is fine but stays in if it's wet, so it's not as simple as all cats should be outside. I'm glad we can let our cats out as we live in the country, but it would be different if we were on a busy road, I see so many squished cats that were just "let out for a few minutes".

Otispunkmeyer

Original Poster:

13,057 posts

162 months

Saturday 25th June 2011
quotequote all
We feed her Felix for wet food. Its what she was on in the shelter and she loves that. She will also get the odd scraps of chicken or whatever but thats not an every day thing. We do give her some dry but she is very fussy, only touching that once she is hungry and realises we arnt going to get the tin of felix out the fridge any time soon.

We've tried several different brands of dry, she wouldnt touch go cat with a barge pole, but seems to like this whiskers stuff with the treat bites in better.

She is 7.5 yr old, so mid life. Vet was very happy with her condition

Thevet

1,805 posts

240 months

Saturday 25th June 2011
quotequote all
Maybe a bit unexpected to have a puking 7yo house cat, hopefully a bit of starvation til 24h after the last vomit will settle what is probably a simple upset tum/furball, but if it continues with no obvious cause or connection, then some further investigation would be warranted, although if she is bright all along, there may be nothing to find. Not very helpful I'm afraid but it is a rather vague condition at the moment, see what happens over the next few days and post again? HTH

fwaggie

1,644 posts

207 months

Sunday 26th June 2011
quotequote all
Otispunkmeyer said:
I thought that might crop up.

We do take her outside... she doesnt exactly like it, though it will just take time for her to get used to it. She runs crying for the door the minute we leave. We live in an apartment block, there really is no way of allowing the cat to come and go freely. If she wasnt there waiting at the door downstairs at 9 am when we leave then she's stuck outside till lunch time when we come back for food. If shes not there then, then she has to wait till tea time and so on...

We would have no problem letting her go outside, however there are 3 heavy fire doors, stair case, 17 other residents and a code locked front door standing in her way. short of building a cat escalator off the balcony (she loves the balcony) or a series of cat flaps (which the housing association who owns the building certainly will not allow) there is no reasonable way of letting her out safely. So while agree cats should be outdoor things.... its not feasible in this case.

I suppose the next question or statement will be we shouldn't of got a cat in the first place. Maybe so, but put it this way its a better life for her than living in those little boxes they have at cats protection. Even they said she was more an indoor cat (info from previous owners who had to leave her behind as they were moving country).

Besides, this arrangement is temporary.... we will be moving into a proper house with a garden in the not too distant future.




I remember staying at a family friends house in the US. She had 5 pedigree cats..... declawed, not allowed outside. Poor things bolted for even the slightest crack in any opening to the outside.

Ours seems to like sticking its head out the window and looking over the balcony. But we've had her a few months now and she still doesn't seem to have had the courage or inclination to properly scope out the whole flat. Its only a 2 bed flat!! she's only recently plucked up the balls to want to go outside into the hallway and inspect the vast expanse of grey carpet, the lift doors and smell the aroma's coming from the other 5 residents doors on this floor.

Edited by Otispunkmeyer on Saturday 25th June 01:02
Thank you for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it, understand and retract what I said to you.

I guess what I said I meant at people who do not give their cat (or dog, whatever) a choice.

Cats are very intelligent and are more than capable of making their own minds up, although we can't understand why!

My mum got adopted by a huuuuge ginger tom which loved the outside. My mum then had to move to my sisters due to ill health and the cat went with her. The cat then decided to become an indoors cat - which was extremely odd as my sister lives in Keswick, very little traffic and big hills and wood / shrub land all over the place!!?

After a couple of years, the cat (Henry) changed his mind and goes back to spending a day or two outside having fun. Make sense of it? Nope!