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I have posted here once or twice before but visit often. I have a 10 year old male cat who has been vomitting at least once a day for the past few weeks and has lost 1.5 lbs over a month. He is partly dehydrated and is lethargic. Cole has been hiding under my bed, which he has never done, so I know something is wrong. I took him to the vet 2 weeks ago and they did a full round of blood tests, all of which came back normal. The vet said than the next step would be an X-Ray. Well, I go back to the vet yesterday and a difference vet tells me they need a second opinion and now believes he could have Inflamatory Bowel Disease. I question this diagnosis because diarrhea is a common symptom of IBD and he has had none. Just throwing up a lot. So now she put him on a trail and error treatment plan of Metronidazole twice a day and Fortiflora added to his food. She also gave him a round of Sub Q fluids to help with the dehydration. She tried to get me to buy this Purina EN food that has meat-by product as the first ingredient and I refused. He eats only Wellness grain free can food and has been on it for a year. I bought a water fountain for him and am hoping he uses it. I am just wondering if anyone has any insight into what may be wrong. I am confused as to the difference in opinions at my vet. I will keep him on the meds for awhile and see if he improves. If anyone has any advice or insight I would greatly appreciate it.
Cats fed only the affected lots for several weeks may be at risk for developing a thiamine deficiency. Thiamine is essential for cats. Symptoms of deficiency displayed by an affected cat can be gastrointestinal or neurological in nature. Early signs of thiamine deficiency may include decreased appetite, salivation, vomiting, and weight loss.
The lots involved in this voluntary recall are:
Wellness Canned Cat (all flavors and sizes) with best by dates from 14APR 13 through 30SEP13;
Wellness Canned Cat Chicken & Herring (all sizes) with 10NOV13 or 17NOV13 best buy dates.
If you did not change out the recalled foods at the time of the recall and are still feeding them, contact your vet with this info right away.
Please keep us posted on Cole. All paws crossed for your beloved boy.
Is he eating canned Wellness food or only dry? Eating canned food will also help with hydration. My cat is older than yours and I've switched her over to eating mostly canned. (Dry is being reserved for occasional treat and going away for the weekend. )
I don't know anything about the med. Fortiflora (probiotic supplement) certainly shouldn't hurt regardless of what's going on. Our departed kitty used some of this for a while; she did seem to have some GI type of problem, both then and at the end too. Fortiflora actually seems to be pretty tasty which can help appetite as well.
Have to wonder if there wasn't a food formula change recently. Any chance you bought a new batch of food a few weeks ago that would coincide with this? Any other change like bowls, or something else he could into all the time that he could be eating? Hm.
See to me it wouldn't be so much IBD but more upper GI, but this is just a logic play based on the vomiting; I have no medical background let alone being a vet professional at all.
It wouldn't be wrong at all to try a completely different vet practice for another opinion, if you're so inclined.
Hope some of this is of use.
EDIT: Duh, the recall. How soon I forget. That is certainly another aspect that would go along with the rest of the food paragraph above. Any chance you are feeding him canned Wellness food from the recalled lot? Ugh.
I know there was a wellness recall. For over a month there was no wellness canned available in my area and now there are new lots of food coming in. So I switched him back. There is no other good food available in this area. I live in a smaller city and have trouble finding good canned food.
Had there been anything installed at your home, like carpets, flooring, something like that?
This couple had quite a scare and, thankfully, remembered & put it together just in time: Please Learn From My Mistake - cat nutrition
Definitely recommend looking into another canned food for now. Even some healthier brands have been known to have issues with their batches/formula changes. Never can be too diligent in that regard.
Uup! Catsmom beat me to it.
As far as the veterinarians,
I won't get into detail in comparing super-awesome veterinarians with the not-so-good but will say that I'd look into finding an established, independent Veterinarian in your cat's case, for what you've described sounds eerily what our family went through once moving from our Veterinarian and dealing with a "chain" (we could not even get an ear infection diagnosed the first three tries with all the different Drs...much unnecessary heartache & confusion because we wouldn't travel farther )
(The first thing our longtime Veterinarian would suggest for vomiting was "Well what's he been eating?" One crazy dog got into everyyyything! )
Just saw your new post -- This veterinarian feline specialist lists some safe gluton-free Fancy Feasts (and others) sufficiently low in carbohydrates for cats. Dr. Lisa Pierson http://www.catinfo.org/?link=cannedfoods
No, there has been no food change. I changed him back to the wellness as I saw new lots of food being put on the shelves. I assumed it was safe, now I am not so sure. He has blood work done so I am going to call the vet and see if they checked for Thiamine. I don't know if they did or not. There also has been no bowl changes or home work done. Everything has been quite normal. I have tried every food in this area that I can find, Avoderm, Natures Variety, Blue, Innovo, Evo, and he just seems to be less finicky on the Wellness. I refuse to give him fish flavor so that cuts out a lot of food choices.
It has been a few days and my cat is still throwing up and hardly eating. I did get the blood test results and they tested him for everything including diabetes and thyroid problems and all came back normal. I had to take him to the vet for sub q fluids again and took a bag home to give him for dehydration. I took him for a GI panel blood test which will test for Thiamine defiency and for general problems with his digestive system. I am hoping that will show something. I just don't know how to get him to eat. I tried giving him natures variety can food and he turns up his nose at that as well. He did eat some boiled chicken yesterday, but that was about it. If anyone has any ideas on how to coax him to eat I would greatly appreciate it. Until the results come back from the blood test, I worry he will only get more dehydrated and loose more weight.
Get food with tuna in it, or something like Fancy Feast, anything that might interest him in eating. Even some tuna that we would eat could be okay (packed in water), just to get started. Not that a few days without eating will be life threatening yet but it certainly is worth trying just about any food. Tuna is usually especially attractive to most cats in my experience, although personally I would try to keep it to tuna cat food just so it has a better balance of necessary nutrition as opposed to getting cans of Starkist or whatever.
It could be painful to eat so that could be an issue. Or I guess it could be other discomfort that makes him uninterested in eating.
Oh dear I am sorry he is not getting better. Has an x ray been done to check for blockage? Ultrasound?
Ask your vet about giving him some pepcid ac. 1/4 tablet of a 10 mg dose is the usual dosage for cats. This will help with nausea.
Inappetence tips:
Give a whiff of food one minute before feeding.
Warm the food up.
Offer very small portions in a small dish. No more than a teaspoon at a time. If he eats that, offer more.
Don't leave food sitting out in the hopes that he will eat it. The smell of it will lose all meaning to him and/or cause more nausea if he doesn't feel good.
Hand feed. sit on the floor next to him, put some food on your fingers, and offer it to him.
If he prefers, hold him in your lap.
I'm glad you can do the sub q at home, to keep him going while you struggle with this.
Syringe feeding may also be an option, but it takes skill, so I do not recommend it lightly. Discuss sryinge feeding with your vet.
One more word of advice. If your vet is stumped, a second opinion may be helpful, especially an internal medicine vet. But get the x ray and ultrasound done to see what's going on in there.
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