Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Help!

I am worrying myself sick over my cat right now. He's 2-3 years old right now and after trying to introduce another kitten to our family, things seemed ok. Mooch didn't hiss at the kitten but he did in fact swat her around when she got on his nerves. We got the kitten on a Tuesday and by Saturday evening Mooch was acting as though he was trying to cough up a hairball. Me being the worrier I am thought it was something else, and by Sunday night I knew I was right. Mooch was not himself and still trying to "hack" something up.

When we got to the vet, they suspected something was picked up from the kitten and also mentioned Mooch having a heart murmur. The X-rays showed that he had fluid in his chest and that was what the problem was with the "hacking" noise. They scheduled him to have an echocrdiagram here in another week and a half, and sent us home with Lasix and an antibiotic.

Well, when we went home we got rid of the kitten as per the vet's advice. They suggested that possibly the kitten was added undo stress on Mooch's heart as well and that could have been a contributing factor.

Things were coming along then come Tuesday night Mooch stopped eating. He kept drinking but he stopped eating. I took him back to the vets on Thursday evening and they ended up admitiing Mooch for three days. They said his potasium was down from not eating and that he needed potasium to help with his muscles and heart condition. I called back in the morning to check up on Mooch expecting no progress. They said they managed to get him to eat some wet food and was coming along nicley. They suggested that when we went to visit to bring some of his food from home, which we did and he ate very little while we were there, maybe a few pellets. The vet ended up calling back to say Mooch was ready to come home along with some meds. We brought him home last night. The first thing he did was drink a LOT of water, but no food. He looked around for a bit then took a nice long nap. That was last night at 4:00 and he still hasn't eaten yet, even thoutgh all of his other habits are coming around. I called the vet and they suggested if he's not eating by tomorrow night to bring him back in, but suggested that Mooch is mad at us and that's why he's acting this way.

I hate worrying myself sick over it, but I read all these stories about people having to force feed their cats and I dread the possibility of it. However if he ate for the vet, doesn't it sound more so like he's mad at us, and he'll eventually come around?

He always was a little pig prior to this.....

Hello - I am by no means a cat expert as I am 1 year new to being a cat owner. However, your post struct me - so I wanted to send you a line. I recently introduced a little kitten to my 11 mos old female cat (Molly). In my situation, I went directly to the vet from the pound (with little Ziggy) to make sure he was healthy. Other than a lingering URI, he passed all other tests. I still kept him away from Molly for a few days. Molly seemed to be very put off with her new house mate at first, but by week 2 - she had accepted him. One of the things she kept really wanting to do was clean Ziggy. He loves it (most of the time) and just purrs and lolls around and lets her really go at it with him. However, Molly did end up getting a bit of a fur ball from this activity last week. I've also found that she has taken a back seat to going first during eating times. Since she is still a kitten herself - I've been managing to feed both the same diet. I've been watching Molly closely, because I wanted to make sure that she wasn't dramatically changing her routine/behavior. So far - so good. But in your case, could it have been just a coincidence that your older cat began to display symtoms of ailing? Did the vet provide you with any concrete evidence that the kitten made your other cat sick? Just curious. I hope he's feeling better soon.

I think your vet may have a handle on the situation, having observed the cat for so many days. By all means, take him back if he isn't eating by Tuesday! But try not to worry - it may be a case of he's still upset with you.
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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

Cats have very sensitive systems and once their unbalanced it takes a lot to get them back on track. Often, the original reason they stop eating might not even be contributing to their anorexic behavior later on. If a cat goes more than 24 hours without eating a bite, organ systems begin to sustain strain, which was why your vet had to hospitalize him and give him potassium, etc. Naturally, having your organ systems get all wonky makes you feel that much LESS like eating and the whole thing snowballs from there.

I don't really suscribe to the theory that he won't eat because he's mad at you. He's upset in general at all the upheaval and probably feels quite ill and out of sorts, he's not doing it to punish you. I once took on a cat that refused to eat -- we did all sorts of tests and a barium series, EVERYTHING, but could find nothing other than the physical signs of a cat who isn't eating. Whatever it was that had caused him to stop in the first place was long over, and now he just felt horrible because he wasn't eating. Once I force fed him one time he began eating a little bit with special coaxing and now is a fat happy boy with a wonderful owner.

Sometimes force feeding is the only way to get them back on track, to get nutrients in their system again, HOWEVER, it seems your cat has a rather delicate heart condition going on that is particularly affected by stress (like from the kitten), so force feeding him could contribute to the difficulty breathing because it would stress him.

I would say, if he continues to not eat, to have him hospitalized again so they can force feed him under a doctor's supervision for the heart issue. It's rather like, if he continues to not eat, you have to choose the lesser of two evils, one one hand the stress of forcing food could make his heart act up, on the other if he doesn't eat he could go into organ failure.

Now that he is on Lasix, that should help with fluid buildup in the chest cavity, which was causing the breathing difficulty. Although there's nothing to be done about the murmur, he will now at least be able to breathe eaiser when stressed, so, if it comes to it, force feeding would be the way to go.

Make sure you've tried to tempt him to eat with everything under the sun, lunch meat, roasted chicken, all the good stuff that he would normally just go crazy over. And keep in daily contact with your vet.

Best of luck!