Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello, i am writing with concern about my cat, smokey. he's a little over 3 yrs. old and he recently was not acting like himself so i took him to the vet. it turned out that he had a temp of 105 and had to stay in the hopspital for 3 days on IV and other medicines including a derivitive of amoxicillan. he was on the antibiotic for about ten days and for most of the time has not been eating or drinking. i've been feeding him water and nutritous cat milk with a dropper for days now. and have bought all varities of foods to try to get him to eat. i called the vet about it and he said to bring him in again. his last visit was over 200.00 and i cannot afford another stay for him at the vet. his temp is normal, it's just that he's not eating and drinking on his own and he is doing most of the things he normally does and his eyes look good, he's alert. is there anyone that knows about the effect antibiotics have on cats, and how long it lasts? the vet said he has a virus but still gave him antibiotics anyway. i looked on the internet and found others with the same problems from their cats taking antibiotics, trying to find answers too. I appreciate anyone's help.

If this is a viral disease, and for that you need to ask your vet, then the only rationale for giving antibiotics is to prevent a secondary bacterial infection. So the antibiotic may not be needed, and it may be depressing your cat's appetite. Ask your vet if this is one of the possible side effects of this antibiotic. Take some different kinds of meat, cut up small, and offer them to your cat around the edge of a plate so you can see what she prefers. If she won't eat, lightly cook the meat on the plate and offer it again. If she still won't eat, take some chicken liver and puree it in a blenderwith an equal amount of water, and offer it to the cat. If needed, put a few drops at a time on the top of one of the front paws so the cat will clean it off, thereby getting a taste. Keep repeating this until the cat starts to eat. She is more likely to eat meat than catfood.