Any ideas as to what made my cat sick?

DoraB

I'm sorry for making another HA thread so soon after the other, but if there's one thing I've learned in reading the forum, it's that you guys have a really surprising depth of knowledge when it's all pooled together, and I'm sort of desperate right now. Apologies for what is going to be a long, detail-ridden post.

Sunday night my cat started throwing up, violently. He's an adult male, probably around ten or eleven years old. First he threw up his dinner (the weight management kibble he'd been prescribed a while back), and then he just kept retching and heaving up puddles of whitish, yellowish foam. He was panting, staggering, and kept trying to run away from me. Our regular vet was closed, so my husband and I rushed him to the emergency animal hospital. (On the way there, he also wouldn't stop howling, and pooped on me, too. Which was gross, but at the time it was more worrying than anything else.) The vet on duty said they'd keep him overnight, give him fluids, and perform tests. We ended up paying $670.00 for that.

In the morning when we picked him up to take him to our vet, he had a catheter in his leg and was still really lethargic. (But he'd been through a lot.) We were told his sugar levels had been a little low, and his pancreas and liver levels a little high. The emergency vet had no idea what had happened. In his words, "It's a mystery." We took him into our regular vet, and after paying another $230.00 for more tests, we still don't know what had happened. The vet said he could have eaten a bug, been bitten by something, gotten into some sort of cleaner... she had no idea. And neither do we, since our other adult male cat, only a few years younger, slept peacefully through the whole thing and was absolutely fine. The vet gave us some cephalexin to give him twice a day, which is apparently an antibiotic, since she said the problem MIGHT be bacteria in his bowels.

That was all on Sunday and Monday, and ever since our cat has seemed more or less like himself. (IE, "I hate you, why are you following me, stop petting me, this food sucks and YOU suck, two-legger.") He seems like he sleeps more than he used to, but maybe that's just because I'm noticing it more after watching him like a hawk, and when he's awake he does all his usual cat stuff.

I'm posting this because my vet's response was basically, "Well, if it happens again, bring him in." Well, no shit, lady. But I'd like to know what I could do to prevent that. On the off chance one of you has had something similar happen (and I honestly hope nobody has because that is terrifying to go through) I'm looking to get more information to see if we can figure out what happened.

As I said, we have another cat around the same age who is fine. I keep a very clean house, but we do find those big brown house spiders around occasionally, and with my husband going in and out to the garden constantly it's possible something like a palmetto beetle might have gotten in. I kind of want to scour the entire house, but now I'm paranoid of using any cleaners that might make him sick, even though nothing like this has ever happened before. If you have any ideas or suggestions, I'd be really thankful for it. I'm just really panicking anytime I hear him or our other cat so much as sneeze, and I'd like to at least know I'm doing something to prevent this from happening again.

Pity picture of his shaved leg from the catheter:

If you guys read all that, you deserve more cookies than I could make in a lifetime. Thanks.

Kalkino

I had a vaguely similar situation but that was because the pet ate poison - so, have you or your neighbours been trying to control rats/sugs/mice etc?

Asiina

If you're worried about bites, check the cat's body. Just sit with him and check his skin. It might take a while and he'll probably get annoyed, but it should be worth it to be able to narrow it down.

Does the cat go outside? If so ask your neighbours about anything they put outside. If not then check your own house for any open cupboards or bottles.

Also it may seem like your cat is sleeping a lot...but cats sleep a lot. They sleep around 16 hours a day. So that in and of itself is probably not too big a problem.

DoraB

Thanks for the responses. He's an indoor cat, but there's always a chance that something got in from outside. I realise his sleeping probably isn't an issue, but when you have a problem come out of thin air like that, you tend to overreact at everything. I'll go over him for bites. It's really the only possibility I can think of.

ProPatriaMori

The last time I had a cat start vomiting out of the blue he was obviously really unhappy for a couple days and then vomited up a mass of those elastic ponytail-holders that was almost as big as he was. Retard cat had almost killed himself eating those until he was quite literally full of them and my (otherwise brilliant biologist) girlfriend had just kept buying new ones without wondering where the old ones went.

My point being, there's all kinds of things that can cause a cat to go through stuff like this. Good luck figuring it out, but I don't hold much hope for you unless it ends up being glaringly obvious--even a brilliant cat can do mind-numbingly stupid things.

In case you're wondering, my girlfriend's cat has since been observed opening drawers to eat more of the delicious ponytail holders.

MushroomStick

Do you use those cleaner tablet things that go in the toilet tank? Do you ever leave the lid up? I ask because my stupid ass cat got pretty sick that way.

MetroidZoid

That the emergency vet couldn't give you the least bit of help with deducing the cause worries me. You'd think they'd ask you a few questions, and the cat is exhibiting specific symptoms.

My cat got really lethargic and snot-faced about a month ago, but was still eating and drinking so I put off a vet visit unless it took a turn for the worse. At the same time, I looked up poisoning symptoms online, just to give me an idea of what it could be. He's an outdoor cat, comes in at night, but spends the better part of the day wandering around local houses, any of which could be using some kind of poison or bait. Even when used properly (put where it's only accessible to the targeted animal), most rodent poisons work by basically killing the animal of thirst (there's probably a more complex way to put it). The symptoms I saw for rodent poisoning said that the cat would be thirsty, jumpy / nervous / excited,,and vomiting. Nothing my cat had, but a couple of those sound like your cat might have gotten into something. Keep in mind that just because your cat is inside, doesn't mean that a mouse that ingested the poison outside wouldn't come inside. The rodents go ape-shit for water once they're poisoned.

Anyways, if he was flushed, I'd say the cats probably on the road to recovery. It probably wouldn't hurt to basically set up a room and keep him in it, just to make it easier to monitor his behavior, keep him from getting hurt. A spare bedroom or the bathroom maybe. A sick / tired cat might try to get up to somewhere or jump down from something like normal, but not make the leap or whathaveyou. Also maybe try wet cat food (if you don't already), I did this when Gus got sick, just to try and coax him to eat more.

Good luck, keep us updated!
Also Google the poisoning symptoms to give you a better idea of what to potentially discuss with your vet if you make a second visit. Also, don't know if it's already been said, but I'm a firm believer in establishing a regular vet just like you wood for any person. Find a vet you like, who you feel is both knowledgeable and personable to you and your animal. My family had the good opportunity of finding a vet who was able to take care of all 5 of our dogs (down to 3 now), our cats, and even a couple of our goats. Hey, we have a farm, it's important to find a vet who's good in livestock care around here. Now that I've moved out I take my cat to the same vet.

elfdude

Sounds like poisoning or swallowing something. Most animals don't respond to snakes/spiders in the same way humans do and often don't even notice bites or stings so I sort of doubt it was that that did it to him.

More than likely he either ate some sort of stringy bits (tinsel, ribbon, etc) and choked himself or temporarily clogged his stomach (cats are pretty good at unclogging it on their own most of the time due to hairballs). Cats will chew on anything that looks vaguely like a toy (tinsel ribbons etc) or a plant. If you have house plants make sure that they're not poisonous if they are put them out of easy reach and your cat should stop trying to eat them. I've had cats that will eat plastic plants too.

The other option is that he ate something off the floor, mopping usually won't harm animals but there are different polishes and chemicals that can. Be sure to wipe the floor off with warm water after you mop. Your cat might have a food aversion to the food you're giving him now since he might associate it with being sick whether rightly or wrongly you may have to change his food with something else if he refuses to eat it anymore. Cat food does promote mold growth so it must be stored in a cool dry and preferably airtight container. If your other cat is fine (and eats the same food) though I doubt this is the case.

Cats hold grudges for a little while and typically will get angry with you after vet visits etc. Don't worry about it it will pass when he gets hungry or starved for attention. Having his foot shaved like that might bug him too.

P.S have you shopped around for vets at all? Those prices seem very expensive. Also what possessed you to shell out 1000$ for a cat? Either you have a lot of money to spare or really spoil that cat.

Richard_Dastardly

Do you have any lilies in the house or anywhere accessable to the cat? Apparently they're really poisonous. Of course, I didn't know this until my cat had gotten sick and $1300 later died. Neither the emergency vets nor the two other vets we took her to knew what was wrong, so they just gave her fluids and antibiotics and junk.

She had gotten really sick, then seemed better for about a week before getting sick again and dying.

Erandus

Check any house plants for gnawed leaves. There are dozens of common house plants that are poisonous to cats.