Is my cat dying?

tarnok

On Wednesday she did not appear interested in food. I didn't think much of it because we'd fed them later than usual Tuesday night and there was still food in the bowl that morning so I figured she'd just eaten already. This continued through Thursday though and she began to move around a lot less than usual and spent a great deal of time in a spot that I believe she considers comforting. Friday morning I took her to the vet after they said in a phone call that a cat not eating for two days was very serious (systems start shutting down is how I believe they phrased it).

No elevated temperature was detected but the vet said she reacted as though her abdomen was sensitive. Blood work showed "..one of her kidney levels is elevated..." whatever that means, but the vet couldn't say whether that was why she wasn't eating or because she wasn't eating. They also found lower thyroid levels than normal but didn't really say if or how that was connected. X-rays showed something vague that the vet thought might be a pancreatic mass, but also less lung visible than expected. In the end they wanted to do an ultrasound and exploratory surgery but at this point I'd already spent $400 and this was going to cost another 400-800 when the first 400 was really stretching it. I really can't afford to spend $1200 to _maybe_ know what's wrong with her.

They finally gave her subcutaneous fluids, an antibiotic and an appetite stimulant and I took her home. I've seen her eat a couple of mouthfuls of food since then but that's it and she doesn't seem any better. If anything she seems less inclined to move. I don't think I've seen her move more than a yard at a stretch.

I really have no idea what to do here or even if she's in serious danger or not. It's the weekend so most places are going to be closed and I probably couldn't afford to do whatever needed to be done even if someone knew what that was. Can anyone help me?

Quid

If I was in your situation? I'd go and get a few different wet foods if she normally eats dry. Outside of that? If you can't afford to find out what's wrong, well, there isn't a whole lot you can do beyond making her comfortable. Sorry to hear about this and I hope she gets better.

Pantshandshake

Elevated kidney levels, when phrased that way, means that something is off. It can literally range from a bit of dehydration to catastrophic organ failure imminent. Likewise the vague mass, could be anything from a random inflammation to outright cancer.

I'm going to be honest, the cat's behavior is more telling than the vet results. She's obviously got something wrong with her, and if you don't start seeing improvement over the next few days, you might want to be ready for the worst.

On the other hand, it could just be a matter of her needing daily subcue fluids to keep kidney function normal. Not too expensive, and pretty easy for anyone (even you) to administer.

Hahnsoo1

Get her to eat, first. Multiple kinds of wet cat food is good (for variety), and I've had a lot of success with Human Baby food (little Gerber jars, that sort of thing). You can either have a spoon or use your finger, and they lick it right up. I would get a variety of that, too, since they are cheap, and will provide both liquid and calorie nutrition for your cat.

Are you giving the cat daily subcutaneous fluids? This can help with the dehydration that your cat is probably having, and may even help her activity level.

If it is a pancreatic insult, your cat is probably in some amount of pain. When one of our cats had a pancreas-related problem, adding a vet-prescribed pain killer pretty much turned her from "slug cat" to "feed me! I'm hungry!" which was heartening to see.

I've been through this situation, and I can sympathize. It's hard not knowing exactly what is going on. I'm sorry that your cat is sick, and I hope she pulls through.

Delzhand

How old is the cat?

tarnok

She's nine or ten years old, I can't be certain. She's not getting subcutaneous fluids every day, but if that's actually something I can do for her rather than paying 45 dollars for the vet to do it that could change. I'm not really worried about dehydration because she does seem to be drinking some but maybe I just don't realize the potential dangers there.

She does seem a little more perky this evening and she just ate more than I've seen her eat in the previous three days combined so that's positive. Still way too little but it seems like improvement.

Siska

Glad to hear she seems to be feeling a little better. Hopefully she will pull through. I don't know what you are feeding her now, but feeding her better quality grain free food with high protein content might improve her health. Preferably canned over dry, unless she is very good at drinking water. If no stores nearby sells quality food you can order through amazon and other places. ---> http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_10?url=search-alias=pets&field-keywords=innova evo&sprefix=innova+evo,aps,476

Hahnsoo1

Siska wrote: »

Glad to hear she seems to be feeling a little better. Hopefully she will pull through. I don't know what you are feeding her now, but feeding her better quality grain free food with high protein content might improve her health. Preferably canned over dry, unless she is very good at drinking water. If no stores nearby sells quality food you can order through amazon and other places. ---> http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_10?url=search-alias=pets&field-keywords=innova evo&sprefix=innova+evo,aps,476

I know your heart is in the right place, and in general, your advice may hold true, but if the cat has chronic renal failure (the labs showing elevated BUN and Creatinine may be the result of just this present illness or the result of underlying chronic renal failure, but there's no way to know at this moment), a low protein diet is better for managing kidney disease in the long term. There are special "renal" formulations of various cat foods, but this isn't something that you should start without the supervision of a vet, obviously.

In the short term, just get her to eat... anything will do, when she's sick.

mts

Is she using her box still? Abdomen sensitivity could mean uti also. As far as eating goes, he's fasting is rough on cats, especially fat ones. If she goes without eating again, you can offer her something like tuna from a can or worse case whipped cream. This isn't a long term solution but that will stave off the risk of not eating anything

tarnok

She's not using her box. She's peed on the floor three times now, once after I moved the litter box to the spot where she was peeing she just peed on the floor beside it. I mentioned the peeing on the floor to the vet but she didn't draw a specific connection.

After eating a little last night she ignored her food again this morning and I'm not sure she's drinking anything now. We're going to go to the store to get some different things that she might eat later. Aside from tuna and whipped cream (really?) does anyone have suggestions?

Hahnsoo1

Baby food. Chicken, beef, pork, or turkey. Spoon-feed, finger-feed her, if you have to.

tarnok

Update: I noticed her breath has smelled pretty strong since this thing started. I just touched her mouth and it was wet with a liquid which frankly smelled like shit.

SineNomine00

Wow buddy, I am no vet, but nothing that you have described sounds good. I think you've gotten some great advice about trying to stimulate her appetite, and keep her hydrated, which is exactly what you should be worried about with a cat acting like you have described.

I know your heart is in the right place, trying to get her to eat, and make her better, but maybe it's time to start taking a hard look at your pet, and ask if she is suffering. Does she act like she is in pain? With cats it can be really hard to tell. I hesitate to say it might be that time, but it's worth mentioning that as a pet owner, you have an obligation to your pet that goes beyond just prolonging her life. I hope your kitty improves, because god knows I adore mine, but I would never want anyone's pet to suffer more than they had to.

Sterica

It sounds like her kidneys are failing. If the kidneys are not properly eliminating waste, it'd explain the lose of appetite and bad breath (urea building up, maybe?). Basically, her blood is accumulating crap, which is going to slowly kill her.

How much is she drinking? My dog died of kidney failure last year, and she was drinking to the point where she'd jump in the bath tub to get any stray water.

tarnok

She's not drinking a lot. When I do find her with her head over the water bowl that's really all it is. I rarely catch her actually drinking.

She ate a couple of kitty treats, sniffed at some milk that's supposed to be digestible for cats and dogs and turned away from chicken and gravy babyfood as though it were foul.

Hopefully I'll be able to call my regular vet in the morning and they'll be able to help.

Melinoe

You can maybe try putting her next to a sink and trickling the water and seeing if she'll drink that? My cat will drink from his bowl sometimes but prefers the sink, I guess cats naturally prefer drinking from running water sources? Probably worth trying at least.

Sterica

The lack of thirst is throwing me off here. It's possible that the subcutaneous fluids are responsible for that.

I'm not a vet, and I'm working mostly off my personal experience with my dog and my knowledge of human kidneys. It really sounds like she has a serious problem with her kidneys being unable to filter her blood, which would explain the bad breath, lack of energy, and loss of appetite. It could be something treatable like an infection, or it could be something disastrous like a kidney tumor. At this point you basically have to make the choice of how much money you want to invest to find out the source of the problem.

tarnok

I just put her in the bathtub with the water on a bit and she seems interested. It looks like she's drinking some. Or just sitting with her head over the drain.

And now she's peed and was just laying in it. I have to take my wife to work but I'm calling my vet as soon as I get back. I don't know if I really expect her to be able to tell me anything the other vet couldn't but I'm at my wits' end here.

Thank you all for your help, I'll post here if anything changes.

mts

could be an infected tooth/abcess or something would cause them to not want to eat/drink since it hurts, the bad breath etc

tarnok

I just got back from the vet. I won't go into too much detail but she believes from the x-rays and a physical examination that my cat was riddled with cancer. A growth on the spleen that ruptured, a huge growth on the liver that was pushing her other organs out of place, lymph nodes around the heart affected. The vet offered to do an ultrasound for free but apparently my cat was in so much pain she didn't feel that she could proceed with it.

We had to put her to sleep. She was in a great deal of pain and the vet didn't think she was likely to last out the night anyway. This is the first time I've been through this and it's pretty rough for a host of reasons I'm not even able to fully process yet. Thank you all for your help, I'm sorry there couldn't be a happy ending.

Hahnsoo1

It is very rough. I'm so sorry for your loss. You know, a friend said to me, when one of my cats died a few years ago, that cats are better than friends and family in some ways, because they will never let you down, and they always have your back. You tried to do everything that you could for her. If you need to talk about her, then you can always write about it here.

Steev

Very sorry to hear that. I know how you feel. I went through something similar with my favorite cat last year. I still get a little teary-eyed when I think back about that whole thing.

Just know that you did what you could, and she is no longer in any pain.

Xaquin

Sorry to hear tarnok =(

Pantshandshake

Ah, shit. That sucks man, I'm sorry.

Madpanda

sorry for your loss

Gonmun

tarnok wrote: »

I just got back from the vet. I won't go into too much detail but she believes from the x-rays and a physical examination that my cat was riddled with cancer. A growth on the spleen that ruptured, a huge growth on the liver that was pushing her other organs out of place, lymph nodes around the heart affected. The vet offered to do an ultrasound for free but apparently my cat was in so much pain she didn't feel that she could proceed with it.

We had to put her to sleep. She was in a great deal of pain and the vet didn't think she was likely to last out the night anyway. This is the first time I've been through this and it's pretty rough for a host of reasons I'm not even able to fully process yet. Thank you all for your help, I'm sorry there couldn't be a happy ending.

No apologies necessary tarnok. I'm sorry you're having to go through this.

If I can offer any advice to help you get through this tough time, try to remember all the good times you had with her. Don't linger on the bad. You did everything you could for her within reason. It may take some time but try and remember that first point of remembering the good and of course talk if you need to.

Magic Pink

tarnok wrote: »

I'm sorry there couldn't be a happy ending.

If she went because she was in pain with you around that's still a pretty happy ending. You did right by her.

azith28

I'm sorry to hear about your loss. I went through this last year with my 8-9 year old cat, and it was especially difficult because as soon as i took her to the vet i knew something was seriously wrong, and while we tried medicines for 2 weeks after that, i was miserable the whole time knowing that the result would likely be the same, and it was.

Vet expenses make it especially difficult to justify major diagnosis or surgery...no matter how much you love them, its impossible to not factor in the cost because your also having the worry that your vet is just trying to make a quick buck. You may feel guilty about deciding what you did, I know i still do but I do know that dispite my guilt, that she was in pain and I couldnt watch her continue like that. The thing with animals is its very rare that after a serious problem that they really come all the way back to what they were. You have to ask yourself if your pet would want to continue being an invalid even if you had the money to do the surgery and keep her alive. I could tell by the way mine didnt want to move much, had hair patches falling out etc...that she was never going to be the same again.

She will be at the bridge waiting for you.

JaysonFour

Yeah... it shows how much you cared about her- that you allowed her to pass without pain and in peace. Just don't expect her to have an excuse to leave you alone, now- one of my cats used to love sleeping on my gaming TV, to the point of knocking off the sensor bar for my Wii. Some days the bar will just fall off, and it'll remind me of a black cat with white whiskers who would be looking at me as if to say "So I want to be warm. Deal with it, human."

You're always going to have memories. Treasure them.