Help please poorly kitten

[anoldiebutagoody]

My 6mth old kitten (Teddy) has been vomiting white frothy liquid since Sat night. Took him to vet yesterday (because I was concerned about the stuff DH had put on the lawn last week) she examined him and did bloods but apart from slightly raised temperature everything was normal. She gave him an injection to help the nausea and he tried to eat a tiny bit of fish last night.
He was sick again last night but nothing since the only thing is he's still not interested in food. He is drinking a little and weeing so that's good but he is sleeping a lot and looking very sorry for himself.
Is there anything I can do/get him to help his tummy and tempt him to eat. Tried steamed fish and chicken and all his favorites but no interest so far.
We (Teddy and me) would be very grateful for any ideas. Thanks Here he is a week or so ago x

Doesn't sound as if he's doing too badly, all told. I know he didn't eat much yesterday morning, but if he'd had plenty the previous few days and made up for it yesterday evening!

Have you tried seeing if there's a pattern to it all? Even going through this thread and seeing how frequently the sickness / off food episodes occur? Was wondering if it might be possible to intercept and be proactive rather than reactive. (But that may not be possible to do with the Metacam anyway.)

Hope the weather's improved for you (and the boys!). We're back to rain here (the poor hens were sheltering when I left) so Tilly decided to go back to bed for the day. Wish I could have joined her! At least himself's back later today so she'll have someone else to moan at!

Well. You always said that it might be the long haul.

At least now he's got a goodly period of eating and playing under his belt. If he has a blip, so be it - you're on the watch for it.

Lisa's off for a week is she?

Hi both,
He's bright enough in himself, still chasing and catching flies which he DOES eat, wonder how much nutrition there is in a fly? He was sick again this morning, twice , bless him seems to want to eat but when I give him the food he doesn't want it .
His temperature is 38.6 today (really doesn't like me taking it now and starts to struggle as soon as he sees where we're going- he's going to hate me soon 😞) so more "normal" for him and his poo is normal although not a lot of it as he's not eating very much.
I am keeping a diary Time, it was something Lisa and I spoke about after his last visit, to see what meds worked best for him and try to find any triggers but unless it's a cyclical thing there's no trigger that I can see.
Off to collect the antiemetics shortly and will check when Lisa is back, vet on Monday thought she was off for 10 days from last Friday - if he's right & it's 10 working days she should be back next Wednesday .

Gave Teddy the anti sickness and antacid yesterday afternoon but still didn't want to eat.
By late evening he was getting the look that says "I'm not very well mum", and was sleeping a lot, tried him again with food at around 10 o'clock but not interested - think we had 6 different bowls of food out to try to tempt him but to no avail. (Bobby thought it was Christmas as he got it all !) So at 10.30 I made him have some water only 10ml but I thought 10 ml was better than nothing.
Decided I'd give it until the morning and if he wasn't eating by then we'd bite the bullet and take him to the vet.
This morning he was a bit brighter, not sick and came up for a little snuggle until Bobby came too then we were relegated ☺. Tried him with some food he was interested but after sniffing at it turned away almost like he wanted to eat but was afraid to. I wondered if he was in pain and associated eating with pain so I gave him dose of Metacam and he's just had 2/3rds of a bowl of food.
So I reckon he was in pain either direct pain or pain from some sort of inflammation and now it's eased he can eat again.
I'm going to give him another full dose of Metacam tomorrow and his antacids then reduce the dose to the "maintenance" dose he was on before for his temperature, until Lisa is back, which is pretty much what she said to do last time she was off for a few days.
Can cats have Crohns disease or IBD ? because that's what it seems like especially as he has a compromised immune system anyway.
I'm happier now something is helping him I really hate it when he's suffering and I'm not able to make it better.

I really don't know whether they can - but they have complicated innards like us and You Know What certainly has the potential to upset them. Don't view it as a defeat to give him some meloxicam. If it helps to keep him happy that's all good - and happiness is good for his immune system as well in my view.

I'm quite happy to give him whatever medication he needs, I don't see it as a defeat cozie, it is what it is. I'm just happy he's feeling well enough to eat.
The only reason I will reduce the dose is because in itself Metacam can irritate the stomach (which you probably already know☺) so if we can get away with less it's better for his tummy.
BTW Google tells me that cats can indeed get IBD, Crohns and other "human" conditions that affect the gut and when they did the biopsies the lab said there was inflammation in the gut. Trouble is the treatment is usually cocortesoids which we don't really want to give him incase it's actually YouKnowWhat as they can boost the mutation.
Lisa did say last time she saw him that he probably should have a course of steroids but it is too risky to give them to him. Next time we do go in I'll ask her to do another titre count to see it there's been any change.

This is clearly one for a full discussion with Lisa.

Having said that, though, he seems to be reacting well to the meloxicam? Maybe it's not irritating the innards in his case - or on balance, the good effects are outweighing the potentially bad ones?

Yes I'll speak to Lisa on Wednesday when he's back in work. Personally,
I don't think the Metacam irritates his stomach, but it is a known side effect so better to keep it in mind. I always give it with food which is supposed to help but when he isn't eating there's not a lot of options.
He's almost back to his normal self, miaowing for food and even sitting next to me eyeing up my fish (and eating it) - he and Bobby have now gone out for a stroll before supper, last night he was sleeping on my bed from about 7 o'clock not wanting to do anything.

Seniorboy has been on it for over four years now - for his arthritis. (Although it's not completely cutting it these days because his arthritis is very severe so he also has supplemental pain meds as needed.) He always has it in his food and doesn't seem to have had any ill-effects at all.

Sorry - just over 5 years, thinking about it.

PS- try mixing his dose with a sachet of Lick E Lix. That stuff would disguise anything!

Hi cozie,. No sickness again today and eating OK. Weather is cold and damp so he's snoozing away the morning because Bobby's not up so no o e to play with and nothing flying about to catch.
He quite likes the Metacam, I interrupt him when he's eating and he just carries on afterwards as though nothing has happened, that way I know he's had the full dose even if he doesn't finish all his food.
I think Lisa is concerned about him taking Metacam for the rest of his life given he's so young and the possible effect on other organs, but if that's what it takes we don't have a choice. If we can repeat last month's treatment it may be that he'll only need it for a few days each month and we can control things with less potent drugs like the antacids.
Never heard of LickELix I wonder if he'd take the probiotic mixed with that as he won't have it in his food nowadays, I'll have to get some to try.

Yep. You may not have a choice. He's doing wonderfully well with it - and with things in general - but if it's holding up the lintel for a bit while the rest of his immune system copes with his condition, it may be a case of 'so be it'. Long talk with Lisa?

What a wee scrapper he is.

Yes he isn't giving up, bless him he really wants to live a nice life.
He and Bobby have been out in the wind today but didn't stay very lo g and following lunch Teddy is now curled up desperately trying to sleep in a shallow box, occasionally getting up to have a stretch and turn around 😀

That is such a lovely photo! He must be communicating with Tilly - despite having three large boxes in various rooms in the house (which I'm not allowed to throw out, obviously!) she has been trying to sleep in a new one which is about the size of Teddy's. She can barely squeeze in, yet she is determined she is going to!

Am surprised he still lets you take his temperature - I'd be down to minus fingers by now! Tell him from me that I'm impressed he's such a good boy!

Glad to hear he's feeling better than he was again, though sorry to hear the weather's putting a dampner of his plans! No doubt he'll soon be acting as a weather-vane once more!

Does he want to come and round up some rabbits for me? The vet is insisting on seeing all five babies tomorrow at the same time, to double-check their sexes. This is not going to be a fun exercise, especially if it's pouring with rain, as not only will we'll get wet but they'll also act as sensible rabbits and head down their burrow. But I really can't cope with another generation of inbreeding, so they HAVE to go! Maybe Teddy and Bobby can send rounding-up vibes in this direction...???

Yes there are lots of bigger boxes here too but this one obviously makes the most comfortable bed.
Teddy's getting fed up with the temperature taking and growls at hubby now so I don't know how much longer I'll be able to do it.
I'm sure they both would love to help with the bunnies but don't think they'd get to you in time and with Bobby helping you'd probably be a few bunnies short by the time you got to the vets -remember the bird catching.
Good luck with the rounding up, Bobby & Teddy are sending lots of positive rounding up vibes, I hope the rain stops for you.

Not such a good day today, Teddy was sick twice at 2am this morning and apart from having a bit of chicken this morning at about 10 am and a few mouthfuls at lunchtime he hasn't really shown much interest in food despite having Metacam and anti sickness.
He's till out in the garden chasing flies and chattering at the seagulls on our roof-no more weather vane impressions, think a large seagull scared him one day and he's not ventured above garage height since.
Think I'll see what he's like tomorrow and make an appointment on Monday for Wednesday, with Lisa if he's not picked up.

Fingers crossed for the rest of the weekend.

Still sick and not interested in food yesterday until later in the afternoon when he ate a small tin of Disks salmon food (85g). Was brighter afterwards and playing a little.
This morning he hadn't been sick by 9.am but again wasn't eating, I gave him the Metacam and antisickness and it came straight back up with a little blood making it pink froth. Lisa said not to bee too worried about this as it's happened before and is caused by damage to blood vessels when retching.
He still went out and when he came back in at around 10.30 was looking for food so I offered various sorts but he turned his nose up so tried him with some tinned salmon, which he ate. So he had 3 saucers of salmon by 2pm then settled down for a long wash and a sleep. He's been in and out during the afternoon but was sleeping on the bed until about 6.30 when he was sick, this time with food and a fur ball. - poor dab can't get a break, if it's not froth it's fur.
Rang to make an appointment with Lisa but was told that she was fully booked on Wednesday (think she's actually doing surgery) so have made an appointment for 9.15 on Thursday - if I'd been able to speak to Lisa I'm sure she would have seen him but obviously she wasn't there and the receptionist could only go on what was on her screen.
Just got to keep him reasonably comfortable for two more days .

*Disks??? Should be Cosma

Maybe it's a wee setback then - but you've been there before. And remember, he's bigger and stronger now with all of those weeks of good health under his belt.

My cat had IBD, also couldn't have steroids due to co-existing issues. Or metacam for that matter.

Young vet put him on metronidazole, one per day. Worked wonders, went from a very sick cat to eating and solid poo with a week.

Poor baby! Hope he's improved overnight. Typical that he has to get a hairball on top of everything else! Poor lamb!

Have you tried him with kefir? It is supposed to help the immune system and gut bacteria, so might help his tummy settle.

Hope he is doing better again today and is back helping Bobby eradicate the world of flies!

x

Still being sick I'm sorry to say - seems to be every time he wakes up which is horrible for him because he's sleeping in the daytime now. So far it's been 3am, 9am and 2 pm just some froth and back to white now. After the last time he was interested in food so tried him with the salmon, chicken etc but refused it all-I was just about to make up some of the RCConvalesce to syringe into him when he started eating the dry food that's out for Bobby. So took the chance to give him some Metacam and he had a bit more dry food, went for a quick nap and has just had a little bit more dry and so far it's all still in his tummy.
I'm at the stage that I don't care what he eats as long as he keeps it down, I can syringe some water into him later if the Metacam doesn't help.
It wasn't a very big fireball Time I just think his tummy is so inflamed that anything that irritates even a little has a huge effect for him.
I mentioned to Lisa about kefir but she hadn't heard of it - she was happy for him to have probiotics but he got fed up with them and now won't eat them. I wonder if he'd take the kefir milk/yogurt, they sell it in TESCO apparently I'll have to see if they have any locally and bring it with me.
He's still interested in things, he's on the living room windowsill at the moment checking what's going on outside as it's pouring with rain here, he was going out between the showers earlier but this is too much even for him - he'll probably have a little snooze in a bit.
Roll on Thursday morning when Lisa can check him over and take his temperature which I failed to do today as he was getting so stressed about it and pulling away, he's just been sick so I didn't have the heart to keep trying.

Poor wee lad.