Very sick cat

[NoNeedToArgue]

I'm hoping someone with some experience can reassure me! Our cat is an 8 month old Siberian. She's an indoor cat. About 5 days ago she started being sick, just off and on, not more than once a day. Seemed well in herself, but then took a turn for the worse yesterday and was being constantly sick. I phoned the vet and she was really nice, just said to withhold food and keep an eye.
This morning I found she had been sick twice in the night, and then late morning had another really awful bout of vomiting.
Took her to the vet who couldn't find anything wrong on observing her except for a bit of a tender tummy but he didn't think anything was twisted/ stuck. Gave her anti-sickness injection and gave me some gastrointestinal food for when she gets hungry.
She's so poorly. She's not been sick again but she's so lethargic and not asking for food at all. She's drinking little amounts. I thought she'd be a bit better by now; the vet suggested she would too.
Any ideas or reassurance?!

Is there cereal in her food? Mine was badly intolerant to cereal and dehydrated with vomiting and diarrhoea when he was a kitten, I had to feed plain chicken breast for a while.

If you’ve got plain chicken I’d offer that but if she isn’t perked up by morning re-book her with the vet.

Thanks for replying. No cereal. She'll have been without food for 48 hours in the morning if she doesn't eat overnight so I'll definitely be back at the vet if that's the case!
Just cannot imagine what has caused this.

Which food is she on at the moment?. Have you got any houseplants?.

As she’s pedigree I’d email the breeder and sound them out.

She's on Applaws kitten food, both wet and dry. I did think about emailing the breeder, good idea! Thanks.

Stuck hairball?

No houseplants though?

Mine had that anti-nausea injection several times, it’s an overnight thing so if she had it today she should perk up overnight.

My old cat had similar symptoms. Turned out to be a huge hairball that had got stuck. She couldn't vomit it up, but it didn't feel hard on palpitation, was identified as "something" possibly tumour etc. on as an. Emergency surgery found the huge wad of fur.
She was a long hair and routinely vomited up huge sausage shaped fur balls. This one ( was handed it back in a plastic bag 😁) was a flat disc.
She was vomiting as the food just couldn't pass the obstruction.

Sorry, identified by scan

We do have houseplants but she doesn't really tend to go near them! Nothing majorly toxic that I know of, either.
Hairball is a definite possibility, although the vet didn't mention it. How can you prevent these?!

I think some foods are high fibre and are classed as anti hairball if that helps? She's beautiful, I hope she gets better soon. X

I don't think you canto be honest. I used to give her the odd syringe of liquid paraffin (suggested by vet) never had another one that got lodges, but she still threw up regularfurballs.
Current cat is also a longhair, but doesn't seem to get them for some reason, despite being regularly apprehended consuming large chunks of his own ruff.

Which ones have you got? There’s more toxic to pet ones than non-toxic to cats ones.

A lot of them cause vomiting as the main symptom.

When our departed Bengal ate red berries off a garden plant one night he vomited 5 times. The next morning he tried to do it again and I had to get the secateurs out.

@Ironmanrocks thank you! I do too!

@Fluffycloudland77 I just don't think she's been at the plants - there's not a scratch on them. I will double check now what they are though!

A small amount of oil or butter can help prevent hairballs, or you can buy hairball malt paste.

I know but cats, especially young ones like this are sneaky and a little nibble here and there can make them ill. It’s just not worth the risk to the cat.

You’ve saved a lot of potential dangers to her by keeping her indoors but they do like a bit of greenery because it makes them vomit any bones or fur they can’t digest (her instincts don’t know she’s a housecat who’ll never have to vomit up mouse bones or bird bits). It’s natures emetic.

You can buy cat grass.

Hi Op, vet nurse here. It's good that she's drinking small amounts, I think if she's still lethargic/ not eating / eating but still vomiting the gastro food then you should take her in and they should probably check her hydration and do some bloods for pancreatitis etc.

Hope she feels better soon xx

I did buy cat grass, but had to chuck it as she was so uninterested (in all THREE varieties ) and it just grew like crazy and looked awful!

@Elmo311 I will. Thanks x

Oh and what's her vomit like?

@Stickytreacle @Weedsnseeds1 thanks for the hairball advice. Seems likely that it could be a problem...

@Elmo311 it's just been mucous, very yellow today.

@NoNeedToArgue Aw poor thing :( Have you offered her some food? If she doesn't like the gastro food you can try her with a tiny amount of plain chicken and see if she fancies that.
Were they able to check her temperature when you took her in?

Any diarrhoea?

If she gets worse overnight you can take her to the emergency vets but hopefully she will start to feel better soon. I know what a worry they can be! Give her a stroke from me x

Katalax is good for hairballs - if it's still around! I've been on maternity leave for a while now!

Temp was fine when she went in. This is her current position!