Cat unwell after being AWOL 3 weeks

[llamacat]

Cat 13 yrs old went missing for 3 weeks, very unusual for him and I had assumed the worst had happened. To my delight and surprise he reappeared yesterday but looking dreadful, extremely thin, fur patchy and various scabs. So wherever he's been, it's not being pampered in someone's home! Perhaps stuck in a shed or something while people on holiday?

He was so so hungry and ate double his usual, but since then has really bad diarrhea, every hour or two, unable to make it outside in time or even to litter tray. I also did a flea treatment yesterday so could be a reaction to that as well as overfeeding after starvation?

Question: would you wait it out a few days to see if it settles, or go to vet today? Bank holiday so will have to be emergency vet though rather than regular.

You do have to eat very carefully after fasting, your body has to adjust to food again. I know this is true of humans so I imagine it's true of most animals. Of course his instinct is to eat to the max after being so hungry, but if you feed him little and often and really carefully, bland easy to digest food, he'll almost certainly recover.
I'm not sure about the vet, hopefully you'll get some more opinions.
Poor love! I'm so glad he made his way home.

Serve small meals 4 times a day and keep cat in. If your cat eats double meals it will either be sick or get diarrhoea. I'd leave taking it to the vet if diarrhoea stops but if it persists it will need to go to see the vet.

I personally would at least speak to a vet (I know it's a BH so it will be out of hours) but at least they might be able to give you some advice/reassurance. Chances are he was dehydrated when he came home and now being sick and having diarrhoea could make him pretty poorly. The flea treatment could definitely also have added to this I think.

So pleased he is home and I hope he picks up soon.

Food needs to be little and often. If hes been very hungry for days he's going to gorge himself and make himself sick. I would expect illness in that case. Make sure plenty of water is available Monitor carefully for next 24 hours and get xhim checked if no improvement.

He's probably been eating insects and goodness knows what other unmentionables whilst he's been gone, and it changes the gut flora (and makes the cat smell appalling as well), which impacts their digestion when they come back. One of ours went missing for a couple of months, and it took ages for his digestion (and the awful smelly poos) to get back to normal once he was found and rescued.

Maybe take him to the vet tomorrow to get him checked over for injuries and so on, just to put your mind at rest. In the meantime, as others say, small meals at first.

Mine came back after 2 weeks missing and was ravenous. She ate a lot for the first few days and had diarrhoea but it setttled after 3 or 4 days. She was much thinner but otherwise well. Keep an eye on the cat and give the vet a call tomorrow to ask if they need a check up, but mine settled down quite quickly

Does your insurance have a helpline? Ours has 24/7 access to a vet nurse (can be phone or video call) which I have used in the past and found really useful. They run through checks with you and can book you in to OOH if necessary. In our case we were fine to wait but it is helpful as a “sense check”.

If he's been starving then eating loads of food at once is bound to upset his stomach.

I wouldn't rush him to the vets today but I would ration his food and do lots of small, regular portions instead of huge ones.

Thanks for all the replies. His tummy seems a little more settled so far today, touch wood... He is v clingy, and much more nervous than normal. He's never been very good at drinking water, but I've made sure plenty is available. I think I'll call our regular vet tomorrow and take him in for a check over as he is extraordinarily thin. Might see if I can get some vitamins for him too. Just so happy he's back!