Tried all speciality foods, babyfood, cooked fish, turkey and chicken. Vomiting everything, losing weight, several medications, nothing helps. Seems to be getting weaker. Last option to send to university and look with a scope into stomach, costly and hard on older cat? Any ideas?
2006-11-08 17:13:27 · 8 answers · asked by pignet01 1 in Pets ➔ Cats
My cat was about that age and started not eating she was a very heavy cat and just started wasting away she spent a week in the hospital and then a week at home with me force feeding her and giving her medication almost every hour on the hour it seemed at the end of the 10 days of force feeding i gave her 3 days she still had no desire to eat and i just could not bear to see her like that it was one of the hardest things i have ever done but i had her put to sleep the vet I'm sure thought i was crazy because i cried until i threw up after he put her down but after several weeks of mourning i do realize it was the best thing i could have done for her and we never did figure out why she got sick they did test on her liver and everything else they could think of
2006-11-08 18:30:29 · answer #1 · answered by Amy M 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Have you considered an ultrasound or exploratory surgery? At that age, with those symptoms and normal bloodwork, it's probably not going to end well. It never turns out to be something simple and fixable.
If his quality of life were poor and I were unable to have additional diagnostics done, I would consider euthanasia.
I had a 13 year old cat that would vomit and had been losing weight for a long time. I tried every test in the book and every "maybe" treatment out there. The last thing I could have tried would have been exploratory surgery and I didn't want to put him though it. Cost wasn't a factor, because it would have been done free at the clinic I work at. Anyway, I did have him opened up after he was euthanized and it turns out his liver was abnormal and he was yellow inside. The multiple bloodwork panels I ran on him never indicated a problem.
I guess what I'm saying is going "all out" is not always the best thing for the pet. They suffer. I wish I had euthanized my cat a lot sooner than I did, but it was a difficult decision because his tests never told me what was wrong.
2006-11-09 01:31:19 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It might be wise to take her to another vet. After all, vets are only human and sometimes they just might not be able to figure it out, whereas another vet may zero right in on it. Get all the test results and go, go, go. If you do live near a university they do have all the equipment that most vets do not, and there are so many vets there.
We had a cat who wouldn't eat, threw up a lot. One vet poked around his tummy and said he had a hairball. The next one said something else. This went on for a week and he was getting weaker and weaker. We had to take him to a vet in the middle of the night (a different vet) and he took xrays and immediately saw the problem. He had swallowed a needle and thread and the thread was drawing his intestines together. He did surgery and the cat had it rough but recovered. So another vet may be the answer. And if you take your test results with you to the new vet you probably wont have to pay to have them redone. Fifteen may be 'not so young' but cats live to be 20 and older. Best of luck to you and your kitty.
2006-11-09 01:34:04 · answer #3 · answered by catshelter 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My opinion (and experience) is that if money isn't an issue, take the cat to be checked out at a different vet. I had one put down because it had kidney failure. The first vet kept saying they couldn't figure out what was wrong, to take it to Cornell University for tests (too much $ for me). I chose to have kitty put out of misery. Described everything to a different vet later and they seem to know right away he had symptoms of kidney failing. My theory is kitty didn't need the emotional trauma of traveling and being poked and prodded at that age and in pain so I laid him to rest. We had great memories but we all know we are going to outlive our cats so we prepare for it ahead of time. Think this one over very carefully.
2006-11-09 08:39:23 · answer #4 · answered by onecharliecat 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We had a cat come into our clinic with this exact same thing we done countless tests and everything always came back fine, in the end the vet decided to enlarge the pyloric sphincter, cat no longer vomits. Ask your vet about this procedure and see what he says
2006-11-09 07:20:13 · answer #5 · answered by jimmy_chick78 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Could just be that your cat really is getting old. After awhile, their bodies start to wear down just like ours do. This can cause the vomiting as the body becomes more sensitive and food is harder to digest. If you have the money and want to do the testing, I say do it. But chances are, your cat is preparing for crossing the Rainbow bridge. I hate to say that because I know it's hard to hear but I don't want to sugar coat it. 15 years old is old for a cat and cherish that you've all of those years, just please consider what you want his last days/weeks/months to be like. I'm sorry. :(
2006-11-09 01:22:55 · answer #6 · answered by MasLoozinIt76 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i had an older cat that had similar symptoms...she seemed to get better and then she'd get 5 times worse...has the vet checked your cats liver? that was what was wrong with our kitty.
2006-11-09 01:24:16 · answer #7 · answered by Jessica T 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sounds like you love your cat a whole lot but do it a favor if its just getting worse and worse let it go.Iknow that's probably easy for me to say but it sounds miserable.its a very old cat.Good luck honey!
2006-11-09 02:30:22 · answer #8 · answered by lady2 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋