Cat Vomiting, vet opinoins needed!?

Question

My cat has been vomiting all over the house for the last couple of days. i took him to the vet this morning and came out with a $200 vet bill. they charged/did the following:

exam
centrine injection
penicillin injection
blood work
clavamox - oral med. to take home

This seems like overkill, and the fact that they gave him 2 injections and take home med. without even getting the blood work back makes me wonder...

Is there a vet out there or someone with a simular experience that can tell me if everything that was done was needed???

Also, they gave me medication and no instructions on how/when to give it to him. Anyone know anything about Clavamox 62.5mg/ml?

The blood work will not be in until Monday.

he is 5 yrs. old and i have not given him the medication yet because i dont have a clue how much...

He is not throwing up hairballs. Its sometimes clear like spit and sometimes neon yellow. And he hasnt been using his litterbox but he is not going around the house either....
Since i brought him home from the vet this morning, he hasnt come out at all. been under the bed since 9:30 this morning. hasnt eaten or used the litterbox or vomited..

Answer 1

Sounds like the vet gave the proper care and the bill is about on target, from my experience of working at a vet hospital for six years. I don't see any over-medication or over-charge here.

The Centrine is a medicine to stop nausea and vomiting.

Blood work helps with the diagnosis and treatment

Clavamox is a form of penicillin that can be given to cats in liquid form (It sometimes causes diarrhea, so don't be surprised...if that happens, let the vet know)

Isn't there a label on the bottle or the box the Clavamox came in, with instructions about how much to give at what interval? If not, call the vet and find out.

Answer 2

How old is the cat?

Older pets have problems digesting food they had no problems with when they were younger. It could be a matter of changing to a more mild food.

Do you give hairball remedy? Cats need it weekly to keep hairballs from forming. Hairballs (in case you didn't know) are common causes of vomiting.

Cats vomit for no reason. It's a mystery sometimes.

Clavamox is an antibiotic, sometimes they can cause vomiting.

If you're pet is older than 8, get blood work.
If younger, wait a day or 2, it may go away on its own.

The fact you were given meds with no instructions is not right. In fact, it's illegal. All prescription medicine must have instructions, BY LAW!! Consider a different vet.

I don't feel comfortable telling you what dosage to give. I don't know what size cat you have, or what size syringe you have.

Answer 3

He's seriously ill and your vet can't make a solid guess till he sees the bloodwork, but you should have started the medications already--they're antibiotics and are designed to help start the healing process with a lot of different things. The dose should be on the bottle or paperwork--call the vet to talk to one of the technicians who can check your file and see what the doses need to be.

Vomiting can be a sign of anything from poison to the pancreas shutting down--without the blood work they can't narrow down the culprit. He wasn't bad enough to stay there, but a cat can get critical fast. Most of your bill was the blood test, which is sent out to a lab, so you weren't overcharged. Clavamox is usually $20 here, the exam here would have costed you $40. Your bill should have itemizations on it so you know what you paid for.

Is he still eating and drinking? He needs fluids even if he is throwing up.

Call them tomorrow to update them on the cat's condition - they need to be in the know about how it's going. Oral antibiotics take two days to get working, but the injection should start working right away. He's being given a broad spectrum coverage from what you described.

Answer 4

Our in house blood work takes about 15 minutes to run, so did they do in house, or did they send it out? If they did in-house lab work, it may have been complete before you left. And no, this is not overkill, and the bill is reasonable for the services provided. There should be instructions on the Clavamox, if there is not, call and ask them. The centrine is an antacid, meant to calm the stomach, and the penicillin is an antibiotic, consider it the first dose of the Clavamox as they are similar classes of antibiotic. You don't want to give antibiotics, which upset the stomach frequently, to an animal that's actively vomiting, so you give the centrine to calm the vomiting and the penicillin by injection so you don't have to wait to start treatment.

Answer 5

Went through the exact same thing several weeks ago, only my bill was $300. Unfortunately, my cat was still sick and no one wanted to help me give him his medicine. One person must hold the cat while the second person pries his jaws apart to force the medicine into his mouth.

I was scared 'cause despite my efforts, Flyer (my cat) still wasn't eating. For a year, I've prided myself in feeding him only "premium" cat food. In desperation, I opened a can of cheap grocery catfood I never got around to throwing away. Flyer started eating again, so now I balance his diet with premium and the so-called "less nutritious" food.

As for his vomiting, I discovered a certain brand of food I was using was causing the problem, so I stopped using it.

Answer 6

Odds are the vet knew what was wrong before the results came back. I don't know about you, but I give my dogs pepto to sooth their stomach. You might ask your vet about that.

Answer 7

well i have a long haired black n white cat n she had been throwing up so we took her 2 the got her updated on her shots n they suggested that i take her 2 the groomers n get a lion cut. idk if ur cats got long hair but if so take this advice my cat hasnt thrown up again n she normally did it everyother day n she got shaved 2 weeks ago. hope this helped. p.s. if u takehim 2 the groomers he needs 2 have a raibies shot