Obstructed bowel or stomach virus????

[shw104]

My 4 year old, female, indoor only kitty is sick..

She has had no health problems up to this date and all of her vaccines are up to date.

On Friday, she threw-up 9-11 times while we were at work. She we got home, she seemed to be acting normally with the exception that she she cound not keep any food down.

Friday night, she threw-up 3 more times and 3 more times on Saturday. We took her to the emergency vet Saturday night. They thought she may have a bowel obstuction. The did a few X-rays which were inclusive. Here white blood count was slow which showed that there probably was a infection someplace. This could also be an obstruction.

However, she did not have any pain and she did not throw-up all all Saturday night. She ate twice (wet food) and they sent her home Sunday morning with antibiotics.

Since she has been home, she has been sleeping a lot and eating some food but does not seem to have her normal appetite. I know she had a stressful night at the vet so probably didn't sleep much so I expected her to be tired. She doesn't seem to be in any pain as she is jumping and getting around the house fine. She did not have a bowel movement at the vet and I'm not sure she's had one since as we have two other cats and the litterboxes are always in use.

Should I take her to another vet or play a wait and see approach. Sunday morning, the doctor was confident it was not an obstruction because she had not thrown up and was not in pain.

As I was writing this, she just threw up again. Mostly white foam and liquid which tells me that she hasn't eating much.

Thanks for the assistance. I think I'm going to take her to the vet today.

[emrldsky]

You can always call the vet's office and ask their advice, if you trust that they won't want you to go in there just to make $$. That's what I always do when I'm not sure WHAT to do.

[coaster]

Maybe you could put her in a separate room with her own litterbox to find out if she's defecating normally. Of course, if she hasn't been eating much for several days, there may not be much in there anymore to come out.

Please keep us updated on how the kitty is doing.

[shw104]

[quote="timskitties"]Maybe you could put her in a separate room with her own litterbox to find out if she's defecating normally. Of course, if she hasn't been eating much for several days, there may not be much in there anymore to come out.


Thats what we're doing today. We game her some wetfood this morning and put her in her own room (with a litterbox). She seems to be able to keep wet food down easier than her normal dry food.

She still doesn't seem to have any pain at her sides which I'd expect with an obstruction.

I'll feel much better if we get home today and find a surprise in the litterbox..

Thanks for the help everyone. I'll keep you posted.
Scott

[shw104]

It is now 6 days since this started. We've had her locked in a separate room with a litter box for two days. She threw-up once yesterday, mostly white foam.

She seems to be acting fairly normally although her appetite has been light. She’ll eat a little of her normal dry food (Wellness) but will eat some wet food when we give it to her. She has not had a bowel movement since at least early Monday morning but possibility longer. I’m going to be worried if she doesn’t today as it will have been at least 3 days. She has urinated normally.

She doesn’t seem to be in any pain and is walking around and jumping normally.

We are attempting to give her metronidazole (prescribed by the vet) but are having mixed results getting her to take it. We’ve tried the normal medication and flavored (tuna). If we put it in her wet food, she will eat some of it but will not finish the treatment. She we try to put it directly in her mouth, she fights violently and foams it up afterwards. She has always been a handful with medication and now I have the scratch marks to prove it.

I’m still worried that she may have a bowel obstruction. I’ll feel much better if she goes today.

Any suggestions??

Thanks!!
Scott

[Lisa 216]

Scott, what form is the medication in? If it's pills, maybe you could ask for liquid or vice versa. Ask the vet to show you how to give it -- sometimes a demonstration helps.

I would definitely call the vet and let them know that she hasn't had a bowel movement. Maybe it's because she's not eating much, but it's still worth a call. Plus, the vet should know about your difficulty in giving the meds.

Let us know what happens.

[Pigsterz]

OMG shw104, this is exactly what we are dealing with in our household too! L'il started day after Thanksgiving, mostly being lethargic and salivating a lot and retching (but no food coming out). We took him to the emergency vet on Sunday and they took xrays and found no obstruction. By Monday night Wellington started exhibiting the same symptoms. We took both to our regular vet on Wednesday and vet said it is most likely some kind of a stomach virus given the symptoms and how it spread. She gave both of them fluids via IV and told us to give them Famotidine (like Pepcid AC) once a day.

L'il got better, slowly but surely. Wellington on the other hand did not. In fact, he didn't want to eat, and the smell of food alone made him retch. We tried it all, hard food, canned food, boiled chicken, baby food...nothing worked. We took him back to our vet this Monday and he got another dose of the fluids and a prescription for Metronidazole. We got the liquid kind, and let me tell you, it must be just as horrid tasting as the pill kind you have. He salivates/foams like crazy after I give it to him and has the sourest look on his face. Poor guy.

He's doing better today, Wednesday. I was able to force feed him Catsure (kind of like Ensure, for cats) last night and he ate some hard food pellets on his own last night and this morning, but had to hand-feed it one pellet at time. At least he is a little bit more active now.

So I wonder what is this virus that sounds like it is going around? I'm in Northern VA.

Keep us updated on how your kitty does. Hang in there.

[Meowmie]

we try to put it directly in her mouth, she fights violently and foams it up afterwards. She has always been a handful with medication and now I have the scratch marks to prove it.

NOT your kitty's fault! This is an awful tasting medication. Please go to a health food store for empty gelatin capsules or ask your pharmacist if they have some on hand you could buy. Anyway, get number 0 empty gel caps and put the medication (in tablet form) in those. Coat the gel cap heavily with butter (NOT oil!!!) and then pill your kitty.
If the medication you have is not in tablet form just have the vet or the pharmacist at the hospital change it to tablets.
How long are you supposed to use this medication?

Also, please tell them at the hospital that you want to bring in your kitty for an X-ray today to see how badly constipated she is. She may need treatment to clean her out and if she does the sooner they do that the better.
It would be best if you called for an appointment now. You can always cancel it if she produces a stool by the time it's time to leave for the vet.
If she doesn't, you really need to get the X-ray done without any further delay.

Normally you see white foam with an irritated, inflamed stomach. This can be caused by irritating food. If it continues even after you've made a diet change she may need anti-inflammatory medication (a short course of prednisone) to fix this. Your vet may also prescribe a short fast and only fluids in the hospital for a day or two to calm things down.

With an irritated stomach and constipation you should not feed ANY dry food.
Also, no fish-based canned food or tuna. Other cautions would include no corn and wheat in any form in the canned food.

Constipation can also cause an upset stomach and throwing up food or white foam. This doesn't stop until the constipation is relieved.

[Meowmie]

PS.

A high-fiber diet can make constipation much much worse, that's one reason why you shouldn't feed any dry food.

And definitely stay away from everything with fish.
Is the Wellness dry fish-based?

Link to a great article from Dr. Jean:
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?a ... ipatedcats

[shw104]

The medication is liquid.

The had a bowel movement this evening. Her appetite still seem slight but she is still acting normal.

We are going to move her completely to wet food and keep her seperate from the other cats until we are confident she is better.

Thanks for all of the advice. I'll keep everyone posted.

Thanks
Scott