Meet Katy-Did, my 7-8yr old cat. I've had her since she was about 8wks old.
This will be a long story but I want to share all the details of my plight. Katie has never been sick before. Yesterday, at 5am, I fed all 4 their usual breakfast of Fancy Feast. Katy ate normally. She doesn't eat all that much...prefers the juiciest part. About 30 min after eating, I heard her vomiting (something she very, very rarely does). She vomited 5 times in a row, copious (much more than she had just eaten) amounts of totally undigested food....looked just like it had in the bowl before she ate it. I suspect it included more than just breakfast. In the next 4 hours she tried to vomit 4-5 more times but only brought up white spit. She also went to the litter box 5 times and strained to poop with NO results. Okay, now I'm thinking obstruction and it's Sunday, so off we went to the Emergency Vet clinic.
Luckily I got a very kind and concerned doc. She suggested blood work and x-rays. Since Katy's vital signs were all normal, I asked that she do the x-ray first. She came back and told me that Katy was completely packed with fecal matter from top to bottom. She ordered an enema. Katy passed what I would consider a normal formed stool. The doc was surprised at how impacted her x-ray looked because Katy was so young and healthy looking. Well, I packed her up again and brought her home thinking that the problem would be resolved with a few more poops. She had a moderate sized liquid stool when she got home....normal color, no blood. Then she went to her favorite sleeping spot and stayed there the rest of the day. I thought, okay, she was stressed out. She would not eat any supper. She only moved from on spot to the other a few times, and just laid there. She is a talker and has an opinion about everything, so I expected her to bless me out....but she hardly made a sound. Just a weak meow. From last evening until about 11am, she had 3 more liquid stools, each about a tablespoon.....normal color, no blood. She would drink a bit of water....but no food....and I'm pretty sure she tried to vomit 2-3 more times during the night because I saw little spots of spit. I honestly thought she would be fine after 24hrs, but not so. She was weak and pitiful....and she is scaring me to death. I'm about physically sick over this and her sister and brothers know something is wrong too.. Instead of sleeping with me, they stayed by her all night.
Of course I called my vet and, even as I type, she is at the clinic. He is going to take a follow-up x-ray to see what her bowel looks like now, he is going to draw a really complete blood panel, give the something for nausea and "sleuth around". The blood work won't be back until tomorrow so I don't know if she'll come home today or not. Probably not.
What would cause her bowel to become suddenly paralyzed? Have any of you had any experience with this? I am tearing up just because I am so scared.
