Cat is sick - need advise

[Melissa in NC]

Buddy, my 1 yo male dsh, stopped eating. He is not the brightest cat and he gets into things. I had his stomach xrayed but nothing showed up. He was tested for FLV/FIV and that was neg. His blood test was normal, including pancreas, except for a slightly elevated white blood cell count. His eyes have boogers.

 

I am down $600 and the vet is no help. He is into his second week of not eating. Help.

[Pegasus]

Is he not eating anything? Is he drinking water? I'd be tempted to push the vet for a course of anti-biotics and steroids. These are cheap medications and may just do the trick. We ended up spending over $1,000 one time on a sick cat because the vet couldn't figure out what was wrong and kept doing different tests and even exploratory surgery! In the end, a cheap course of steroids set him right. It was pancreatitis caused by blunt trauma (he had gotten outside and we think someone kicked him). None of the tests had found this until we took him to a university vet school and they did an ultrasound. They were shocked that the vet could have missed it during the exploratory surgery. We changed vets after that.

 

My only other thought is whether he is constipated, since he gets into things. My sister's dog was just sick and not eating. . .the vet ended up giving her a couple enemas to unblock her and now she's healthy as ever.

 

Good luck.

Pegasus

[Melissa in NC]

Yes, he is drinking.

 

He is a sweet cat but he is not the sharpest tool in the shed. I would not doubt he hurt himself jumping around. Or he ate something that plugged him up.

 

I have not seen him pooping and we have two other cats so I can not tell about the littler pans. But he is also not eating except for what I force down his throat with a syringe, I have seen him peeing.

[Pegasus]

I wish I could provide more help! I know how worrying it is. Do you have a vet school near-by? These are where regular vets send their difficult cases.

 

Peggy