Hello! First post and unfortunately its an "ill cat" topic...

I have a 5 year old Birman Seal Point named Saphy who has become quite ill over the past 2 days. She hasnt really eaten or drunk anything since Saturday and is constantly throwing up a grey foamy substance. She was throwing up so much yesterday that nothing was coming out apart from water than she had drank a little while earlier.

What could this possibly be? The same thing happened last year, we took her to the vets and they kept her in for 3 days or so on a drip and she came out feeling fine. The vet mentioned she was severely dehydrated and her kidneys were packng up, not sure if it was a result of not drinking on the first place or because of a bigger underlining issue.

Do Birmans have a tendancy to have kidney problems? Would that really make her not eat and drink and be sick all the time?

We feed her normal Whiska's in pouches and has access to water and Go-Cat cat munchies so we arent feeding her anything out of the ordinary.

Please help! Shes booked in to the vet this evening so im sure they will be able to help but I just wanted to see if anyone else had similar issues with their cats...just to get a headstart on the situation

Sadly, throwing up, weight loss due to not eating are common symptoms of kidney failure. If a cat is not eating anything at all, you should get them to a vet as quickly as possible because cats can go only a few days without food, otherwise they develop fatty liver disease.

Your vet could take her in and put her back on a drip to cleanse the blood. Your cat should be on a course of antibiotics for at least a month to ensure the possibility of a kidney infection is dealt with. You should be feeding a special kidney diet which is low in phosphorus not Whiskas or GoCat. Low phosphorus foods can extend a cat's life. There are also products available like Renalzin, which your vet can provide. This is a phosphorus binder which removes excess phosphorus from your cat's system. Sometimes, even though you do all these things nothing works but to give your cat a fighting chance you must make these changes ASAP. Of course, always discuss this with your vet too.

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Yes birmans can be prone to kidney problems, sounds like she needs to go back to vet, ours is five and called SAFFY funny enough however she doesn't have any problems as what you have described with your girl.

Surprised vet didn't follow it up more, maybe need to look further and as other poster suggested, change of diet especially if she's not eating much, is sign she's feeling extremely poorly due to perhaps kidneys not being able to get rid of the toxins, imagine is not nice for you or your girl.

Let us know how you get on

Hi there and welcome albeit under these circumstances!

Firstly, the frothy substance you refer to is probably stomach acid, If the cat hasn't eaten then this is the only stomach contents available. Additionally, stomach acid can make cats feel nauseous which makes them unwilling to eat.

When cats are not eating/drinking and are vomiting/diarrhea this can impact on their hydration levels for obvious reasons which will impact on the kidney levels and readings will appear higher than 'normal' ie when they are dehydrated. This is one reason it's VERY important to ensure the cat drinks when appears to be off food, since this is where they obtain most of their water from. Rehydration via fluids usually restores correct hydration and electrolyte balance. For this reason, Unless your cat has had repeated, recurrent episodes with symptoms of increased drinking and urination since the first time she was hospitalised I see no reason to suspect inherent kidney disease. It's far more likely the vet's remark about her kidney levels were due to the fact she was very dehydrated at that time.

Hope the vet visit will shed more light on why she's ill this time. Could well be just a bacterial infection. Just read the visit is this evening so hopefully sorted by now.


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Thanks for the responses!

Well we took her to the vet yesterday evening and she has had an antibiotic jab and a jab to settle her stomach. The vet has also taken blood and urine samples as well. I was quite shocked to find out that they take urine samples by syrnging urine directly from the bladder with a needle! Lucklily she was so frightened that she peed on the table at the vets so they were able to collect a sample frmo that

The results should be in later on today/tomorrow so will let you know. The vets we have taken her to are new as we have recently just moved so hopefully they will be better at getting to the root of the problem than the last time this happened

I hope everything works out well for you. She is very young to have kidney failure. Hopefully it will be something treatable which is simply affecting her kidney values.

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Actually it's much better getting urine via cystocentesis ie direct from the bladder as it ensures the sample is sterile. If done properly it's relatively quick and painless for the cat.

Hope she's on the mend now. Let us know the results!

Yes please let us know when the results come through. Sounds like the new vets are on the case and glad to hear they are looking into possible causes deeper than what you experienced with the previous place.

You seem to be bearing up under the circumstance, imagine is worrying for you to see your girl poorly like this, stay strong as you are doing already

Morning!

Just thought i'd update you on the situation with Saphy. We had the results back from the vets and they confirmed that her blood values were only slightly raised above normal levels. The vets were expecting much higher readings based on her symptoms as they expected kidney trouble however they are putting it down to a viral infection and advised us to monitor her going forward with no further medicine required.

She seems perfectly fine now, eating drinking and sleeping as normal so panic over for the time being. Im not sure if I believe them or not really, seeing as this has happened to her twice now and she always exhibits the same symptoms, refusal to eat, drink, lethargic and vomitting. But what do I know!

Pleased she is a bit better.

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