My poor Furball hasn't been eating properly for a few days (she will eats little bits but then go to sleep) so today I took her along to the vets to get checked out.
I had convinced myself that it was most probably her teeth, because even though she has fantastic teeth for her age (she will be 12 in June) she had to have a canine removed about 6 months ago due to an infection in her gums, so as she is spitting out food I just thought we would go to the vets and they would remove the tooth that was causing the problem.

When the vet looked at her teeth we quickly ruled that out as they are perfect, but on further investigation the vet spotted she was a little constipated. Her temp is fine and there was no other real major causes for concern.

So Furball was given:- a Laurabolin, and vitamin B1 injection and I was also given some Emeprid to give her an hour before food. If there is no improvement in 48 hours I will be going back for some more tests to try and pin point what the problem is (if she deteriorates before the 48 hours we will be going straight back).

So basically my question is what does everyone think it could be?
Are there any other drugs I should be researching to give her?
What tests should I make sure the vet runs?

I really hope this isn't the start of her age catching up with her

__________________

Hey B3rnie, personally I would see whether the meds suggested by your vet have the desired effect before adding something else to the mix. Apart from perhaps adding a little more water to her food.

Out of interest, talking about food, do you feed her wet or dry food? When is the last time she pooped? Is she an indoor cat so that you can monitor her toilet activity? If no, would you consider keeping her in until you are sure that she is pooping ok?

I agree about not adding more drugs to the mix until we know if these ones are actually working, I'm just preparing myself in case they don't (I'm a pessimist )

As for her diet, she is on Almo Nature Cat Food with a little bit of dry food as a treat and about once a week she will get a chicken wing to do with as she pleases
She is an indoor cat so I can monitor her closely (she used to be an outside cat but transferred to an indoor cat about a year ago now). She pooped today but it was small and hard.

Do you think it could be her kidneys starting to cause problems?

__________________

Until you do some blood tests no one will be able to tell you whether it is the kidneys or not but personally I would turn my attention to sorting out her diet. I presume you know that you are currently feeding a food that is a complementary food? It doesn't contain all the necessary nutrients a cat needs and it also most certainly doesn't include enough fat, which, if your cat is constipated, may well be at the root of it all.

Regardless of what causes her current poorliness - please sort out her diet!

Would have been nice if you asked why I fed her that diet, I am fully aware that the wet is only a complimentary food (you didn't even ask what dry I feed her to see if that covers everything)...

Once we have discovered what is wrong at the moment we may take another look at her diet......

Wish I never asked now, oh well I'll continue to follow my vets advice.

__________________

Defensive much??

You described it as a "a little bit of dry food as a treat" - so it's a perfectly legitimate question.


Please don't post and then be defensive when well meaning and knowledgeable people (hobbs not me lol) ask questions in order to give you advice.

Hope your cat is better soon

Perhaps I should have asked more questions; you are right. Simple fact is that the food you are feeding - for whatever reason - is a complementary food, which you know, and that you are only feeding only a little bit of dry food as a treat.

To my knowledge there is no dry food out there that will make up for the insufficiencies of complementary food if fed in treat quantities. I don't even "buy" the companies claim that all is well if you feed 40% of the daily quantities in dry food. True, most dry foods appear to be over-mineralised (some more so than others) but imo they are not such nutrient bombs to redress the balance.

I am not sure how long she has been on this diet but as I said before the lack of fat in her wet food will not help if she indeed has constipation. Considering that her being poorly appears to be a more recent thing though could it be that she has eaten something that is causing a blockage?

Anyhow, like Cloudygirl, I hope that she is loads better soon.

What she said!

__________________
My babies
Aber, Ragnar, Kelso (the corgi trio), Daisy (our rescue mystery-mix puppy), Ellie, Henry, Gwennie, Jezebel (the kitty quartet), Blake, Chaucer, Molly and Milton (the kittens), and Bingo the African Grey parrot

Over the Bridge:
Pippin: 1/6/08-17/5/11
Freja: 11/8/10-30/10/10
Kirby: 11/8/10-1/11/10

"Praise liberty/The freedom to obey/It's a song that strangles me/Well, don't cross the line" Billie Joe Armstrong

Well, i hope the meds have the desired effect and she poops well for you and regains her appetite.

Hobbs is the resident diet guru on here and wasn't trying to belittle you; many owners DON'T realise that some food are complimentary and what a catastrophic effect it can have on their cats - she was only trying to help - so please don't take it personally.

If it does turn out that your cat is constipated and doesn't have an obstruction etc then maybe you could look at adding a water fountain to get more water into her diet, or mixing and matching different types of food (I'm assuming from what you have implied that you feed Almo Nature as that is what she likes, or what she will eat only) so that she gets a better range of essentials vits and minerals etc into her diet. Cats NEED fat in their diet unlike us humans (though this is also a matter for debate on the human side -- not a topic for this thread) and a higher fat diet will help her.

Good luck.

__________________
please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins and Selkirk Rex

Have to say, due to being a very worried mummy last night I did react to your message rather than explain, and for that I am sorry

Furball has many problems, many of them are neurological (I suspect she was kicked in the head as a kitten), she was the result of someones moggy being allowed out whilst calling She nearly died when she was born
So yes you are right her diet does need to change but unfortunately this is all she will eat at the moment (she used to only eat go cat so she is getting slightly better) but once we have sorted out this issue I will see if I can get her on a better diet, sorry again for being a grumpy moo

She isn't much better today although I managed to get some sardines into her last night (not much but it's better than nothing) and we have had a small poo this morning but again not much, if things don't start improving today I will get her booked in for an x-ray to rule out a blockage.

__________________