Sick Bagheera

[figment]

It seems like my cat is sick. If you have any desire to read symptoms & opine on causes, treatment, or recommend vets in the St. Paul area, here you go:

Bagheera (pictured cat) has always been a little on the tender stomach side, but giving him hairball treatment seems to help and generally he's very healthy. Today, though, I fed him at 6:45 AM and by 7:00 he had puked it all up (one website I read said that this is regurgitation, not vomiting, because the food was largely still intact although yellow with bile). Then he retched and threw up some liquid about 30 minutes later. At 11:30 AM he was still seeming kind of sick and after I petted him and gently suggested that I hoped he wouldn't get sick again guess what happened? Yep, more retching and throwing up a tiny dribble of liquid. I was gone for most of the day so I'm not sure if anything else happened, but Azure didn't observe anything and there are no little puddles so I'm going to say there was no more vomiting. At about 5:45 PM I heard a terrible series of mournful kitty moans from the litter box, where Bagheera appeared to strain and sit for a good 5-10 minutes to no effect. He's moving around pretty normally now but does seem extra-inclined to just loaf in one spot right now.

He's 10 years old, and generally healthy. He's been drinking water at a regular pace lately. He eats dry cat food, Purina One, sometimes the indoor formula, and almost never gets anything else.

If he's constipated, it looks like the cause could be anything from hairballs to dehydration to polyps or other awful options. I don't have any specific hairball remedy in the house but I may give him some olive oil... Any thoughts? Any vet recommendations in St. Paul? I'm worried about my little buddy.

Comments

[evaluna68.livejournal.com]

Maybe try putting some canned food in the mix? Worth a try, anyway. But yeah, sounds like time for a checkup.

[ilexcassine.livejournal.com]

Not eating isn't good. I got my very sick cat to drink water and get some calories by mixing water and tuna fish/the water from water packed tuna, maybe he'd like that?

My cats hurl all the damn time and whine in the litter box a bunch, but it does sound like its probably vet time if he's constipated.

I hope the poor guy gets better.

[buttonlass.livejournal.com]

Sometimes canned food can help. More specifically I know other cats who have been put on canned pumpkin to help with constipation. The pumpkin really helps with their digestion. So if you can get your cat to eat some hooray! If not, I put a not insignificant amount of butter on some when I fed it to my cat because he was stubborn. Many cats eat it quite willingly.

I do think a vet trip is in order. My parents always took our cats and dogs to Pomeroy on the edge of downtown St. Paul. I don't know if they are still in business what with being not young and all.:P

When I had my own pets in Mpls. I took them to Lyndale Animal Hospital. Also some great people if you have to branch to the other side of the river.:)

[ethel.livejournal.com]

This is going to sound alarmist and it could be nothing, or it could not be.

I am pretty worried about the possibility of a urinary obstruction, which is time-sensitive and can be life threatening. Fairly common in male cats. He's showing all the symptoms.

I would recommend taking him in tonight if possible to the e clinic in st paul or oakdale (where I used to work). If it is a UO, you'll be glad you did. If it isn't, you'll have spent a few hundred but you'll know.

Considering the stakes, I would recommend bringing him in tonight, or if that's absolutely undoable then first thing LITERALLY in the morning. Do not go to Pomeroy...I have a very, um, unfavorable opinion of them. For bang for the buck, Camden Pet Hospital is amazing and I send a lot of people there. For St Paul, Como Park Animal Hospital is great but pricier.

But honestly, I think it'd be best for you to take him in right now, tonight, to the e clinic. This is ABSOLUTELY what I would have told someone who called in to me and I would do no less for a friend.

Tell them on the phone that he is a suspect UO, they will want to take him to the treatment room and check him out immediately...let them. There's a good chance the triage on duty won't know me or my name anymore, but that the doctors/techs will.

Please keep me updated? 612 423 3736. It may be nothing but I'm honestly worried. Better safe than sorry.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Oh, honey. Best wishes to your sick kitty. Everyone I know uses Kitty Klinic at Lyndale and across-the-street-from-El-Meson.

K.