Possible dehydration, but unsure if something worse? Please help

[amo4716]

I have a 3-year old Burmese cat that hasn't been feeling well the past few days, and I'm not sure what's wrong exactly, and neither is the Veterinarian.

Friday afternoon she vomitted completely digested food (as compared with the usual vomit that still has whole crunchy food in it) twice in a row; she vomitted 8 more times in the course of 30 minutes (she pukes in pairs, so it was 4 different occasions). These 8 pukes were pink and frothy with blood.

Took her to the Veterinarian, and they gave her 100cc of fluids, an antibiotic injection, and another injection to stop the vomitting. Fed her baby food at 9pm.

4am she wakes me up throwing up 4 more times of frothy pink with blood.

Saturday all day she was lethargic and had bags under her eyes. Still her normal self in the sense that she was purring, wanting lovies, and her tail was up and wagging.

Sunday she was back to normal.

Monday around 10am I noticed she was dragging/lethargic again, and her eyes were swollen/sunken, and her pupils were very small (normally large). I fed her baby food and forced about 7cc of water in her at 6pm and 8pm.

This morning I gave her 7cc of water at 6am and again at 10am. She seemed to be doing better and ate a bit of wet canned food. Now, it's 3pm, and she's lethargic, eyes sunken again. She's just not herself.

I thought she was dehydrated because I checked her skin's elasticity (by pulling the scruff of her neck) and her tongue was so light pink it was almost white.

Spoke with the Veterinarian who said that if it were a normal gastro-intestinal problem, it would have cleared up in 36 hours.

I'm on my way to the Veterinarian now, but I'm really hoping someone else has some suggestions because I'm going crazy- this is my little girl and no one has answers. I'm so worried they're treating something minor when it's really something major.

Also, no poisons, cleaners, string, or anything else that is not-kitty friendly is in my home and she NEVER goes outside, not once.

Any ideas??

[amo4716]

Got back from the Veterinarian- I had to hospitalize my kitty because her blood tests showed: extremely low red blood cells, extremely high white blood cells, and something is wacky with the platlets (not sure exactly, I was a crying mess by this point, but they're the extreme opposite of what they should be).

Veterinarian suggested it might be bartonella as the highest possibility; second could be gastro-intestinal bleeding; third could be immune-mediating anemia.

All the time I've spent on the web tonight, and I'm just not sure.

Anyone familiar with what this could be?

[amo4716]

The Veterinarian has pretty much narrowed it down to a GI ulcer that is bleeding. He's got her on a med that acts as a band-aid to cover the ulcer and allow it to heal. Her red blood count was 13 (55 is normal) last night and this morning. If it doesn't improve by tomorrow, they want to transfer her to the Virginia Tech medical school (15 minutes away and apparently the best Veterinarian school in the country) for an endoscopy to be sure it's an ulcer. This is problematic because she is so fragile, so she'll need a blood transfusion.

Has anyone had experience with any of this?

[marmay]

It must be expensive dealing with hospital visits and transfusions.

Is your cat still ok?

Any hope for her?

My cat was like that after a Veterinarian visit a few years back. I took him in for his yearly check up(back when I had pet insurance). They wanted me to leave him and apparently they gave him too much of whatever they gave him(hard to pin vets down about what they do sometimes).

Junior, one of my cats is still alive but he ended up being hauled to the pet hospital after continued vomiting and it started getting pinkish. The staff said he was given fluids and the next day he was ok.

I have read accounts of flea drops causing reactions(the ones with premethrin, and other names---derivatives of pyrethrins)and have had problems with other pets and flea drops.

If your cat lives, you might want to visit http://nzymes.com and call their knowledgeable and friendly staff up...they have some great products that can help your cat to recover I am sure.

Not long ago one of my cats had that kind of thing, vomiting over and over that went into a pinkish kinda thing, and I gave her some intestinal bacteria(special microencapsulated bacteria that can pass through the stomach and into the small intestine -not bene bac that Veterinarian sells that dies in tummy). I gave her some with some water via corner of the mouth, small squirts in stages maybe 3 times for a full syringe...helps avoid choking(can be mixed with baby food or tuna juice etc...water works ok) with a syringe. She cleared right up. That seemed to be a case of some sort of irritation inside that was cleared up by the bacteria. The special intestinal bacteria that I have are isolated from ground based bacteria and they attack and neutralize toxins.

Cats are always eating something or other. Tiny particles that you cannot see, yet they treasure and eat them. They also lick their feet...

Mopping exposes cats feet to whatever you are mopping with, and they lick their feet. The ingested toxins and/or bacteria can really mess up a cats digestive system. Same with carpet cleaner or commode drop-ins etc.. This can trigger that kind of reaction. Having the special bacteria on hand and some other things like that can sometimes go a lot further than antibiotics....

If the problem is an ulcer, I know that in humans and presume pets, that ulcers have been found to be caused by a certain bacteria. The products that nzymes sells can help.

I hope your cat is ok and that you get a chance to call nzymes their phone number is on their website.