Claudia sees the Vets today *Tomorrow Vet's Again* I'm really worried now

[Anikaca77]

My Claudia is going to the vets today.

She has been coughing sorta like Ashley was before so I think she caught the same cold.

I'm also going to talk with my vet about getting Claudia's thyroid checked.

She's pretty overweight for her size and I'm worried about how much weight she has put on over the past 2 years.


Prays that she start feeling better soon.

Thanks,
Melissa

[Medusa]

Prayers on the way that all checks out ok......

[catmandu]

We Hope Your Vet Gives Claudia A Clean Bill Of Health Along With A Recommendation For A New Light Food. Its So Easy To Give Our Cats More Food Than They Really Need, And I Ahve Noticed Myself That Scrappy 2s Getting A Trifle Round As Shes Always There When The Meals On Wheels Arrives!
And Shes So Charming When She Begs, You Cant Say No.
We Are Sending Prayers For Daer Claudia That Your Vet Can Make Her Cough Vanish, Like Magic!!!

[lvpets2002]

:) Best Wishes at the Vets.. I know I just took my wittle Angel Taccoa yesterday for Illness.. Prayers & Huggss for your baby && just know all will be well soon.. Your baby is so Adorable & Sweet..

[Anikaca77]

Well the vet took Claudia's temp. & weight her temp was normal no fever so that was good. Weight is 13.9 lbs. The vet didn't want to put her on any meds since she has had it for a couple days now and says she thinks it will work her way through.

If she's still coughing by tomorrow I'm going to call the vet back and see if I can get her some meds. The poor thing coughs so hard & gags from coughing.

The vet looked at her ears too and nothing out of the normal.


Also, I asked my vet about running some blood test on Claudia for her thyroid and she said she doesn't normally see a cat that has gained weight because of her thyroid.

I was sorta disappointed with her decision because I feel Claudia is active and it's getting hard for her to jump where she used to jump easily before. Back in 2005 she weighed in at 10 1/2 pounds now she is 13.9 lbs.

I know that doesn't seem like much but ours friends who haven't been over in a while noticed that she has gained some weight.

I don't want anyone thinking I'm neglecting her or anything and I tried putting her on the hairball food as the vet recommended for extra fiber so they wouldn't eat as much but my Hermes has a very sensitive stomach and he can't handle that food.


I took Fiona (new kitten) with me to the vets since she needed her 2nd set of kitten shots and she got her rabies and distemp. shot.

Fiona did very well. I was even able to take her with just a harness and leash. She laid on the vet's desk when I was writing out my check and didn't move. She is scheduled for her spay in Nov. poor girl.

[Catlady711]

I'm assuming your cat is an older one from how you worded things.

It's far more common for an older cat to have a HIGH thyroid not a low one. Unless there were other indicators for a low thyroid doing a test would have just wasted your money.

If your cat is having a difficult time getting around it could be arthritis. Ask your vet about a glucosamine supplement. Dusty used to take Cosaquin for cats for years, it did help. If your cat is having a difficult time jumping or getting around it would cause them to burn less calories and would result in a weight gain which is harder on aging joints a vicious circle. Ask about the glucosamine at your vets, and also if your cat is over 7-10 years old make sure you are feeding a senior cat food, they have less calories, unless your cat is already on a special or prescription diet.

[KittyGurl]

Prayers for Claudia. Hope she feels better soon. :(

[Anikaca77]

Claudia actually just turned 5 years old last month.



I'm assuming your cat is an older one from how you worded things.

It's far more common for an older cat to have a HIGH thyroid not a low one. Unless there were other indicators for a low thyroid doing a test would have just wasted your money.

If your cat is having a difficult time getting around it could be arthritis. Ask your vet about a glucosamine supplement. Dusty used to take Cosaquin for cats for years, it did help. If your cat is having a difficult time jumping or getting around it would cause them to burn less calories and would result in a weight gain which is harder on aging joints a vicious circle. Ask about the glucosamine at your vets, and also if your cat is over 7-10 years old make sure you are feeding a senior cat food, they have less calories, unless your cat is already on a special or prescription diet.

[Catlady711]

Claudia actually just turned 5 years old last month.


At that age then it's probably not arthritis, could be limited jumping simply from the weight gain.

Has your vet suggested a light or weight reducing food? How much food are you feeding per day? Are you free-feeding? Does the cat get any treats or people food?

Sorry for all the questions, just wanting to help out if I can. My mom currently has an obese cat and I'm working with her to get her cat's weight down before she ends up with a diabetic cat.

[Freedom]

Hi Claudia!

Sparkle here. I am glad to here all went well at your vet check. Get rid of that nasty cold quickly, ya hear?

Now about this full figure situation. My vet told my Meowmie that one year. Next thing I knew, I had a light food diet, and a harness and leash to walk on daily exercise. YUCK! But in a few months I was looking like my old slender self and I felt lots better. I could even jump up onto Mom' s bureau again and swat off all the stuff! That is SO fun! You have to do that at about 2 AM to wake up those sleeping hoomans.

Best wishes!
Sparkle

[Anikaca77]

No I appreciate your questions, please ask away.

My vet is a very country doctor and older ways. She did suggest that once my kitten reaches 1 year old to start feeding all of my guys weight management food.

My other cat though Hermes has a very sensitive stomach so I'm not sure if that will work for him or not.

I'm not free feeding anymore I use to. I have 6 cats so I have 6 cat food bowls and each cat gets a handful of food twice a day.

They don't get any treats only once in a blue moon....most of my cats don't care for treats so we limit them.

Also, she is one that hates people food so we don't share our food with her. There is really only our one cat in the house that really enjoy's people food.

My vet says she doesn't think it's her thyroid and that means I'll probably end up taking Claudia to a more modern vet so I can get her treated better so she doesn't have that bulge around her hips as you can see in the one picture I took of her sitting next to 2 of my other cats.




At that age then it's probably not arthritis, could be limited jumping simply from the weight gain.

Has your vet suggested a light or weight reducing food? How much food are you feeding per day? Are you free-feeding? Does the cat get any treats or people food?

Sorry for all the questions, just wanting to help out if I can. My mom currently has an obese cat and I'm working with her to get her cat's weight down before she ends up with a diabetic cat.

[Catlady711]

No I appreciate your questions, please ask away.

My vet is a very country doctor and older ways. She did suggest that once my kitten reaches 1 year old to start feeding all of my guys weight management food.

My other cat though Hermes has a very sensitive stomach so I'm not sure if that will work for him or not.

I'm not free feeding anymore I use to. I have 6 cats so I have 6 cat food bowls and each cat gets a handful of food twice a day.

They don't get any treats only once in a blue moon....most of my cats don't care for treats so we limit them.

Also, she is one that hates people food so we don't share our food with her. There is really only our one cat in the house that really enjoy's people food.

My vet says she doesn't think it's her thyroid and that means I'll probably end up taking Claudia to a more modern vet so I can get her treated better so she doesn't have that bulge around her hips as you can see in the one picture I took of her sitting next to 2 of my other cats.

I tend to agree with your country vet that it's probably not the thryroid. It's not impossible but improbable in cats, in dogs it's more common. But I'd think that if you insisted on spending the extra $$ for peace of mind on the blood test that your vet would at least accomodate you.

Two handfulls of food a day is rather subjective, I have large hands so my handful could be ALOT of food for a cat. Try getting a cheap or old measuring cup and measure out your fat cats food for a week and see how much your 'handfuls' really are per day. Compare that with what your bag of food says to feed. Remember most food bags have a slightly elevated chart for feeding, so you'd want to shoot for just a bit less than it says.

If that doesn't get some weight off try feeding your fat cat a light or weight reducing formula. You've already said you feed the cats separately so it shouldn't be alot of extra work to feed one cat something different.

I feed 3 different lifestages of food for my 7 cats, and one has to have medicine in his food, so for me feeding different things to different cats at the same time seems normal. lol My cats get fed 3-4 times a day and the bowls are only down until they are empty (for the fat kitties) or when they walk away (for the kitties that know when to stop eating) then I pick up their bowls till the next feeding time.

Feeding twice a day is good. It usually makes cats less hungry on a diet than just feeding once a day, and is better for their metabolism to have it spread out at least twice a day.

Good luck.

[kimlovescats]

I'm glad to hear that Claudia's check was a good one! I would also just try a "lighter" diet and see if that helps her "fluffiness"! ;)

[Anikaca77]

Well I'm sorta mad at the moment.

Last night Claudia began sneezing and I knew her cold was going to get worse so I called the vets hoping they would give me some meds for her and the vet said until Claudia has discharge we have to let her go.

Well ever since Claudia was a baby she was sick. So her immune system is not what it should be.

Anyway, I came home today and now both of her eyes are running and she's still sneezing up a storm.

My vet is closed till Monday and the only other vet I can go to is going to cost me a lot of money to take her there.

Ashley had this same cold except hers was coughing a lot and the vet gave her meds because I never heard Ashley cough like that.

Now Claudia.

I just don't know why my country vet doesn't listen to me.

Sorry needed to vent a bit

[Catty1]

I know some cat people here use Arginine to boost their kitty's immune system. Hopefully one of them will post here on dosages, etc.

Feline Omega-3 is good too, an excellent anti-oxident.

{{{hugs}}}

Vent away!

[kimlovescats]

Technically your vet is doing the correct thing. Your kitty most likely has Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis (a kitty cold) and therefore like a human cold it has to "run its coarse". It is a virus, so an antibiotic will not help. Like your vet explained, if there is drainage, not clear, but dark yellow or brown like mucus, then that suggests an infection. At that point, an antibiotic will clear the infection and the virus itself will still pass on its own. As long as your kitty is sneezing clear fluids and has clear secretions from her nose and eyes, there is no infection for an antibiotic. HOWEVER, you can ask for some L-Lysine to use as an immune booster / supplement. It is usually sold in tubes! If your regular vet doesn't sell it, you might be able to find it at another local vet or Co-Op.

Good luck and try not to worry! ;)

Kim

[Medusa]

When all 7 of my cats recently had colds, my vet told me to buy some plain saline solution at the pharmacy and squirt it up their noses. The trick, of course, is getting them to sit still for it. It did give them relief, though. Pidge sneezed so hard and her mucous membranes were so dry that she got a nose bleed and sprayed blood on my sliding glass door. Freaked me out! The saline solution is inexpensive and it might help.

[Anikaca77]

I know I need to wait to see if this is just a cold that could run it's course but it's so hard listening to her being all stuffy and last night she was sleeping by my head and let's just say I don't think her or I got enough sleep. She was sneezing mostly on me.

Hopefully it will pass soon. Sometimes I do jump the gun too quickly on my guys but I hate seeing them sick and there's nothing I can do but give them love.

[Catlady711]

I can sympathize with you so much on that.

Dusty had a weak immune system and always seemed to be sick several times a year requiring me to give her antibiotic injections at home for a week (she wouldn't take anything by mouth). All they really did was keep any secondary infections down since she had to 'run her course' with it. If we didn't get her on antibiotics she would end up with a staph infection in her throat. ewww

Jack has a basically decent immune system however has been sneezing for the last 2 years. Never has any discharge and it never progresses or goes totally away. We've tried several times with several antibiotics and it's never impacted his sneezing in any way. He's healthy otherwise (other than his unrelated mega colon problem) so we all just live with the sneezing and keep watch for any discharges or other indicators that he needs antibiotics. He doesn't seem like a cat suffering or unhappy about it, eats normally, plays, and is very affectionate.

[Anikaca77]

Well Claudia has stopped sneezing now which is good but her cough is still there.

Last night again she woke me up with coughing and she threw up 3 times not much but the first time it was liquid the second time it was food which I thought might have been a hairball but after looking at it better and feeling it (sorry to be gross) there was just food....then the third time it was white foamy stuff.

I'm going to be calling a different vet today and see if I can get her in. I was really hoping that if I let her go a little longer she would be good but I didn't get any sleep really last night because I was up with her 4 times and man I'm tired.

Money is such an issue but I'm hoping this vet will work with me on it.

[Anikaca77]

I made a vet appt with a different vet today for Claudia but I think I'm going to call my other vet back and explain what is happening to see what she thinks.

Claudia has tried to through up twice tonight and nothing came up except a little bit of liquid white stuff.

I'm now getting really worried about her and right now it sucks money wise but I'll do what I have to but I just can't afford a huge vet bill right now.

Please pray that things are going to go well for Claudia

[Medusa]

Prayers on the way for sweet Claudia......

[Freedom]

Prayers for Claudia, for the white coats to be able to help her.

[Taz_Zoee]

Poor Claudia. I hope you can figure out what is wrong with her. :(

[Catty1]

Prayers for dear Claudia...several times here, PTrs have found a world of difference with another vet! They don't have preconceived ideas from having treated them for a long time...a pair of fresh eyes might be just what Claudia needs!

{{{{hugs}}}} Get better, little girl! :)

[Katjaye]

Oh, I do hope your baby is getting better and the new vet worked out for you! Good luck! Prayers and good thoughts to you and your family!

[sandragonfly]

poor claudia! hope someone will be able to figure out what's wrong with heer this time.

hoping for a good update next!

[Anikaca77]

Well I took Claudia to the vets and the vet put her on the same meds Ashley was on for her cough and hopefully this will settle it down.

The vet said she wants an update in 4 days and if Claudia is not better she will need to do some blood tests then.

We'll see what happens, she had her first dose today so hopefully tonight we will both get a full night of sleep.

Thank you all for your prays and thoughts.

Melissa & Claudia

[Medusa]

Non stop prayers going out for you both. Here's hoping you both got a good night's sleep.

[Anikaca77]

Well it's been 3 days of meds now...early this afternoon Claudia had 1 coughing fit and so far nothing else. She just got her 3rd dose tonight so I'm hoping that she will be better soon.

Thank you all for your prays.

Melissa

[Katjaye]

That is wonderful news! Thanks for letting us know!!! More prayers being sent your way!