Expert: Jessica - 7/20/2009

Question
On Thursday, my cat started crying/screaming. She is 13 years old. She was dehydrated, kidneys had shut down and liver was affected. I am told, through my wife which took her, that Princess, a half siamese half domestic breed that she may have feline leukemia. The Vet Doctor gave her Orbax for at home to give. They gave her 200cc both days I believe that she was there in the clinic, plus anti biotics. She was switched from hard food to soft food from nutrical to medical reduced protein feline.  She has had e coli before. She has not pooped much but peed a lot. We are concerned that she has still not pooped normally or drinking regularly.


Answer
Hi Ralph.  Sorry to hear your kitty is going through such a hard time.  Has your cat been eating the suggested amount of food daily?  If she’s not eating a lot, she may not produce a lot of stool, and she may not have a bowel movement for a few days.  But there is also a possibility that she’s very constipated because she’s urinating so much and becoming dehydrated.  So I would really advise that she get back to the vet to check for this.  The vet can palpate her abdomen to see if there are any hard stools.

As for her drinking, is she drinking less?  A cat switched from dry food to a completely canned diet will often drink noticeably less because she’s now getting much of her needed moisture from her food.  However, if she’s urinating so much, she should probably be drinking a lot to keep up with it.  I would urge you to speak with the vet about giving fluids at home.  This is relatively simple to do, and most owners of kidney patients have learned to give their cats fluids a few times a week.  You place the needle in a pouch of skin cats have between the shoulder blades, and most of them tolerate it very well.

If you mean she is not drinking regularly because is drinking more than normal, then this is all part of kidney disease.  They need to take in more water to keep up with the demands of the kidneys, since they are not concentrating the urine like they should.

I hope the medicine and fluids will help her feel better!

Jessica