Zantac and sick kitty

Hi there

I wanted to share my story in case it helps someone else in the future, and ask some questions from the knowledgeable and helpful people here!

I have two young adult Torties, who are a tightly bonded pair. The younger one is a spirited and vocal petite prankster, and craves frequent if not prolonged human attention. The slightly older one is more submissive, shy and subdued, but does occasionally come sit on people she trusts for a bit of quality time when her friend isn’t about to barge in.

Anyway, last week at night the shy cat suddenly got sick, and basically regurgitated what looked like wet barely chewed kibble. She had the decency to do her business on older bathmat and try to hide it 🙂 She quickly ate more and didn’t seem any different so I assumed she just ate too quickly and so I wasn’t that concerned. But she later got sick twice more and this time it was more digested and eventually bile so I took her into the vet the next morning.

The vet gave her some anti nausea injection which stopped her from vomiting for a good 24 hours but she still refused to eat or drink. The vet struggled to identify what was wrong with her—they didn’t think it she was blocked because she showed no abdominal pain and managed to use the litter box after vomiting. They didn’t think it was likely to be kidney / liver problems because of her age and lack of change to her drinking patterns before she was sick. As I didn’t have insurance I was reluctant to pay enormous sums of money for screens that were unlikely to show what was wrong.

To make a long story short I went through almost a week of vet visits, endless boiling of fish and chicken, and overnight hospitalisation due to dehydration, and lots of cleaning up sick and agonising over what to do as kitty still wouldn’t eat or drink. The vet even sent her home from the iv because she was too anxious to be treated in a clinical environment and I was more likely to get her to eat at home.

Not overly optimistically they prescribed some Zantac to reduce stomach acid. To my great relief the drug worked almost instantly, and so I appreciate it as literally a life saver. Though really there must be a way to make this drug in a more deliverable format. How are you supposed to get a cat that won’t eat or drink to willingly slurp a foul tasting liquid. The first dose I got her to swallow because she didn’t see it coming. Now she runs and cringes when I even pick up the liquid dropper. I managed to hide some in her food but now she’s figured that out as well and sniffs around the ‘minty’ part. After getting her to have three (partial) dosages I decided to give up this morning as she started getting stressed at mealtimes and abandoned her breakfast, and I’m worried she’ll go back to not eating at all.

I asked the vet and their advice was she really should take the medicine for a full 5 days but they understand it’s a struggle. Wasn’t the decisive answer I was looking for.

So my question to you.

Now that kitty is back to eating, drinking, using the litter tray, meowing and even playing am I right to prioritise making her feel comfortable over completing the course of the medication? Or am I taking a big risk that the acid will come back and make her ill again, like would be the case with anitbiotics?

Some random things I learned that I thought I would share

Even though kitty lost 10% of her body weight in a few days, she had doubled in size in just 5 months according to the last weigh in at the vets. It was hard to observe because she’s so fluffy and I wasn’t aware as usually there is food left over when they are both done and I don’t overfeed them. However, even though the pushy little cat is always first to eat and appears to eat longer. When kitty wasn’t eating I noticed how little the other cat actually ate, she was just slower eating and quicker to the food bowl. I think fluffy kitty is a wolfer and secret eater.

As anyone on this forum surely knows having a cat who is struggling and who you feel powerless to helps is a horrible experience. You need to keep up faith and not blame yourself, seek information but keep a sense of perspective, and GET PET INSURANCE. This was a huge mistake from me. The above episode was expensive and could have been much worse. But adding financial worries to your cat’s health worries is truly stressful, and you second guess yourself, feel guilty, and basically don’t know to do. So much better it would have been to know that if tests turned out negative you were going to get help to pay for them, and not have to think twice if you want the vet to see the cat again to be on safe side.

Obviously I noticed a difference between older kitty by the end of her illness. But it’s only now when she’s recovering that I realised just how listless she had become. Because she’s a fading violet and somewhat secretive in the best of times it’s pretty easy not to notice when she’s become less vocal and more solitary. I guess we all have to keep watching over our cats and try not blame ourselves when we miss something.