Adopted cat struggling to settle in (we think)?
Discussion
Well, he was great and we got a sample within about 2 minutes of trying on Saturday. Sadly the easy part stops there.
We were going to drop it in on Monday for the tests, but on Sunday he wasn't himself (wouldnt eat or play and wasnt really interested in being stroked and was falling asleep sitting up) so we took him to the emergency vets with the sample. Some blood tests later and it looks like his kidneys have started to fail!
He stayed in overnight on an IV, so hopefully we get some good news today. The vet said it would be irreversable but manageable on the right food. Fingers crossed.
We were going to drop it in on Monday for the tests, but on Sunday he wasn't himself (wouldnt eat or play and wasnt really interested in being stroked and was falling asleep sitting up) so we took him to the emergency vets with the sample. Some blood tests later and it looks like his kidneys have started to fail!
He stayed in overnight on an IV, so hopefully we get some good news today. The vet said it would be irreversable but manageable on the right food. Fingers crossed.
Bugger 
. Wish I'd pushed to get him checked more now. I didn't because you'd already been to the vets recently, luckily there is an awful lot available to help with kidneys, however Persians do have hereditary kidney conditions so he may need an ultrasound scan at some point to check whether his kidneys have cysts or not, this will help re: prognosis and treatment regimes. I really hope he responds to the fluids.
. Wish I'd pushed to get him checked more now. I didn't because you'd already been to the vets recently, luckily there is an awful lot available to help with kidneys, however Persians do have hereditary kidney conditions so he may need an ultrasound scan at some point to check whether his kidneys have cysts or not, this will help re: prognosis and treatment regimes. I really hope he responds to the fluids.No real news yet - apparently he is pretty chilled out and is showing a bit of interest in food now but is still on the drip and anti nausea meds. The vet would like to keep him in for another night (unless he really perks up this afternoon) and if he isnt showing greater improvement tomorrow, give him an ultrasound to check for cysts.
It all came on really quickly - literally over the space of 12 hours he went from normal Ted (albeit weeing in odd places, as discussed) to groggy, sick Ted. I'm glad we got him in on Sunday though - rather than waiting to see if he got any better.
It all came on really quickly - literally over the space of 12 hours he went from normal Ted (albeit weeing in odd places, as discussed) to groggy, sick Ted. I'm glad we got him in on Sunday though - rather than waiting to see if he got any better.
Today's news is still not great. Ted is still at the vets and was still on the drip this morning. The vet I spoke to this morning said he had developed a pronounced swelling in his mouth/face - probably an absess caused by bad teeth.
After a bit of thought and some online research, it seemed that Teds best chance was to remove his infected teeth ASAP to immediately reduce the level of bacteria he is dealing with, so we steered the vet in this direction. Before doing this, we had a scan of his kidneys done, which showed no cysts - this was a bit of a relief and showed us that doing the teeth may not be a fools errand and was worth a try.
So, he had the problem teeth removed within about an hour of the go-ahead, including some rotten bone(!) and the absess drained. He came through the anestetic fine, and tonight they are slowly taking him off the drip, so they can see if his blood/urnine tests are better and show a level of kidney functionality. If that is positive, then he may be home tomorrow. If his kidneys arent funtioning then he may not be comng home
He's probably not going to grow to be an old cat, but a summer with him chilling out, not in pain, would be very, very nice indeed. We only took him in expecting some tablets, and havent seem him for 3 days now.
Fingers well and truly crossed.
After a bit of thought and some online research, it seemed that Teds best chance was to remove his infected teeth ASAP to immediately reduce the level of bacteria he is dealing with, so we steered the vet in this direction. Before doing this, we had a scan of his kidneys done, which showed no cysts - this was a bit of a relief and showed us that doing the teeth may not be a fools errand and was worth a try.
So, he had the problem teeth removed within about an hour of the go-ahead, including some rotten bone(!) and the absess drained. He came through the anestetic fine, and tonight they are slowly taking him off the drip, so they can see if his blood/urnine tests are better and show a level of kidney functionality. If that is positive, then he may be home tomorrow. If his kidneys arent funtioning then he may not be comng home
He's probably not going to grow to be an old cat, but a summer with him chilling out, not in pain, would be very, very nice indeed. We only took him in expecting some tablets, and havent seem him for 3 days now.
Fingers well and truly crossed.
Hi OP
I had a similar tale, I took on a cat a few years ago from a couple splitting up, he was more like a lion he was that big. At the time we had one dog and two cats
He was lovely, I really liked him, really gentle thing
After a month or so , he started weeing and seemed unable to control his bladder.
We took him to vets and from hazy memory they manually emptied it and said it could be stress/infection or a bladder issue.
Unfortunately after a few days he started weeing again everywhere.
It was so frustrating, we were clearing up the laminate floor 24-7 and seeing the poor cat uncomfortable was hard going
The vets eased the bladder out again and spoke to us about cat psychology, as cats are so territorial our two existing cats weren't really letting Benny into the rest of the house, so poor Benny used to sit there lost on our kitchen chair, this could be a contributing factor.
To cut a long story short, Benny was still struggling 2 weeks on and we were faced with the choice of a £600-£1500 operation, that might not be a success or to put him to sleep. We could see how much he was struggling and the operation might not cure him, especially in the long term.
I remember playing with him outside on his last day, he was a lovely thing.
I think the couple we took him from were aware of potential issues, even though they were splitting up they were only re-homing one of their 5 cats and 3 dogs , which seems odd.
We beat ourselves up at the time , as we hadn't taken insurance out yet, we were also quite skint and had already paid out £300 in costs. Looking at it now I am financially better off I think we made the right decision as we had no idea of his history and seeing the pain he was in time and time again.
Sorry not sure the above helps OP, but thought I would share
I had a similar tale, I took on a cat a few years ago from a couple splitting up, he was more like a lion he was that big. At the time we had one dog and two cats
He was lovely, I really liked him, really gentle thing
After a month or so , he started weeing and seemed unable to control his bladder.
We took him to vets and from hazy memory they manually emptied it and said it could be stress/infection or a bladder issue.
Unfortunately after a few days he started weeing again everywhere.
It was so frustrating, we were clearing up the laminate floor 24-7 and seeing the poor cat uncomfortable was hard going
The vets eased the bladder out again and spoke to us about cat psychology, as cats are so territorial our two existing cats weren't really letting Benny into the rest of the house, so poor Benny used to sit there lost on our kitchen chair, this could be a contributing factor.
To cut a long story short, Benny was still struggling 2 weeks on and we were faced with the choice of a £600-£1500 operation, that might not be a success or to put him to sleep. We could see how much he was struggling and the operation might not cure him, especially in the long term.
I remember playing with him outside on his last day, he was a lovely thing.
I think the couple we took him from were aware of potential issues, even though they were splitting up they were only re-homing one of their 5 cats and 3 dogs , which seems odd.
We beat ourselves up at the time , as we hadn't taken insurance out yet, we were also quite skint and had already paid out £300 in costs. Looking at it now I am financially better off I think we made the right decision as we had no idea of his history and seeing the pain he was in time and time again.
Sorry not sure the above helps OP, but thought I would share
Thanks for all of the support on this thread.
We picked Ted up last night after his final blood test showed that he was stable, albeit with poorly functioning kidneys. He seems almost like his old self, although last night was on pain killers for his mouth, so was a bit out of it. This morning he was on really fine form and eating well.
He came back with a selection of wet renal foods to try and so far seems to love them all (I really hope he wasnt on this before we had him, and we just put him onto normal stuff, as that would be rather tragic).
As keeping his fluid levels up is so important, we bought him a water fountain which he is making an amazing job of just ignoring - hopefully he'll work that out over time.
We have to take him back to the vets on Monday for a checkup and another blood test to check how he's going and check the level of protein in his blood, but for now he seems quite bright and getting back to his old self.
Happy owners!
We picked Ted up last night after his final blood test showed that he was stable, albeit with poorly functioning kidneys. He seems almost like his old self, although last night was on pain killers for his mouth, so was a bit out of it. This morning he was on really fine form and eating well.
He came back with a selection of wet renal foods to try and so far seems to love them all (I really hope he wasnt on this before we had him, and we just put him onto normal stuff, as that would be rather tragic).
As keeping his fluid levels up is so important, we bought him a water fountain which he is making an amazing job of just ignoring - hopefully he'll work that out over time.
We have to take him back to the vets on Monday for a checkup and another blood test to check how he's going and check the level of protein in his blood, but for now he seems quite bright and getting back to his old self.
Happy owners!
You need lots of water bowls (refreshed daily) around the house so he can't pass one without thinking "Oooh! A drink!"
Some cats prefer rainwater, so start collecting that.
No dry food. IMO cats should not get exclusively dry food. 50/50 with a good quality dried food such as Applaws if you must.
Some cats prefer rainwater, so start collecting that.
No dry food. IMO cats should not get exclusively dry food. 50/50 with a good quality dried food such as Applaws if you must.
If he keeps eating the wet food, we'll just keep him on that - he seems to like it with a splash of water to really wet it down. We'll add a few more water bowls too.
One strange thing he is doing is licking the bare walls in the bathroom, where we havent finished the refurb - maybe thinking he needs some salt they are giving off? We've shut that door now, and will speak to the vet about it on Monday.
One strange thing he is doing is licking the bare walls in the bathroom, where we havent finished the refurb - maybe thinking he needs some salt they are giving off? We've shut that door now, and will speak to the vet about it on Monday.
We rescued another cat a few months ago, a male this time, & he has messed quite a few times, mainly on our bed
We have taken advice on here, from our Vet & from the CPL where we got him & he is now confined to the kitchen (cat flap to outside) apart from evenings when he comes through to the living room/dining room with us. This seems to be working, he did pee on the dog bed in the living room when he was in there on his own. We have used Feliway spray, especially when getting him used to the other cat & the dogs. We have also left food bowls near spots he has messed in.
We have two dogs, he is not keen at all, even with the spaniel which all three other cats we've had got on with no problem. The Westie is a chasing breed so we are working hard to stop his natural instinct, seems to be working to a great extent.
He gets on fine with our other cat, tries curling up with her but she is slowly getting used to him, they have started playing together in the last few weeks which is good. He is very affectionate with people, even strangers.
When he seems less nervous we'll try letting him roam the house agin, we have a litter tray upstairs now ready (neither cat uses one ordinarily).
It's the 1st cat we've had issues with so we're learning as we go & it's just going to take time & patience by the look of it.
We have taken advice on here, from our Vet & from the CPL where we got him & he is now confined to the kitchen (cat flap to outside) apart from evenings when he comes through to the living room/dining room with us. This seems to be working, he did pee on the dog bed in the living room when he was in there on his own. We have used Feliway spray, especially when getting him used to the other cat & the dogs. We have also left food bowls near spots he has messed in.
We have two dogs, he is not keen at all, even with the spaniel which all three other cats we've had got on with no problem. The Westie is a chasing breed so we are working hard to stop his natural instinct, seems to be working to a great extent.
He gets on fine with our other cat, tries curling up with her but she is slowly getting used to him, they have started playing together in the last few weeks which is good. He is very affectionate with people, even strangers.
When he seems less nervous we'll try letting him roam the house agin, we have a litter tray upstairs now ready (neither cat uses one ordinarily).
It's the 1st cat we've had issues with so we're learning as we go & it's just going to take time & patience by the look of it.
Maxf said:
As keeping his fluid levels up is so important, we bought him a water fountain which he is making an amazing job of just ignoring - hopefully he'll work that out over time.
We had all sorts of issues getting our cat to drink water, until I caught her drinking from my pint glass of water that I left on the coffee table. Now I just leave a glass of water on the table, and she drinks from it regularly and ignores the water bowl next to her food 
HarryFlatters said:
We had all sorts of issues getting our cat to drink water, until I caught her drinking from my pint glass of water that I left on the coffee table. Now I just leave a glass of water on the table, and she drinks from it regularly and ignores the water bowl next to her food
Our cats drink from my glass of water by the bed at night.
Patch1875 said:
HarryFlatters said:
We had all sorts of issues getting our cat to drink water, until I caught her drinking from my pint glass of water that I left on the coffee table. Now I just leave a glass of water on the table, and she drinks from it regularly and ignores the water bowl next to her food
Our cats drink from my glass of water by the bed at night.
Now much as I love Bob, I don't want to be drinking the same water as a creature that licks it's arse.
My solution is to put some no sugar fruit squash in my bedside water, and a bowl of plain water underneath the bed for Bob.
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