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My poor kitty :(
I know we have a lot of animal people on here, so I wanted to see if anyone had any advice for my cat. He is sooooo sick.
He is 12 years old. He started loosing weight when Lily arrived and the vet said it was due to stress. But, when we came back from vacation, he was soooooo skinny that I called the vet and made an appointment for this past Monday. Over the weekend, he went downhill fast and couldn't even jump on the couch, so I took him to the ER and they said he was so dehydrated that, if I hadn't taken him in, he might have died overnight.
The ER tested him for kidney disease (negative) but said he had a raging UTI and did a culture and put him on antibiotics. I took him to my vet first thing Monday morning (straight from the ER) and they tested him for thyroid disease - that test came back negative but borderline. So then the vet said, "I want to do an ultrasound on his abdomen to see if he has cancer. If he doesn't have cancer...then I don't know why he's been losing so much weight." 
He spent the night at the vet and they did the ultrasound yesterday - preliminary results show NO cancer (whoohoo) but potential liver and kidney issues. I'll get the final results today or tomorrow.
In the meantime, I picked him up yesterday and he is so weak that he can't even pick his head up enough to eat out of a bowl. He can still walk around the house a bit, but his back legs are really weak. He only weighs 4.7 lbs! (A healthy weight for him is 12 lbs).
The vet said not to worry about feeding him his special diet (Feline C/D - he's on it because he has a history of crystals in his urine). She wants him to EAT. So I'm feeding him canned Friskies. He is eating, but he is not drinking, so I drained a can of Tuna and gave him the water and he lapped that up. I put him in his own room with a litter box, bed, food, and water (the litter box is at the opposite side of the room as the other stuff). He did poop a little last night, but he didn't pee. And I have to continue his antibiotic. And, of course I am trying to give him lots of petting.
Is there anything else I can do for him?
Re: My poor kitty :(
what about feline diabetes? that is what my cat had and it caused him to lose a ton of weight....
We fed him his regular food, a can of canned food a night and every bit of extra human food he would eat... lol....
Will he drink kitten formula? I bought that for Dewey after his surgery since he had lost weight and is still technically growing. He didn't really enjoy it but it has a lot of nutrients.
Can cats have chicken broth? It might have too much sodium in it but if they can, you could try that too?
I'm so sorry! I hope he gets better soon!!
The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware; joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware. -Henry Miller
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I'm so sorry
Definitely will send lots of good thoughts your way.
Only thing I can add is that changing over to the canned food will help with water consumption. My cat has basically stopped drinking all water for over a year now but we switched him over to wet food and that has done the trick. For my guy, it was behavioral. He lost weight and hair, he had bald spots. My vet gave him 2 steroid injections, one a week and he popped out of it.
I feel like cats are more difficult to try to push meds, foods etc on b/c they like ot hide when they are sick and wont just gobble things smothered in p0nut butter like a dog will! If he stops eating the wet food baby food is a good option.
I'm glad that the u/s didn't show signs of cancer. Hopefully, he'll start peeing soon and you all can rule out anything with the kidneys.
I'm so sorry you're dealing with this! Your kitty is lucky to have such a wonderful mama!
I'd probably rule out diabetes because that usually causes an increase in water consumption but it sounds like that hasn't happened. I'd be careful on the chicken broth because like pp said, there's a lot of sodium in that and that can cause more dehydration. Have you tried a syringe in the corner of his mouth to get water into him? Did they give him sub q fluids at all while he was at the vet?
Keep us posted and lots of t&p for you!
I'm so sorry to hear about your kitty! My parents cat is almost 16 and last summer he had what sounds like a similar situation. The severe dehydration was causing him to lose weight, become really weak and prevent him from going to the bathroom. He was diagnosed with thyroid issues and kidney issues and after being prescribed a few medications, as well as a daily hydration injection, he is doing pretty well. He's gained weight and goes to the bathroom more regularly, which was the biggest concern. Now that everyone is used to the routine, it seems to be working out and keeping Rusty going strong
I wonder if the hydration injection might be a solution for you..the hardest part is just waiting for a definitive diagnosis, so they can finally provide some solutions...sorry you're going through this.
I will definitely keep him in my thoughts for a speedy recovery!
Poor kitty! Any chance that he might be peeing but just not in his box?
One of my kitties has has several UTIs and "tuna water" helps a lot! So does mixing a little extra water in with wet food.
I gave her chicken broth - but made my own. Just water and boiled chicken. That worked well too.
Soft kitty, warm kitty
Little ball of furrrr
happy kitty, sleepy kitty
purr, purr, purrrrr
feel better little kitty.