Timmy has been lethargic for a few days
 

Hello everyone. Timmy (my heart surgery kitten) has been lethargic since about 10/2. It was not a really sudden onset but more of over the course of the day he was just kinda like blahh. He hasn't really played much since then.. he's still very alert.. bright eyes... no other symptoms other then a general lack of energy and his appetite isn't what it was before.

I brought him to the shelter early afternoon 10/5 after I had talked to his dr and 'medical team' if you will and they just said that if he wasn't feeling better by monday to bring him in. The only staff at the shelter monday was 1 tech and another veterinarian (not his surgeon). So we took his temp and it was 104.5... tried to give him fluids but of course he put up a fight!

He still is pooping and peeing fairly normally. he was constipated yesterday but he hadn't eaten much other then a couple treats since he didn't want any canned food.

I switched him to Aunt Jeni's raw chicken formula and he's been quite interested in that... but I mean I'm just at wits end trying to make this kitty perk up a bit. The seasons have just changed here and it's gotten quite cold out... and it's gotten colder in my house for sure. I think this may have something to do with it.

He has been seen by his vet twice since he hasn't been feeling well and he's been checked head to toe and no obvious signs of anything. His temp. has gone down and it appears he has just had a minor infection.

He's been on clavamox since last monday and I gave him a penicillin shot last week as well. Overall he's not sick in the way of sneezing or barfing or anything... but just been kinda blahhhh and not as hungry as before. He's not loosing much weight though other then an ounce or two...

Any suggestions?!? he is supposed to go for his followup x-ray tomorrow to see if his esophagus and heart have healed properly from his surgery. They were telling me they may have to sedate him and I really don't want to sedate this cat while he is like this!! His doctor just is saying we really need to wait and see and other then that see how the clavamox works.... but maybe someone has a good recipe to help his appetite and give him a little boost.

thank you!!

I would have no guesses as to what the original problem mighty be (was he vaccinated recently?), but I do know that antibiotics can cause digestive upset in many kitties and result in them losing their appetite. I would make sure to give the Clavamox with some food, and if he's not eating enough, talk to the vet about discontinuing it.
At the very least, start giving him some probiotics to counter the annihilation of his gut flora.

Have you tried offering him plain chicken baby food? How about some lightly boiled chicken breast with the broth? The juice from a can of low sodium salmon will also help get some extra fluids in him.

He finished his FVRCP series over 6 weeks ago.. his rabies shot was.... I think about a week before his surgery? But yeah nothing recently and he had no adverse reactions to any shots.

I'm pretty sure his little infection is gone and just kind of knocked the wind out of him (figuratively).. but as you can imagine my mom is like OMGHEDYYINGGGG 'cause he isn't eating too much. I know antibiotics usually do cause digestive upset, and since he already wasn't feeling well to begin with that this made him worse.

I was thinking of giving Geneflora a try. It comes in a big container and would be good to mix into my cats nightly canned food. Also my mom had a hunk of turkey leftover from her dinner recently and I had been heating that up and mushing it up and water and he LOVEDDDD that. He still loves his treats but more or less has been sleeping about 14+ hours a day... like a typical cat lol


I'm just not used to my little bundle of energy to be so sleepy and not pigging out. I kinda just wanted to hear someone else's opinion so I could say, 'hey look mom so-and-so said blah blah blah' and try and calm this crazy lady down!! lol

Sending lots of :goodvibes: for the little guy. He sure has been through a lot. :pray:

Awwww, poor Timmy. :grouphug:

There are viruses, (calicivirus for one) that have no vomiting, diarrhea, or sneezing, but can have fever, loss of some appetite, sore joints. It is a virus that can come in with your shoes (or bare broken feet). It can anywhere from severe to mild depending on the kitten. It may be a bug that just requires supportive care and will have to take it's course.

Sending some :goodvibes: that he perks up soon.

[B]I have no advice. Just sending :goodvibes: that Timmy is back to his old self soon.[/B]

I hope the little guy feels better soon. Hopefully it's just one of those things that work themselves out. I agree, it might be the Clavamox. :pray:He feels better soon.

He at the vets office now.. dropped him off 8:30AM! Still waiting... ended up calling a few minutes ago because it had been so long. He is in for his x-rays now. They had gotten backed up and since they are doing this for free i'm sure he wasn't top priority to get out of there.

Will post his new x-rays soon I hope :fingerscr and hoping the vets there will agree he just has a mild bug that should clear up soon.

I didn't feed him before he went there this morning :yell: cause i wasn't expecting him to be this long! So I hope he is okay...

Poor little guy. Hopefully it's just a little bug that he'll get over soon. I'm sure they fed him something. :fingerscr

Brave little Timmy:pray:he'll be ok:fingerscr

:grouphug::grouphug: I hope Timmy was getting all the attention he deserves by the vet techs to make his day better :pray:

Sending some :goodvibes::goodvibes: for him.

Hey guys. Timmy is home! The news isn't really too good though, but it's too soon to jump to any conclusions.

He appears to have a partially collapsed lung. It could be from any number of things... they mentioned if the lung was nicked during the surgery it could have caused to to slowly collapse over time... but since he has been sick for the past couple days they felt it was more acute then anything else. Timmy's surgeon had already left for the day but I showed the x-rays to Adam (shelter vet) and he said that the front of his chest does look a bit abnormal.. and it looks like there could be fluid in there. We aren't sure yet but all this could be related to an aspiration pneumonia that didn't really present it's self in a typical way.

I had noticed his breathing was kinda funny when he was sick but didn't really mention it to anyone because i thought I was being paranoid. It really only happened when he was sleeping.

Now it's a waiting game until I can get ahold of his doctor... he is at a bruce springsteen concert tonight (:rolleyes:) so i might just have to wait until I see him again on Thursday!

All that is important right now is that Timmy is home and already is eating some food and relaxing after a stressful day.


Here are his xrays. My camera is still broken so these aren't the best shots. Also I felt the xrays kinda sucked this time compared to before.

[IMG]http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs252.snc1/9935_1129624484293_1337640098_291078_1909642_n.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs272.snc1/9935_1129624724299_1337640098_291080_5875140_n.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs272.snc1/9935_1129624804301_1337640098_291081_4080640_n.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs252.snc1/9935_1129625084308_1337640098_291084_6899382_n.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs252.snc1/9935_1129625364315_1337640098_291086_4584252_n.jpg[/IMG]

all thoughts welcome ~:fingerscr

Awww, poor Timmy. I hope they can fix his lung :pray: I am sure if it started to collapse after surgery you would have seen a decline since then, not just in the last few days.

:pray: for him.

That poor little guy has been through so much. I hope his vet can figure out what they can do to help him.

Still waiting to hear from Timmys vet.... he was probably out partying with Springsteen all night :loser:

I'm going to bring the x-rays to another vet I know for another opinion. I'm not even going to tell him what they said and just ask what he sees on the xrays. Timmy is feeling very good this morning so I am very happy about that! Just need to see if he will eat any food for me :fingerscr

What a brave little guy he is. Cyberhugs to Timmy. Glad to hear he's feeling better today and hoping all these things will be resolved in short order!

But but don't be too hard on your Vet...afterall he was seeing Springsteen! A Springsteen show is like religion to us Springsteen fans...(shhh...over 60 shows under my belt)...:laughing:

Glad to hear that Timmy is feeling better this morning. :thumbs up

Hope everything will be okay and that you get some answers soon. :fingerscr :goodvibes: