vaccine reaction with vomiting and bloody diarrhea

"Nadia N." wrote
cshenk wrote:

Lol! I bet she feels better now.

She seems pretty much back to normal today. She's playful, eating well,
drinking, she's used the litterbox (no poo yet, but it's too early to
expect that). She caught a moth last night. I have one more day of forcing
nasty-tasting liquids down her throat and then hopefully her tummy will
continue to behave itself without any medicine.

So good!

Her sensitive tummy though does sound like there might be an allergy to
something in her food going on. Once she's better, maybe we can discuss
what you currently feed and look it up to see if an alternative seems
reasonable for your area and finances.

She definitely had a problem with any and all dry food when she was a
kitten. So it's probably some kind of grain intolerance. She's been eating
3/4 of a can of Hill's Chicken and Liver per day (the 156 g/5.5 oz cans).
To that I add 6 heaping spoonfuls of a pure chicken meat food called Porta
21 (it's a German-made food - basically just shredded white meat and
broth). I'd like to put her on the Porta 21 only, but then she gets
constipated, and also, I did a comparison of the nutrient contents of the
Hill's and the Porta food, and the Hill's seems better. I would love to be
able to switch her to a completely grain-free food, if I could... But as
you said, that's a discussion for another time :-)

No problem! She may even be reacting to a preservative.

I think partially the problem might be that I was giving her too much food
per day. I had this problem with my Kotyo before - my mom kept slipping
him extra food every day and he kept having soft stools. The vet checked
him out, analyzed a stool sample, and there was nothing wrong with him.
Finally she asked us how much we were feeding him and suggested we reduce
the amount. We tried that, and lo and behold - no more soft stools :-)
Sweety is a food hound, just like her big brother.

LOL!

She'll wolf down everything in her bowl, and then beg for more. I used to
give her a whole can of the Hill's, but changed to 3/4 about a month ago,
and since then her soft stools are not as frequent. But now she only goes
every 2 days instead of every day as before, so I don't know if that's
good either...

That may be ok. I don't know but there is another thread related to a
furball kitty who is getting fiber. This *might* be useful to you and wont
harm.

Oh, and to the person who said that she might "die from inattention" and
that my vet was unprofessional, my vet called tonight at 11:30 pm to ask
how she was doing, and if she had started drinking. Very inattentive of
him, yeah.

Grin, sounds like a good vet and a language problem. Any vet who calls
*me* to see how my pet is doing, is a keeper.

Yep, definitely a keeper. That whole vet clinic is pretty good. The main
vet speaks perfect English, and is knowledgeable about the latest CRF
research and treatments, which I desperately need because unfortunately my
Kotyo was diagnosed with early stage kidney disease in March. And the vet
who treated Sweety this week seems pretty good as well, and he can
understand my Spanish when I'm not semi-hysterical :-)

I'd have been n hysterics!

I'll add, I don't see as you did anything wrong to ask for anyone with
experience in this to post back as you clearly indicated right away you
were post vet trip with followups already taken. You got home with her
and were following vet advice with morning followup already set and just
looking for those who had seen similar and what they did.

I probably should not have snapped at that poster, but I was not exactly
at my calmest, I had a cat who was pooing blood, and seeing them post "if
she's not dead yet from inaction" was really the last thing I needed to
read at that time. When I am calmer I realize that sometimes people skim
posts and don't notice all the information in them, and I know that people
on this newsgroup (me included) feel very strongly about taking your cat
to the vet first and asking on the newsgroup later. So I can understand
that the person meant well and were concerned about Sweety. It's just the
word "dead" really hit me hard and I do wish that people would try to
choose their words a bit more carefully in these situations...

Don't worry about it. I'm not purrfect always ;-). Some folks just react
with 1/2 reading.

I am concerned though about her catching something that I bring in from
outside. There are tons of stray cats living outside here in Spain, and
I don't drive so I walk everywhere. I'm afraid I might bring in
something on my shoes that she won't be protected against. I know I
won't have to worry about this for at least a year, maybe not even for
the next 3 years (I think current vaccination protocols say that it's
enough to vaccinate cats every 3 years instead of every year). *But
eventually her immunity will fade and then what? I guess I have 3 years
to think of ways to figure something out...

Good. I am glad you won't be vaccinating her again. I do have
something for you to consider. In three years, you could get her a
titer panel. This is a blood test that will show her immunity to the
different diseases. If she shows any immunity at all, that's a good
sign.

I had this done a couple of years ago for our oldest (12). He has had
several medical problems (pancreatitis and now he has mild ashtma), so
I no longer vaccinate him due to his health. I had a titer done on
him--after about six years of no vaccinations at all--and he still
showed immunity to all the major diseases.

It cost about $100 American and took a few weeks to get the results
back but it was worth the wait IMO.

Rene

Rene S. wrote:

Good. I am glad you won't be vaccinating her again. I do have
something for you to consider. In three years, you could get her a
titer panel. This is a blood test that will show her immunity to the
different diseases. If she shows any immunity at all, that's a good
sign.

Yes, that's a good idea. I don't know if there is a lab in Spain where
they can do that, but I'll keep it in mind for the future. Thanks.


--
Little Monster pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Kotyo
Sweety pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Sweety
Kotyo and Sweety together:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/KotyoAndSweety