Miss Mindy Is Sick Options

[DannysMom]

My sweet Miss Mindy is sick. She hasn't been herself these past few days. I noticed her eating less and starting to hide under my bed a lot. Then when she does come out she acts restless and wags her tail a lot and can't sit still much. She spent the whole afternoon yesterday hiding under my bed and only came out late last night. Tonight when I came home she ate just a bit and then went to hide again. So, I took her to the emergency vet. They did x-rays, blood work, and a pancreatitis test. Everything is normal. CBC count is normal, test for pancreatitis is negative, x-rays are fine, no tumors, no masses. Her stomach was empty on the x-ray and she showed a lot of gas in her small intestines, but evenly distributed. She was slightly dehydrated. She has also gained almost another half pound and is up to 12.94 pounds. Sigh!

The vet said it looks like Mindy is having some gastroenteritis. They gave her some fluids, anti-nausea meds and an antacid and meds for me to take home. She's had an episode a few months ago when she had some tummy troubles and got put on antacid and got better. But back then she wasn't hiding like she is now. Even though everything came back normal I still worry about her and I have no idea what is causing this. Maybe she just has a sensitive tummy. Mindy definitely needs to lose weight and I'm at a loss as to what else to do. I'm already feeding her lo-cal canned food and lo-carb dry food and I do watch her portions. If anyone knows of any good weight loss foods by all means share it with me. Mindy is not very active to begin with so it's kinda hard to get her to lose the extra weight, but she is at the point where she HAS to lose it. I'm just so worried about my little girl. When she started hiding and acting strange and eating less I feared the worst and was prepared for the worst kind of news at the vet. Does anyone know what good be causing her to have this excess gas in her intestines?

[DannysMom]

moon_beam, thanks for the word of caution, but I really do think probiotics and digestive enzymes will help. Cats can have gas if their food is not properly digested and most cats foods lack digestive enzymes because the kibble gets cooked at such high temps that the enzymes don't survive. I did a lot of research on what's causing gas in cats and it seems to me that giving her probiotics and digestive enzymes will help not harm her. But I appreciate your caution. I'm just so distraught over my poor Mindy's condition and want to help her.

Last night Mindy woke me up when I heard her meowing loudly. She came and hopped on the bed and snuggled with me. She even did come out for a while last night and laid down in the dining room. I put her up by the window and she looked out the window for a while. This morning Mindy and Shelley both came to greet me in the bedroom and Shelley was sniffing on Mindy which didn't seem to bother her. But later on Mindy hissed at Shelley when she came near her, twice! She just didn't want anything to do with Shelley and normally they are best friends. Mindy sat in the window for a while this morning and watched the birds and I almost breathed a sigh of relief, but she abandoned the window seat after just a few minutes and went into hiding again. Mindy didn't mind getting her tummy rubbed this morning so I take that as a good sign. Still, this evening she went into hiding as soon as I came up the stairs. She came out just a few minutes ago, meowed to make her presence known and ate some food.

I am very very distressed about her behavior change toward Shelley. It's so sad that she hissed at her. I just feel so helpless in dealing with this situation.