Hi, My girlfriend and I just returned from an over the night trip to visit her parents when we noticed our cat (Zorro) did not immediately come to greet us with his usual verbal outburst and needy personality.
He just sat there and couldn’t even muster up the energy to meow. We then noticed that Zorro had an accident where he could not make it to the litter-box.
It is one day later and he is unable to drink or eat, has a warm dry nose, and is unusually lethargic. He has stayed in one spot all day unless I move him, but then he continues lying in that spot. No accidents lately but I have noticed that he is drooling. We are very concerned and any suggestions and input would very appreciative.
Thank you,
Kyle
Hi Kyle…. thanks for visiting and asking. These seem to be the symptoms:
1. Sudden onset (apparently).
2. Drooling.
3. Vomiting
4. Urinary tract issue.
5. Lethargy (general symptom of unwell cat).
6. Depression (general symptom of unwell cat and feeling pain).
A foreign body in the mouth might cause drooling and mouth disease can also cause drooling but the other symptom inappropriate elimination would not be linked to this.
I would certainly check the mouth for signs of disease and/or foreign body to eliminate that as a cause. He may have swallowed something he should not have. In other words there may be two illnesses going on side by side.
The linking symptom is urinating outside the litter box and drooling. These together indicate kidney failure. The drooling is indirectly caused by uremia, poisoned blood due to waste products entering the blood stream and not being eliminated. This also causes vomiting.
Kidney failure can be acute or chronic. Chronic is a slow development and acute is sudden.
Acute kidney failure can be caused by poisoning (eating antifreeze or Easter lilies for example). Antifreeze poisoning is fatal and quite quickly. I don’t wish to alarm you. I am just exploring possibilities.
Trauma (an accident) can cause acute kidney failure. However it is also possible that chronic kidney failure has crept up on you unnoticed. It is not always that clear that it is happening.
The signs actually indicate advanced state of chronic kidney disease but this is guesswork.
There is no doubt that you should take him to the vet asap. I don’t know how old he is. If he is an older cat kidney disease is more likely as it is a common cause of illness and death in older cats.
The key symptom for me is urinating in an uncontrolled way. This points to urinary tract health issues and kidney disease requiring veterinary diagnosis. Treatments are dependent on veterinary diagnosis. It depends on whether the cause can be corrected or not.
These are simply my thoughts at a distance. The overall signs are serious enough for a veterinary visit unless something dramatically good happens as we speak. Good luck to you both.
Best
Michael
PS if you can report back it would be very helpful for other visitors. And the best of luck.
