Hi everyone! You guys helped me so much with my cat Sasha a few years ago. I could really use some outside perspective as I'm kind of lost about what to do for my cat Julie. She is 13, is acting lethargic, barely affectionate, and sits around looking sick (meatloaf position, downcast eyes). Sometimes she is sort of herself, acts affectionate and then starts looking miserable again.This started in August along with frantic straining to pee and blood in the urine and was diagnosed with stryuvite crystals in a urinalysis. She's had this before, but this time cranberry juice didn't help her like it did in the past, and only once we switched her to C/D food did the straining to pee and blood in the urine stop.
We got her a follow up urinalysis and the crystals are gone. She's getting out normal amounts of pee, and isn't frantic about peeing anymore (though she sometimes rises to standing while peeing?) but is acting miserable.
I thought she had might have cystitis, but the vet said she definitely doesn't because there is no blood in her urine (is that definitely true?). She said we should wait it out, give it time, maybe she is just adjusting to such a big lifestyle change (she was on free feeding dry food, now on canned food), maybe it's an emotional issue because our other cat died a month ago and she is now left with her sister who hates her.
It's been a month now and she is still acting like this. The vet said next step would be ultrasound but she said she still wants to wait to see if it just gets better on its own because she doesn't really have any symptoms aside from lethargy and a little weight loss.
I consulted with an internal medicine specialist who agreed, saying that without vomiting, inappetence or blood in her urine they don't feel that confident they'd find anything wrong. But here I am sitting with my cat who is acting sick, and am struggling to accept that nothing is wrong here. She seems like she is in pain and no one really knows why. Am I being over cautious? She's had two perfect rounds of bloodwork over the last three months. I'm not even sure what direction to go in, and the vets seem very unconcerned.
She also has a subtle unexplained head tick, facial twitching thing that she has had for about a year that internal medicine vets in NYC vets also don't seem worried about. In the past she had two episodes where she threw up, started screaming and passed out. After ruling out more dangerous things, the vets ruled it was an allergy to a food change/asthma. That's why I only just changed her to C/D a month and a half ago. Maybe I'm just not giving it enough time for her to adjust? I don't know. Any thoughts on this situation would just help so much. Thanks so much for reading.
We got her a follow up urinalysis and the crystals are gone. She's getting out normal amounts of pee, and isn't frantic about peeing anymore (though she sometimes rises to standing while peeing?) but is acting miserable.
I thought she had might have cystitis, but the vet said she definitely doesn't because there is no blood in her urine (is that definitely true?). She said we should wait it out, give it time, maybe she is just adjusting to such a big lifestyle change (she was on free feeding dry food, now on canned food), maybe it's an emotional issue because our other cat died a month ago and she is now left with her sister who hates her.
It's been a month now and she is still acting like this. The vet said next step would be ultrasound but she said she still wants to wait to see if it just gets better on its own because she doesn't really have any symptoms aside from lethargy and a little weight loss.
I consulted with an internal medicine specialist who agreed, saying that without vomiting, inappetence or blood in her urine they don't feel that confident they'd find anything wrong. But here I am sitting with my cat who is acting sick, and am struggling to accept that nothing is wrong here. She seems like she is in pain and no one really knows why. Am I being over cautious? She's had two perfect rounds of bloodwork over the last three months. I'm not even sure what direction to go in, and the vets seem very unconcerned.
She also has a subtle unexplained head tick, facial twitching thing that she has had for about a year that internal medicine vets in NYC vets also don't seem worried about. In the past she had two episodes where she threw up, started screaming and passed out. After ruling out more dangerous things, the vets ruled it was an allergy to a food change/asthma. That's why I only just changed her to C/D a month and a half ago. Maybe I'm just not giving it enough time for her to adjust? I don't know. Any thoughts on this situation would just help so much. Thanks so much for reading.
