Feline Friday: A Harrowing Week

 Hello, blogging friends!

We've had a very rough week around here. All is well now and I am so grateful for that!

On Friday of last week, I stopped by our local grocery store which is closing soon hoping to pick up another violet on sale. The violets were sold out but nearby I noticed a section with Burt's Bees products. I've used several in the past so thought I'd see what was on clearance.

I spotted their all-natural cat wipes which I hadn't used before, and since they were on clearance I bought a package to help with Lily's dander issues. Could be fun to try, I thought. I read some online reviews which were overwhelmingly positive, especially for senior kitties.

Back home, I left the wipes unopened until late Saturday morning when I thoroughly wiped her down, head to tip of tail. It was a beautiful day, so we took a long walk and worked in the yard. When I came back inside, I found Lily sound asleep in her basket (not unusual) but all the food from her 3pm automatic feeding was still in the bowl. On rare occasion, she has slept through a feeding but this time, she refused even a treat. Lily is highly food-motivated, so I knew something was wrong.

I kept an eye on her through the evening, my concern heightening. She wouldn't eat anything, even pieces of deli ham, and wouldn't move from her basket where she wasn't really asleep but stared straight ahead. She missed her 10pm feeding, which alarmed me even more. I got up around 4am to find her and she took a tiny bit of canned food from a spoon, then immediately vomited it back up. I knew she was in trouble.

Around 9am I loaded her up and headed to the emergency vet, a different one than I've used before. Although it seems painfully obvious now, it hadn't occurred to me that she might be having a reaction to the cat wipe I'd used on her. I truly had no idea what was going on -- which was completely terrifying.

After checking her in and speaking to the intake tech and later the vet, they suggested I leave her for a couple of hours while they did blood work and an x-ray. I suspected constiptation or a bowel obstruction based on her behavior and they seemed to think that was the likely cause. 

But when I got back home and walked into the kitchen, there on the table was the package of wipes. It hit me like a ton of bricks...I knew she must be reacting to something in the wipes.

I immediately called the clinic and reported my fears. The vet kindly got on the phone with me right away but assured me that allergic reactions to such products are typically respiratory in nature which didn't match up to Lily's symptoms, so she felt the likelihood of that was minimal. Thankfully, the vet ruled out anything dire and diagnosed gasteroenteritis of unknown origin. Lily was dehyrdated and clearly experiencing some nausea, so she got some fluids and medicine to make her tummy feel better.  

She seemed much more comfortable upon arriving home but still refused to sleep. 

 

The more I thought about it, the more certain I became that the wipes were the culprit. Then I looked at more reviews and found a handful in which cats had terrible reactions to something in them. I FELT HORRIBLE, absolutely awful, that a product I used on her caused this.

On Monday I watched her closely while I waited for my own vet to call.  I continued to wipe her down with wet cloths to remove all residue of the wipes. Little by little, she started accepting wet food from a spoon and began to move around a little on her own. By the time I talked to the vet, she was much better. He agreed that it was likely a reaction to the wipes. The timing was just too coincidental. He assured me that whatever she reacted to would work its way out of her system.

To avoid constipation, he suggested I give her a couple of doses of stool softener and by Tuesday she finally used the litterbox -- the first time since Saturday.

 

I had to remind myself that Lily is a 14-year-old kitty and will recover more slowly than a younger cat. Each day, her normal behavior returned little by little -- vocalizing, walking to the fridge to peek inside, rubbing on my legs, accepting a treat, looking out the window, and actually sleeping soundly. I truly rejoiced at seeing each one return.

 

 By Thursday, I could finally say she was back to normal.

 

It was a harrowing week for sure, dominated by my feelings of guilt that this whole thing happened at all. I am incredibly thankful that she has made a full recovery. It's so good to have my little buddy back to normal.