Low protein, vomiting, lip-smacking - advice

[lsheal01]

My 5 year old neutered male cat, Milo, has been vomiting for 10 days. Originally, I thought he was overeating, having hairball issues, etc. because we recently switched his food. He eats dry food (Science Diet). Pica is the only other issue that has been a problem. He had bloodwork done five months ago and a check-up with no issues whatsoever. Because he 'd recently had his annual I delayed taking him to the vet longer than if he hadn't recently been.

Two days ago I took him to the vet. No fever, no physical abnormalities, and he wasn't calm enough during his x-ray to get a good visual. I brought him back the next morning sedated on Gabapentin. X-rays showed no foreign objects and the vet drew blood for a GI panel. My vet was puzzled by the frequent vomiting with no other symptoms.

I am now waiting on the full results of the GI panel with a prescription of 50 mg of Gabapentin for Milo 2 times daily. This morning my vet called to share that one aspect of the bloodwork showed Milo has low protein levels. Apparently, his protein levels are not dramatically low, but still low.

He is home and is behaving a bit differently, but it could be due to the stress of the past two day (he does very badly at the vet) or the aftereffects of Gabapentin. I have stopped giving him Gabapentin because its been unnecessary, he isn't throwing up, and is calm.

His appetite seems to be fine, he's drinking water, he is mouth smacking a bit, and seems more worried/ cautious than normal. We have two other cats with none of the above symptoms, but they share litter boxes, so I'm unable to monitor his litter box use as well as I'd like over the past days. Nothing in the litter box seems abnormal.

I know I should wait for the remainder of the results to come in before panicking, but I googled and that never yields happy medical news. Has anyone had a similar experience with their cats? Does anyone have a better understanding of low protein levels in cats?

[Mollycat]

Welcome to Cat Chat.

If you read PetMD I would just point out that vomiting is not on the list of symptoms for PLE or hypoalbuminemia. The www is brilliant as long as you stick to the point and keep focused.

As you say, wait for the rest of the results and ... don't panic.

Given that the symptoms have gone, is possible it was anxiety related vomiting? Has something changed? Perhaps a bad tooth?

[booktigger]

I'm really surprised the vet has prescribed Gabapentin in these circumstances, but you might want to speak to your vet about just stopping it, he might be OK because he'd only had a few doses, but it isn't a medication you can stop suddenly, they can get some issues from doing that.