tl;dr -- Nagini is 11, otherwise been healthy, stopped eating and drinking Thursday 8/30 and making nonstop gagging sounds, licking her lips until she has a raw spot. Bloodwork came back fine (elevated glucose, Coronavirus antibodies but vet wasn't too concerned). Prescribed antibiotics, antihistamine, and L-Lysine but couldn't get Nagini to eat so couldn't administer. Force-fed her water and little bits of food but by Sunday she still hadn't eaten or drank on her own and she was wheezing when she breathed a lot, still gagging/licking, so took her to emergency. They did x-rays, ultrasound, endoscopy, bloodwork, and put her on IVs and a nasal feeding tube. Had some difficulty breathing/raspy breathing Monday night so they put her on steroids and added antibiotics to try and weed out illness. STILL don't know what's wrong. x.x;;;;
The long story with more details:
Nagini is 11 years old, has been otherwise healthy until now. About 4 weeks ago, she and our other cat (male, also 11) stopped eating randomly and she had one bout of explosive vomiting. We took them to the vet, but she got better a day or so later after we gave her some 1-ingredient baby food (Beech Nut, chicken) and then slowly added her old food back in (1 can Fancy Feast per day + 1/2 can of Whole Earth Farms per day). She's been fine since, eating normally, using the litter box, playing.
Need to also mention we brought a foster kitten into the household about 4 weeks ago. It was the same day that Nagini had explosive vomiting, but she had done that before we brought the kitten home, so I doubt it's related.
Last Wednesday, Nagini didn't finish her dinner, which is odd for her bc she has a VERY healthy appetite normally. She started making these weird little gagging sounds and I was concerned but figured she just had a hairball. On Thursday, she refused breakfast, continuing to make gagging sounds also making this really awful LOUD cough/gag sound that freaked me out (sounded like a hack to get something out of her throat but also kind of like something falling on the hard floor). I took her to the vet that day. Lungs and heart were fine when they listened to them, xray didn't show anything worrisome (no blockage or anything like that) except a lot of gas, bloodwork came back well (high glucose, antibodies for Coronavirus but we are pretty sure we got her vaccinated so we were thinking maybe that's why and the vet also said that's not indicative of her having it), so they figured it might be a Upper Respiratory Infection. They prescribed antibiotics, antihistamine, and L-Lysine. She still wasn't eating, so getting the meds to her was impossible. Managed to give her a couple doses of the antibiotics and crushed up the antihistamine and forced it to her in water.
On Friday, I fed her via spoonful about 2-3 tablespoons of Rad Cat raw food, because I knew she loved it and wanted to stimulate her appetite. She tolerated that but after the 2nd spoonful, she started to gag and hid under the bed. Forced about 2 ounces of water into her throughout the day. She had normal pees and 1 normal poop.
On Saturday, she ate maybe 20 tiny little kitty food treats (Party Mix) and drank some water on her own (we think, couldn't be 100% sure). I again forced her to drink a little water, tried tuna juice, tried goat's milk. Nothing. She saw a silverfish in our hallway and hunted/played with him for a bit, so we thought maybe she was feeling better but still no eating or drinking and continued gagging/wanting to hide under the bed.
Sunday, I finally broke down and took her to the emergency care.
He was worried right away when we mentioned how little she'd eaten and drank and asked to keep her at least overnight. They ran more blood tests, did xrays and ultrasound. They saw something weird in the ultrasound in her throat somewhere so asked if they could do an endoscopy to check it out. We agreed. Nothing found there either. They did see some lesions on the back of her throat which they couldn't explain or figure out. After the endoscopy, they also put in a nasal feeding tube and hooked her up to IVs.she's breathing much better this morning, still fine with the tube in her nose, but she is still refusing to eat.
the vet said at this point there are 2 different routes he'd recommend
1) put her under to do a throat biopsy and get a better look and put in an esophageal feeding tube.
We could potentially then take her home. She can eat around the tube so we could try feeding her as we normally would as well as feeding through the tube if she refuses. The tube has to stay in for 10 days, but it can then be removed if she's eating well again and the wound closes up on its own within 10-14 days after that. We'd get biopsy results in about 48 hours.
2) we stay the course and see if the meds help and if she starts eating again on her own. We can't take her home with this option tho.
I feel like we need to stay the course for at least another day and see if the meds help and if maybe she starts trying to eat again and then revisit the other option. But I'm at such a loss as to what to do right now. I really REALLY don't want to put the e-tube in. It actually terrifies me, not just because we'd have to maintain it and I don't want to mess up but that means she has to go under anesthesia again and I know that can't be helping.
Do you know what else this could/might be? Any similar situations?
