Lethargy, bloody urine, no appetite, sneezing.

by JC
(New Jersey, US)

My mother and I adopted a beautiful, short-haired, black cat named Gemini a few years back. (I think she is about 5 - 6 years old now.) She is an entirely indoor cat. She's been healthy up till now (as far as we know). When our dog was still around, she was certainly had a good appetite because she would finish off her food then start eating the dog's! After he died, she slimmed down a bit, but she still seemed to be a healthy weight. She has always been ready to tell us when she's unhappy - her meows were loud and insistent.

Recently, however, her voice is quieter. Whereas before she would move about with the usual cat-like independence and energy, she is lethargic and seemingly weak. She is not as agile and graceful as she was, but sometimes stumbles. She hardly eats - if at all - and she is getting disturbingly thin. She hasn't used her litter box in a few days, but today we found that her urine was red with blood - not scarlet, but urine mixed with blood. She is also sneezing sporadically.

We have considered possible factors:
1.) After the recent death of our dog, Gemini spends the majority of her day alone in a big, empty house. Our schedules are hectic, and even when we are home we can't give her as much attention as we believe she needs. We think psychological factors may be involved.
2.) She drinks a great deal of water. When she finishes off her water bowl, she often begins to drink from the toilet bowl. We think she may have ingested bacteria or something from there.

We are very concerned about her. But after years of living with a large dog, we have little experience with dealing with a sick cat. Do you have any opinions/ possible diagnoses?


Answer from Kate
Hi
there are several conditions which could cause similar symptoms, cancer, diabetes, thyroid problems being just a few of them.

https://www.our-happy-cat.com/feline-diabetes.html

https://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-thyroid.html

However one thing is for sure, she is very sick and needs urgent medical care from a vet. he will want to do some blood work first to ascertain the exact condition and then take it from there.

It really is important to take her to the vets a soon as you can as with these sorts of conditions the earlier they are caught and treated the better the outcome.


I dont think it is worth trying to second guess her condition as tests are the only real why of finding out for sure.

I hope she is better soon

best wishes KAte

---