My cat has high temperature and is licking a lot.

by Mike
(Buford, ga.)

We have an Ocicat that's one year three months old and female. A few months ago she started shedding much more than usual and although ocicats don't shed much, we didn't think much about it.

We took her to the vet for her rabies booster,fvrcp and started her Hartgard. A few days later she practically stopped eating, developed a105.6 fever. We took her to the Vet and she had a blood test and an antibiotic shot. A few days later, her temp was still 105 and she became even more lethargic so back to the vet for an X-ray and fluids. We also have given her 40 mg of aspirin every other day, three times. Her temp is 102.6 And she eats about 3 0z a day.
All of sudden she has started going crazy, won' t stay still. She has been licking her but a lot and seems like there is something wrong.
Although Savannah is an inside cat, she does hike with us on a leash and rides in a carrier when we bike.
Please help us figure this out.

Mike

Reply
Hi Mike
Unfortunately in cases like this there is no straight forward solution. Often it is a case of test after test for awhile to try and determine the cause.

My cats recently went through a serious illness recent which took 4 vet visits a week in hospital and many tests before a possible diagnosis could be given. In the mean time all the vets could do was to support their system with pain killers, drips to hydrate them and antibiotics.
Our cats stopped eating and had very high temperatures too, however they had lameness and mouth ulcers too which turned out to be the calici virus. Your cat does not sound the same but I use my case ti illustrate that there are viruses etc out there which can be difficult to diagnose.

Your vet should have considered a possible reaction to one of the vaccines she was given so an allergy can probably be rules out.

Her licking could be a sign of anxiety as over grooming can be a sign of this.

All I can say is to keep an eye on her and to keep annoying your vet every couple of days if the symptoms are the same or change. Vets can’t know about everything out there but if you keep on them they should try every avenue to discover the cause. My own vets contacted specialist universities and explored many avenues to discover the cause of our cat’s illness, mainly because the virus our cats had is not that common in the UK but is in the US so they had to do some research.

I do hope your cat recovers soon

Best wishes kate

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