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louise skinner · Mar 8, 2010, 03:02 AM

Hi my cat, a 9 year old tabby male, has been unwell for a week now.I have taken him to the vets twice, on first visit they gave him an antibiotic injection. Second vist they just thoughly checked him all over they could find nothing wrong although they can see he look unwell. I was told to keep him quiet over the weekend, and I did but he has got worse he is still not eating or drinking and his back legs seem to give way now and again when he walks.he has lost a lot of weight, help!! I don't now what to do for the best for him. From the very worried owner.

hheath541 · Mar 8, 2010, 03:34 AM

Unfortunately, he may just be old. 9 years is a fairly average life-span for a cat. Many live longer, but 9 years is still old for many cats.

Just do your best to make him as comfortable as possible. Love him. Give him all the attention you can, and that he'll let you. Keep an eye on him. If it seems like he's suffering, you'll have a very hard decision to make.

It, also, wouldn't hurt to get a second opinion from another vet, if you can. It may be that they'll catch something your regular vet missed. They may also have advice on what you can do to make his life easier now.

morgaine300 · Mar 10, 2010, 12:42 AM

My one cat is 9 years old. He's healthy and he runs all over the house chasing around with the younger cat, looking nothing even close to being old. The last cat I lost was a bit more lazy at 9, but still not old, and lived to 15. Not sure where this average life span of 9 is coming from. If that is an accurate number, it's being dragged down by cats that die unnaturally, like getting hit by a car or something. And that really doesn't count.

One thing you didn't mention is if they did blood work? They should have. It's a little difficult to discover what is wrong just by "checking them over" unless there is something obvious like an injury or jaundice or something like that. Even then, lab work could be necessary to get more info. Many things will not be diagnosed at all without blood work, urine test, even ultrasounds, etc. Blood/urine tests sound like a good starting point, and it seems a bit neglectful if your vet did not do this as a matter of routine if there's something wrong. Just dumping an antibiotic into him seems like the lazy, easy way out if you ask me.

You might want to go to another vet as this one does not seem to be making an effort. I would do this ASAP. Or be more demanding with this one. (You're the one forking out the money, which seems to be a waste so far.)

It's not good for a cat to not be eating. They can get deathly ill this way, which will exacerbate the problem, so do what you can to try to get food in him, meaning just feeding whatever he likes or syringe feeding if necessary. You might try adding a bit of water off tuna to his water dish and see if that encourages him to drink. If it comes to it, you can have a temporary feeding tube put in him until you find out what is wrong and hopefully resolve it or treat it or whatever is necessary.

But please don't give up on him!