Please Help! My Cat Is Sick!

After pooping in his litter box my four-year-old neutered male cat has been growling and hissing while licking his butt. He has never done this before. A few minutes later, he is fine. This is the only behavior change I’ve noticed. I’m going to call the vet tomorrow, but I was wondering if anyone has experienced this sort of thing with their cats. His poop is a bit softer than usual (yes, I’ve been examining it), but there are no worms or blood present.

Thank you for your help!

None of mine have ever done this, thank goodness, so all I can offer is sympathy, and congrats on having the good sense to check with your vet about something as seemingly minor as this. Hopefully it will be something that’s no big deal, like maybe his anal glands are impacted and need cleaning out – uncomfortable but not serious.

Good luck with the vet! Let us know how it turns out.

Good for you, for looking at the poop. :slight_smile: But have you checked his bum?

Whatever it might be, it doesn’t sound like a dire emergency (although, IANAVet) you probably won’t get to have it looked until tomorrow anyway. So, call your vet tomorrow. First thing after they open, so you can get in as soon as possible.

Good luck! Hope kitty’s ok!

Is he at all puffy-looking at the back end, or does he seem to be squatting as if to pee, THEN licking his backside and growling? If so, get him to the vet ASAP - it is possible he has a urinary blockage. I am not a vet, but came VERY VERY close to losing my beloved boy-kitty last year, and I noticed the same symptoms you describe at the beginning of the episode. I sincerely hope I am over-reacting, and if so, you may come back and holler at me for making you panic.

Definitely have him looked at for potential Urinary problems. This can kill male cats very quickly!

DO NOT DELAY!

Thanks for the back-up, Chimera. I hate to make people panic, but by the time we got the boy-kitty to the vet, about three hours after he started acting oddly, he was one step up from coma. I really do hope that Chicken Scratch comes back here and reams me out royally for sending him/her to the vet for what turns out to be nothing major at all.

The result of our big scare was a catheterization and a switch in diet, and the boy has been fine since (except for once when he ate a beetle and sent me screaming back to the vet because he yacked it back up and I was not able to identify what on earth* that black stuff was.)

Just talked to the vet, and she agrees that it sounds like a UTI. I’m bringing him in now. I’ll let you know how it goes. I still hope he’s just a butt-licking freak. Thanks you guys!

If it’s a UTI it’s treatable. I had a boy kitty who got one of those and got blocked completely. He was okay, but a few more hours and he might not have been. It was VERY obvious that there was something VERY wrong with him, though; I walked in from class in the late afternoon and he got in his box, strained, and yowled, looking straight at me. I knew something was up at that point.

Poor kitty. I got him to the (useless) emergency vet quickly, and had him at my regular vet the next morning the second they opened. He removed a catheter himself. OUCH!

I’m sure your kitty will be fine. Mad at you for taking him to the vet, sure, but fine.

My cat had similar symptoms a few months ago; it was indeed congested anal glands. The very attractive young lady vet gave them a squeeze and the problem was solved, though the surgery walls ended up covered in brown stinking goo. “Are you in this job for the glamour?” I asked her.

Brown stinking goo? You may be onto something…a couple of weeks ago he squirted this musky brown watery junk that stunk to the heavens. I didn’t grab his butt, he just dripped it onto the Scrabble board.

The vet said Akira has a temperature of 104 (I guess 102 is normal), and no bowel obstruction. They’re going to analyze his urine and take an x-ray to check for urinary tract infections & obstructions.

I know he’ll be okay. It stresses me out when he’s sick and I have to leave him. I could never handle having human children.

ACK. Anal gland excretions. ACK. One of the joys of owning a boy kitty. Fortunately they don’t often release it upon you or your household, but MAN does it stink, even when they’re altered.

Sounds like things are under control and you got him to the vet on time. Good luck, and please keep us posted.

Any change in his diet around the time this started?

Anything around the house he could have gotten into and eaten? Maybe some type of plant, or even a chemical of some kind he could have licked up?

Given him any “people food” that might be upsetting his system?

I have two older cats that have problems like this from time to time. Usually it is because they have managed to ingest something they shouldn’t have. One was having problems like that for days and I couldn’t figure out why. Until I saw him up on the table eating some dried flowers.

Just bumping this because I’m hoping to hear good news about the kitty soon.

You and me both! He’s staying at the vet’s overnight because he still hadn’t peed at 6pm, which is when the vet’s office closed. Don’t know if I really buy that. I think it’s more likely that they just didn’t have time to run all the tests they wanted to.

Adjustable_Beavis, we thought of that, too. There isn’t anything new in the house, no plants he could reach.

Sigh. I can’t sleep without my boy!

I can believe that he hadn’t peed in all that time. They can hold it a long time when they’re under stress, and being at the vet’s is normally very stressful for a cat, especially being locked up in one of the holding cages, with who knows what other strange animals in the same roomful of cages? I’ve had a cat in to the vet’s for that sort of thing (suspected UTI), and it took an overnight stay to get a sample.

Well, there’s some good news in here, really. If a cat has a blockage, a vet can tell almost immediately. If they suspect a UTI, that’s not nearly as time-sensitive as a blockage, so they can wait 'til the little guy pees on his own - the alternative is literally squeezing the piss out of him, which can be painful for the cat and unpleasant for the vet, so it’s probably in everyone’s best interest to let nature take its course there. UTIs are no damn fun, but aren’t generally life-threatening. I think any reputable vet would rule out anything truly scary ASAP, so if they seem as though they’re in no hurry to diagnose something, it means they’ve probably already ruled out the really icky stuff.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you both, though.

Well, there’s some good news in here, really. If a cat has a blockage, a vet can tell almost immediately. If they suspect a UTI, that’s not nearly as time-sensitive as a blockage, so they can wait 'til the little guy pees on his own - the alternative is literally squeezing the piss out of him, which can be painful for the cat and unpleasant for the vet, so it’s probably in everyone’s best interest to let nature take its course there. UTIs are no damn fun, but aren’t generally life-threatening. I think any reputable vet would rule out anything truly scary ASAP, so if they seem as though they’re in no hurry to diagnose something, it means they’ve probably already ruled out the really icky stuff.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you both, though.

Grayce and Dainty send good kitty vibes and I said a prayer.

If he ate anything acidic, like something with tomato, I guess it’s possibly it could burn a bit on the way back out. Sorta like the after-effects of a really hot chili - The Ring Of Fire!

The best place for him right now is the Vet’s, so try to get a good rest yourself.

I had to take my girl cat to the vet, she definitely had a urinary problem. She stayed 8-9 hours at the vet without peeing. They had me take her home with a small tiny bit of that crystal litter for her to paw at, I bought a little cheapy litter tray, they gave me a syringe and a urine cup…as soon as I brought her home and put the litter in the clean tray, she pawed at it, peed, I sucked it up with the syringe, and took it to the vet the next day.

Sorry for the run-on. My point is she felt more comfy peeing at her own house.

Thanks so much for the support, everyone. You guys rock! Kitty is home now, and seems better. It was only a UTI, and he’s on steroids & antibiotics for 10 days. I don’t think he slept well either, because once we got him home he kept falling asleep in the oddest positions. At one point he was laying on the couch with his head upright, and sloooowly his head dipped forward until his forehead was touching the couch between his paws. I was surprised he could breathe.