The joys of sick feral cats

I have written before about my feral cat Ms P who lives in my house but is really a wild animal. She can be taken to the vet and given pills but she is a very bad patient and runs away and hides if she needs ongoing medication and comes back only when she is feeling better. Last week, around Monday, I noticed that she wasn't eating all of her food, something that she never does. Earlier, I noticed some little vomit patches on the floor although with all my cats, it's impossible to know who did it unless you actually see them in action.

Gradually, she started eating less and less until she refused her kibble on Friday morning and she only licked a little bit of wet food that I offered her. All along, I was hoping that she had a hairball and would get rid of it but, nothing happening. I caught her and examined her the day before and couldn't see anything obviously wrong. The problem with cats is that not eating makes them nauseous and they tend to vomit liquid and then the nausea becomes worse, until you have a vomiting cat that refuses all food. The other danger when cats don't eat is that their livers aren't good at processing stored body fat so if a cat is overweight - as she is - and they stop eating, they develop fatty liver syndrome and that in itself can be fatal. I have tried to get her weight down by feeding a weight-loss diet but she just supplements her diet by catching rats so it's impossible to get her slimmer.

Yesterday I had to face the fact that something was very wrong and taking her to the vet doesn't really help because she doesn't cope well with treatment. I gave her a soothing antacid in the late morning, in the hope that it would settle her stomach but saw that she vomited it up soon after. The only other possibility I had in my medicine chest was to give her a motility drug that helps reduce nausea. Of course, after the anatacid, she wasn't letting me near her and I spent the afternoon trying to catch her, to no avail. Eventually, just before I had to go to work, I managed to catch her and get the dose into her. On my way to work, I stopped off at the vet to discuss the problem. My vet agreed with my course of action and said that if she wasn't eating, to bring her in for blood tests. The mention of blood tests makes my heart sink because if there's something seriously wrong, treating her isn't going to be an option.

When I got home from night shift, she was around, but hiding and wouldn't come near me and I couldn't leave food for her, as the others would just eat it. With a heavy heart, I went to bed. This morning, she came and jumped on my bed but was still very skittish and went and hid in the kitchen cupboards. I didn't try and get her out but put her food in the cupboard and left her alone. To my relief, she ate the entire bowl and accepted seconds.

So what is wrong with her? Either a large hairball or something large that she has eaten isn't passing easily. I don't see any large vomited objects around the place but the motility drug seems to have helped her. She also seemed to have forgiven me and was lying on my bed and allowed me to pet her. I went out this morning and now that I am home, she is nowhere to be found. At least she ate well this morning but I have to go and work night-shift now so I will have to see how she is doing later.

She is a quirky creature and I am very fond of her and would hate to lose her so suddenly. I'm well aware that if she becomes seriously or chronically ill, the only real course of action will be to have her humanely euthanised, something I am not looking forward to.