Sick cat with Infection and Immune illness

by Lito Cat
(Texas)

My 11 year old Siamese cat has been throwing up since we gave him the Rabies vaccine this past June, so for about a month now. However, it has been almost every day the past few weeks, early in the morning (4-6 AM). My family and I decided to take him to the vet yesterday, and the vet said that he had a low grade infection (didn't know where it was coming from), but that my cat’s white blood cell count was elevated (around 22,000). Also, my vet said that he may have an immune disease. He prescribed us the cat antibiotic clavamox yesterday. We decided not to get the immune disease checked for cost reasons to see if the antibiotics would take care of his illness.

We gave him the antibiotics for the first time this morning, and he threw up a lot. The first time was mostly food, but there was a tiny bit of blood. A few hours later, it was more foamy and a smaller amount of throw up. He has been hiding all day and acting depressed. I am afraid this medicine is only making him worse. He wasn't hiding before and acting distant.

I want to stress that we really did not want to give him antibiotics, steroids, or other harsh treatments, but we thought this was the only way for him to get better. He was on steroids for his allergies and other medications years ago, and we do not want to overload/kill his kidneys.

We think that our last cat (1 year old) died from kidney disease. We believe that he died from failure from so many harsh medications (he had lots of health issues).


So, do you have any recommendations on how to treat our cat? Can he get off antibiotics (we only gave him one)? Do you recommend a homeopathic treatment for cats that can't take harsh medicines?

I appreciate your help and all that you do.


Dear Lito Cat,

The appropriate treatment, if you weren’t going to pursue further diagnostic testing for a high white blood cell count, would be to start your cat on a course of antibiotics. Unfortunately, the feline antibiotic your veterinarian chose, clavamox, can make even a cat that isn’t vomiting vomit. This isn’t because of the “harshness” of the medication, but because this is one of the main side effects of this particular antibiotic. Fortunately, though, there are other broad-spectrum antibiotics that can treat a high white blood cell count in cats that are much milder on the digestive system.

If you haven’t done so already, you should go back to your veterinarian and let him know that your cat isn’t tolerating the clavamox well and request a new antibiotic. Unfortunately, at this point, your cat may need fluids to rehydrate him after such severe episodes of vomiting. Also, you didn’t mention whether your cat had complete bloodwork done or not. If not, doing so would be highly recommended to check for cat health problems like kidney disease. And, if you can collect a urine sample, having your veterinarian run a urinalysis would be wise as well.

It does sound as though your cat really does need to be on antibiotics, and I would strongly recommend following up with your veterinarian to find the best one for your cat as soon as possible.

All the best,
Dr. Neely