Cat may have eaten a poisoned mouse

by Grace
(Vancouver)

I'm a little bit worried about my kitten, who's only 4 months old. I have a gut feeling that he might have eaten a mouse that had some sort of poison in it. I didn't realize it but before his vet appointment yesterday, he or maybe the other cat in the house had thrown up. I didn't think of the significance at the time but when I recalled the color of the vomit, it was a greenish brown mix. Kind of like mud but more with a green tint.

Today, it seemed as though my kitten has started acting out of the norm. On a normal day, we feed him twice a day for canned kitten food. Once in the morning, and once at night. He ate the morning portion well but usually he finishes his night portion, however, tonight he left a little bit alone. It's
not like him to not finish his meal, and also, it hasn't seemed like he drank all that much water today. Other suspicious actions include, being covered up by a towel (normally hates that thus escapes it) but he remained under the towel for quite some time until my mother came to check on him. Also, he normally hates being held by anyone other than me every so often, but he made no move to stop my mother from holding him. He's a purred more than normal and kneaded the couch, I read online that cats may do that when feeling pain. He kept licking his lips, which seemed strange to me. My mother says I'm being paranoid but am I? He's usually very active at night, because he likes to play with the other cat. However, tonight he seems to want to avoid playing. My mother told me he played a bit today like normal, and I saw him do so a time or so as well. I have a strange gut feeling that something is wrong.

Reply
Hi
One of the may signs a cat is feeling sick and may want to vomit is licking of the lips all the time. So the fact that your cat did this along with the other changes in behaviour could well mean that he is not feeling well.

The trouble is knowing if it is just a virus he has picked up that he will recover from in a few days or whether he has eaten something bad.

The fact that he has already vomited once is a good thing as if he has eaten some poison this would have got most of it out of his system and he may need just a few days more to get over any remaining feelings of illness.

All you can really do is to keep an eye on him for a few days and let him sleep or be less active if he wants. If he is still not right in a day or so or if the symptoms gets worse then you will have to take him back to the vets. However at this point it is too early to say either way what could be causing his illness.

If you are certain that ate a poisoned mouse you could always telephone your vet for advice, he may say as i have to wait and see or he may want to prescribe something. But only if you are certain that he may have eaten poison. It is more likely that he just has a tummy upset which a lot of cats and kittens get from time to time.

I do have a page on my site about cat vomiting which you may find of further information here

http://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-vomiting.html

Hope he is better soon

kate