My Cat ate a whole bird the other day and is now very ill, what do I do?

This is serious. You can either take your cat to a veterinarian or let your cat die.

Good luck.

She might just be having a bout of gastroenteritis which is the equivalent of the human stomach flu, cats get this sometimes and it usually passes without issue.
BUT….the wobbly walking is not a good sign at all. She may be dehydrated even if she is drinking some.
Is she current on her vaccinations? If not it could be anything from distemper to rabies.
If she is still very sick by morning you should take her to the emergency vet if possible.
It could be anything, but eating birds shouldn’t be a problem unless she has a perforation from a bone somewhere.
Impossible to say, I’m just tossing out some possible educated guesses.

Good luck…let us know how it turns out!

I agree with the advice that you need to get your cat to a hospital. A wobbly cat suggests neurological problems. Did you see the bird get caught? It is possible the bird was easy to catch because it was poisoned? Does your local vet have an emergency (call me if you really, really need me) number? You should get your cat into a hospital if you can, otherwise try to give it liquids, since vomiting is probably a good thing. Even during the holidays, there are a lot of people who have cherished pets that need attention. You should be able to find someone eventually, if you are in a reasonably big city. Start with the phonebook. Good luck to you and your cat. I hope you are both fine in 2013. And if your vet does not have an emergency number, maybe you should get a new vet. You do not want to go through this again.

What about possible snakebite? My cat survived a rattlesnake bite last July.He was wobbly and vomiting when I discovered him..but, he was also bleeding at the bite site because the venom interrupts coagulation. Do you have poisonious snakes in your area? You would see swelling too. Major swelling at the bite site.

Why do you mean you can’t take her to a vet because of New Year’s? Because you think they will be closed on New Year’s? Usually there is an emergency clinic open somewhere. You really, really need to get her in. This sounds bad.

I don’t run to the vet at the drop of a hat (or puke) but when something goes on for 3 days then I would definitely be on my way. As @Mariah said there are usually emergency clinics and if you are in a small town and there isn’t one, I would call the local vet and tell him the story. Most vets are very sympathetic and will help if they feel it is serious enough and this sounds serious!

I wish we knew what happened. Poor kitty.

Yes, I hope we get an update. I love cats so much! My 2 are romping about right now still playing in a box full of Xmas paper. haha

You should have taken your cat to the vet by now!

okay so I see this question was posted 3 days ago. I don’t see an update on the cat and I really hope you took it to the vet.

My dog had similar symptoms about 3 yrs ago, and I went straight to the vet she ended up in icu for 3 weeks with liver failure and I was told it was because of something she ate! If I did not get her to the vet she would of died, it has taken those 3 yrs for her to recover she is now on a strict diet. She still tries to eat scraps of food/garbage on our walks she is a lab she will eat anything today I caught her trying to drink my mothers wine! :/

I hope your kitty is ok. I also hope you did the right thing and at the risk of sounding like a major bitch which is not what I want next time your animal is acting different than normal and sick at the same time plz don’t waste your time and potentially the animals life by asking us on Fluther, I mean we are good but we’re not that good.

Please let us know updates..

hi guys sorry i never updated, i feel really bad. We took her to the vet last wednesday and thursday. she is alright now, but is still a little wobbly and dehydrated. she has been eating on her own just a little bit but the vet said we basically have to shove a suringe down her throat with wet food because she isnt eating enough. She is also on a bunch of pain medication, and antibiotics and such. so she is doing alright, and seems to be getting better!! now we are just going to give it time and are going to the vet soon. also i forgot the vet noticed she might have injured her back a little bit. either something fell on her or she fell on something so that is why she is all wobbly when walking. But she has learned now to just stay in her bed or on our couch when we bringher out from the laundry room. we keep her in there because she does pee everywhere if we let her in the house but we bring her out on the couch and she lays there all day. so i hope this makes you guys feel better too, i know it did to me! we are probably going to have to do more blood work because the vet said it could possibly be cancerbut i think it was just from eating the bird and her back getting hurt.

@bigbug84 Yay kitty! Good luck and just keep her warm,safe and comfortable as you continue with this situation. Maybe several things going on it sounds like.
Poor kitty. Take care. :-)

Thank you for the update :) I’m glad kitty is doing great and I’m glad you made the right decision.

btw welcome to fluther even tho I know my comment didn’t sound very welcoming I really meant it in the nicest way possible.

I hope your kitty doesn’t have cancer. That is the same thing they thought my sick puppy had before they found liver failure. It was a lot of testing and I never really found complete answers and a few times after being in icu she had to have iv fluids from being dehydrated but she is doing great now. I didn’t know anyone or anything could come back from liver failure. I’m glad she is doing great. She does even better on a strict diet.

I hope it all works out for you as it did for me and your kitty makes a full recovery.

Do you have another appointment scheduled? It doesn’t sound to me as if the vet has given you too much help. Is the cat on any meds besides pain meds? And you say “more” blood work, what did the original blood work tell and why do they want to do more? There are still a lot of questions to be answered if it were my cat. You said something about the cat being old, but you never said how old??? I hope you get proper help, sometimes you have to get a bit proactive or you don’t get the help you need. If the cat is quite old, you don’t want it to suffer. Unless the bird had poison in its system, I don’t understand why that would make the cat wobbly. And if it was just a digestive upset from the bird, then by now it should be recovered or well on the way to recovery.

Hi, I know this is an old post but our cat has the same symptoms. What happened?