So Shadow (15+ years) decided to play finicky eater over the weekend. Ok, no biggie. He refused to eat his dinner Sun night. Gave him something different Mon .. no go. He was just drinking water but throwing that up nearly immediately. White foam. He did eat tiny bit of turkey, which he promptly threw up. Was peeing but not sure on the pooping No other food Mon. Decided Tues morning to give him one more day then to the vet. He was drinking - not a lot at all and very slow laps and doing weird things with his left paw, kind of tapping along the side of the water dish, almost as if he was checking to see if there was water in there. Tues he started throwing up yellow bile. Called the vet, took him over for an emergency visit. He was dehydrated but after a thorough physical exam, she found nothing out of the ordinary. Felt no lumps or anything in his organs, his bladder was full at that point but she felt no poop in his colon. They hydrated him, gave us an rx for pills to perk up his appetite and said to let her know how he was doing. If nothing changed, call her Friday.
I asked her how was I to get the pill into him, as I usually give it to him wrapped in a tasty tidbit but he wasn't eating. I've tried everything too, all his favs. Nope. I told her we had given him pills before by crushing them, mixing w/a bit of water and putting that into a syringe then putting that down his throat. She said that was fine.
Well, we did that about two hours ago. He foamed at the mouth, white foam and saliva, then threw up (kind of mucousy). He eventually made his way downstairs and was very unsteady on his feet, kind of wobbly. That passed, he is hungry, I kept offering him different things. He wants to eat he can't. I put some turducken (the good food) in a dish and he finally lapped a wee bit ... maybe 1/4 teaspoon. He's having some trouble jumping up onto the counter (I blocked it so he won't try). He then headed back up to bed. I called the vet after he threw up, the vet we saw yesterday isn't in. The girl asked the other vet who is there about giving the cat the pill that way and they said that was the cause of him barfing, to crush it and mix it into some gravy and literally rub it on his gums. Haven't done that yet. Personally I think this isn't an answer, he is hungry he but can not eat. We don't know why and that's the problem.
Anyone have any ideas? I'm reading all kinds of things online and they all seem to say that a cat not eating for three or fours days is quite bad. I'm very, very worried and the vet doesn't seem to be. I made an app't for tomorrow morning but don't know what the next step they will take. There is only so much we are willing to do (for example, exploratory surgery --- I wouldn't put him through that). Will they x-ray? I asked the girl who answered the phone at the vets all these questions but she didn't have any answers. Anyone here have anything they can offer? Thanks.
(Like this hasn't been a shitty enough year, now this?)
Hoping maybe today he gets more food into him, although yesterday he ate more than he had in the past three days.
Didn't know cats and dogs could get the flu. No one here has been sick recently (I was the week of June 21, felt like the flu but the P.A. said it was a sinus infection, 10 days of Keflex cleared it up). Don't know where he'd get. His temp was normal. Thanks for the article, mud.
Blech! Thanks so much for this info, kiwi.
I'm calling the vet back around 5pm to update her and see what we should do next. Thanks for the tips, Luddly. 
{hugs}
