What a beautiful kitty!

I recommend you go to a board certified veterinary internal medicine specialist and get a consultation, and ultrasound. They can do x-rays there, if they want to, and they may not feel the need to do them and may just do an ultrasound, instead. They may possibly want to do some additional bloodwork (e.g. test for pancreatitis, if that has not been done already). I'd get the appt with them ASAP. Do not wait until later in the week to move forward.

Cats who are not eating are at risk for hepatic lipidosis, which can be extremely serious. I'd get him into the specialist within the next couple of days, at most. Go through their emergency service, if you have to do that to get him in sooner. If he were my cat, I would do it today.

Inflammatory bowel disease and pancreatitis are extremely common in cats. IBD is not something that can be diagnosed with blood work or an x-ray.

Cancer is real possibility. Cats commonly get lymphoma, often in their gastrointestinal tract. This (and many other types of cancer) also will not show up on bloodwork or on an x-ray. You need an ultrasound to start diagnosing your cat's condition. There are changes that can be seen on an ultrasound with lymphoma (and other cancers). Biopsies are need to confirm the diagnosis. While it cannot be cured, lymphoma in cats is often a form that can be managed quite well with a couple of medications (pills), often for a couple of years (sometimes more), after diagnosis. The goal of treatment is that they feel good. I have had two cats with this condition, myself. Their quality of life was excellent once we got the cancer into remission. Both lived for more than two years before the cancer came out of remission. Of course, other types of cancer are also possibility.

My best advice is to not wait for x-rays later this week. Go to a specialty center soon. An internal medicine specialist will get to the bottom of this for you. You don't have time to wait with a kitty who is not eating.

So sorry to hear this about your kitty. :( My Rocket had similar symptoms back in February. His turned out to be Lymphoma. It was only two weeks between when he was fine and when he was diagnosed and needed to be let go. But the vet could easily feel the enlarged lymph nodes so maybe that is not what your kitty has. I hope it's something he can recover from.

Cute kitty. Encourage you to get a second opinion from a feline specialty vet. A fresh set of eyes may pick something up.

So sorry about your kitty, murraysmom. :(

There are two main types of lymphoma in cats. With small cell (low grade) lymphoma, which is very common, you typically won't feel enlarged peripheral lymph nodes. It sounds like Rocket had large cell (high grade) lymphoma, which, as you experienced, usually comes on quickly and has a pretty bad prognosis. :(

Just a though, are you using any essential oils in an aroma diffuser? I just this morning read of a cat that was being unintentionally poisoned by their owners using oils in a diffuser. If you are, discontinue using immediately and take the cat back to the vet with this new information. They can die without proper treatment. Tell the vet which oils you are using. Eucalyptus oil was the oil the people were using that made their cat deathly ill.

Thanks all, I have a call into an Internal Specialist, waiting for a call back to get an appointment ASAP.

murraysmom ... very sorry to hear about Rocket.

arkansas ... no oils or smelly stuff in my house, since I am allergic to most scents.

One of my cats went thru something similar. She had become a picky eater, licking just the juice from the wet food, acting like she was hungry and would just sit and look at the food. All tests came back normal but the vet noticed she had some gingivitis going on, so I decided to get her teeth cleaned and see if her eating would improve.

Once the dental vet examined my cat (under anesthesia) she found there were only 7 teeth in her mouth, where there should have been around 30. After a full set of mouth X-rays they diagnosed her with Tooth Resorption. The X-rays showed all but 2 of her teeth needed to be removed, along with 3 remaining roots that were infected and draining.

After 3+ weeks of recovery, she is back to her normal self, eating well and gaining weight.

Before spending more money on more tests I'd probably have the vet X-ray Rocket's mouth. A visual inspection won't show more than what looks like gingivitis so if your vet doesn't have the x-ray equipment for dental work, I'd find one that does.

Here's a site about tooth resorption.

American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) and the International Society for Feline Medicine (ISFM)

https://www.catvets.com/

I know in the scheme of things it doesn't matter, but Pam's kitty is Bailey. Mine was Rocket. I hope you have some good news about Bailey to share soon.

Sorry, meant to come back with an update sooner ... we went to the Internal Specialist, what a great vet! As soon as I looked for one and saw her name, I realized I had taken one of my dogs to her many years ago.

So Bailey has some issues:

Segment of bowel with a thickened wall

3 enlarged lymph nodes, probably coming from the bowel wall

Heart murmur

High blood pressure, probably causing the heart murmur

He was given a chemo treatment, IV & pill right then. She said that will help with the lymph nodes.

We were sent home with blood pressure medicine & prednisolone. She said the prednisolone will shrink the lymph nodes. She seems most concerned with the high blood pressure. We go back in a week to see if anything is better.

He's been eating more and back to acting like himself. So we'll just keep trying and see what we can do.

Good job! Heading in the right direction!

I thought I'd give an update, I see other posts about sick cats.

Bailey is still on high-blood pressure meds, and is getting Chemo every other week.

Last vet visit, his weight was again stable and his blood pressure too. His enlarged lymph nodes were still there, which she is concerned about.

He's not eating the amount I think he should be eating, so I keep tempting him with as many goodies as I can. We go back again Friday, I'm afraid his weight will be down.

But he is still active, following the dogs and I around the house. As long as he's comfortable, I'll do what I can.

Can you ask the vet about an appetite stimulant? It might entice him to eat a bit more.

Could he be a bit dehydrated? Even so Cleo was drinking plenty of water our vet thought she might be a bit dehydrated and showed me how to give her subq fluids. I only gave her about 50 ml each time but within 30 minutes or so she wanted to eat.

Crossing my fingers that Bailey gets better,