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Why is my cat still sick, not eating, and hiding after vet visit?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | Persian | Female | spayed | 2 years and 1 month old

My 2 year old cat was sick. She wasn't eating well and she had hair loss on her eyelids. The vet gave her an antibiotic shot. We found no improvement. She's still not eating like before. She's quiet and doesn't play like normal. She's not even coming out of her hiding place. Shes not sleeping in her hiding place. She's just lying down and watching.

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Destini R. Holloway, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on March 16th, 2017

Oh my. It seems the vet needs to do some tests in your poor kitty to determine what exactly is going on here. Not eating and lethargy indicate that she is very ill and potentially she may have organ malfunction (kidney, liver, pancreas, etc) causing her illness. She needs to have bloodwork (chemistry, CBC), urinalysis, and potentially radiographs to determine the underlying illness so that we know how best to treat her. Cats that refuse to eat can cause serious damage to their liver causing a condition called hepatic lipidosis, which is a fatty liver making them even sicker and can be fatal in and of itself. So it's best to either take her back to the vet or get a second opinion with another vet who will run the necessary tests to find out what is happening so that she gets properly treated, especially since the antibiotic resulted in no improvement with her. I wish you the best with your cat and hope that she makes a full recovery. Until you can get her seen offer her small amounts of tuna juice or low sodium chicken broth and non-flavored Pedialyte diluted with water to help provide some nutritional support. Best of luck.

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Other Answers

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    Answered By David Elbeze, DVM, MRCVS

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    Jojo needs a blood test and ultrasound in order to try and find out what is causing these very worrying symptoms, without proper diagnosis it will be very difficult to help her, only after discovering the cause of the disease the proper treatment can be given, at the moment her symptoms are just too general to tell what it could be.

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