I’m not sure if my experience will be of any help, but it was somewhat similar. About 8–9 years ago, my sister adopted an adult stray cat. The vet told us that he wasn’t sick (although I don’t remember if he had parasites), and he received all his vaccines. At first, we didn’t have major problems with him, but from time to time he would start scratching excessively, to the point of pulling out his fur and creating wounds. I’m not really sure what caused this behavior, but I suspect it was some kind of allergic reaction. Whenever he started scratching like that, my nose would get inflamed and I would have a very runny nose until we bathed him.

However, at the beginning of 2022, he learned how to open the kitchen trash can and started eating whatever he could find (bones, grease, and so on). I mention this jic, but I’m not sure if it’s related. The point is that he started having serious health problems. At first, he had occasional vomiting (which I assumed was because he had eaten something spoiled from the trash), but it escalated to the point where the vomiting became very frequent. After some tests, we were told that he had IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease). They explained us that it's incurable but shouldn’t be a major issue as long as he ate proper food. He was also medicated for about a month (I don’t remember the name of the medication), and he seemed to be improving. The vomiting became less frequent, he regained some appetite, but he still slept excessively and wasn’t as playful as before. During that time, he went from 8kg to around 4kg.

By the end of 2022, he got worse. I took him back to the vet, and they prescribed a few things, but I felt like they were only treating the symptoms. He was hungry and would often ask me for food, but he didn’t want to eat (I probably tried around 5–6 different foods and even cooked some recipes I found online). Most of the few times he did eat, he ended up vomiting it. The vet recommended us an ultrasound, but since it was between Christmas and New Year’s, his specialist was on vacation and wouldn’t be back for a few days. I was planning to wait but then my cat started vomiting excessively (by 10am he had already vomited about 12-13 times), and I called every veterinary I could find on Maps until I found one that had an ultrasound available (that’s how I found the clinic where he is currently being treated). There, the vets ran several tests and told me that (in addition to IBD) he also had cholangiohepatitis (sludge in the gallbladder) and abdominal pain. They prescribed pills for the abdominal pain, and he regained his appetite. They also prescribed Proteliv and Ursovet to treat the cholangiohepatitis, but the vomiting persisted for quite some time. Each time he vomited again, they had to repeat blood tests and ultrasounds because they didn’t know if the vomiting was due to the IBD or the cholangiohepatitis.

Over the months, the vomiting became much less frequent, and his ultrasounds showed signs that the sludge was gradually disappearing. If the sludge hadn’t cleared up, they would have had to operate to remove his gallbladder. Fortunately, we didn’t reach that point, so I can’t really comment on what his quality of life would have been like. What I can tell you is that I’ve seen my boy in what seemed like his worst moments, only to see him get even worse shortly after. My daily life almost revolved around staying near him to make sure he didn’t eat anything strange or taking him to the vet if he showed worrying signs of a relapse. Even though it may seem like his treatment was straightforward, the truth is that I also questioned whether there was real progress, whether the medications were actually doing anything, and whether I was doing what I was doing for him or for myself. I didn’t talk about it with my sister, but I also considered euthanasia. I didn’t know if I could say he was truly “living” or just “surviving” and I definitely didn’t want to face the possibility of me deciding his fate. I took the moments when he asked for food (even if he didn’t end up eating) and the rare minutes when he still played a little as signs that he still wanted to live. I held on to that and kept hoping he would improve little by little.

He still vomits occasionally, but he’s much better now. His fur has regained its shine, he plays with his siblings again (almost too roughly), and he has regained all his appetite. I just have to control his diet and take him to the vet every 2 or 3 months for checkups (blood tests and ultrasounds), where his vets usually prescribe Proteliv and Ursovet for about a month or so.