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Post by nlwilkins on Feb 13, 2016 9:29:14 GMT
I never knew that it could be so important. We are now trying to save our precious Clio who we have had for over 13 years. She was the one who sat in my lap when all I could do was sit in a chair and concentrate on breathing. She was the one who would purr and purr when I was banished out of Houston due to ill health and had to live by myself while hubby visited on weekends. She was the one who again sat in my lap while I had to wait on brain surgery and on lots and lots of other surgeries and their recoveries. We owe her so much. Now, I have let her down. AND I may have to let her go. We just can't make her go on and on like this.
Once cats stop eating it becomes a matter of life and death to get them to the vet and find out what is going on. Three days is too long, two days is risky. Clio was at the vets in ICU for four days getting fluids and now we have her home and are trying to get her to eat. We have to force feed her which involves holding her and forcing food into her mouth which gags her and panics her. Water is even harder. It is our hope that she will start eating on her own soon, before she gets too far gone.
My hard nose, red neck hubby cries every time we have to do this as do I.
Even then, we don't know if it is doing any good. She has not got any better since we brought her home, though I don't believe she is worse either.
So please, please, make sure your kitties eat and don't ignore weight loss. We did not know it was so dangerous.
Edited to address a few questions:
Clio at first was diagnosed with a bladder infection and was on antibiotics for two weeks. She was not eating much during that time. She got so skinny and lethargic that I took her back to the vet which is when she stayed there for 3 1/2 days of IV fluids. The vet does not feel she is strong enough for surgery for a feeding tube. Now she has a pacreatitis diagnosis and the vet said to stay away from high protein/high fat food. She HATES wet food and the stinky stuff the vet gave us makes her gag. So we are feeding her dry food, one pellet at a time, forcing her mouth open just enough to drop it in. We are wetting her muzzle with water via a push bulb and she opens her mouth and licks it off every few drops. We are doing this about every three hours. She is still urinating but hasn't had a BM for over 24 hours.
She is on medication for the pancreas desease and it seems like the nausea is getting less. She is not drooling or gagging like she was before. But she is weaker today and cannot jump to my lap like she could yesterday so we know we have reached a critical point.
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Post by Lexica on Feb 13, 2016 9:49:05 GMT
I'm so sorry your cat is sick. One of mine began to lose weight rapidly. Every test the vet ran came back normal. He gave me pills to give her that are supposed to increase their appetite. You may want to talk to your vet about them.
I tried everything I could think of and finally hit upon Tilapia from Costco. She had refused tuna and salmon, but ate every bit of the Tilapia. I was cooking a piece of it and sitting down with her to hand feed her multiple times a day. She would not eat it from a bowl by herself.
I used a syringe to get water in her. It was the most successful of all my attempts.
There is a very high calorie paste that comes in a tube for dogs. I would think there is a like product for cats. I think it was called Nutri-Cal or something similar. My sister had to use it when her little pup was struggling.
Good luck. I know how frustrating this can be.
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Post by Lexica on Feb 13, 2016 9:54:57 GMT
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Post by hop2 on Feb 13, 2016 11:29:04 GMT
I'm sorry your going thru this. Did the vet test for anything wrong with her? I hope you find something she will eat. I don't have cats but the only time my dog was sick and refused to eat the only thing he even tried to eat was egg. So I scrambled him egg for 3 days.
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momto4kiddos
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,151
Jun 26, 2014 11:45:15 GMT
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Post by momto4kiddos on Feb 13, 2016 11:49:20 GMT
I'm so sorry that Clio isn't doing well. It's so heartbreaking when our pets aren't well. Did the vet find anything wrong with her during testing? So odd to just not eat.
My cats were never much for any real people food, but love the liquid from tuna (or see if she'll eat the tuna itself.) How about trying some seafood, little bit of shrimp or fish? My Mom has been known to buy turkey breast at the deli for her cats also.
Good luck, hope she turns the corner soon and is back to her old self.
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Post by cmhs on Feb 13, 2016 12:31:35 GMT
Sorry she isn't doing well. One of my cats goes nuts for dairy products. She loves butter and cream cheese. We don't give these to her often but sometime a dab on a fingertip for her to lick when she's really begging. Maybe something like that will get her wanting to eat.
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Post by llinin on Feb 13, 2016 12:52:12 GMT
I hope I word this correctly. Many times animals (and humans) quit eating because they are dying, they are not dying because they are not eating. This may not be the case with your kitty, but if it is, please know you did not fail her. You did not let her down. Sorry for what you're dealing with, hope your kitty is comfortable.
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Post by pjaye on Feb 13, 2016 13:01:20 GMT
It's more complicated than a cat just being fussy and finding something they want to eat. If a cat feels unwell for whatever reason, sometimes they won't eat for a few days, this then means they haven't eaten enough protein to use for energy, so instead they start to metabolise fat. Cat bodies aren't designed to metabolise high amounts of fat for energy so when they do it gets processed incorrectly in the liver causing the fat to build up in there and it gets swollen turns yellow and stops working. That makes the cat feel worse and not eat. It's a process called hepatic lipidosis and the cat will die if it is not treated correctly and quickly. The treatment is food, and not a few spoonfuls, they need to get a normal daily amount of food (protein) into them. If you can't force feed, then the vet needs to put in a feeding tube. Nutrigel is pretty much useless in a condition like this and contains nowhere near enough calories. If you are motivated to force feed you need a high calorie food like kitten food or one of he prescription foods like Hills a/d. I happened to my cat when she had treatment for cancer and I managed to stop it...but I was feeding her the equivalent of 2 tins a day and force feeding her with a syringe every few hours. There was someone else here who also went through the same thing and her cat had a feeding tube and the last time she checked in her was still alive and doing well several years later. The tube is a temporary measure, once the liver returns to normal it comes out again. So it's not a matter of treating the underlying cause, because that is often something quite minor, the not eating *is* the actual problem and cats can quite literally starve themselves to death without treatment. You need to take action and start getting food into the cat straight away, there's a feline assisted feeding website: HERE |
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Post by miominmio on Feb 13, 2016 13:07:52 GMT
I'm so sorry, I hope Clio will feel better soon. It's so painful when our pets are sick. ((Hugs))
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Post by gryroagain on Feb 13, 2016 13:21:33 GMT
This happened to my Rocko and we almost lost her. She had an upset tummy, and stopped eating, and 2 days later was lethargic and close to death. We had foster cats at the time and she hated them and hid from us, so it took 2 days for me to notice she hadn't been eating, I felt so awful. She got IVs but was down to 4 pounds in just that short time. blood tests all came back fine (she was 15 then so we thought probably something major was going on causing her not eat) and it was decided that she just had a tummy ache, didn't want that, stopped eating, and things snowballed from there to the life threatening side. It took 6 weeks of force feeding via syringe and IVs to get her to eat on her own again- but she did, and now she is almost 18! I am obsessive about cats eating though, after that. She never has gotten back to her normal weight (8 pounds) and she hovers at 6 pounds so I am terrified she hasn't got enough weight to fight off an illness now.
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Post by Sassenach on Feb 13, 2016 13:39:06 GMT
Awww. Hugs. Hope your kitty gets better soon.
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Post by gryroagain on Feb 13, 2016 13:45:03 GMT
Oh- my husband thought it was awful to force feed her, and that at her age it was best to just let her go. And there were times I thought he was right, except those darn blood tests that showed a cat in perfect health. It's really hard to syringe feed a cat, and it feels "wrong", like maybe you don't know what is really best. It can be successful though, and your cat can get through it and eat normally and go on like nothing happened, because mine did.
I'm sorry for you and Clio, and I hope you can pull her through.
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gloryjoy
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,332 
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Post by gloryjoy on Feb 13, 2016 13:49:15 GMT
I'm so sorry your cat is not well, I hope she eat soon.
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Post by gryroagain on Feb 13, 2016 13:49:10 GMT
And I forgot! We mixed wet food and water together and fed her that- easier to get down, has water. The vet said kitten formula was an option but the wet food watered down was what we used and it worked. We would have to pry open her jaws (her wrapped in a towel) and then shoot it down and hold her mouth closed. It was awful, I won't lie. But she would just spit out regular wet food, the watery food at least she could just swallow. And she got water that way.
You can do it- it's hard but one day Rocko licked her plate (we always offered her food normally, before the syringe, and then bam, she was better.
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Post by hop2 on Feb 13, 2016 13:50:20 GMT
It's more complicated than a cat just being fussy and finding something they want to eat. If a cat feels unwell for whatever reason, sometimes they won't eat for a few days, this then means they haven't eaten enough protein to use for energy, so instead they start to metabolise fat. Cat bodies aren't designed to metabolise high amounts of fat for energy so when they do it gets processed incorrectly in the liver causing the fat to build up in there and it gets swollen turns yellow and stops working. That makes the cat feel worse and not eat. It's a process called hepatic lipidosis and the cat will die if it is not treated correctly and quickly. The treatment is food, and not a few spoonfuls, they need to get a normal daily amount of food (protein) into them. If you can't force feed, then the vet needs to put in a feeding tube. Nutrigel is pretty much useless in a condition like this and contains nowhere near enough calories. If you are motivated to force feed you need a high calorie food like kitten food or one of he prescription foods like Hills a/d. I happened to my cat when she had treatment for cancer and I managed to stop it...but I was feeding her the equivalent of 2 tins a day and force feeding her with a syringe every few hours. There was someone else here who also went through the same thing and her cat had a feeding tube and the last time she checked in her was still alive and doing well several years later. The tube is a temporary measure, once the liver returns to normal it comes out again. So it's not a matter of treating the underlying cause, because that is often something quite minor, the not eating *is* the actual problem and cats can quite literally starve themselves to death without treatment. You need to take action and start getting food into the cat straight away, there's a feline assisted feeding website: HEREI didn't know the full extent if it. Thank you for explaining it. Though that sure increases my respect for stray cats/ feral cats. How on earth do they survive every winter? |
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Post by hop2 on Feb 13, 2016 13:51:49 GMT
And I forgot! We mixed wet food and water together and fed her that- easier to get down, has water. The vet said kitten formula was an option but the wet food watered down was what we used and it worked. We would have to pry open her jaws (her wrapped in a towel) and then shoot it down and hold her mouth closed. It was awful, I won't lie. But she would just spit out regular wet food, the watery food at least she could just swallow. And she got water that way. You can do it- it's hard but one day Rocko licked her plate (we always offered her food normally, before the syringe, and then bam, she was better. That's an excellent idea mixing the food to liquid!! |
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Post by gailoh on Feb 13, 2016 13:54:48 GMT
nlwilkins, I feed one of my kitties by hand with a medicine dropper, the dropper came from her being on antibiotics so I keep the med. droppers now to use for this very reason.
Here is how I do it...I use a small container to put KD Science Diet ( she takes this for another issue) but you can do this with Pate' can food as well, the one you know she likes. Put a small amount in the container, add a little water to make it soupy,not real thick or thin...I have a counter I put her on so it is easier to feed her.Pet her a second or two then hold my arm around her and put the dropper in her mouth at the side of her mouth, not straight in...then I squirt it in. still hold her I can easily refill the dropper ...you may have to add a little more water toward the end of the container when it starts to get a little thick again...I use warm water as well. Toward the end of feeding water down the food that is left and you can get water down her that way and she still has the flavor of the moist food...
Callie is also blind...she will eat the hard food at times and after I hand feed her she will at times still want something more to eat...I put out a bit of moist in her bowl...
I hope this way will work for you...hugs
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Post by jennyap on Feb 13, 2016 14:22:31 GMT
It's more complicated than a cat just being fussy and finding something they want to eat. If a cat feels unwell for whatever reason, sometimes they won't eat for a few days, this then means they haven't eaten enough protein to use for energy, so instead they start to metabolise fat. Cat bodies aren't designed to metabolise high amounts of fat for energy so when they do it gets processed incorrectly in the liver causing the fat to build up in there and it gets swollen turns yellow and stops working. That makes the cat feel worse and not eat. It's a process called hepatic lipidosis and the cat will die if it is not treated correctly and quickly. The treatment is food, and not a few spoonfuls, they need to get a normal daily amount of food (protein) into them. If you can't force feed, then the vet needs to put in a feeding tube. Nutrigel is pretty much useless in a condition like this and contains nowhere near enough calories. If you are motivated to force feed you need a high calorie food like kitten food or one of he prescription foods like Hills a/d. I happened to my cat when she had treatment for cancer and I managed to stop it...but I was feeding her the equivalent of 2 tins a day and force feeding her with a syringe every few hours. There was someone else here who also went through the same thing and her cat had a feeding tube and the last time she checked in her was still alive and doing well several years later. The tube is a temporary measure, once the liver returns to normal it comes out again. So it's not a matter of treating the underlying cause, because that is often something quite minor, the not eating *is* the actual problem and cats can quite literally starve themselves to death without treatment.You need to take action and start getting food into the cat straight away, there's a feline assisted feeding website: HEREExactly. I wish more people knew this. I've been through this with one of my cats, following surgery. We narrowly avoided a feeding tube, but I was syringe feeding every two hours for a while. I hope your cat pulls through OP |
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Post by Scrapbrat on Feb 13, 2016 14:23:25 GMT
I actually did know this. Our vet wanted us to switch from dry food to canned cat food, and out cat would have none of it. The vet gave us instructions about how to do it, but friends told us to just take away the dry food and "force" her to eat the canned. I asked the vet and she said no, you can't force a cat that way, they will actually starve themselves to death before eating the unwanted food. And she mentioned that I because cats are so small, it doesn't take long. I did not know any of that before our experience.
I hope your kitty is ok!
Oh, we did finally get our kitty switched over to canned food. It took about 6 weeks of putting both in front of her, twice a day, before she would even touch the canned food.
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Post by bearmom on Feb 13, 2016 14:30:06 GMT
How awful for you and your kitty. I hope you are able to find a solution soon and nurse her back to health. Our pets become such integral parts of our lives and can provide unwavering support.
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Grom Pea
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,944
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Post by Grom Pea on Feb 13, 2016 14:41:13 GMT
Sorry you're going through this, we lost our beloved kitty to him no longer eating, dh would have to force feed him with a syringe, but it got to a point that even the vet who is a huge cat lover said it was time to let him go  It was a hard job for dh, I swear cat food ended up on the ceiling sometimes because pepe fought it so much. It's also hard to see someone you love starve themselves to death, my doggie wad like that at the end too |
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braveschica
Shy Member
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Post by braveschica on Feb 13, 2016 15:46:33 GMT
I'm so sorry about your kitty! I was also going to mention a feeding tube as a possibility. My kitty needed one when he had a jaw injury and couldn't eat by himself. You use a good, high calorie prescription food and it goes straight to the stomach so you know the kitty is getting it. If your baby is otherwise healthy it might be worth asking your vet about. Hugs!
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Post by chaosisapony on Feb 13, 2016 16:41:59 GMT
pjaye is absolutely correct with her post. We just went through this with Wiley. He quit eating due to what we thought was an infected tooth. A vet visit revealed that he was actually in kidney failure. They gave us an appetite stimulant to use as needed and a can of Science Diet A/D which is a max calorie food. His entire life Wiley refused to eat wet food, he hated it. For the last four weeks he had water syringed into his mouth and we would mix the food with water and syringe that in too. He also ate a lot of turkey. Doing this kept his energy up and he was able to enjoy his final days. Wiley died last Friday, fitting the vet's prediction perfectly. The syringe feeding was a hassle but so worth it.
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Post by utmr on Feb 13, 2016 16:55:06 GMT
We went through this about a year ago. What worked for us was DD sitting in the floor literally hand feeding him. She would dip her finger in food and rub it on his tongue.
There is a high calorie Rx cat food. It was about $4/can and stinks to high heavens. We mixed that with a little hot water to make a runny gruel, thicker than water but softer than food. We alternated that with baby food chicken (the #1 food) also thinned with a little hot water.
Once DD got him to eating a little we fed him ever couple of hours until he started feeling better. We went to the vet every day to have fluids injected under his skin for rehydration.
We also locked him in the bathroom so we could keep him from hiding. We made him a hiding place from a stepstool in the corner covered with a towel. Cozy and dark but we could get to him.
When we heard him come out from his corner and use the litter box DH and I celebrated that he was hydrated enough to pee.
Good luck taking care of kitty.
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J u l e e
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,531
Location: Cincinnati
Jun 28, 2014 2:50:47 GMT
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Post by J u l e e on Feb 13, 2016 19:23:54 GMT
We had to do this with one of our cats during treatment for cancer and it was awful. It never felt right and I think she was trying to die. She hated it and hated us. I felt like we completely disrespected her in the process. She actually died in my husbands lap in the middle of him syringing food down her throat. I can still remember hearing my husband sobbing on the bathroom floor. I go to a really bad place in my head and heart every time I think about it again. Martha was 10 and I felt like we needed more years with her and was not able to let her go without trying everything. It's so flipping hard to know what is best.
I'm so sorry you're going through this with Clio. The stories of cats who have recovered are so encouraging. I hope she turns around and completely recovers. (((HUGS)))
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Post by kellapea on Feb 13, 2016 20:25:00 GMT
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