OT How do you make a cat eat?

I have never been very successful in getting a cat to eat when it is sick. Have you tried canned tuna - not tuna cat food, but regular tuna, or little pieces of chicken breast? Those are my only suggestions.

Sherry Starr

Nothing very original here, but have you tried a diluted egg and milk solution?

When my furries are off their food I buy the tiny tins (expensive!) of varieties they don't usually eat and try small serves of different types to tempt them. The one they can rarely resist is tuna in set aspic/jelly. If your Scraps is used to dry food - mine absolutely cannot resist IAMS dry food. And small serves of good quality lean mince meat might work (but don't handle it, use a fork or spoon to put it in the dish).

In desperation to restore appetite I have been known to resort to icecream and cream. But Scraps might want to have the icecream melted as her infected tooth will be making any eating difficult. If she is used to crunching on dry food that would be painful right now, and that might be putting her off eating anything.

I took in a cat that had been hit by a car and he had a broken jaw. He was near death from starvation when I found him. The vet could not do anything for his jaw, but he lived very well (and happily) for years on the gravy of canned foods and other softed and mashed foods.

I must admit that except for IAMS my cats have never eaten any food from the vet. I suspect it is like getting little kids to eat vegetables 'cos it's good for them.

Kind kitty purrs to Scraps from B, D and R. Gentle ear rubs from me.

Thanks - I have lots of tuna in the pantry and will try that right now. She loves milk and I might try a bit of that just to make sure she is staying hydrated. Will keep you posted.

AliceW

Good grief, Alice, with all of that going on, I don't think I'd eat either. Probably her sense of smell and taste are affected and her mouth hurts. Perhaps she would be tempted by just a little seafood (perhaps sieved) or strained baby food meat such as chicken.When we were desperate to get our Sweet Pea to take a few bites, one of us would get on all fours and pretend to be eating his supper. Apparently some kitties enjoy companionship at mealtime and that worked. Scraps may think you've lost your mind and leave home for her personal safety but you could give it a try. Polly

I forgot - BBQ/rotiserie chicken from the supermarket. The cats come running to the smell!

And roast meats will normally do the same. What's on for Sunday lunch?

Mental picture - hysterical!!

(Tottering back to bed chuckling to myself)

Thanks, Polly, I needed that! I just gave her some very finely minced tuna and she loved it! Thanks to all who recommended tuna. I did sit with her while she ate, though, and Polly, I think she enjoyed the company.

We have her in the "guest" room since our other kitty, Gypsy, will eat anything put on the floor so in order to give Scraps a fighting chance at eating when she felt up to it, we had to separate the two. Kirby is a food thief too but at least now I know he'll gobble the A/D food from the vet if Scraps doesn't warm up to it.

I have Finn for the day so he likes to go up and see how she is doing. He has a very sensitive heart for the critters (like his mom) and Scraps really purrs up a storm when he visits. She doesn't do that for everybody.

One day at a time I guess, but at least now I know she's eating. Phew!

AliceW

Alice, if Scraps has a bad tooth, that may make eating anything difficult. Try some "CatMilk", which is designed for cats, won't give them the intestinal problems that regular milk can have. The milk will provide nutrition, and you could soften her regular food with it too.

Good luck, I am also dealing with a cat that doesn't want to eat. (But a mama cat who needs to eat to take care of the babies. )

Hope Scraps feels better soon.

Pati, > My sweet little Scraps (12 year old tabby) has been losing weight

As well as all the other ideas you've been given, Alice, try poaching some plain white fish in a tiny bit of milk (the cat milk even better) (microwave is fine). My reluctant eaters love that. . In message , AliceW writes

Ok, lots of people are going to probably get upset about this, but....

WHen NUgget, Ken's cat, refused to eat (we had just relocated to Panama and all the cats spent a LOT of time in quarantine), I started giving him chicken broth. WHen he was able to keep some of that done, I added a few small bits of chicken. WHen that stayed down, he got tuna water with a little of tuna mixed in (tuna water is the water in the can of tuna). After about a week of this, he was able to transition back to dry food....spoiled, isn't he??

Larisa

Well, the tuna worked! She ate about two tablespoons of little bitty pieces and it stayed down! I also picked up some baby food - pureed chicken to try that and some finely ground kitty food in several flavors. When it was time to give her the last pill for the day, we opened the guest room door expecting to see her resting on the bed as she had been for most of the day. But, she met us at the door meowing to "let me out" so perhaps between the meds and little bit of food, she is getting her vim and vinegar back. We gave her some of the minces kitty food and she was nibbling at that when we left her. We'll see how she is in the morning. I will pick up some "CatMilk" tomorrow and try that as well. Everything else you guys have recommended is working so I'll give it all a try.

Thanks so much!

AliceW

lol No, that's not spoiled.

Spoiled is when the new owners of one of my foundling cats got conned into getting up a little earlier every morning to cook a fresh (NOT frozen thankyou!) skin free chicken breast, then finely dice it while still warm and deliver it on a china dish (NOT plastic or glass) to whetever Her Majesty had chosen to sleep the night before. And don't even THINK of cooking it the night before and warming it in the microwave!!!

This was a cat that was so starved when found that we did not think she would survive.

Alice, if you're afraid she isn't getting enough nutrients, you can always give her a blob of Nutrical. (if you're not familiar with it, you might ask your vet about it). It must taste pretty good because mine eat it without a fuss. It comes in a tube. Last time we had the loss of appetite problem with our cats, the vet gave her a very small dose of Valium. They say it works as an appetite stimulator in cats. It worked real well. Hope she recovers completely, soon.

Sherry

That was going to be my suggestion also. Not only are those Stage 1 foods pure meat, but they also smell really rich and tempting to a kitty, even an ill one. I've gotten lots of kitty meds down by hiding them in a little baby food & it's just the thing for a sick kitty. Good Luck!!

In message , AliceW writes

We once had a cat who got so ill she didn't eat for days. The vet fixed what was wrong with her, and suggested we tried pureed food like baby food (with meat, not like applesauce), thick cream, or cream of chicken soup. Soft rich things she could eat without the effort of chewing.

We tried all those things, and in the end we found she would take cream of chicken soup, but only if she could lick off my DH's finger.

She made a complete recovery eventually. I hope your kitty does, too.

Oh, Yes! that is spoiled. Aren't they funny? They know how and which buttons to press for every 'servant' >g< . In message , CATS writes

My motto is "anything they'll eat". Canned chicken seems to perk up most of my cats' appetites when they've been ill -- better than freshly cooked chicken. Turkey seems to be even better. Stinky tuna, both people tuna and cat tuna. Strained baby meats (without onion -- check the label) -- a fingerful of baby meat scraped onto the upper palate has been known to work. Semi-moist cat food like Tender Vittles. Some cats prefer food that's been warmed to about 100oF. And one cat who had us very worried finally started eating by drinking cream and licking butter and proceeded on to canned cat food. Or try kitten chow if your cat is steadfast in preferring dry to wet foods. Potassium supplements can help, especially in elderly cats, but your vet should prescribe them as s/he has the bloodwork.

Cats can starve themselves to death, so make sure your vet knows how things are going. A shot of valium (yes, the tranquilizer) can make a cat eat voraciously for 10-15 minutes, and then curl up into a puddle of catnap for a few hours. May take a couple shots to start them eating again. An antihistamine called "periactin" (cyproheptadine) can also stimulate appetite in some cats. Prednisone is usually a good appetite stimulant, but because you don't know if there's an infection lurking, it's probably not a good choice right now -- it can be like pouring gasoline on an infection's "fire".

If she's still not eating by Monday AM, I'd be back at the vet, or at least calling.

All the best to you and Scraps.

She is eating tuna on a regular basis now, although little portions at a time. I will try the recommended Carnation milk and CatMilk products today. She is already on prednisone which I did not know would stimulate her appetite. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Unfortunately we leave for a week's vacation to Cape Hatteras next Sunday and although we take Kirby, we leave the two cats with my daughter. She works all day as well and will have a difficult time trying to get meds into Scraps twice a day as well as caring for an active 2 year old in addition to her own pets. So I am thinking of boarding Scraps with the vet so they can keep an eye on her. I would take her with us but I think she needs to be near the vet for that week. There are few and far between vet services where we go and I won't have access to a car during the day.

But, we'll need to cross that bridge after seeing how she does on the meds this week. She needs to be seen by the vet at the end of this week. If there is no improvement, then something else is going on and we'll need to rethink if additional testing is warranted. One day at a time.....

AliceW

"Happiness is good health and a bad memory."

- Ingrid Bergman (1917-1982)