Seeing as there were a few 'pet' posts on here, particularly the one on cat treats, I thought I'd ask the question.

Last Tues evening we had to rush our cat to the vets after she became ill very quickly. She was at the vets until yesterday evening.
It turns out she's had some kind of respiratory infection, has been on a drip since then and given diuretics, anti-biotics, steroids & pain killers. She has lost a load of weight and is pretty much skin & bone now.

The vet was reluctant to start tube feeding her as she was highly stressed at the vets and they didn't want to take the risk on top of all the trauma she's had over the last week.
She said we can bring her home, but need to get her to start eating or we'll have to take her back & they'll have to tube feed her.

We got her home yesterday evening and have so far tried:
– pilchards in tomato sauce
– her normal favourite 'Felix'
– Whiskas treats (her normal favourite treats)
– plain cod
– fish paste sandwich spread
– slices of turkey (ham stuff, not like roasted turkey)

and she hasn't touched any of it. She looks and it and you can see she's salivating as she swallows soon after looking at it, but she will not eat anything. We need her to start eating soon as I really don't wanna have to take her back to the vets, as she gets so stressed.

From the cat treat thread I have a few ideas, but would appreciate some more ideas/advice.
So far my list of things to buy on the way home includes:

– cat milk (Whiskas stuff)
– plain yoghurt
– meaty baby food (recommended on a cat forum)
– crab paste
– cheese (perhaps grated)

Mmmmmm, taste sensation!!

scrambled egg? make it soft so it's nice and easy to eat

We had a similar problem when Ollie was a kitten, He wouldn't eat anything.
We found that if we rubbed his food around his teeth, (like brushing them with your finger) he would instinctively lick and swallow.
We used an easily digestible food from the vets, It was like a pate.

princes sandwich spreads worked for mine

scrambled egg. Good idea OKS…..someone was mentioning cooking egg whites on another forum, but I couldn't see her stomaching that. soft scrambled eggs though; definitely give that a go!

ollie – I saw mentioned on a cat forum that rubbing some kind of pasty food around their mouth encouraged them to lick it off & the taste would sometimes kickstart them to eat. I intend to try that this evening, so good to hear of some success with it.

orange – yeah, we've got sandwich spread of some kind. Will persevere with that this evening (see ollie above). Probably get some crab paste too.

I recall feeding a cat with a worming syringe once many years ago. Kind of squirting it into the sides of her mouth in small amounts. Probably best that she eats small amounts as often as you can at the moment poor wee thing.

Try watering down the pastey food with milk and squirting it ?

Yes, milk in a small syringe, dribbled into the corner of the mouth.

My cat loves Petit Filou (those fromage frais things), amongst other things (custard, melted ice cream, white toblerone)

yeah, should have picked a small syringe up from the vets yesterday. I take it my fork oil syringe isn't gonna be a good idea!

I'm a bit concerned about giving her anything like normal milk, custard, ice cream etc. as they can't digest lactose and it often makes them sick. Some cats seem OK and others aren't. I've got a feeling ours pukes it up like a goodun'.

I think I will try her with cats milk stuff through a syringe though for starters…will see if we've got any small syringes here at work.

Our cat stopped eating for a while a couple of years ago & we had to give it glucose solution via a syringe just to keep its strength up.
Got some of the food mentioned above from the vet – thinks it's Hills ID or AD or something. It had some of it but not much, but wouldn't touch it's normal food.
Ended up on drip at the vets & then started eating properly after an injection of steroids

ours seems to love marmite, how about some tiny peices of toast & marmite (ours will help himself to bites of our toast)

Hope you get her eating soon.

One of our boys had to have his tail amputated, he managed on fish and chip shop fish for three days!

Normally though, we've found Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Jumbo king prawns, broken into small pieces, work every time.

Don't fall into the trap of buying them every week "just as a treat", it'll cost you a fortune. 😉

Thanks for the suggestions…

Bought some fishy baby food, crab sticks, prawns and some kitten milk on the way home – we were given some tablets from the vets that are meant to encourage her appetite, but even with those nothing has worked, apart from a few sips of the kitten milk.

We tried all the above as well as rice pudding, grated cheese, cod, sardines…

It seems a bit pointless to keep trying different things as she has shown no interest in any of the above at all – even after trying to smear some on her mouth/gums.

Gonna keep persevering tomorrow but think it's gonna be a feeding tube at the vets on Friday although I'm hoping she eats tonight.

Hills A/D diet from vets is great, starts as a pate but you can add water to it to make it easier to syringe if needed.

Try warming the food, increases the odour and stimulus to eat, make sure his/her nose is clear of mucous etc.

Small portions and try sitting stroking them and fussing them as you try to feed them too.

Those cheap frozen 'blocks' of 'fish' from the supermarket. Cook one of those with some rice. Thats what we had to give our Stella when she was ill a while back.

Raw liver worked with our cat when hit by a car and had a back leg removed , He sat in a cupboard and would not eat anything then one day my dad came home with some liver and Henry poked his nose out of the door looking interested so we tried a bit and he wolfed the lot .

made a full recovery and lived his life out quite happy and would not touch his own food if there was liver in the fridge .

Yeah we've been warming the food and sitting with her, but she's being stubborn!

I bought some plain cod after looking for those blocks u mention DBW and that's been quite promising but still not quite ready to eat.

Trout, will perhaps get some liver tomorrow…

She's up on the bed with us now looking decidedly sleepy! The saga will have to continue tomorrow!

Can't you just leave a selection of whatever you've got out so far, out on a plate or something like that, might change her mind & get the munchies on during the night?

Tinned tuna? Moist and easily swallowed.

How is the cat then ??

Can't you just leave a selection of whatever you've got out so far, out on a plate or something like that, might change her mind & get the munchies on during the night?

Yeah, we've done that. Various bowls of various stuff left all over the place. None of it touched at all…… 😐

Tinned tuna – tried unsuccessfully along with a smorgasboard of other fishy delights….

hels – cat is quite perky now, but getting thinner & thinner. Still not eating & fed up of being given tablets morning & night. She's drinking quite a lot as she is still on diuretics to keep the fluid off her lungs. I bought some kitten milk last night (higher in fat than 'cat milk') and she drank a small saucer of that this morning. So i put some more down for her before I left for work. I also left a selection of food for her to try if she feels like it.

muddypuddle – prawns this evening I think along with trout's suggestion of raw liver (perhaps with a nice Chianti!?) and OKS's suggestion of scrambled egg.

So far off the top of my head, we have tried….

Whiskas dry treats
Felix (her 'normal' food)
tuna
pilchards
mackerel
sardines
cheese (grated)
fishermans bake baby food
plain cod
rice pudding
'crab' sticks
Princes sandwich spread (fishy variety)

hows this being servied – are you mashing it up so its virtually paste – it may be that trying to eat lumps or chunks of food is hurting her..

but saying that doesnt matter how ill any of my cats are they will be crawling up my legs when Ive got the dried prawn treats you can buy…

Yep, either mashed up into a paste or if it's drier stuff like grated cheese/crab stick broken up into small manageable bits.

None of it is getting far enough to hurt her throat, unfortunately!

Hows the cat doing today

Missed this trout – sorry. Bit of a long story!

She still wasn't eating on Thursday (my other half's parents came round to keep an eye on her) and she was booked in to go back to the vets on Fri, but they rang and said if she still wasn't eating then they wanted her in Thurs evening instead.

So we took her in, they stuck a tube in her to feed her but then had another call on Fri morning saying she's not looking good and would we be able to get her to the Queen's Veterinary School Hospital in Cambridge? apparently they are the experts and have all the kit to run tests/scans there and then. So I took here there…
They rang last night and said there were various things in her blood that weren't right and could be due to a variety of the illness, medicine she is on & lack of food. They are doing more tests, feeding her up through a tube and giving her potassium with a drip as her potassium levels were very low and could account for her lack of appetite.

just waiting to hear an update today!

interestingly they said that the initial respiratory problem that we rushed her to the vet for could have because by an impact to the head or chest…!

Fingers crossed for your cat dude.

double post sorry

Boiled giblets with cod liver oil poured over. Either that or a tin of tuna mixed with cod liver oil.

Thanks Kof9.
Thanks Hora but it's a bit past that stage now!

Just had a call from the vets & she seems to be doing better. Another long post…

Her potassium was low which was giving her muscle weakness & can reduce appetite. They've had her on a drip (with added potassium) as she was dehydrated and that's sorting her out.
Her renal function is now normal & the initial chest infection is also showing up clear. They ultrasounded her heart yesterday & that's back to normal.
She's still on anti-biotics & vitamin K…but the vet sounded very pleased with her progress.

She is certainly getting some excellent help! I hope she appreciates it!

Hope she's ok. She's going to think it's Christmas when she's home and eating her way through all the treat food 🙂

Nothing worse than a poorly pet. 🙁

Great news. Glad she seems to be on the mend.

Hope you have pet insurance 😉

This probably wouldn't have helped in her complicated situation, but when our cat was attacked by an alsatian he wouldn't eat for a couple of days because (we were told) he was in shock. What got him back into his normal greedy behaviour was smearing food on his paw pads. He was washing compulsively anyway, and the taste of butter and tuna and all his other favourites on his paws reminded him what a gutbucket he is.

Anyway, I'm really glad your cat is on the mend. Lucky cat; that's five star care she's had.

I've been keeping an eye on this for a couple of days – really pleased to hear the cat's back on the mend! 🙂

Does she like whisked raw egg?

is she drinking? half serious suggestion would be some torq natural sprinkled in her water/milk (you can't taste the stuff but full of carbs).

Woody – yeah it's great she's on the mend. Spoke to the vet earlier & she's still doing well. They are removing her feed tube tomorrow and gonna try & get her eating!

Danceswithcats – we tried putting food on her paws, around her mouth and even rubbing it against her teeth/gums but she wasn't having any of it. Stubborn as a mule!

Nicko74 – nice to hear I've been keeping an eye on this thread…yeah I'm well pleased the little Bugger is getting better. Just needs to eat on her own now!

Wonny j – nah, she wasn't even drinking enough. Just getting more ill by not eating or.drinking!

Mouse, cats love them!