Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I adopted a cat from the animal control/shelter and noticed he was not using the bathroom. My Vet checked him out and found that he has a slight bacterial infection and gave me antibotics for, Amoxicillan, and he found that he has a slight problem with his liver and it may be due to he not eating. He believes his liver problem is because he will not eat. Has suggested that I feed him high calorie food watered down thru a syringe. I started doing this but I feel awful, he makes wierd faces as if he seriously hates it or maybe its painful. He makes a face like he seriously has a messy face and needs to clean it. Cats normally make motion of cleaning thier face after eating but his is extreme. I thought maybe he has a tooth problem but my Vet looked at him and everything looked normal. I am afraid whatever is wrong with him I will make it worse.

He drinks water and is not dehydrated but just wont eat, not even a teaspoon worth of food. His attitude is normal, mellow but playful, curious about the dogs, not afraid(unless they bark too much), mostly very sweet. No signs of lethargy or sick. Has anyone ran into this before?

I am really afraid that this problem will not be able to be fixed and I will end up spending a large sum of money before finding out.

I just had to put a stray dog down because after spending money on her and her puppies testing and treatment, I found out that she had heartworms, ecanines, and one of her puppies had parvo, and she was shot in the leg with a pellet gun and it shattered her leg. It cost me a great deal of money trying to save these dogs, and treat my own dogs, the puppies did survive and find homes. I just dont want to go through this with my cat.

Has anyone rescued a cat with problems like this and your cat recovered?

Thanks!!

Lea

Hi Lea,

Thanks for rescuing this precious kitty.

If your vet thinks the liver problem is related to the cat not eating, he may have hepatic lipidosis, otherwise known as fatty liver disease. This is very serious and is fatal without treatment.

Does the cat look yellow anywhere? Check inside his mouth if you can and look at the whites of his eyes. If he is yellow, his liver problem is very significant.

Force-feeding a cat that won't eat is an essential part of his treatment, whether he likes it or not. Your vet may consider placing a feeding tube, which sounds terrible, but makes the feeding go much smoother. Cats tolerate these tubes very well and it isn't difficult to learn how to use them. An appetite stimulent, such as cyproheptadine, may be worth a try also.

Try offering Kiki some strained meat baby foods if you haven't already done so. Sometimes a sick kitty will eat these baby foods before they will eat anything else. Please make sure that no onion is added to these foods, as onion is toxic to cats.

There is a chance that the antibiotic is affecting Kiki's appetite also. You might want to try offering him some food before medicating him to see if that makes a difference.

Take care, and please keep us updated on how Kiki does.

PHKitkat

P.S. I am so sorry that you had to have your rescued dog put to sleep

Hello!

Thank you for your encouragement and information!! I am going to bring it up when I see my Vet today. I did check her mouth and she looks normal, her mouth is pink and teeth look fine. But still I am going to bring up your info just to be sure.

She has actually started eating this morning more so then she normally would and last nite she licked the food from the syringe without me having to force it to her. Thats a very good sign - I think!!

Thanks again for your response and I will let you know what I find out.

Hi There,

Thanks for the update

It's a very good sign that your baby licked the food from the syringe on her own. Hope you have some good news from the vet next time you post!

Regards,
PHKitkat

Hi there

I'm having the same kind of non eating problems with my cat Max at the moment and I htink he's over the worst of it now since he tried a bit of tuna.

The feeding by syringe does seem brutal at first but there's only one way to think about it. If he doesn't eat it could be the end of him. Once you are in that mind-set it's much easier to do it and to not feel as much cuilt when your cat snubs you.

I was really concerned that once he came round he would still snub me (I've been syringe feeding for 5 days now) and today was the first day when I got home from work that he came over and was so pleased to see me. It really is worthwhile.

It's dangerous for a cat to not eat for more than a day or so, so please keep feeding little and often of the syringe special food.

Please let me know how you are getting on.
Regards

Janis & Max(the furry one)

HI,

Thank you for your story, its very encouraging!! I have to tell I had the very same concerns about my cat snubing and never trusting me again, but it turns out that she greets me as if she is okay with things. She has started eating a little on her own this morning. Last nite she actually was licking the syringe as I slowly pushed the food to her. That was shocking!! I am so so glad its looking good!

I am taking her back to my Vet today just for him to check her again and get more specialized high calorie food.

Thanks again !!

That's terrific news about your cat getting better too.

Mine's friendlier than ever now and he just wants to eat and eat. Tuna fish is his favourite and he's finally eating it like he used to.

I'm happy now that he's eating normally again and we're not gonna syringe feed tonight as he really hates it and is very bouncy when we get the syringe..he ain't dumb

ANyway, keep us posted as to the improvements in your kitty and give them my love.

Regards
Janis & Max