My cat won't eat or drink.?

Question

Hi, I recently adopted a new cat. He's a 5 year old 7lb ragdoll and came to me with URI (aka Kitten cold). I had him checked out by my vet and other then tapeworms (taken care of) and the URI he seems to be fine. However, he does not drink or eat at all. He seems reasonable active (for a ragdoll) but still a bit scared. Question I have: How long can the cat be fine w/o drinking? My vet gave him a fluid IV on Monday and I have not seen him drink since then. I checked his hydration with the 'pull skin' test and it does return back to normal, but over several seconds. I am considering forcing him to drink, but he's already traumatized enough from the antibiotics he gets twice a day. At what point should he go back to my vet and at what point should I force him to drink? I tried to feed him dry food, wet food and tuna, but he sniffs it and goes away.

Answer 1

By the way I had to answer mainly because I loved your aviator.."Has everyone had more sex then me" lol.. I had to watch the movie shortly after.

I once had a problem such as yours.. I adopted a cat right off the street the cat was skin and bones. You would reckin' that it would die to eat, but it hardly ate anything. No matter what delicious cat food I gave to it..

I took it to the vet only to discover, that it was believed to have more diseases then I could count. Cat aids, worms, leukemia I believe and a whole bunch of others, not to mentions a great considerable amount of tooth decay;.. especially for a a 2-3 yr old cat..

Unable at the time to pay such a hefty some for the vet bill, I gave it away.

My advice have the cat checked out.

Answer 2

7 lbs is really thin for an adult male cat! Where did you get him from? Continue to try the wet food. If he eats that he does not need to have water and forcing water can be dangerous as another poster mentioned.

Cats really need to smell their food and if his nose is stuffed up he can't smell. Try fishy Fancy Feast with him to see if he will eat (it's crappy food and he must eat).. Also your vet has a food called a/d which cats usually like a lot when they won't eat anything else. Put some on a plate and get down with him and feed him from your finger. Antibiotics usually don't upset tummies at least they never have with my cats. Forget the tuna - it is not good for cats. Tuna flavored cat food is OK.

He really could use some Rescue Remedy from a health foods store - you could get a bottle for about $16 when you get the a/d to try. It will help him emotionally with his fears right now and frequently has an almost "miraculous" effect.

To treat him you shake the bottle very well and put three to four drops on the fur between his ears. If he is hiding under the bed or such you can put four or five drops on a cloth and put it under the place where he is hiding. "Refresh" the cloth or get it on him four or five times a day. Mornings and nighttimes are transitional times to use it and then a couple of times spaced out in the day. The flower essences are energetic in their effect and cannot harm him in any way nor interfere with any medications that you have prescribed by the vet. They are not drugs or "medicine", the more you treat him the more positive effect it will have for him. Use it over the next week to ten days.

Try it and I would love to know how he is doing. Good luck!

Answer 3

Try watering down some wet food into a real sloppy paste and trying that Also you might want to get some kitten formula and a kitten bottle. You may have to force bottle feed so that it does not loose too much of its body weight and get too dehydrated. Ask your vet also to check the cats digestive system if there is a bowl problem or something that might explain not wanting to eat... also have the teeth checked in case the reason for not eating is soreness of the mouth or infected teeth.
I hope your kitty feels better soon.

Answer 4

Call your vet and talk to him/her. The vet be able to tell you from your last visit whether you cat is behaving normally under the circumstances or if your cat needs more IV treatments, or whether your forcing water into it will be sufficient, etc. The antibiotics might be making him sick (all antibiotics wipe out the good bacteria in the body sometime making you more sick then you thought you originally were). He might just be too scared (ragdolls are genetically manipulated to have get their ragdollishness which often makes for a extra sensitivity to stress) to eat or drink. Talk to your vet.

Answer 5

It could be so many things. He chould have a urinary tract infection. I'd tell the vet about the new developments and maybe he'll have some ideas. He may be drinking at night and you just don't see him, but while he's being traumatized by the antibiotics, maybe you could sneak a syringe of water in there too. Since he's had the URI...he still may just not feel well. If you're still giving him antibiotics, he could just not be up to snuff yet.

Answer 6

The fur should go back almost immediately. I'd take the cat
back in to the vet ASAP. When cats stop eating and drinking it's
usually a pretty serious sign, and it sounds like he may still be
dehydrated.

Hoping for the best for you and the kitty!

Answer 7

I had a very sick cat at one time who would not take her food or water. The best advice I can give to you is to take her into the vet's. If the cat is not eating or drinking, I would be very concerned. Cats usually love tuna. If she will not eat her tuna I would be very concerned. If her lips or nose turn blue take her to the emergency vet's immediately. Good luck. I hope your kitty gets well soon.

Answer 8

He's scared, I'm sure he is drinking and your just not seeing it. Leave him be for a day or two...If you are still concerned by then take him back. He just got over hydrated at the vets with the IV so hes good for a few days and by then I'm sure he will be eating again...good luck.

Answer 9

Hmmmmm...... think. Where as your cat adopted? Did he have the same problems then? Or did his owners feed him a different way than you are doing now? Sometimes cats don't even like change. Also, if he is still scared, he may be uncomfortable. Go to some pet therapy classes (trust me...they have them!). If your fat still is not eating, he really needs to gain weit. You may need to feed him sausage or chicken.

Answer 10

I would suggest taking him back to the vet... the fluids they give are less traumatic than "forcing him to drink" can be. Plus, by forcing water into his mouth, you can accidentally cause him to inhale it then cause pneumonia that way. I'm sure your vet would want to know if he wasn't responding to the treatment quickly or at all... mine always says to call if they aren't better in 1-2 days.