I just tried to force-feed my ailing old cat. It didn't go very well.

[GreenPartyVoter]

:cry:

[csziggy]

1. Try offering it baby food - beef or chicken

One of my ancient cats loved the stuff, even after he could no longer digest much of anything. I'd sit with him on my lap and dip my finger in the jar and he would lick it off. I doubt he got more than a tablespoon in a session, but it made him and me feel better.

I hope you can do something for your old kitty. :hug:

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. I wrapped him in a towel and instead of dropping a butter-coated pill down his throat I dropped

chunks of wet food from an 1/8th tsp. He was not pleased, to say the least, but I think I may have gotten a tbsp or so into him. Hard to tell given how much is on me, the table, and the floor.

I am hoping to get him to the vet tomorrow. Pray I get a ride, a cat carrier, and everything else lined up. :hug:

[csziggy]

28. I'd worry about getting it down the wrong way, like someone else warned

If you can't get baby food right away, mix some water or broth into the wet canned food and see if that will help get him to eat.

I hope you can get him to the vet. Good luck! :hug:

[Quantess]

3. I'm so sorry to hear it.

You don't want the risk of food/liquid accidentally entering the lungs, so force feeding might not be a good idea.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Shoot. I hadn't thought of that! :^( I'll try the baby food idea instead.

[Quantess]

7. I used to be a speech pathologist, and I worked with swallowing issues

for about a year.

In general, the older and/or weaker the patient, the more cautious you need to be, regarding their swallowing ability. Pneumonia results from food/liquid entering the lungs.

In general, the patient (your cat, LOL) needs to be upright when eating or drinking. That is, the head needs to be positioned above the neck, positioned above the body. Edit to add: similar to the position a normal cat eats/drinks.

I sure hope that was helpful, and I really hope your kitty gets better!

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Thank you! I will remember that if we try it again, but I am hoping we don't have to.

[Quantess]

11. Best of luck to your cat! Keep us posted!

[Lisa0825]

5. When I have force fed, I have used a syringe with no needle and

canned food watered down enough to go through it. A quick squirt, and the kitty will spit some out but will swallow some.

Yes, having it go the wrong way is a concern, but force feeding is used when you think their health is dependent upon getting more food in them.

You could consider a feeding tube also. Once of the rescue kitties had one, and I was very worried about how it would go, but he didn't seem to mind much, and it did help him regain his strength.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. Hopefully the vet will have an answer for us. If it's just the teeth, we have brought him

back up to a healthy weight, albeit it took a while. (Actually, he did it all himself.) I'm more worried that it's diabetes, or worse renal failure. I know he's 16, but that still seems young to me.

[Lisa0825]

8. If it is diabetes, and he needs insulin, don't let it get you down...

I have known two cats who had to have daily insulin injections, and both took it much better than humans. In fact, both took the shots voluntarily and seemed to associate it with feeling better.

((((hugs))) to your kitteh from mine.

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. Thank you. I just wish I could wave a wand and make him all better, my poor old kitten. :^(

[Lisa0825]

12. I know, I know.... I have felt the same before....

:hug:

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. The hugs are much appreciated. I am guilt-ridden over letting him get this bad off. :^( But like

everyone else these days I was trying to avoid another bill if it could be helped.

[Lisa0825]

14. People do the same things to ourselves... wait to see a doc....

It's a sad state, but most of us face the choice between health care and other bills. I have been there.

I hope you get good news.

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. I hope so too. Will let you know. :^)

[muffin1]

21. I don't think 16 is all that 'young'.

We've had countless cats over the last 25 years or so, and I've never had one live past 18. I've heard of cats living to 20 or even a little longer, but unfortunately, none of ours has lived that long.

I'm really sorry about your baby. I'm sure you have thought of this already, but in case...ask your vet if they will take payments. I KNOW that anything is too much these days (we currently have a vet bill of several hundred dollars - but we only pay $25 each month, sometimes less!), but it may help if you can pay just a little each month. If your vet won't do this, there may be one in your area who will.

Lastly, as someone said downthread, 'stinky' food does help sometimes. It helped with our baby kitteh - of course, she just had a bad cold, but she wouldn't eat ANYTHING. We finally heated some tuna in the microwave (make sure it's not too hot by 'stirring' with your fingers thoroughly!), and she ate that.

[EFerrari]

29. A nice big syringe with no needle worked great for me

with the rescue kitties, big and little. And that way, I could also measure how much they were taking every day. :thumbsup:

[grasswire]

16. sometimes they lose their sense of smell and...

....something stinky like tinned sardines will work.

I tried everything for my Chester. Homemade chicken broth, everything.

There is a high-calorie paste that you can buy at a pet store. You squeeze out a dab like toothpaste on your finger, and put it inside the cat's upper lip. Easy to do. The cat will lick it and most of it will go down the hatch.

I'm so so sorry.

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. Thanks! I will look into that as well.

[eShirl]

18. When our Morpheus was near the end and didn't want to eat, I tried some Whiskas Cat Milk

and he drank, then asked for more later, and so on until he'd finished the whole carton within a few hours. Later that day he ate some canned food.



:grouphug:

[GoCubsGo]

25. There is also a product called "Catsure"

It's the feline equivalent of Ensure. They make a Dogsure,too. You can find it at PetSmart and some grocery stores. Our local Kroger carries it. You can find it in the section that has all the supplements and hairball remedies. It has more nutrients than the Whiskas Milk or CatSip. But, if the cat prefers those, you can always slip some liquid vitamins into it.

I have found that warming the wet food sometimes helps, as do sardines or other really stinky foods. Warming the food up slightly makes it smell more, which might make it more enticing. My sixteen year old has kidney failure, which has reduced his appetite. On bad days, I have to keep warming his food, or feeding him some really stinky fish variety. He also gets a dose of a high-calorie supplement, such as the one mentioned earlier in the thread. And, even when he's not feeling all that well, he loves his treats. If I sprinkle some of those on his food, he's more likely to eat the food. Probably not good for him, but at this point, I just want him happy, as he doesn't have a lot of time left.

[Crystal Clarity]

35. I was going to suggest the same thing

and you can get it at Hannafords in the pet section. My 18 year old kitty has dental problems and goes through about 2 or 3 of those cartons a week.

She also sometimes gets baby food (as someone upthread suggested) as well as lean ground meat, canned chicken, canned turkey, tuna and deer meat. She can eat a little of her dry food but it's VERY slow going. All of this is more of an expense then I'd like, but well worth it because it seems to be helping. She too had gotten very thin until I realized that it had to be the teeth. I began doing all of these supplemental things (learning as I went) about a year ago. Her health has improved dramatically ever since.

So I hope it is the teeth since it's something that you can deal with and still give your kitty a good quality of life. Someone upthread also mentioned that diabetes can be managed too which is good to know.

Good luck w/the vet visit. Here's hoping that it's nothing you can't handle. But if the vet gives you the worst possible news just remember that your kitty knows you love him and want what's best for him.

And please, you shouldn't at all feel guilty about this. It took me quite awhile to catch on to the fact that my cat had a problem too. They are very good a hiding distress.

{{{hugs}}}

[hedgehog]

19. Over the years, I've found that my animals stop eating when it's their time to go.

Good luck at the vet and I hope it's something simple. Sometimes though, the kindest thing to do is to let nature takes its course. I'm sorry your buddy isn't doing well and hope for the best.

[Lasher]

33. People do that too.

If a person stops eating it can be a sign that they have a week or less to go.

[kimi]

20. I kinda go along with the syringe

and kitty food diluted and all.

But at a certain point, yes, it becomes clear. I certainly hope that's not the case, GPV.

Best of luck at the vets today.

[OneGrassRoot]

22. ...

:cry:

:hug: :hug: :hug:

I've been there; it's so very hard. I'll be thinking of you both...

[haele]

23. we used tuna water to begin with and made a loose "paste"

making sure it would be more lap-able than chewy - of the tuna fish and cat-food, only putting down a few tablespoons at a time when our elderly cats had teeth or kidney problems and would stop eating. An unseasoned boiled chicken and rice mixture made into a watery paste is also a good option, especially if it is more of a kidney or gastric issue than a teeth issue.
Kitties will also get gum and tooth issues when there's a lot of gastiric reflux problems. Good luck at the vets, I've gone through this with my two old boys who passed due to a bone cancer in their jaws.

Haele

[joeybee12]

24. Aw, that sucks...yeah, 16 seems young...two of mine are 15, I assume India is around 16...

and yeah, I think they SHOULD have a few more years. :grouphug:

[hamsterjill]

26. It takes time and patience!

There are some great suggestions on this thread. You will need to try things until you find what works for you.

I actually have finger-fed one cat through a six month illness. All she ate, was what I put into her mouth for this entire period. She is now recovered and doing well. What I did was to use Science Diet A/D (you can get this from your vet) and after much trial and error, learned how to position her, how to open her mouth and slide in the food, and learned how much to put on my finger for each time. With my particular situation, it also worked well to do a bit at a time, rest for a couple of minutes, and then go back to feeding her.

There is also a great discussion group on yahoo for "assisted feeding", including information on feeding when the cat has an e-tube, etc.

I wish you the best of luck and please don't be discouraged when the first few times don't go well. Just be gentle, consistent and keep trying.

[LynneSin]

27. Tuna Juice

Hopefully it's liquid, that's what I have to get for my cat Evita.

I would buy a few cheap cans of tuna (water not oil) and then I would drain the juices into a ditch and add the liquid meds.

Just about worked

Make sure you make an extra dish for all other cats in the house especially when it is not the dominant cat getting the meds.

[applegrove]

30. One of my cats just adores that molasses mineral oil salve you feed your cat to help

furballs and digestion. You just put a double dab on your finger and your cat will lick away. That may help. You can get it vet clinics. Plus it is sweet so it may make your cat hungry afterwards.

[Bonobo]

31. Is your cat sufficiently hydrated?

Sometimes just a trip tot he vet to give fluids can make a big difference.

I hope things improve!

[snagglepuss]

32. I'm sorry to hear about your kitty. My suggestion would be to place a bit of

mashed food on the top of his paw. I did this once to a cat who refused food for over 24 hours. I think putting the food on the paw triggered the instinct to groom becuase he licked the food off his paw, I continued doing this till he started to eat on his own.

I hope all goes well.

[TorchTheWitch]

37. I remember my mom doing this to make the cats eat their meds

for hairballs. Nothing else worked. We tried forcing it down their throats, trying to disguise it in food, and they just would not swallow it until Mom heard about the trick with putting it on the paw... worked like a charm. Even though they still hated it and made all kinds of disgusted faces they still licked it off.

[Chellee]

34. You can also try KMR.

It's kitten formula, but it can be used for nursing cats or infirm cats.

Snagglepuss's idea about putting some on the paw is really good too.

Good luck. It's hard, I know.

[Nikia]

36. When my dog hadn't eaten for days, we syringe fed him chicken broth

Within a couple of days, he was chose to eat some hamburger from a McSnack wrap. With a little bit of medicine, which he was then able to get down, he was on the road to recovery.