Cat wont eat

[mrsw101109]

DH says she'll eat when she gets hungry. How long do I let this go on for before I get nervous.

I don't think she has eaten since yesterday or possibly Sunday. It's hard to say because we have 2 cats and if she didnt eat, he would just finish both bowls of food.

The problem is they are not grazers. I put food down and they eat in instantly. Should I seperate them while I go to work to see if she eats? The problem with that would be, she doesnt like to be away from him, he if they were seperated she might not eat just out of stress from being seperated.

I didnt change the food. Nothing new. Should I try a new food. Can cats get tired of eating the same thing?

[niemand88f]

Cats can develop problems very quickly from not eating, so you should definitely figure out a way to see if she really is not eating. One of my cats does seem to get tired of the same food, maybe you could try a different flavor of the brand you normally feed.

[SpicedApplePie]

Do you have any wet food? You can force feed her by opening her mouth and putting a bit of wet food on the roof of her mouth (she will be forced to swallow it). If she throws it up, she might have a blockage. If not, then you can feel better that you got some food in her. My cat didnt eat on her own for 5 days, but we started force feeding her after 2. I think she had swallowed something like a feather and didnt feel good. We did go to the vet, but since she wasnt throwing up and she was still pooping, they didnt think she had a blockage in her stomach. We were also told to separate our cats so we could see exactly what she ate and what came out.

[independencegirl74]

Ditto PPs that you NEED to make sure she eats. Cats develop a problem called hepatic lipidosis after as little as 24 hours of not eating at all (some not until closer to 72 hours). It CAN be treated, but it's harrowing to go through and the success depends on how far into the issue the cat is.

One of my cats stopped eating and was acting VERY lethargic and throwing up several months ago. We immediately made a vet appt to get her checked out. Because it was such a quick onset, they didn't run blood tests, but gave her a vitamin/mineral shot and an anti-emetic shot (to stop the puking). We started force feeding her using a dropper and watered down wet food or baby food. After another day or so, whatever was bothering her cleared up and she started eating on her own again.

Moral being: she didn't have something so terrible it wouldn't clear on its own, but had we not made sure to get some food into her, the complications would have snowballed and made the situation 1000 times worse.

Good rule of thumb: Dogs will eat when they're hungry and can go days without eating with no major side effects. Cats MUST eat every day or you're in for trouble.

[kellbell191]

They can develop fatty liver after about 48 hours which is not good. try tempting her with some differtent foods. Merrick wet is like kitty crack.

[calico]

Ditto all the above. How old is she? When my cat got older, she got more particular about what she ate. We cycled through just about every wet food that Petco sells, just to find something she would eat. There for a few months, she would only eat meat baby food for dinner.

Try giving her some stinky wet food or stinky tuna mixed in with the water from the can. I hope your sweetie feels better soon.

[mrsw101109]

She is 9. I will try the tuna fish tonight if it nothing else seems to be working. Thanks.

[polarbearfans]

As a senior kitty I would be at the vet now. Any more than 24 hours without eating is a dangerous situation. Don't just feed tuna. Use the juice and a little tuna to help make her food smell better. tuna on its own doesn't have the right nutrients and can be addictive. It lacks taurine which is essential to cats.

[kellbell191]

Yeah I didnt realize she was a senior, I would take her to the vet and have a senior blood panel run if she hasn't had one before.

[msmerymac]

Any updates, OP? I had a senior cat develop hepadic lipidosis after about 36 hours and it involved 5 weeks of feeding him through a feeding tube every 6 hours. NOT fun at all. And also expensive. We never figured out what caused him to stop eating (possibly IBS), but the important thing is that we got him to start eating again.

If you get some 20 ml syringes from the pharmacy and some pate-style wet food, mix the wet food with water to form a slurry, then suck it up through the syringe and feed it to her a few milliliters at a time.

[SallySparrow]

I was hoping for an update, too...one of mine had hepatic lipidosis a while ago, it was pretty scary. I hope your kitty is doing okay!