Still not really eating. A few nibbles here and there, but so far I haven’t found a food that she really, really is interested in. So the force-feeding continues apace. Less, though, because I’m supposed to be backing off it to let her get hungry enough to eat something.
Of course, one of my problems is the fact that because I live in a studio now, there’s nowhere to feed her where Frick and Frack can’t get at the food.
And yes, they do get at the food.
Sugarplum’s still losing weight, because she’s not eating enough, but in other ways she seems to be improving. Her bowels are working again, she’s doing a lot more of the stuff she did before she got sick, such as greet me at the door and get into the bathtub to drink from the faucet. She’s also swatting the dog away when she has had enough of the chewing (and the fact that the dog is bugging her is, I feel, a good sign).
She’s just, you know, not eating. Not enough. And to tell you the truth, I’m getting a little tired of feeding her like this. She’s tired of it, too. But she hasn’t quite twigged to the concept that if she would just eat something, we could stop this routine.
Though we’ve gotten the whole force-feeding business down to a science, with the towel and the kneeling-while-pinning and the crankyass growling-while-smacking.
When my Buster was sick, the vet recommended a product to increase his appetite; can’t remember the name of the product, but it came in a tube and just a little bit had him attacking his food with vim and vigor.
You might also ask your vet how he/she feels about baby food; specifically, 2nd Foods Chicken with Gravy by Gerber….all 3 of my cats were bonkers over the Gerber.
Good luck with Sugarplum; she’s a sweety……
Glad to hear she is doing better
You are a trooper, doing all that feeding.
Hey, check this out: http://krazykatknits.blogspot.com/2008/11/no-more-cookies-for-me.html
With all due respect to Sugarplum, who is that darling dog beside her?
That’s actually not Sugarplum, it’s my other cat, Zuzu. The dog is Junebug.
Could she be avoiding several kinds of food because they all contain something she’s suddenly allergic to, something she previously had no problem digesting? (Our dog went from problems with only corn as a pup, then in her fifth year, problems with wheat–maybe Sugarplum’s got a hidden allergy?)
Kat–thanks for the info about the Girl Guides (and what a load of garbage; I will not be buying any cookies until they get their shit together).
My Kiri refused to eat for what seemed like an eternity (probably a couple of weeks, most of it spent hospitalized) after she went into kidney failure (her favorite food at the time had been seasoned with melamine). I did a lot of force feeding and administration of sub-q fluids before she finally decided that eating on her own couldn’t possibly be worse than having watery cat food puree shot into her mouth via syringe. I hope Sugarplum reaches the same conclusion and opts for unassisted eating very soon.