The Rabbit Hole

Simple. Don't make ANYTHING else available. A cat won't let himself starve to death. It means you'll have to leave the food out for both of them, but if it's the only thing, he'll eat it.

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I'm going to try this today. I have left him with a very limited amount of dry food such that I'm hoping he'll pounce on the wet food when I offer.

I swear, this kitty just has to make his own recovery on us both.

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Know where I can score some?

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I could try that. He doesn't like my cooked tuna in a tin, but maybe if I got some fresh tuna or meat...

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Oscar will always eat it first if Wally doesn't take to it right away...

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Yeah, but seriously. A cat will NOT let itself starve. If Oscar gets to it first for two days, I guarantee Wally will eat it on the third day. As long as he's drinking water he'll be otherwise fine.

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Yeah, the water thing scares me. I've left the tub running so he has some flowing water since he's not drinking out of the bowl as much.

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Just keep an eye on him. If he starts acting sick again, obviously disregard this, but in all but extreme cases a cat's instinct will kick in and it will eat whatever's available.

They tell you not to indulge finicky cats unless the cat otherwise has lost its appetite due to illness. Did your vet say whether or not Wally was still "sick"? I mean, I know the crystals are still there but normally as long as they're not actually blocking anything the cat should feel healthy unless there's something else going on.

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I dunno what's going on with him, honestly. Oscar was hissing at him when he arrived, but he ate food while at the vet's, and he does keep wanting dry food, so he must be hungry. I dunno that he's still "sick" at all. They said he was peeing without problem, and he was eating. I dunno if it's just problems readjusting to home. I'll wait it out and see.

I already called the vet to ask if there's medicine he can take either in addition or if he just flatly refuses to eat the wet food. I'm waiting to hear back.

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Do you have to give him the dry food as an option? Honestly, I wouldn't. It sounds crueler than it is.

My mom had a cat that theoretically "wouldn't" pick up food to eat it because his face was too flat and he didn't like getting his nose or whiskers wet. She had to feed him piece by piece. But he didn't like to let anyone else feed him, either, so when she went away, he would sneak food out of the bowl after his attempted feedings failed. And he would lick up ice cream.

Cats will play you if you let them.

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Yeah. If he doesn't eat the wet food tonight, I won't leave him any dry food tomorrow.

You know, I got cats to avoid the shit parents go through with kids getting sick and being picky eaters 'n shit. What the F?

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He was wet last night when he came over for cuddling, and there was cat fuzz in the tub, so I think it's working.

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I've been reading through this forum: http://ask.metafilter.com/8590/

There's a lot of conflicting advice, but some people warn that cats will starve themselves if they don't like the food. One person mentions that stressed cats may not eat... but he is eating the dry food, so.

Someone also suggested weaning him from his old wet food by putting a little of the new in there, then slowly adding more until you switch over completely, but we may not have time for that.

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Also, I saw him drink from the toilet this morning.

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It'll become pretty obvious if it's a problem, though, before it gets to the point of ACTUALLY starving. Having owned around 30 cats in my lifetime, I can promise you that none of them ever starved because of finickiness. They all ate after a few days.

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I'm probably wrong, but I don't think not eating would be good for him right now, considering his condition, while his body is already under stress.

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That's why I asked whether or not the vet said that he was still sick. My mom had two cats with this issue and neither of them were ever sick after the blockage was cleared. His body shouldn't be under any stress unless the trip to the vet itself has otherwise stressed him -- the crystals are almost like kidney stones to a human - not stressful on the system until they're actually causing pain and/or blockage.

OBVIOUSLY you have to exercise common sense. If the cat isn't eating but otherwise seems okay and not listless? It's fine to give it a day or two. If it's acting sick, then you'll want to be more careful with it.

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Good idea. I'll have to work on implementing that. I'll stop and buy some Friskies today, see what I can do there.

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I need to get this pet fountain set up ASAP. Toilet water is not clean!

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Actually, that's not true. They can starve themselves into a situation called hepatic lipidosis or "fatty liver" that is life threatening.

Any food that he will eat is better than none at all.

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Agreed.

Urinary blockages can be very stressful on the system and put a lot of pressure on the kidneys. Cats that have been blocked are often febrile and don't want to eat in the first place!

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Which brand of crystal-dissolving diet are you feeding? Urinary S/O?

Did your vet identify the type of crystal that your cat is forming? Generally cats that tend to form urinary crystals have to be on a life-long prescription diet, otherwise you run the risk of this situation happening again. Generally it isn't a matter of whether or not you're feeding a good diet or not, but a matter of your cat's metabolic balance. Some animals will sustain a crystal or stone-forming environment in their bladders no matter what food you feed them. Many of the crystal prevention diets are much more palatable than the dissolution diets.

Ultimately, if your cat has one or more stones in his bladder and you find that you're not able to get him to eat the dissolution diet, the vet will recommend a surgery called a cystotomy, where they go in and remove the stones manually (since they're too big to pass through the urethra). Whether you decide to have the urethra-altering surgery (a perineal urethrostomy or PU surgery) at the same time is up to you. You can have the stones removed and then see if a change in diet and increase in water intake prevents the recurrence of the stones, or you can have the PU done and rest assured that the stones, should they form again, will not be nearly the life-threatening issue they are now.

Even if you do have the PU surgery done, you'll still need to monitor for stones with bladder xrays and urine checks every 6-12 months - cats that form stones have a high incidence of UTIs, inappropriate urination issues and kidney problems if the stones are not dealt with. Other potential side effects are the possibility that your cat will need his PU site plucked regularly - depending on his anatomy and whether there was any damage from the blockage, the surgery may result in hair growth too close to the urethral opening which, if not removed, will cause UTIs.

Ugh. I wrote you a book. Sorry.
I work at a cat hospital and deal with this all the time. :) I saw your posts and went into "work mode".

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saikogrrl.livejournal.com

My kitty loves this kind which comes in little sardine-style tins that you pull open and there's like whole little fish inside.

Also, with the pills, with my old kitty Tigger we found that it was easier to use two spoons to grind it up into dust and mix it in with the wet food, then he ate it no problems. :3

*hugs*

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Actually, that's pretty rare. And the symptoms of it are obvious to anyone who's paying attention to their cats. Obviously you should make sure they eat if it's the end of day 2 and they're not showing interest in food. But 99% of the time, the cat will eat as soon as it gets hungry, after about 12 hours or so. Practical experience is a better guideline here than worst-case-scenarios.

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It's "Prescription Diet s/d." The type of crystal they weren't sure of, but depending on whether the food gets them to dissolve or not we'll know. That depends on his eating the food, though.

We're not sure that the deposits are even the cause of the blockage. The x-rays just let us know they were there, so they're something to consider once we get the kitty-pie past the worst of it all.

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Getting the pill in him is the easy part, if you can believe it. Wet food is messier but requires just as much wrangling.

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Well, if by rare you mean that it is seen at veterinary hospitals on average about 2-3 times a week, then it is rare. We've had to place feeding tubes in three cats so far this month.

A good rule of thumb is that a cat should never go more than 24 hours without eating - and eating one or two kibbles is not "eating". MOST people don't watch their cats at the food bowl close enough to give the advice "just wait them out".

Your rule works for dogs, but I've seen too many cats that are "eating just fine" and drop 2-3 pounds in a month.

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Do you get what you're saying, though? In a veterinary hospital. You don't see the vast percentage that does just fine, and if it's going on for a month, obviously that's a long time for a problem to be going on.

I will allow that perhaps my experience is different because my mother was a professional cat breeder and watched her cats like a hawk. We also had two excellent vets whose advice never once steered us wrong. I will tend to favor the experience of having raised 30+ cats -- a tiny, tiny number of which WERE picky enough eaters that they needed special attention -- that I will give advice assuming that the person in question is attentive enough to make good judgment calls. But the average person probably IS better erring on the side of caution.

Sorry, I just get twitchy when people imply that I don't know what I'm doing. I'll drop out of this convo now.

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I didn't by any stretch mean to imply that you don't know what you're doing!! :O

Like you, I have a reflex, and it's when people say "cats won't starve themselves". My heart squeezes and I have to jump in with a "Yes they will!" Most of the time I hear that refrain, it's coming from people who can't figure out why their 17 pound cat is only 6 pounds when he eats a whole whopping 1 oz canned food and 15 kernels of dry food a day. Sorry I made you feel like I was jumping on your case.

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S/D is a good dissolution diet for the most common types of crystals, but Urinary S/O is often more palatable. It only comes in a canned form, though. If you're having trouble getting Wally to eat one type of diet, perhaps all you need to do is offer a better-tasting option.

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