Cat refuses to drink

Good morning,

My 11 year old Balinese has recently been diagnosed with Megacolon. I've changed his diet to now include Hills high fiber canned food, pumpkin and fish oil. I was instructed by my vet to also try adding chicken broth to his food.

Since the change over to Hills high fiber and the chicken broth... he is refusing to drink water. It's been about 4 days now and I'm planning on taking him in as soon as they open this morning.

Has anyone had similar experiences? Any solutions that worked?

Thanks,
Steve

 

maybe add some of the chicken broth to his drinking water

 

I've tried:
Pure chicken broth
Plain water
Milk

He's not drinking anything..... :cry:

 

milk isn't a good idea anyway. You might want to ask your vet if he'd suggest Pedialyte at this point which you'll probably have to squirt into your kitty's mouth with a food syringe. He might be getting dehydrated. Is he eating canned food well? Wet food will give moisture.

 

Dripping water tip of his nose

Dear Steve,
If u can'f feed him water, try dripping water bit by bit with straw from tip if his nose running down to his mouth. He will lick his nose. I have same problem with my cat too. Be carefull not to let water run into his nose. And it works althought it might takes lots of patient and time.
good luck and let me know it this works.

Bionca

 

Between the canned food and the chicken broth he is probably getting all the moisture he needs without drinking much water. As long as he is not dehydrated I won't worry too much. Cats on a diet of canned food drink alot less than cats on a diet of dry because the canned food is so high in moisture. I would run it by your vet if your worried to see if you have any reason to be concerned. Keep us posted.

EDIT-
I found some more info for you:
http://www.maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm

 

:m23: and welcome! I don't have any advice. I just wanted to say hi and would love to see pics of your furbaby! Hopefully the vet visit went well and how is he doing now? :m10: BTW, what causes the megacolon?

 

when one of my babies wouldnt drink..i used a medicine dropper like they have for infants...it is time consuming..but he let me squirt the water in his mouth that way..good luck!

 

Nern,

Thanks for your input. My vet said the same thing. I took him off his dry food and increased his wet food at the same time I started giving him chicken broth with his wet food. My vet said she had a cat that didn't drink any water for 2 years and that if they have high moisture content wet food they really don't require that much water.

He is doing much better , and started taking Cisapride this morning to help with his bowel movements.

Thanks,
Steve

 

Your welcome. I'm glad to hear that he is doing well and that the lack of drinking is nothing to be concerned about.