Need help.....8 week old kitten won't eat or drink

Ok...So I adopted a kitten on Saturday. She was on meds there and they wouldn't give them to me. So as soon as I could, Monday, I got her to the vet. They told me that she not only has the cold, but hasn't been de-wormed yet. So they took care of the de-worming and gave me some amoxi drops for her cold. She's been back on them since Monday evening. Ever since yesterday she won't eat or drink. The vet said if she didn't to heat up wet food so she can smell it. I did that....It didn't work. So I've been almost force feeding her cat milk suppliment with a dropper. She's not getting much and she's not her usual self like she when I got her Saturday and how she was on Sunday. I've gotten so attached to her....I'm really worried. But I can't afford to take her back to the vet for them to do all kinds of tests and charge me 100 bucks! It was already 50 for the shots and meds monday. Anything else I can do short of taking her back to the vet?????

 

When cats can't smell their food, they often won't eat it. I've been through the same thing as you (the day after I adopted my cat too). You can get some nutrient paste from a pet store (someone help me with the name, please) and give that to her to keep her strong.

Make sure she is drinking water. Cats can go a several days without eating as long as they're drinking.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

Maybe try putting some of the moist food on the tip of you finger and see if she'll lick it from there or when you put the moist food bowl down and she looks at it, try petting her and maybe that will help her to eat.


When my one kitty sniffs her moist food, I sometimes pet her and that seems to start to eat.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

 

did they give her Clavamox? That can be very tummy upsetting - combine that with the cold and she probably feels like crap.
You can make her food and syringe feed it...which you probably should.
A good quality kitten food mixed with pedialyte, a bit of Karo corn syrup and some NutraCal. Make it really really soupy (so it runs off the spoon) and get a plastic syringe and feed her.
Get as much as you can into her but be careful and only give her a small amount at a time so she doesn't inhale it into her lungs.

 

Thanks everyone! Hearing that others have gone through the same thing makes me feel better!! I broke down and called the vet a little bit after I posted...They told me to try to heat up chicken broth and see if she'd eat it...And if that didn't work to get a syringe and get the broth in her that way. Since just the broth didn't work, we're going to try it with the syringe in a little bit (she's so hard to hold still I need to wait until I have help from my bf).

This sounds bad, but I have tried everything you guys have suggested, and none of it worked. Putting wet food on my finger and getting her to taste it *I put some in her mouth and she spit it back out*, petting her and talking to her while I tried to get her to eat *she gave me a loud MEOW and walked away*, and as for the water part...I can't even get her to drink....Which is why I've been using a dropper to get what little water I can into her.

On the plus side....Her meows seem to be getting stronger and louder again...I hope this is a good sign. She's still breathing out of her mouth only so she kinda looks like a turtle sticking it's head out of its shell when she breathes....But like I said...I take the strong, loud meows as a good sign.

Thanks again for all the help! I'll keep you posted.

 

The first thing I got my cat to eat during her URI was the water from a can of tuna. Good luck!

 

You can try giving her steam baths by putting her in the bathroom every couple of hours and letting the hot water run. It might clear up her sinuses and you can try feeding her in there at the same time.

 

Hey everyone...I just want to thank you all again for your adivce.....But also wanted to let you know that she died this morning. :cry: We had a rough night...I took her to my bf's and we tried everything to get liquid and food into her. The syringe didn't even work. Anything we got in, eventually came back up. She sounded horrible when she breathed and we knew she didn't have much longer. She made it through the night and I brought her home this morning...On the way home I talked to her and told her I love her and want her to make it...But if she was suffering and was read to go, that I wanted her to go instead of keep suffering......We got back into my apartment as I was talking to her...Within 3 minutes she died. My bf came and took her to his place and burried her for me...I don't know what I'd do without him....I was a mess..I know I'd only had her for 4 days but she was my lil girl from the minute I got her and I loved her. Thanks again everyone.

 

I'm very sorry for your loss. It's always hard, no matter how long they've been in our lives.

 

I'm so sorry for your loss. :cry:

 

Oh no, I'm so sorry. That is so sad.

 

So sorry to hear about what happened to your kitten. I got late to this thread and in reading it am confused as to how things progressed to where they ended up. Are you saying that you adopted a kitten on Saturday and she was already on medication? For what? A cold? Didn't you say that even though your kitten was on meds that she was eating ? And the vets dewormed a sick kitten? And after that deworming did you find that she no longer ate or drank? Is there a connection here? I think you said that she was eating and drinking before you brought her to the vet and she was dewormed. Dr. Allen Schoen, DVM who's written vet manuals, who is a lecturer and author of several books always says not to vaccinate the old the sick and the very young . The reason is that for all three the immune system isn't strong enough to withstand it and your kitten was young and sick. When did she get her vaccinations? On Saturday? So was she reeling from the vaccinations, the cold and then the dewormer? I can't understand the practise of vaccinating or deworming sick pets yet it seems to be routinely done.

 

I guess I got to this post a little late - I'm so sorry to hear what happened. I can imagine how heart breaking it would be even after a couple days.

My cat Chloe came home with pnemonia (she was 2 months old) and the vet had her on clavamox. The medication turned her anorexic and she was close to starving herself to death. She had several trips to the ER and thank God she finally ate and got better. We had to force feed her for over a week.

The vet told us that a small number of cats turn anorexic on this medicine. They told us that once a cat stops eating they more or less forget how. It doesn't help that the cat can't smell and has no appetite, anyway.

That was an awful experience so I can feel for you. Somehow Chloe pulled through but she was on death's door.

Once again, I'm sorry to hear what happened. It must've been a few hard days for you.