Sick cat won't eat

My wife and I have an 8 year old American Bobtail tortie who was diagnosed with bronchitis 4 to 5 days ago. She was given an antibiotic shot and has shown improvement since then. She wasn't able to breathe through her nose all that well and you could hear her hack on some mucus. So we took her back to the vet today for a benedryl shot to relieve here congestion. It's been roughly 48 hours since the antibiotic shot and a tad under 12 hours since the benedryl shot. She obviously can't smell her food so she won't eat it. We're going on 24 hours since she ate anything substantial and she's barely had any fluids in the same time frame. She is certainly hungry. She comes running for food, but attempts to sniff only to turn away. Are my wife and I rushing the effectiveness of the treatments? Do we need to worry now? She doesn't cough, she only sneezes every so often and still appears to be about as alert as normal. Help us! We want our little girl! Thanks!

I just took my kitten to the vet yesterday for an upper respiratory infection as he was all congested. His appetite was definitely affected by his inability to smell his food. The vet suggested feeding canned food as it has more of a smell and warming it up a little to increase the smell. I also read it helps to feed foods with a strong odor like some of the fish meals and such. My vet also suggested putting kitty in the bathroom during showers for the steam to help relieve some of the congestion. It seems like he eats better after I make him wait in the bathroom while I shower and breath the steam. It also makes it easier to wipe off all the snot that dries around his little nose.

Hope that helps some!

Thanks for the advice! Half of her diet is prescription canned food due to sensitivity in her digestive tract. We'll have to give the steamy shower method a shot! Good luck to you and your kitten!

Cats do eat based on smell, so it's very common for sick cats to not eat. The suggestions above are good. If they don't work soon though, you may want to consider syringe feeding until she starts eating on her own. Cats can't go long without eating because they risk developing fatty liver disease.

We tried the syringe method, she goes nuts trying to get away assuming it's something bad.

Have you tried really stinky foods like putting tuna water on her food or meat only baby foods?

Try warming up her food a little bit...that will bring out the smell of it. Or try lacing it with tuna juice.  If she doesn't eat on her own, try placing a little bit in her mouth to get her started.  If all else fails, you may need to syringe feed her, and give her water same way, because she definitely needs to eat or she could get into worse trouble!  Will she take any treats? 

Sometimes the antibiotics themselves upset their tummies so they don't feel like eating, but they MUST.  You could try to tempt her with a little baby food (MEAT only...stage 1,  I think, but may depend on the mfr) 

We tried the steamy shower thing and that didn't work. We tried a Whiskas pouch of whitefish and tuna, no luck there. We just opened a can of Fancy Feast "fish and shrimp" - which smells like a dead fish washed up on a beach - no response. We're on a Wellness Plan at Petsmart, but we can't afford to just keep taking her back. We're going crazy here - my wife moreso than me. We're going to try calling them once they open, I just hope there's something else to be done to help. :-/

We've tried the stinkiest canned Fancy Feast, which smells exactly like tuna with no success. We tried to steam out the nasal congestion with no success. We tried syringe feeding her also, but we may as well have been trying to pull her teeth out. Don't want to keep going back to the vet because we aren't made of money. Just don't know what else we can do...

I don't know if this well help or not, but here is an entire website devoted to assist feeding:  http://www.assistfeed.com/feline_assisted_feeding.htm

She's probably picking up on your stress when you try to force feed her with the syringe, so you need to try to relax and get her to relax too.  Or maybe actually try using tuna juice even though the Fancy Feast smell like tuna to YOU, there always seems to be a real draw to cats and the real stuff .  When you make a tuna sandwich, doesn't she always come running?   Mine come running every time I get out the can opener, all because every so often they get some tuna juice, and THAT can opening is a completely different sound from a can of cat food opening.

She may seriously be nauseated from the antibiotic.  Maybe just call the Vet and ask if you can give her something for that.  We gave our Svennie 1/4 (I think) Pepcid A/C for nausea.  Course, hope you're good at pilling you furbaby, because if she won't eat anything, you won't be able to get it in her by sneaking it in a treat .  But if you're going IN to see the Vet again, maybe they can give up some Cerenia, which is a SHOT for nausea.

All great tips, thanks! My wife took her to the vet today. They gave her subcutaneous fluids and a container of Lysine powder to mix into her food to act as a virus suppressor. She actually ate for my wife around 6pm tonight! The vet said her lungs sound pretty good and any congestion she has is in her sinuses and throat. Things are getting better, just gonna take a little time. Thanks again for all of the help, everybody. It means a lot!

I'm glad she ate a little bit, at least.  And glad they gave her some fluids.  Maybe just getting rehydrated made her feel a LOT better. 

Great she is eating something. I also wanted to give you this link to a thread on how to syringe feed and it has a very helpful video (http://www.thecatsite.com/t/227858/syringe-feeding-lucky-video-if-your-cat-is-not-eating). I found wrapping my cat in a towel worked to keep him still. You really need to make sure he is getting enough calories as you don't want to have to deal with fatty liver on top of what he is going through now. Even getting him to eat treats is fine for now. When my guy was going through his hairball issue I was feeding him mostly freeze dried chicken and temptation treats, but I did syringe feed for a few days to keep his calories up. 

I know this thread is pretty old, but I found it looking for help feeding my sick little girl. My kitty was diagnosed with feline herpes a few years ago, which came on quite often in the form of a sinus infection. For years we treated it with antibiotics when it flared up, but recently she had what looked like an extended blood vessel coming out of her nose. It turned out to be cancer. I wanted to post this to encourage anyone that has a cat with respiratory or sinus problems to get an x-ray or CT scan to make sure there isn't an underlying tumor causing the infection.