An undernourished stray has been overfed – what should I look out for?

Yesterday I was presented with a little cat who had been living in a wood with a group of ferals. The people who had trapped her had unfortunately fed her everything and anything she could eat. I have a room specially furnished and equipped to take pregnant ferals or strays and when she arrived she was obviously uncomfortable. I was told she probably had stomach-ache so at least somebody had learned not to overfeed undernourished strays! The cat hid and I left her with just a bowl of water.

When I went to bed I put half a sachet of sensitive cat food in her feeding bowl. This morning the food had gone (the cat was hiding) so I put down another small portion of food. Next time I peeped in her room, she hadn’t touched the food which I immediately removed as she had been terribly sick, vomiting everything from cheese to God knows what – far more than the 20g sensitive cat food I had given her. Inspecting the cat litter, it was clear that the excess food had first pushed out normal excrement which was followed by a large amount of diarrhea.

She is now sleeping in her basket, and though her condition is not good, I am optimistic that in a week or two she will be a beautiful creature again. But, I have no idea what the serious effects of overfeeding are? Has anybody any idea what I should be looking out for? I have always fed strays slowly and carefully so have never had this problem before. Unless I hear anything to the contrary, I will be boiling some rice and chicken breast for her this evening. If there are no repercussions, she will get the same tomorrow – perhaps mixed with a little cat food. Eventually of course, she will have to go to the vet but I always try to get my strays into a presentable condition – de-flead and dewormed – so that the vets can concentrate on more serious matters and my bill is more acceptable!

I’m really grateful for any tips you can give me.

I inadvertently overfed my little girl when I got her home (though not to the same degree as your little one, by the sound of things). I was advised to withhold food for 12 hours to give her system a chance to rest, followed by very gradual introduction of a light diet. Little and often, like with a kitten is the way to go.

You might find a little canned pumpkin will level out her digestion better than rice - its a kinder form of fibre that is more readily digested than rice. Having said that, a small amount of rice will do no harm.

It's probably a good idea to add in some of the poaching liquid from the chicken to help with rehydration - I've yet to find a cat that didn't love it.

Lastly, raw goat's milk or live guts yogurt is a great addition for an undernourished or ill cat. It's readily digestible, and will replenish the good bacteria needed for health. Raw goats milk is often used as a substitute for kmr when hand rearing kittens - thats how gentle it is.

I'd stick to a light diet for a few days, just to be sure that everything has settled.

This little girl is lucky to have found you. I'm sure she's grateful that you're helping her

Thank you for your help – I live in a small town in Germany so I’m not sure I’ll find canned pumpkin but I will try to drive to the shops tomorrow to look for goat’s milk and the other things you suggested.

I am not keen on feeding cats rice – a maltreated kitten in my care responded far better to plain boiled chicken plus the cooking liquid than to rice and a little bit of chicken as prescribed by the vet. So, tonight I’ll be serving plain boiled chicken; tomorrow I may add some rice. Hopefully my other cats won’t demand similar treatment or I’ll have a problem.

Thank you again for replying – unless I have a stressful time with my new foster I will keep you informed. By the way, I am assuming she is female as she is so small – though “she” does have a rather large head. If a male, he must be castrated as he doesn’t smell like a tom. Once cleaned up and back to good health, he or she will soon find a new home as he/she appears to be a Chartreuse – Persian or Maine Coon Mix. Such beautiful cats do not get left in my care for long.

If you kept all the cats you rescued you'd be overrun in no time! It must sad to see them go though - I could never do it...I'd be a hopeless foster mum :lol3:

If you can't get pumpkin,boiled and mashed plain sweet potato works just as well...and much easier than trying to deal with a whole pumpkin (I'd never try to make pumpkin puree from scratch for the small amount I'd want for a cat).

Gilmargl said:

Thank you for your help – I live in a small town in Germany so I’m not sure I’ll find canned pumpkin but I will try to drive to the shops tomorrow to look for goat’s milk and the other things you suggested.

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You might be able to find HiPP Bio-Kürbis baby food at a local shop. Amazon.de has it, too, and Libby's pumpkin.

Columbine said:

If you kept all the cats you rescued you'd be overrun in no time! It must sad to see them go though - I could never do it...I'd be a hopeless foster mum

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It is sad to see them go but it's selfish to think that only I could look after them properly. My own cats - I shouldn't call them leftovers - are 2 black female (not popular here) and 2 light grey tabbies, also female, with rather pale eyes. I think that 4 is the limit. It's difficult to keep track on the condition of each individual if there are too many involved.

On the plus side, some of my kittens and strays have not only found lovely homes, they have also brought me many new friends.

jcat said:

You might be able to find HiPP Bio-Kürbis baby food at a local shop. Amazon.de has it, too, and Libby's pumpkin.

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Thank you. I'll investigate tomorrow when I go into town. The Reformhaus and the Drogeriemarkt may be able to provide some of the products suggested. 

Meanwhile my foster has eaten a tablespoon of chopped chicken in approx 2 tablespoons of cooking liquid, without any ill effects so far. Before I go to bed, I will provide the same again and see how we are in the morning.

Thank you Columbine and jcat once again for answering my plea.

Gilmargl said:

It is sad to see them go but it's selfish to think that only I could look after them properly.

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I absolutely agree. I just wouldn't be able to keep myself from falling in love - which would very quickly lead to no more fostering

Hope your little foster get back to full strength soon

Update: Well I did try. I found the yogurt and pumpkin (baby food) and for a few days she didn't vomit but still had diarrhea. Saturday evening she was terribly sick and I thought I would have to take her to the emergency clinic. I didn't sleep well that night but she was amazingly playful and friendly the next day although she didn't want any more chicken. I rattled a tin of dry food and she came running but I was too worried to give her more than a few pieces preferring to mix some wet food with pumpkin and chicken. This morning she had been sick practically everywhere! I had to take her to the vet.

To complicate matters, at least 3 more Chartreuse cats had been sighted and attempts were being made to trap them. During the week, one, a male, had been caught and taken to an animal shelter about 30 km away, a black and white tomcat had been trapped, castrated and was being looked after by his rescuer who will probably keep him. Sadly another had been found dead, presumably run over, near the main road. Hopefully the last, was caught in a trap on Sunday evening. Because this cat was larger, it was assumed to be a male and an appointment was made with a vet first thing this morning. Luckily I had the use of a  car so decided to pick up the cat myself after his OP taking my foster with me to let the vet examine her. She was the vet who had also examined the black and white tom.

It turned out that these 3 felines all have the same deformities in their lower jaws and suffer from ingrowing claws. Some fake breeder had got rid of his "contaminated goods" by throwing them out at the overgrown coal slagheap. These cats are hardly able to fend for themselves. They are now all undernourished, dehydrated and in a very poor way. The cat in the animal shelter weighed just 1.8 kg, had not been castrated and was estimated to be 8 years old. The youngest, the black and white tom, is probably the healthiest of the bunch. The cat believed to be a tom is in fact a 4 - 7 year old female. The vet thinks she is castrated but we will see. She couldn't tell if my little girl, at 2.1 kg is pregnant (in view of the circumstances we should perhaps hope that this is not the case). She is not fit enough for an operation at the moment.

So, the survivors, are all in care and being treated - I have the 2 females in my cellar. I just hope that they get on well together. Separate diets and medication are going to keep me very busy during the next few weeks. So wish me luck - I promise to post some pictures when

a) my new foster comes out from behind the settee and

b) when my little girl has put on some weight - she's all head at the moment.

By the way, the eight-year-old daughter of the family which first discovered the cats has named my little girl "Eyeses" because she has 2 different coloured eyes and the older cat "Mayla". Not sure I'll keep the names - perhaps I'll use the suggestions as surnames - Kitty Eyeses and Maggie Mayla . For now I just hope their health improves.

Those poor cats [emoji]128575[/emoji] I'm so glad they're all in good hands now. I swear I'll never understand how people can be so cruel and heartless.

The cats are so lucky to have found you and others like you to nurse them back to health. I wish you all the luck in the world. I've no doubt that it will be hard, but it will be so rewarding to see them fit, strong and healthy....just as they should be.

As for your original little girl - I really hope you can get to the bottom of her digestive troubles. Did the vet have any idea what was going on with her? Tons of healing vibes for your three beautiful girls

Columbine said:

As for your original little girl - I really hope you can get to the bottom of her digestive troubles. Did the vet have any idea what was going on with her? 

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Well, I suppose we are all hoping that it's a simple imbalance: she is exceedingly hungry but her body cannot cope with food after the long period of starvation. In addition she must be thirsty but she doesn't drink water. I made up some kmr this evening, in case she gets hungry in the night. It won't matter if the other cat drinks it. However, we cannot rule out kidney problems so if things don't improve we'll have to check her urine. The vet is also worried that there may be other congenital defects due to inbreeding.

Anyway, I hope it all works out.

Oh, wow just came across this thread. I'm so sad these cats were treated like this. I am glad you are caring for her and the other. I'm also glad the others were trapped and are being cared for. You're doing a great job, doing all that you've done already. Hopefully she'll be feeling better in a few days.

If you need a gentle food to feed after a bout of vomiting and/or diarrhea, try bone broth.  I am having great success using it with a very sick stray.  You can read about it on the internet or here is a video on how to make it.

I can't believe that 3 weeks have gone by since my last post. Well it has been a very busy 3 weeks, with new problems turning up all the time! Nothing life-threatenng but my 2 latest protegés are still far from ready to be rehomed.

First of all the promised pictures:  Smilio, the uncastrated, underfed 8 year old. This picture was taken on the day he was trapped and taken to an animal home. It was put on the Internet to try to trace his former owner. I am sure he looks a lot better than this by now. My girls have still some way to go but they are no longer just big heads.
My first little girl. At the moment I call her Miffy BlueEye. She has the innocent look of Dick Bruna's Miffy and one blue eye. Once she had put on a bit of weight she went into heat - which was continuous. She was spraying everywhere and was aggressively friendly. On Monday she was castrated. She has recovered very quickly but the vet said it may take some time before her hormones get back to normal.


And here's Molly - well she is much larger than Miffy. Unfortunately she also sprays. Maybe the two just don't like each other. maybe she's sterilised and not castrated, maybe she was castrated too late, maybe, maybe, maybe....
Well, spraying is no reason to give up on such beauties. Who would have thrown out such cuddly creatures?

Thank you all for your help on feeding them. We are back to normal cat food. My freezer now has a good supply of chicken broth, which I've been giving to Katie (see my "Diary of a Pregnant Feral"). She is suffering from the cat flue virus which affects her gums. She will need to have most of her teeth extracted once the antibiotics have reduced the inflammation.

Next steps: I will be taking Molly to another vet to confirm that she has been castrated and to get a second opinion on her teeth and claws; perhaps, a urine test as well to rule out an infection. It is only fair to tell a potential new owner exactly what health issues may have to be addressed in the future. Meanwhile, I'm trying to tackle the spraying problem. I'm using some old eau de Cologne in the affected areas having removed all objects (2 cat baskets, plastic tray, small basket used for brushes and combs) which they have targeted up to now. The room they occupy had been completely redecorated, it has never been used by cats before. The 3 cat trees, which have been used by countless cats and kittens, have not been targeted and the cat baskets are new! As well as baskets, they seem to like soft plastic: one of them even sprayed on a sachet of cat food on the table! These things are sent to try us!

So, both are out of danger. The other rescued tom, Emil, has been castrated. Next week he will have some teeth removed. Apart from the one unfortunate cat who was run over, it has been a successful rescue operation! Though, I've still got a lot of cleaning up to do! Thanks for all the healing vibes