Dehydration

My cat was severely dehydrated. He has a lot of medical issues going on right now. My question: how can I tell if or when he is well hydrated again?

In dehydrated animals, there is less fluid in the skin and it is less elastic.  One way to check for dehydration in a cat is to lift the skin over the animal's shoulders and watch how fast it goes back to its normal position.  In a normally hydrated cat, the skin will snap back into to its normal position immediately.  If the cat is slightly dehydrated, the skin will go back a little more slowly, showing it is maybe 6-8% dehydrated.  If the pet is as much as 10-12% dehydrated, the skin will actually stand up like a tent and not go back into normal position for quite awhile.  If the skin does not go back at all, it's a serious emergency and you need to get to a vet right away.

If he has been having this problem, you should not be feeding him any dry food, which has only 8-10% moisture.  Instead, you should be feeding him all canned food and even offering other things he might like to drink such as tuna water or chicken broth in addition to water. Many cats love goats milk and it is very good for them.  You can buy it in the diary section of most large supermarkets and even WalMart, or you can get it in condensed form in a can in the baking department, where the condensed milk is.  Cows milk is not good for them, but goat's milk seems to aid digestion.  If you get the canned, dilute it with 50% water to get it back to its normal concentration.

To make tuna water, take a can of tuna and put it in a quart jar with some distilled water (or even spring water is fine).  Shake it up and strain the tuna out and offer the water in a bowl in addition to his normal fresh water. 

Good luck with your sick cat.  Let us know how he's doing.

Thank you for the fluid tips. The vet didn't really say what to do about the dehydration so everything helps. I will definitely get some goats milk tomorrow. For now I'll do chicken broth and tuna water. He finally has an appetite so I want to give him anything he can handle.

Wet or raw food only, NO kibble. Add extra water to his food and make sure you have a water fountain to encourage drinking. 

sparrow1 said:

Thank you for the fluid tips. The vet didn't really say what to do about the dehydration so everything helps. I will definitely get some goats milk tomorrow. For now I'll do chicken broth and tuna water. He finally has an appetite so I want to give him anything he can handle.

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Im reusing another post, you will perhaps have some use of it.

I will cut and paste a post re Pedialyte, maybe it will be useful here.  Also a tip for cat whom dont want to drink - its water fountains.   My breeder kept  an ex Queen alive almost two years by forcefeeding fluids.  Later on she used a water fountain, so this ex Queen got her last year alive more happy, drinking enough with water fully voluntarily.

Re homemade pedialyte, Im reusing a couple of my older posts.  If it seems lenghy, the most important recipe is at the end.

Pedialyte:

Now, as the sugar source, I use always glucose sugar (dextrose).  Its easy to get in Sweden, most well equipped food shops do carry the powder.    There are also flavored sweeties, heavily used by students and  wanna be sportsmen,  made of glucose sugar.   

So for me its no big deal to use the proper ingredient, instead of using emergency replacements.

For american forumites whom have difficulties to find glucose sugar proper, there is always white caro syrup, or even honey - honey does contain some glucose, and white caro syrup contains much glucose sugar.  In some brands its perhaps even essentially liquid glucose sugar.

Common sugar works too, but much slower, as it must be digested..  While glucose doesnt need to be digested, it goes into blood directly from the stomach, yes, even from the lips and mouth.

These whom tried both, are astonished how quickly glucose works, practically instantly.

As salt source, I use  minerale salt.  Also common in shops here in Sweden.  This salt contains  several different minerales, not just the NaCl in the usual kitchen salt. Including this potassium K salt.

A nice base for salt sources is simple a bottle of good minerale water.   These do typically contain a lotsa of different salts, in suitable concentration. Look at the label!

Let the gas out, add the glucose sugar source, and voilá!  you got a terrific home made pedialyte...

Common kitchen salt is OK if you dont have anything else, but its too "poverty"  if you use the pedialyte more than occasionally.

A third recipe is,  you use water from well cooked rice.   In practice its heavily over cooked.

And add  salt to it, preferably  such a minerale salt mentioned above...

This rice water contains lotsa of glucose sugar.   This variation of  pedialyte probably extra useful in some types of diarrhea, as water from overcooked rice is in itself  one of the remedies against diarrhea.  At least, the emergency doc gave us the recipe when I was a child and sick in diarrhea...  

A nice combination should be,  a  homemade pedialyte on such an overboilded rice, in water of mineral water.

Here we get both natural glucose sugar, lotsa of good mineral salts, and the rests from rice whom are good when having a diarrhea.  After all, such rice water is a classical home remedy for humans with diarrhea...

There is of course bought pedialyte, which can be used too.  Some of the brands have too much funny ingredients, though.  But if desperate, can be used.

My recommendation for bough pedialyte is, flavorless pedialyte for babies.   This is OK for cats.

Last, not least: diluting powder kmr with some pedialyte instead of just water, is often useful with diarrhea kittens, as reported by our forumists.

Does anyone have good suggestions on feeding my cat fluids? We were doing well using a syringe but now the little boy runs from me. Is there anything else I can try? I add water to his food and will have to get IV fluids son if he keeps refusing.

sparrow1 said:

Does anyone have good suggestions on feeding my cat fluids? We were doing well using a syringe but now the little boy runs from me. Is there anything else I can try? I add water to his food and will have to get IV fluids son if he keeps refusing.

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Is he actually dehydrated or are just just trying to encourage drinking more water? What kind of food do you feed him?

Is he dehydrated from something like kidney disease?  That can be an ongoing battle because they need a lot more liquid than a normal cat, and sometimes you DO have to give them subQ fluids because they cannot drink enough to keep themselves hydrated.  Do ask your vet about the cause of the dehydration if its a constant thing despite eating wet food with added water.

He has IBD or cancer, it is still unclear. He is dehydrated from months of vomiting and diarrhea and 2 rounds of steroids. I saw the vet today, he suggested I add water to his food which I can easily do - he is on a strict can food or baked chicken/fish diet, no dry for or treats. He also just started eating an intestinal diet prescription food. I'm wondering how can I get this cat to drink from a syringe??? He did it for about a week but more runs and his when I try. Any suggestions on how to get him to take it like a champ?

How much water does my cat need? How many ounces am I aiming for?

sparrow1 said:

How much water does my cat need? How many ounces am I aiming for?

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 There isn't a set amount of water a cat needs daily.  Every cat is different. A few ounces of water daily is usually the norm for a healthy cat.  Use the skin tent test to determine if the cat is hdyrated or not. I suggest just making sure your cat gets plenty of water through canned food that has extra water added to it and using the tips here http://www.thecatsite.com/a/tips-to-increase-your-cat-s-water-intake Water is good for the body

Thx!