severely dehydrated cat

My cat will die today if I don't get her hydrared. She has IBD I think. Have been force feeding her 8 months. I bought rad cat and was wondering if anyone knows if it will dehydrate her more. Neef help right away. I have over 3000 dollars from vet bills, they didn't help much except for subq fluids. Please someone help me.

Can you syringe fluids for her? What about more subq fluids?

I can give fluids through an eyedropper but cannot get subq fluids until tomorrow. She has had diarreha for months. I am sure it is because of canned food and changing foods so often. I think rad cat would work but she is very dehydrated and thin. Am hoping rad cat won't dehydrate her more. Not sure how to save her. I tried a few drops of pedialite ever 10 minutes for 1 hr.last night. Then in 2 hrs I did it again. She was worse this morning and almost bones.

how old is the cat? what does the vet say?

I don't think Rad Cat will make it worse, but it's hard to tell what is going on here medically.  Does she have a protein allergy?  It would help to hear more about what the vets have said.

Can you get a syringe without a needle?  It would be easier to get fluids into her that way.  

If you really think she is going to die, can you take her to an ER vet?

I can use a syringe a little at a timeshe is a turkish angora and about 9 years old. Have had her to 3 different vets. The first 2 (about 8 months ago) said put her to sleep because her bowls were compacted, and it would never go through. Well, I got it to go through and the xray showed ok nm ly clumps were left (at my regular vet). They thought she had a tumor on her rectum, but the last vet thought it was from straining so hard-which is what I believe. Haven't been able to stop the diarreha. I think rad cat might if I can get enough in her but she is really dehydrated.

I dont know nothing about Rad cat, I will google soon.  But 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 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.

The Rad cat won't dehydrate her. Is she willing to eat it on her own?
I feel for you and am sorry that you and your kitty are having such a tough time right now. I know that the vet bills accumulate fast and it is so frustrating not getting any results, health wise.

The way you describe your present and most pressing issue it is imperative to get your kitty rehydrated! Sub Q fluids are necessary in my opinion.

You have been feeding her for 8 months with a syringe? "Force feeding" ? Has your vet mentioned or considered a feeding tube?

The emergency vet is over an hour away and it would cost at least 1,500 dollars more. I can use a syringe without a needle. How would I do the honey recipe? and how often? Also, thank you so much for helping me.

They did at the ER but it is costly and a ways away. I am having a hard time trusting the vets. We have spent thousands and I have done better on my own until now.

have you called them? oftentimes calling and explaining that the other vet didn't give basic care maybe they are willing to treat conserve by doing subfluids at the minimum. the shot was convenia and is used for skin infections and bladder infections with e coli. Not sure if that will help in your situation. But the subfluids will be desperately needed-do you know anyone in the area that treats kidney disease-those kitties get subfluids several times a week. I still cant believe they didn't at least give fluids. that's the first thing in er vet care for critically ill cats. Sub fluids unless there are cardiac issues.

try calling that er vet-sometimes they will treat you better if you call ahead and explain the issues. if they give you the run around then at least you wont have any suprises. you can go on yelp and look up their clinic to see what people say.

or facebook search them-see what is said.

lorna1957 said:

The emergency vet is over an hour away and it would cost at least 1,500 dollars more. I can use a syringe without a needle. How would I do the honey recipe? and how often? Also, thank you so much for helping me.

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You do it in the easiest way.   Water, some honey, some salt.  Warm up / boil up and stir.  Let it be body temp, and use.

The ideal dosage in one litre is 1,5 soup spoons of sugar source, and 1 tea spoon of salt.  So its barely salty respective barely sweety in tasting.

How often? rather often and rather much, as she is dehydrated.   I believe the rule of thumb is otherwise, 70ml of fluid on each kilo body weight.  per day.

If she vomits after drinking, the trick is give just a few drops but often.  This way the stomach never notices there come any fluid.

I remember I held my son nice and sound three days with this trick.  I knew there went this vomit-flu around, and as long as I knew what to do, there werent real need to drive to the hospital.  He was brave and cooperative, and it went nicely.

Re rad cat and dehydration.   It hardly dehydrates as such, but if it contains a lot of water, as most wet foods, you dont need to add much more water.

But if its dry-wise, almost as dry cat food, then you will need to give quite a more water...

You see the water contain on the label.     Dry food has max 20 water,  wet food has typically 80%.   I suppose Rad is somewhere in between, but I hadnt not seen their labels.

Yes, but very expensiveho much pedalite should I give her?

I hope he was ok after that. She (Chiffon) only weighs about four pounds, so I don't know how much it would be in your measurements.

lorna1957 said:

how much pedalite should I give her?

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I think pedialyte is better than common water.  Also, in an emergency if she cant eat at all, you can buy some time with it.

  And she is dehydrated.  So you give more than barely every day dose.  So at least 70ml a day on each kilo.   Water and pedialyte.

Say, she has 4 kilos.  280 ml gives about two small cups of coffe, I think...   If her diet is mainly dry food, almost all of this.  If her diet is mainly wet food, perhaps half of it or even less.

As said, as she is dehydrated, give as much as you can.  Not all must be pedialyte, and you can try out the different recipes when you get the ingredients.

Btw, another tip is goat milk if you can get it.  Especielly raw goat milk (fresh or frozen) is useful. But bottled or cartooned are good too.

is Chiffon a kitten?   Ok, four pounds gives about 2 kilos, so 140 ml fluids in total a day.

Half of my earlier example.

And a ml is the same as a cc.

I have goat milk and gave her a little.she really is having trouble swallowing. Thank you.