Dehydrated!

Ok, Neko is dehydrated, he won't drink anything, he won't eat anything but wet food and turkey. I tried syringing water into his mouth, he wouldn't hold still, so we held him down and he was whipping his head around so bad. I even tried hiding the syringe in my sweatshirt sleeve, but he won't even let my hands near his mouth. My mom just gave him a tiny tiny bit of milk, just so he would have some liquids.
Ok here is the question, since he absolutely will NOT drink water (I even stuck my fingers in water and wiped it along his mouth) Should we buy KMR kitten milk so he has more liquids? I just want him to feel better, we already spent $200 on medicine and the vet, so we don't have much money in the next paycheck.
Will KMR work in hydrating him? Please please help!

Try mixing a little warm water with Neko's wet food. One way to tell if a cat is dehydrated is to gently pull up on the scruff of it's neck. Release the scruff, if the skin goes back into place immediately, the cat is ok, if the skin stay up or goes back into place slowly, the cat is probably dehydrated.

A dehydrated cat needs to be seen by a vet and will need to have fluids administered under it's skin. The best thing you can do is take Neko back to the vet ASAP.

Be careful syringing liquid into his mouth too quickly and he will aspirate and choke or worse. Pedialyte is the best for dehydration- try floating ice cubes in the water, or pop a toy in a bowl of water to see if he will duck his head and drink.

Even putting an ice chip in his mouth will work, but if he spits it out, just let him spit it.

try tuna juice, or make a gruel out of his cat food by adding liquid. Boil a turkey leg and feed him the cooled broth-

Good luck but if he is dehydrated, take him to the vet immediately it is nothing to mess with.

My vet gave me some advise when Hallie wasn't eating or drinking well. She said to squeeze the water from a tuna can into her drinking water. It worked! Her water smelled like tuna but it worked! She also told me to give her wet food as her main diet and mix it with a little warm water while she was not drinking. It has a lot more moisture in it that way (of course!).

If you can't get him to drink or eat wet food by tomorrow I'd get him to the vet for some IV fluids right away.

You mentioned money is a concern right now. My cat Snowball has had mild dehydration a couple of times in the past, so I know that this is a quick and easy thing for veterinary staff to deal with. All the vet had to do to get Snowball rehydrated was to insert a needle under his skin, and then stand there holding up a bag of IV fluids. It doesn't cost a lot of money to have this done.

You also might want to try adding a NO Flavor Pedialite (Yes, it exists) into the wet food that should help with dehydration.

Thank you all, he seems to be feeling a tiny bit better, I added warm water to his can food (it was in the fridge and I didn't want it to cold for him) He had a little of that and when I opened the treat container he felt good enough to come up to me to ask for some treats. I will try again later with the soupy canned food, for some reason we have no tuna left so we will go to the store for the tuna. Last night when I held his skin it didn't automatically go back, but this morning I did the same and it went down much faster (it is hard to tell, we put flea stuf on him so he is kind icky there and his fur is darker and thick, I couldn't tell what was skin) but he is feeling somewhat better, now I just have to get this house warm, our heater still doesn't work! Thanks again everyone for all of the advice, if he wasn't drinking by this afternoon (48 hours from the injection of clavamox) we were going to take him back in. We have enough clavamox for 7 cats, since this spreads so fast. The vet said it wouldn't hurt to give it to them even if they don't have it.

Giving fluids under the skin is something you might be able to do at home. If he is still dehydrated, ask your vet if a tech can show you how & you could bring some fluids home.Deb E