kitten with cold not drinking

My 6 month old kitten Guinness has a URI and along with that an eye infection. I took him to the vet last night and he also has a bit of a fever. I'm having a hard time getting him to eat. He is not touching his regular food and is very lethargic. He has been eating Wysong cat treats and some wet food that I hand feed him. So I hope he is getting enough food. What about water? He doesn't seem to be drinking any. He wasn't dehydrated last night (at the vet) and his skin goes down when I pull it up at the back of the neck. Is there anything I can put in the water to make him drink it? He is on antibiotics now. How long do you think it will take for him to start feeling better? Thanks for the help.

I would feed him wet food while he is sick, Cats get a lot of their moisture from wet food. There is thought out there that having a cat only on dry food contributes to UTI's. As long as you carefully watch him, and he stays hydrated, he'll probably start drinking again as he starts to feel better. Poor guy, I hope he perks up real soon!

Our vet has suggested over-the -counter, pediatric nose drops in the past for our cats stuffy nose. You may also want to go start your shower and get your bathroom steamed up, and hold him on your lap and breathe in the steam to help break up the congestion.
I agree with trying to feed wet food right now, the smell is stronger and hopefully Guinness can smell it, and will want to eat. You might also dilute the wet food with water, so he keeps hydrated.
Continue with his antibiotics and eye drops/cream, and hopefully in just a few days, he will be back to his old self again.
Get well soon!!

Purrs,
Stormi

Raise his dishes so that he won't have to lower his head to eat and drink, and fill his water dish to the brim.

Also drop some pebbles (cleaned) or marbles or something in the water so he will be intrigued enough to drink the water.

If he's not eating/drinking, warm up the wet food (not too hot) as this makes the odor stronger. If that doesn't work, you can try mixing in chicken baby food (stage 2 w/ no onions) and warming it up. As a last resort, you can syringe feed Pedialyte, again, just the plain stuff, not the flavored kind.

Also, if you can confine your cat to just one room, plug in a vaporizor to help him/her breathe. When my kitty was so congested with an URI, I went to the health food store and got some eucalyptus oil and put several drops on a cloth and put that near where she was sleeping. (Don't put it where the kitty can get ahold of it as it's lethal to cats.) I also put some drops on a washcloth and placed that near the vaporizor so the aroma would mingle with the steam.

Stephanie

Thank you for all of the suggestions. I have been taking him into the bathroom with the shower on and it seems to help a lot. Yesterday was bad and I had a really hard time getting him to eat but I eventually got some food into him. This morning when I was feeding my other cat their dry food he just started eating on his own!!!! I'm so relieved! Also he was running around and acting more like his old self. His eye still looks like hell though but at least he is eating and drinking. His eye leaks clear fluid and the third eyelid is showing a tiny bit and is red. He is on anti-biotics and I was really hoping that his eye would get better... I'll be calling the vet today to see if I should bring him back in. Does anyone have any idea what could be going on with his eye? The vet did check to see if there were any scratches etc but there wasn't any.

Cats can get viruses in their eyes as well. If the discharge is still clear then he probably does not have a secondary infection yet. When you call the vet they may suggest an eye ointment, perhaps something with a steroid to help make him feel better. The virus will need to run it's course though and until then you are just treating the symptoms. Keep him well fed and hydrated and as stress free as possible and he will get better eventually.

I went through URI with Pooh not long ago. Someone here suggested giving her the liquid from a can of tuna in water. She lapped it right up ! I also added some tiny bits of cooked chicken and she gobbled it all down. Hope your baby is well again soon. I know how scary it is when they're sick !!