Does anyone have advice on how to get a sick cat to take pills or eat at all?
My cat threw up Tuesday night and had orange poop overnight so I made an urgent care appointment and brought her in Wednesday night. That morning she was still active and jumping on my keyboard. When I got home from work to take her, she was hiding and looked a bit yellow. When I brought her to the vet, they said she was very, very sick and told me she was jaundiced. Gave the options of some blood tests and imaging to see if it might be treatable and ended up saying it looked like a liver or gallbladder infection so brought her home with a giant pharmacy. On Thursday she was eager to eat, but fought the medicine so had to dissolve it in a syringe and shove as much as possible into her mouth (she dutifully picked around the pills in wet food and spit them out when I tried to get her to swallow them). Friday she wouldn't eat any form of cat food (wet or dry, several brands) nor baby food - was willing to eat a bit of butter off a stick. Medicine again syringed in. Vet's office last night said to just keep trying to get the medicine in and confirmed crushing is OK - liquid form is not available for the ones they gave her.
Today (Saturday), she still won't eat anything and is still yellow. No pee since Thursday, one time pooping. She will drink water so I will try chicken broth when it finishes cooking.
Will call the vet's office again Monday morning, but any advice to keep her comfortable or get food/medicine in her now? I'd rather not take her back to the emergency vet - I have the prescription painkillers at home to keep her comfortable so there's not much they could do. Hospitalization is not an option. Will be asking the vet about the ethics of keeping her alive like this on Monday but wondering if there's anything I can do to help her in the meantime.
My cat threw up Tuesday night and had orange poop overnight so I made an urgent care appointment and brought her in Wednesday night. That morning she was still active and jumping on my keyboard. When I got home from work to take her, she was hiding and looked a bit yellow. When I brought her to the vet, they said she was very, very sick and told me she was jaundiced. Gave the options of some blood tests and imaging to see if it might be treatable and ended up saying it looked like a liver or gallbladder infection so brought her home with a giant pharmacy. On Thursday she was eager to eat, but fought the medicine so had to dissolve it in a syringe and shove as much as possible into her mouth (she dutifully picked around the pills in wet food and spit them out when I tried to get her to swallow them). Friday she wouldn't eat any form of cat food (wet or dry, several brands) nor baby food - was willing to eat a bit of butter off a stick. Medicine again syringed in. Vet's office last night said to just keep trying to get the medicine in and confirmed crushing is OK - liquid form is not available for the ones they gave her.
Today (Saturday), she still won't eat anything and is still yellow. No pee since Thursday, one time pooping. She will drink water so I will try chicken broth when it finishes cooking.
Will call the vet's office again Monday morning, but any advice to keep her comfortable or get food/medicine in her now? I'd rather not take her back to the emergency vet - I have the prescription painkillers at home to keep her comfortable so there's not much they could do. Hospitalization is not an option. Will be asking the vet about the ethics of keeping her alive like this on Monday but wondering if there's anything I can do to help her in the meantime.
