I'm extremely upset so please do not make judging or rude comments. I go out of town about every other weekend and my mom watches the cats for me. She feeds them twice a day and hangs out with them for awhile. This weekend for whatever reason she "completely forgot" about them and they were not fed from 8am Friday morning until tonight at 6pm.
Needless to say, finding this out was an extremely traumatic experience for me as I pictured three dead cats in my house. I felt like I had abandoned them as I was the last person they saw before they went hungry, and this made me feel like I failed as a cat mom for not being there for them when they were scared and hungry and needed help. On top of that I was still out of town when I found out and could not help them... luckily my landlady was home and went and fed them at 6pm tonight. They were too upset and hungry to wait for her to put the food in bowls so they got a can each on the floor (lol... I can find a little humor in that image, at least).
I got home and they were very happy to see me and loved on me. I picked each one up and held them and apologized. I inspected the house and did not find anything except a few spots where I could see they had puked up bile. But did not find poop or pee that may have arisen from distress or anything - the litterbox had deposits (it was clean when I left) so that seems to be ok.
My question is, what do I need to do to make sure they are in good health? I fed them again the late night meal as usual (about 1/3 of a 5.5oz can each) and they ate that normally, ran the faucet for them to drink from and they drank a little but didn't seem thirsty. They are all normal weight except for Garfunkel who could comfortably gain 1 to 1.5 lbs (don't know how to beef him up, have been trying to increase his calories but with three cats fed from 1 can it's difficult to get the numbers exact) - I know it's mostly overweight cats who are at risk for fatty liver, but is there something I should watch for just in case?
Thanks in advance for your help and please do not post judgmental comments... I am extremely traumatized by this event and cannot take any additional stress. Thanks.
Needless to say, finding this out was an extremely traumatic experience for me as I pictured three dead cats in my house. I felt like I had abandoned them as I was the last person they saw before they went hungry, and this made me feel like I failed as a cat mom for not being there for them when they were scared and hungry and needed help. On top of that I was still out of town when I found out and could not help them... luckily my landlady was home and went and fed them at 6pm tonight. They were too upset and hungry to wait for her to put the food in bowls so they got a can each on the floor (lol... I can find a little humor in that image, at least).
I got home and they were very happy to see me and loved on me. I picked each one up and held them and apologized. I inspected the house and did not find anything except a few spots where I could see they had puked up bile. But did not find poop or pee that may have arisen from distress or anything - the litterbox had deposits (it was clean when I left) so that seems to be ok.
My question is, what do I need to do to make sure they are in good health? I fed them again the late night meal as usual (about 1/3 of a 5.5oz can each) and they ate that normally, ran the faucet for them to drink from and they drank a little but didn't seem thirsty. They are all normal weight except for Garfunkel who could comfortably gain 1 to 1.5 lbs (don't know how to beef him up, have been trying to increase his calories but with three cats fed from 1 can it's difficult to get the numbers exact) - I know it's mostly overweight cats who are at risk for fatty liver, but is there something I should watch for just in case?
Thanks in advance for your help and please do not post judgmental comments... I am extremely traumatized by this event and cannot take any additional stress. Thanks.