Is my cat depressed? Not eating

[Kaneki_Calico]

Hello, first time poster here. My 4.5 year old calico named Kaneki has been acting strangely the past 48 hours. She hasn't eaten in about 36 hours, is sleeping more than normal, and is generally uninterested in her toys. She isn't behaving as if she's in pain and is still voiding normally, but she's just moping around. I have taken her to the vet, who put her on prophylactic antibiotics in case she has a UTI (which she's had in the past) but she isn't acting the same way she has before when she had that infection. I realized that a family of birds that had made a nest outside my window has recently vacated the area, as the chicks learned to fly and the parents moved on. Kaneki adored sitting in the window and watching the chicks, particularly when they were learning to fly. Could her behavior be related to losing those friends? How many days can a cat go without eating before I should take her back to the vet? She is a big girl and won't starve anytime soon, but I don't want her to be uncomfortable and malnurished. Thank you for your help!

 

[neely]

Welcome to TCS! I'm sorry your cat, Kaneki, is having a problem which may ultimately affect her health. Since it has been more than 24 hours since she last ate you need to intervene. Please refer to this TCS Article about how to get your cat to start eating again:
How To Get Your Cat To Start Eating Again

Do you know if she definitely had a UTI, was she showing symptoms of it since you mentioned she was acting differently than in the past? It would seem to me that the absence of the birds/chicks from your window might make her miss them but not cause her to stop eating. Please try whatever it takes to get her to eat and put in a call to your vet ASAP. Best of luck, I will keep my fingers crossed for your calico and you. Please keep us posted on your progress.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I cannot add one thing to neely 's post. Read that article. It is EXCELLENT! And keep us posted, please. Your cat is now, in some small way, our cat, as well, and we'll fret!

 

[Kaneki_Calico]

So I think she has just lost trust in me and the food I have for her. To start off, I do have an appointment set up at the vet for her. The symptoms she was showing last thursday were the same symptoms shes shown in her previous UTI, hence why I took her to the emergency vet. He wasn't able to get a urine sample and due to her stress levels (lots of protests going on in my neighborhood) he thought it could also be FIC. But we tried clavamox just in case it was actually a UTI. After about three days of the clavamox, she wasn't showing the UTI symptoms anymore but had switched to the lethargy and loss of appetite. I had been putting the clavamox in her wet food and she absolutely hated it, and wouldn't let me put it in her mouth directly with the syringe. Today she is up and moving around and showing interest in things like she used to, and is acting like she is hungry, but when I put food out for her, or offer her a treat, she sniffs it and walks away. I think she's got a combo of being tired and stressed from the trip to the emergency vet and the struggle with taking meds, and a hesitancy to eat her food in fear that it will taste like the clavamox again. Like I said, she does have a vet appointment just to be sure, but I think her nerves just got to her.

 

[Kaneki_Calico]

Im also going to try cooking some plain chicken for her to see if she'll eat that, since shes never had it before. Maybe she'll trust it enough to give it a taste.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

How did the chicken go? If we reach the 72 hour mark without eating, you may have to syringe-feed her. If you don't have experience with that, just ask.

 

[Kaneki_Calico]

Wound up going with salmon. She ate several bites of the meat, and i poured some juice from the fish on her dry food, which she also ate a few bites. She's still voiding and drinking water, and tomorrow im going to get some different brand of cat food to see if she trusts that. I truly think she now associates the wet food she used to eat with the medicine I hid in it, and she doesn't trust it anymore.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Keep us posted! It's excellent that she is at least beginning to eat again.