Otherwise healthy kitten won't eat on her own - pls advise.

[rubyshuman]

Hello all --

Ruby is 7 months old and as of a vet visit with full blood and urine work and an X-ray this week she is in perfect health.

She was spayed a little over a month ago and took it hard. She had an averse reaction to the internal suture material and had to be syringe fed for 2 weeks until she bounced back.

After her recovery she ate like a champ! At 7lbs she was eating 5oz+ of wet Wellness Kitten per day.

Then, last Monday, she lost interest in all food. I owned a bunch of different wet foods and baby foods from the last time and I tried everything. I made her boiled chicken, eggs, treats, I was willing to give her anything but she wanted none of it. We went to the vet and got a clean bill of health but the vet it obviously concerned as well.

Since last Monday, I've been able to get about 4oz a day into her only by hand feeding or syringe feeding. She loves the syringe. It's super weird. She will eat food out of my hand or via gnawing on the syringe, but will ignore the same food in a dish or plate (I've tried all sorts of presentations.) she could care less about "junk food," treats, or human food.

I love her. She's the best tempered, most amazing kitten I've ever had. She is my heart, but I'm at a loss. Please help. I just want my little girl to get better.

I'm lucky that I work for myself, so I've been able to deal with the weird hours and late night feelings, but I'm afraid to go too far from home in case she goes too long without a feeding.

I'd love some ideas if you have them.

I keep trying to feed her normally, but she couldn't care less, so I end up hand or syringe feeding.

Hi, my name is Bianca, and I specialize in throwing away uneaten cat food....

 

[rubyshuman]

Hello all --

Ruby is 7 months old and as of a vet visit with full blood and urine work and an X-ray this week she is in perfect health.

She was spayed a little over a month ago and took it hard. She had an averse reaction to the internal suture material and had to be syringe fed for 2 weeks until she bounced back.

After her recovery she ate like a champ! At 7lbs she was eating 5oz+ of wet Wellness Kitten per day.

Then, last Monday, she lost interest in all food. I owned a bunch of different wet foods and baby foods from the last time and I tried everything. I made her boiled chicken, eggs, treats, I was willing to give her anything but she wanted none of it. We went to the vet and got a clean bill of health but the vet it obviously concerned as well.

Since last Monday, I've been able to get about 4oz a day into her only by hand feeding or syringe feeding. She loves the syringe. It's super weird. She will eat food out of my hand or via gnawing on the syringe, but will ignore the same food in a dish or plate (I've tried all sorts of presentations.) she could care less about "junk food," treats, or human food.

I love her. She's the best tempered, most amazing kitten I've ever had. She is my heart, but I'm at a loss. Please help. I just want my little girl to get better.

I'm lucky that I work for myself, so I've been able to deal with the weird hours and late night feelings, but I'm afraid to go too far from home in case she goes too long without a feeding.

I'd love some ideas if you have them.

I keep trying to feed her normally, but she couldn't care less, so I end up hand or syringe feeding.

Hi, my name is Bianca, and I specialize in throwing away uneaten cat food....

 

[rubyshuman]

*adverse

 

[rubyshuman]

image.jpeg

• rubyshuman
• Apr 28, 2016

Thought you all might want to see her beautiful face.

 

[katsa]

Aw, she is very cute. Sorry to hear she's not eating. I don't really have much advice as it sounds like you've already been trying all of the right things. When one of my cats was a kitten and  not very keen on eating, I fed her some warm chicken and she would eat that. Sounds like you've already tried that though with boiled chicken. Have you tried giving her dry food? My cat preferred dry food when she was younger - all of my cats love Royal Canin Kitten dry food (the older ones try to eat my kitten's food all the time as they like it more than their dry food). Have you tried not feeding her with a syringe for a while so she's super hungry? Maybe hunger would inspire her to eat from the bowl again. Good luck - I hope she starts eating normally soon!

 

[rubyshuman]

I tried the hunger thing a few days ago. 12 hours without the syringe and she still didn't give a bleep about any type of food! My goal today is to get 5oz+ into her. We just did feeding #3 for the day and we're at a 2.5+oz, so we should be on track. It's nuts though. She's happy, playing, grooming, drinking, urinating, pooping all like a normal kitten EXCEPT...she hates food.

 

[katsa]

How frustrating! Has the vet come across this before? 

 

[rubyshuman]

Never! She is just as perplexed as I am. Sigh.

 

[rubyshuman]

Success I guess?
We did 5oz today over 5 feedings. I have to work a 14hr day tomorrow, so she'll get a feedings at 6am, 9am (my boyfriend), 2pm (a friend), and then not until I get home. But I'm going to leave her some dry food as an option. Fingers crossed.

 

[rubyshuman]

Day 14 of this. Update.
We are still doing 5-6 syringe feedings a day. 1oz each feeding. Today, in a minor victory she ate 2 tbsp of her regular wet food that I put out when I had to leave for a meeting. Yay! But that was that. I tried leaving some out and just leaving the house for the heck of it tonight to see if me being there is the problem, but no dice. Tomorrow is her weekly weigh in day, so I'll have a better idea if she's maintaining her weight then, although she feels the same and is still acting 100% kitten. I'm exhausted, but she seems to be doing well, so I'm hopeful that today's little solo snack is a sign of things to come.

 

[katsa]

I'm glad you're managing to get a decent amount of food into her via syringe, and hope that her eating on her own is a sign of things to come. Good luck!

 

[rubyshuman]

Update on all fronts!

Ok, so...after 2 weeks of shenanigans, Ruby finally decided that Wellness Chicken and Turkey strips wet food was ok, and so was her old dry food. I was thrilled! Then almost immediately, I noticed some mystery scabbing on her right hind leg that didn't seem to go away after a week. I consulted her vet, and she didn't want to act right away (neither did I) because an antibiotic could result in a loss of appetite! After thoroughly checking my home again for ANY possible irritants, and trying a topical antibiotic with no luck, we returned to the vet this week for the antibiotic shot. As a side note, Ruby eats off of only ceramic or stainless steel. THEN, the morning after her shot (yesterday morning) I woke up to discover that she had developed a swollen bottom lip! Pic attached. ARG! An email of this pic to the vet, and another conversation, has lead her to believe that the leg scabs and this both may be related to a food allergy. So I got the prescription for Royal Canin hypoallergenic and was off to the pet store. OUCH, that's expensive. We're going to try to begin SLOWLY introducing it tonight, but I've got to be honest, after all the trouble I've had finding *anything* she wants to eat, I'm really nervous about trying to switch her food again even though I know it has to be done. My poor little fluff. Does anyone have some advice or encouraging word for us over here? We could really use them! All in all, however, she doesn't seemed to be bothered by ANY of this, her energy is fantastic, and she's 100% kitten. Mommy however, is losing her mind. Haha.

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• rubyshuman
• May 18, 2016