You can lead a cat to water...

[tyam]

But I just can't make my Tycho drink.

So, a little background.  Tycho is somewhere between 1 and 2 years old, and a fairly small kitty at about 8-9 pounds.  We got Tycho last December as a companion for our older kitty, Amadeus.  They get along fantastically, grooming each other, napping together, play fighting, the whole nine yards.  They've shared bowls and litter boxes, but have also had them separate.  We recently moved into a house and now they have three floors to tear around.

The problem we have is that Tycho just will not drink.  He will occasionally lap up a sip or two, but that's only maybe once a week or twice at the most.  We're very concerned because he blocked back in April and is still producing an incredibly high number of crystals.  He's on the medicated wet vet food to try to keep his crystals under control, but it's moderately effective at best.  And he still won't drink - won't even eat his wet food if we add too much water to it.

We've got five different bowls of water about the house, plus we'll run the tap for him if he's hanging around a sink.  We've got metal, ceramic, and plastic bowls; big, small, and medium; ones the dogs use and ones they have never touched; we've even tried iced water and heated water as well as cool to room temperature water.  And he still won't drink.  In fact, the only place I've ever seen him drink from is the toilet, and even then it's rare.

Are there any tricks to getting a cat to drink, or are we just going to have to keep trying to add a bit of water to his already wet food and hope that it will help things?

 

[vball91]

Sounds like the only thing you haven't tried is a water fountain which he might like if he likes drinking from the tap. Unfortunately cats have a low thirst drive because they are geared toward getting most of their water from food. This is one of the primary reasons why wet food is recommended over dry.

Given that the Rx wet food is only marginally helping, I would consider adding methionine to the food of your choice and monitoring his urine pH at home using test strips. It is easier to control the dosage of methionine this way. Crystals form in high pH. If you can keep his urine pH to optimal 6.0-6.5, they are less likely to form. In addition, there may be grains or other starches in your Rx food that causes urine pH spikes. The other things you can do would be to feed smaller more frequent meals to prevent urine pH fluctuations (alkaline tide effect) and address any stress-related issues.

 

[betsygee]

A water fountain is a good idea.  All of our cats use and like them.  You can get inexpensive ones at Petco or someplace like that.  

What a great story, so neat your guys became such good buddies!  

 

[mservant]

What a shame Amadeus and the dogs haven't managed to teach Tycho to drink with them while they tear up your home. And what a fuss pot not liking food you 'doctor'.    

All my cats have had the habit of lapping at dripping taps - one cheeky one even figured out how to turn my kitchen cross-head taps on when I was out one day and I came back to a real mess. (Had to tie a towel round the taps for weeks after that to stop her).  If ychy does drink from taps maybe the water fountain is the way to go. I've never used one but it would give that running/movement interest that bowls don't.

My trick, which I've seen a few others on this site have also used, has been to give treat bits of 'human grade' tuna in spring water. I have the bulk of the tuna but give a portion plus all the water from the can to the cat.  You may well already have tried this from what you've said above but there again, I' not sure if it's OK to give this with his crystals.

The other thing I do with my boy is hold a syringe of water for him to lap at and keep refilling it from a cup in front of him. He had an oral medication he really liked so I kept up using the syringe as a treat thing to keep him used to it as he often needs medication. Also used it when we'd had to go out in the car on a hot day recently as he wouldn't drink from a bowl - he took the syringe stuff no problem.  He has the cutest face when he drinks like this - like he's back drinking from mommy's milk-bar.

 (He wasn't weaned till he was over 3 months old the spoiled little boy that he was)! I guess you could do this with kitty milk but I've never used that stuff and don't know if contents other than the fluids are good for cats.

Good luck!

 

[tyam]

Sounds like the only thing you haven't tried is a water fountain which he might like if he likes drinking from the tap. Unfortunately cats have a low thirst drive because they are geared toward getting most of their water from food. This is one of the primary reasons why wet food is recommended over dry.

Given that the Rx wet food is only marginally helping, I would consider adding methionine to the food of your choice and monitoring his urine pH at home using test strips. It is easier to control the dosage of methionine this way. Crystals form in high pH. If you can keep his urine pH to optimal 6.0-6.5, they are less likely to form. In addition, there may be grains or other starches in your Rx food that causes urine pH spikes. The other things you can do would be to feed smaller more frequent meals to prevent urine pH fluctuations (alkaline tide effect) and address any stress-related issues.

A fountain really is the only thing we haven't tried.  Luckily, I think my MIL has an old one that she doesn't use so we can probably borrow it and test.  He doesn't drink from the tap, though, so I don't know if it'll work.  Guess I'll cross my fingers and hope.

We had him on a holistic urinary support food for a while because it was grain-free and Amadeus can't have corn.  That apparently sent his crystal numbers shooting sky-high, so we switched to the vet food (which does have corn, sadly).  That's only brought him down a bit and the vet is still really concerned seeing as he's pretty small.  She keeps lecturing us to get him to drink more, but never has any suggestions as to how.

We'll have to see if we can get methionine here in Canada.  The vet certainly hasn't suggested it, and a quick skim of the typical local pet stores and online only shows it at Amazon.com.  Tycho currently gets fed 4x per day now, and that's about the most we can do considering we both work.  As it is, my DH is coming home at lunch to put down food for both cats.

A water fountain is a good idea.  All of our cats use and like them.  You can get inexpensive ones at Petco or someplace like that.  

What a great story, so neat your guys became such good buddies!  

They're super sweet together, which makes us very happy.  Amadeus was not a pleased kitty when his old friend moved out (my MIL's cat stayed with us for a year) but he came around within days of us getting Tycho and now they're thick as thieves.

I do think we'll try the water fountain and cross our fingers.  He's shown no interest in the running water from the tap, but maybe he wants less movement but still some?

What a shame Amadeus and the dogs haven't managed to teach Tycho to drink with them while they tear up your home. And what a fuss pot not liking food you 'doctor'.    

All my cats have had the habit of lapping at dripping taps - one cheeky one even figured out how to turn my kitchen cross-head taps on when I was out one day and I came back to a real mess. (Had to tie a towel round the taps for weeks after that to stop her).  If ychy does drink from taps maybe the water fountain is the way to go. I've never used one but it would give that running/movement interest that bowls don't.

My trick, which I've seen a few others on this site have also used, has been to give treat bits of 'human grade' tuna in spring water. I have the bulk of the tuna but give a portion plus all the water from the can to the cat.  You may well already have tried this from what you've said above but there again, I' not sure if it's OK to give this with his crystals.

The other thing I do with my boy is hold a syringe of water for him to lap at and keep refilling it from a cup in front of him. He had an oral medication he really liked so I kept up using the syringe as a treat thing to keep him used to it as he often needs medication. Also used it when we'd had to go out in the car on a hot day recently as he wouldn't drink from a bowl - he took the syringe stuff no problem.  He has the cutest face when he drinks like this - like he's back drinking from mommy's milk-bar.

 (He wasn't weaned till he was over 3 months old the spoiled little boy that he was)! I guess you could do this with kitty milk but I've never used that stuff and don't know if contents other than the fluids are good for cats.

Good luck!

Sadly, Tycho hates syringes in his mouth.  We had a medication we had to give him via oral syringe and by the end of the two weeks he was on it, he thought I was the worst most evil person ever.  He's got such a teeny mouth too, it makes it hard to get anything in if he doesn't want to.  I have tried syringing water in slowly and carefully and he just lets it run right back out again.

We've been advised to stay away from fish due to his crystals, but he's never been fond of it anyway.  Knowing him, he'd eat the tuna and leave the liquid.  He is a picky picky little monster for as much as he tries to convince us that he's starving

He's definitely our problem child (his nickname is even Psycho Kitten).  How we managed three perfectly healthy and sweet animals and then had this half-grown kitten come along and be a wreck health-wise is beyond me.  Even though the other three are all getting to be seniors (all are between 8 and 9), Tycho's the only one we've had vet bills for beyond the yearly check up and shots.  We keep telling him he's lucky he's an adorable sweetheart because he's cost us more in less than one year than the others do combined over two.

 

[mservant]

He's definitely our problem child (his nickname is even Psycho Kitten).  How we managed three perfectly healthy and sweet animals and then had this half-grown kitten come along and be a wreck health-wise is beyond me.  Even though the other three are all getting to be seniors (all are between 8 and 9), Tycho's the only one we've had vet bills for beyond the yearly check up and shots.  We keep telling him he's lucky he's an adorable sweetheart because he's cost us more in less than one year than the others do combined over two.

 I know that 'where did the vet bills come from' feeling as having that experience with my third cat,and that's before you count the cost of trying out the food and liquid your dear one will consume more than a mouthful of. We must love them.

  I do wish you luck in finding something for Tycho, no one could say you haven't been trying.  If only there was some kind of irresistible cat kibble they would swallow that had sneaky bits of water inside.