[Galathiel]

After discovering that my cat hadn't been previously spayed and having that done Thursday (she was in heat at the time), I picked her up Friday morning and brought her home. She looked like a kitty POW refugee. Her tummy (what tummy) was all the way up to her backbone. She hardly ate the day before surgery, then none at all the day of surgery.

I have been struggling to get her back to eating normally ever since. How long does it take for their appetite to come back? Friday she hardly ate anything at all, maybe a couple of teaspoons. Saturday I got her to eat maybe an ounce, maybe two (pushing it). The only way she is eating right now is if I take out individual morsels and put them on the ground and then she'll eat it. Sunday, she did that for part of the time I fed her, but after that I had to actually hold the morsels for her to take it out of my hand. Crazy! By doing a combination of those two techniques, Sunday I was able to get her to eat 3-4 ounces. I picked a food that has around 35 calories per ounce so it's got a better caloric punch.

This morning, she was back to not really being interested and only ate at most 1/2 ounce and probably not even that much. Since I'm now back at work (gone from 8 am until around 8:30 pm) I'm really concerned about her eating. Is there anything else I can do to maybe kick start her eating again?

She was always a desultory eater until the dog stole her breakfast; since she had been doing so well in eating. I'm very discouraged to be back to where I started .. actually I would take that as now it's 10 times worse.

 

[Galathiel]

I took her to the vet yesterday and was relieved to find out that she was not running a fever, nor was she dehydrated. The vet demonstrated to me how to syringe feed her and gave her 12 ccs of the food while I was there. She had eaten maybe 1 1/2 oz that morning so that amount, coupled with the syringe feeding, seems to have triggered at least a returning interest in food. Last night she actually reared up against the kitchen counter while I was fixing her food. She looks so cute looking up soulfully (actually she's probably bad-mouthing me in her mind for being so slow). She stlll didn't eat that well this morning, but did eat voluntarily from the bowl without any coaxing and is acting much more alert this morning. I left her with two different types of canned food (mixed with a little warm water) so that she had options.