How long can a cat survive without food and water before dying?
Cats can last a short while without food and can potentially survive for weeks without eating. Water is far more necessary to their health and physical well-being however, and a cat that goes more than a few days without anything to drink might not survive. If you're worried that a cat hasn't been eating or drinking, and it's not showing any signs of being starved or dehydrated, then try offering it a can of tuna water - don't buy the tuna in oil - and see if you can encourage them to drink that way. Not only the water will hydrate them, it'll also contain some much-needed nutrients from the fish. Otherwise, you should take the animal to a vet. The consequences of inadequate food and water can be dire.Why? A cat who hasn't eaten for a while is considered to be starving, and starvation may have a damning physical effect on the cat's entire system. The same is true of dehydration, only the onset of dehydration is much quicker - and far more severe - than that of starvation. Every organ in the feline body relies on water and the nutritional content of food to properly function. Every single one. Starved and dehydrated organs will steal energy and water from the rest of the cat's body, a process that slows as the cat's bloodstream becomes less liquid itself. When feline organs lack sufficient food and fluids to function on the most basic level, they dry up and begin to shut down. Not only could this send the body into shock, it might cause irreversible damage to the cat's organs. If a starving and/or dehydrated cat does not receive swift treatment, it may face permanent health issues - if it survives at all. These are uncomfortable thoughts. They're scary. But it's important to state them as blankly as possible because you never want to take chances with a cat's intake of food and water.
How can I say goodbye to a loved dying cat?
when my little cat was dying, she spent all of her time in our closet. I made a special bed for her in there. I went in there all the time, to make sure she was comfortable, to offer her food or water, and to pet her and tell her I loved her. She had toxoplasmosis which went to her brain, and she was on phenobarbitol to prevent seizures, so she slept most of the time. She was not responding to the medication she was given, and she was getting progressively worse. The vet kept trying everything to save her because she was only 4 years old, but she kept getting weaker. The night before she died, she slept in bed with my husband. I could’t bear to be in there with her that night. She got up the next morning, ate, used the kitty box, and asked to go out of the room and downstairs, then she asked to go out in the back yard! She went in the yard with us watching her, walked around and did all the things she used to do out there, and seemed to be better! But when we brought her in, she hunched up and hung her head like she had no energy. She had a vet appointment that morning, and the vetsaid she was anemic, wasn’t breathing right, was weak, and he suggested putting her down. He is someone who will try everything , and never suggests euthanasia, so when he said that, we knew it was time. I have her little box of ashes and a little piece of fur on a shelf in my hall
My two cat constantly cry for wet food. Tips on correcting their behavior?
I have two 5 year old indoor only cats, neither of whom are over or underweight. They free feed daily and I try to give them a bit of wet food every now and then. They've always loved and got excited for wet food before, that's not new. However, this behavior started ever since they got lucky and got it twice in one day (I was out of town and didn't know that my sister had already given them some earlier), they've been hounding me for it constantly. Sometimes after they've just finished it. Recently they've been getting the equivalent of half a small sized can each daily for the past month. Any time around late afternoon, which is when I usually feed them wet food, they start crying like crazy. Any time I go near the kitchen they bother me. The whining gets so much worse when I am actually in the kitchen to get them wet food. I've had to use a squirt bottle to keep them at bay, even going to far as to put them in another room while i prepare their bowls. One has even taken to harassing my disabled father who's never fed them the whole time I've had them. Now it's gotten to the point where as soon as I wake up, I'm being harassed and almost tripped. Today, the one who's taken to harassing my dad, decided that he was just going to pee in the corner after his cries had been ignored early this morning. I will restate that they free feed, so it's not a hunger issue and they have plenty of clean water. I've seen them walk up to a full dish of kibble and look at me and still cry like they do for wet food. Their dry food hasn't changed in a while either. I know this was long, but I'm trying to get all the details out there in one go. Has anyone else had this problem with wet food specifically? How did you train your cats not to act like this? It's really annoying behavior that needs to be corrected, and the squirt bottle doesn't seem to be effective. They're driving me up the wall. Help?
Adopted a stray, and the cat eats everything!!!?
I adopted a cat about a month ago. It was a stray, so I understand why it acts like each meal may be its last...but this cat eats everything in sight! It eats our dogs food, anything left out, ripped into our halloween candy...I can't even cook in our crockpot unless I block it off..the cat will dig into that too!! My vet said to be careful with overfeeding, but this cat will go crazy when I get his food...and then he gets into everything else anyway. I'm just worried he will eat something that will hurt him. How can I correct this? Should I just lock him in a room when we're gone? We don't have food out all the time, but with the holidays coming we have more around, and I can't keep everything locked up. how can I quiet his appetite? He will eat until he vomits...I know he doesn't have worms or anything like that..just an overactive appetite...any suggestions???
Why did my cat kill her kittens?
My younger female (18 months) had a first litter of eight kittens. She did well at first, but her milk came in slowly. At feeding time, all eight kittens went to four of her teats which produced milk. She never got milk in her other teats. Even though we monitored her and shifted kittens, they would not nurse on the other teats. She would let them nurse as long as she could, but within two-three weeks she was unable to nurse. The kittens had sucked and chewed those four teats raw. She was unable to feed her kittens. We started bottle feeding them.Then kittens started disappearing. I thought she was moving them out of protective instinct. I was wrong. We found the first kitten in a empty box under the kitchen table. She had suffocated her kitten because she wasn’t able to nurse it. She would wait until we were at work, or sleeping and take another kitten and kill it. We kept bottle feeding, by the time the remaining kittens were a month old there were only two left. Even though they were growing and healthy, she continued to try and kill the last two up until they were almost six weeks old. She would groom them, play with them and they were beginning to eat solid food. Then in the middle of the day, she picked up a kitten and carried it towards the kitchen. By the time we got to her, the baby was gone. She laid or sat on his head and chest until he stopped breathing. We kept the remaining kitten closed in the bedroom, far from his momma. My roommates did not understand why she killed her kittens. Thought she was evil and just didn’t understand. I felt so bad for her. She knew that she could not provide her babies with what they needed to grow and thrive. Matricide(?) happens more frequently than people know. If a kitten is weak, deformed or not thriving, the mother will move it away from the rest of the litter, not care for it or feed it.It is a bit of Darwinism. Pass on the strong genes, survival of the fittest, the carrying on of the species.I cried and buried those kittens. They rest next to my second big orange male “Appolo” and my grey mouser “Bruce”.
Why don't cats ever eat all of their food?
Imagine this scenario:You have spaghetti. It’s hot, smells really good and your mom cooked it with love.You love it, but after some time, you notice you won’t eat it all, so you leave it where it is.“Thanks ma!” — you say.After an hour or two, you want some more, but you have noticed the spaghetti has dried, it’s cold and it doesn’t taste as good as it did before.So, what do you do? Eat it or heat it so it is hot and tasty again?This is what happens to cat food. They may like their food, but once they come back to eat again, they may want more because the food that was good back then is not that good anymore. Thing is croquettes get soggy and chewy. It’s not something I’d like to eat, TBH, and my cats wouldn’t either.EDIT: Jaimes Roe's answer is a really good one too, and it covers something I didn’t think of. Also, it seems to know really well what it’s talking about too!
My vet's advice is to euthanize my cat?
We found him about 5 years ago almost starved to death with one ear almost torn off. Ended up having to repair the ear with an operation. But he seemed like a really healthy cat after that. He was not happy in the house and wanted out a lot not like the other indoor cats we have. Will take on the biggest dog in the neighborhood to defend his territory. Dogs are afraid of him. Never seen him in so much pain the whole time we had him and he began throwing up white frothy vomit. I think there must have been a lot of toxins in his blood. He does not eat and drinks tons of water. Vet says his potassium levels abnormal. He seemed to think there was an ongoing problem that we did not detect because he used the bathroom outside a lot. Heart rate is abnormal and has arrythmia. Very finicky cat who will not eat anything but dry food. One brand and that is Purina One, chicken and rice. I change the water for my cats three times daily and give fresh spring water each time. Heart broken!