Newly adopted cat won’t eat or drink

[ashcoffee]

I adopted a five year old cat, and she has not attempted to eat or drink in the past 72 hours. I’ve consulted with my vet and have tried a couple things to no avail. I’ve offered her typical options. Would not try. I’ve even tried offering her stinky wet food and fancy feast (having heard that it is successful with cats who have low appetite!). The vet then offered a probiotic topper. She would not try either. On the 48th hour, I syringe fed her a high calorie nutrient dense gel and some water. She was pretty receptive, nevertheless, it is distressful. And, I rather her eat her normal diet asap. How did you get your new cat to eat or drink? After how long did they eat or drink?

 

[Jerseymeow]

We adopted a female, 5 year old, cat at the end of January. She had been in the shelter a really long time, and before that...another shelter...before that? She did Inot eat for 3.5 days. She finally ate because I gave her sardines in water. She would not eat tuna or anything else. I don't know if she ate the sardines because she loved them, or the hunger strike was finally over, or she heard me make the vet appointment for the following AM.
In the beginning I also fed her Gerber Stage 2 Chicken for babies (it has 3 ingredients), and is safe for cats. We have had her now over six weeks. She eats well, wet cat food. She gets Royal Canin Calming dry food, for which you need a vet email/note you can upload to the online site (chewy). I still give her the Gerber baby food, but I should taper off that when I use it up.
She is still timid and hisses at me every single day, even though she knows I am the only one who loves her. Sigh.

 

[lorie d.]

She might be really scared since she's in a new environment. Try putting her in a really quiet room with food and water. Just leave her alone for awhile and see if she'll feel safe enough to eat. And keep talking to your vet.

 

[rubysmama]

I'm glad you've consulted with your vet, because not eating can be dangerous for cats. Some other foods you can try to get her to eat something are: tuna, sardines, deli turkey meat, and KFC. KFC, supposedly is irresistible to ferals, so it might work with her. And for getting to to drink, maybe try tuna water, or goats milk.

Good luck. Keep us posted, please. Welcome to TCS, btw.

How To Get Your Cat To Start Eating Again – TheCatSite Articles

 

[ashcoffee]

Thank you all so much! We visited the vet, and they prescribed an appetite stimulant. She started eating and drinking, albeit she only eats a bit and walk away. Foster told me she's not very food motivated!