Should I cancel my trip?

[ramscici]

Hi everyone. Long story short, my partner and I have booked a short vacation (the 26th-31st) in which we’ll be visiting some friends. Usually when we’re away my partners mother will feed our kitties; they totally trust her and there are never any issues at all.

Unfortunately we’ve had a death in the extended family today and this has made it so their usual carer while we travel, my partner’s mom, is unavailable.

We feed our cats almost exclusively wet food with some dry at night. They’re fed on a schedule, three times a day. Unfortunately one of my cats can sometimes be picky, so she needs a lot of enticing to eat. My other cat is a glutton and will eat anything, including her food, if I don’t watch them.

We found an emergency sitter and she came over tonight to get acquainted. We told her everything and she is fortunately going to feed them the same food we do, on the same schedule, which is awesome of her. She spent some time with both of them for a while. One of them eventually came out and let her pet him, and did eat when she offered him food. The other hid the entire time and wouldn’t eat at all while she was here. She only just came out after the sitter left and ate, but this was after I had to fend the other one off from her food bowl.

I’m nervous that the one with anxiety will hide every time and refuse to eat for the entire trip. I know it’s serious if cats don’t eat for more than 48 hours. I’m at a bit of a loss of what to do though other then cancel my trip. I can’t ask that the sitter leave food out and go, because then the other cat will surely eat all of it anyway.

Any advice? I really don’t want to cancel... but I’m so nervous too.

 

[hexiesfriend]

Tell the sitter to just keep the food down and not to remove it before she leaves. they will come out to eat after she leaves. They are not going to come out for her to feed them while she is there that’s too much to ask of the kittys.

 

[daftcat75]

Personally, I would cancel. You're almost out of time. Maybe you could get the sitter to come out for one or two more practice feeds tomorrow to see if shy kitty will warm up to the sitter. But I think you're going to be too worried about shy kitty not eating to enjoy your trip.

 

[ramscici]

Tell the sitter to just keep the food down and not to remove it before she leaves. they will come out to eat after she leaves. They are not going to come out for her to feed them while she is there that’s too much to ask of the kittys.

I agree with this but I’m nervous that the shy one won’t come out and the other one will just eat her food.

 

[daftcat75]

I agree with this but I’m nervous that the shy one won’t come out and the other one will just eat her food.

Can the shy one be fed in a separate and closed room while the sitter feeds and sits with the other one? I mean this is something I would have worked out in practice feeds. But you're out of time. And trust me. I've been on a trip with a sitter that didn't work. The trip was awful because I couldn't stop thinking about how the sitter was doing wrong by my cat. I did several practice feeds with my second sitter before I felt like I could relax and enjoy myself on my next trip. I'm not blaming the sitter in your case. But you don't have any time left to work this out.

 

[hexiesfriend]

I agree with this but I’m nervous that the shy one won’t come out and the other one will just eat her food.

That can be solved by the sitter putting down more than normal food portions. Your kittys will be fine. The shy one will come out after the sitter is gone. Also another solution is keeping a big bowl of dry food out.

 

[ramscici]

That can be solved by the sitter putting down more than normal food portions. Your kittys will be fine. The shy one will come out after the sitter is gone. Also another solution is keeping a big bowl of dry food out.

Thank you. This is a great idea and will make me feel better. Hopefully my other one isn’t so much of a glutton that he just eats all of the dry food too. But I can’t imagine he would eat an entire large bowl. This is definitely something to do to ease my nerves.

Also daftcat75 I appreciate your response as well. I’m sorry you’ve also gone through this. Was your kitty OK when you returned, and how long was your trip?

 

[daftcat75]

Thank you. This is a great idea and will make me feel better. Hopefully my other one isn’t so much of a glutton that he just eats all of the dry food too. But I can’t imagine he would eat an entire large bowl. This is definitely something to do to ease my nerves.

Also daftcat75 I appreciate your response as well. I’m sorry you’ve also gone through this. Was your kitty OK when you returned, and how long was your trip?

First trip was only a weekend. Fortunately Krista still ate. It’s just the sitter played with Krista directly after eating causing her to throw up. And she left lights on overnight that made it hard for Krista to sleep. And for me to sleep because every time I checked on the cameras throughout the night, Krista wasn’t sleeping. Second trip was much smoother because I did several practice feeds with the new sitter and we worked out any kinks before I left.

In all likelihood, she-kitty will get hungry enough to eat. But...the longer a cat goes without eating, the less it feels like eating. This is the real hazard of just letting itself work out. She may eat before it gets to this point. She may not. It depends whether her hunger wins over her anxiety and before the fasting turns to nausea. I think the risk of developing fatty liver disease over one week is pretty low. But it can still be an expensive vet visit to test blood and restart her eating if she does fast the entire time. I just don’t think your trip is worth risking it this time.

Maybe you can hire this sitter for another weekend and go on a shorter trip. Or even an in-town staycation.