Last Friday, we took our 7 year old cat to the animal hospital because he hadn't ate or drank anything in a few days. They said it was fatty liver disease, and they kept him hooked up to IV's. They even put a tube in his throat so we could feed him that way. A few hours after the tube was put in, my cat pulled it out himself. They were going to replace the tube for free, but didn't want to do it right away since he had just been through the surgery. We went to visit him in the hospital on Sunday and just by us being there, he ate a little. They kept him in the hospital until Monday then released him, without replacing the tube, saying that we'll probably have better luck getting him to eat. When we first brought him home, he ate about half of a cup of dry food which surprised us. Since then, he's been eating very little every day. We started force feeding him with a syringe yesterday and so far he's been responding well (no throwing up, etc) Does anyone have any experience with this? Can anyone tell me how long it took them before their cat was eating on his/her own? How do I know if this is working or if it's time to bring him back to the animal clinic? Any words of experience and stories would help. I've never dealt with anything like this before and before this happened I never even heard of such a thing. I love my Rascal, and I'm worried about him. And just so everyone knows, I keep in contact with the vet about all this. I just wanted to hear some personal stories... I feel they're more meaningful sometimes.

You'll perhaps be interested to take a look at this:

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/cats/c...se-359833.html

Would you be willing to learn how to do fluids yourself at home? It wouldn't be an IV, but rather something called subcutaneous (under the skin), otherwise known as subq's. Rather than the drip method on an IV, you give a specified amount of fluids all at once, probably once a day. Yes, this requires sticking a needle into him. But it can be done by us mere human beings... I did it for a year and a half once (kidney, not liver) and I've known lots and lots of people who do this at home. Including people with needle-phobia. If you're willing to be shown how to do it, you can help him further by continuing the fluids at home, in addition to what he got at the vet's.

Also, did they give you any meds to give him, like SamE or any supplements or anything?

I think the simple way to know if this is working is whether he seems to improve. He should start looking and acting better, eventually eating more on his own. Cats do hide things, but start paying real close attention and watch for subtle things. You certainly don't want him getting any worse. You can also take him back in for more blood work.

Instead of posting on the end of that other old thread and getting two threads going, just make sure you read through it as there was lots of discussion there. You want him to eat as much as possible on his own, but you can syringe food too. One of the major important things is getting him to eat.

Then if he gets through this OK, you go back and ask the vet why a seven year old cat stopped eating to begin with. There's a reason a cat stops eating, and there could be some other underlying disease going on that caused this and you need to know what. It's possible he just suddenly decided he didn't want his food and got stubborn... I did once see a cat get this simply from stubbornly refusing to eat a different food. But what if something else is going on?