Friday, December 14, 2007

How Do You Water A Cat?

Well, my cat, or puppycat as I refer to him, has not been in the best of health lately. He has been to the vet several times over the last two months, his food has been changed. He was on antibiotics for a bit to prevent infection. My poor Rogue has crystals in his bladder.

The solution was to put him on canned food. But he won't eat that. He wants his dry kibble only. Second solution, give him water flavored with broth or tuna. That worked, we thought. But we went to the vet again this morning and he has only slightly improved. He needs to drink much more than he has been.

That brings me to the question: How do you water a cat? A dog is easy, just mix water with their food, flavor their water with meat. Simple. But a cat does what it wants, which is usually not what you want it to do. So once Rogue figured out we wanted him to drink the water, he of course, stopped drinking much.

Tricking him hasn't worked, Now we are down to force. I have to make him drink, so this problem gets better and goes away. But how to force a cat to drink?

Flavored water doesn't really work. Hmm, I could dunk him in a bath full of water. He would drink plenty while he was trying to dry himself off. Hold on, I think I will try that.

........I think maybe that wasn't such a good idea. I should have had more bandages in the house. And my pillow is soaked from him laying on it. Going to bed tonight won't be very pleasant.

Oh, I have a dosing syringe here. I will just squirt some water down his throat. He will swallow it and get the liquid he needs. C'mere Rogue, come have a drink....

Not too bad, he swallowed maybe an ounce. But do any of you know the best way to get cat vomit out of a couch? No, I didn't choke him with the water. About 5 minutes after I made him drink, he got up on the couch and stared at me until I noticed him. Once he saw I was looking, he deliberately vomited on it. I just count myself lucky he didn't treat it as a litter box.

Now I need a few more bandages, a couch cleaner and a nap. This has been a tiring battle with my cat. I am about ready to just head back to bed, wet pillow and all, and call this day done.

But oh yes, I still need to know... How do you water a cat?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

wish i could help but i dont know

CruiserMaiden said...

Tell him the dog is doing it...

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry su.. can't help you there.. Wait.. will he eat soggy dry cat food? It would get a little more water into him xD

Anonymous said...

Since he is a puppycat, let the dogs eat it, and he will follow. He might as well "bark" while he's at it. :)

Pam's Place said...

Did your vet prescribe a specific wet cat food? My cat had a similar urinary tract problem and the vet prescribed dry food that didn't contain the things that cause the crystals to form. It's not cheap, is available only thru a vet's office, but seems to help. I think its made by Science Diet.

There's an old saying "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." Unfortunately, I think this goes double for cats.

Good luck.

Anonymous said...

Simple!
Whack in a main line IV :3

Anonymous said...

My strong impression is that your cat needs to heal first from its urinary tract problem before it can feel ok enough to drink more fluids. He probably still feels pain from the crystals. Ask online natural pet food stores what diet and food they can recommend for him until he feels better.

Also ask them if it is ok for you to feed him cat milk (not cow milk since cats get diarrhea from consuming it).