Cat Recovery After URI

My cat recently had a upper respiratory infection and ran a high fever
for over a week. That was about 2 weeks ago that he came down with the
illness, not long after adopting him from a local shelter. Since then
the fever appears to have stopped as he is now less lethargic, willing
to play, gets excited for food and follows me everywhere. Whereas
before he slept most of the day, wasn't interested in playing and I had
to syringe or spoon feed him. His nasal and eye discharge cleared up
about a week ago.

At his worst I had to syringe feed him Hill's A/D (at least 1/2 can per
day). I have since switched back to regular cat food (Whiska's pacakged
food in gravy). He eats close to 2 packages per day without any force
feeding. Yet according to his body weight (10 lbs 3 ounces) he should
be eating about 4 1/2 pacakges a day (based on Whiska's
recommendation). He is a 4 year old male maine coon that has tested
negative for FIV and FELV. His water intake is also fairly low. I
assume as I am feeding him foods with a lot of moisture he just doesn't
require a lot of water.

A typical adult male maine coon should weigh 14-17 lbs from what I have
read, so he is a little underweight. I am concerned he will slowly
waste away at his current nutrional intake level. He doesn't appear to
be weak, but I can't see him gaining or maintaining his current weight
if he continues to eat only that much.

My vet has recommended putting him on appetite stimulants. For his
current food intake is this maybe a little overboard? I was thinking of
trying to feed him higher calorie kitten food and maybe some nutrical.

I realize he is in a recovery stage, as a cat with a URI may take a few
weeks to get back to "normal". Should I be terribly concerned for his
health at his current food intake? Or is it something that needs to be
addressed but not deathly urgent?

Thanks
Trevor

wrote:

My cat recently had a upper respiratory infection and ran a high fever
for over a week. That was about 2 weeks ago that he came down with the
illness, not long after adopting him from a local shelter. Since then
the fever appears to have stopped as he is now less lethargic, willing
to play, gets excited for food and follows me everywhere. Whereas
before he slept most of the day, wasn't interested in playing and I had
to syringe or spoon feed him. His nasal and eye discharge cleared up
about a week ago.

At his worst I had to syringe feed him Hill's A/D (at least 1/2 can per
day). I have since switched back to regular cat food (Whiska's pacakged
food in gravy). He eats close to 2 packages per day without any force
feeding. Yet according to his body weight (10 lbs 3 ounces) he should
be eating about 4 1/2 pacakges a day (based on Whiska's
recommendation). He is a 4 year old male maine coon that has tested
negative for FIV and FELV. His water intake is also fairly low. I
assume as I am feeding him foods with a lot of moisture he just doesn't
require a lot of water.

A typical adult male maine coon should weigh 14-17 lbs from what I have
read, so he is a little underweight. I am concerned he will slowly
waste away at his current nutrional intake level. He doesn't appear to
be weak, but I can't see him gaining or maintaining his current weight
if he continues to eat only that much.

My vet has recommended putting him on appetite stimulants. For his
current food intake is this maybe a little overboard? I was thinking of
trying to feed him higher calorie kitten food and maybe some nutrical.

I realize he is in a recovery stage, as a cat with a URI may take a few
weeks to get back to "normal". Should I be terribly concerned for his
health at his current food intake? Or is it something that needs to be
addressed but not deathly urgent?


The only thing I can tell you is that I have found those feeding guides
on cat food packages to be way high compared to what my cats eat. They're
indoor cats, I think the feeding guides are usually for very active
outdoor cats.

The only thing I can suggest is to keep careful watch on his weight. If
you don't have a scale, I think most any vet would let you bring him in
for a weekly weight-in (without charge).

Since you haven't had him long he still might be in an adjustment phase,
it can take a cat some time to settle in to a new home. And the stress of
a new enviroment can put them off their food for a while. But still, you
don't want to see him loosing weight.

Keep track of his weight and let us know how he's doing, there are some
smart people checking in here who can probably advise you further.

I swung by the vets after work today to discuss the appetite stimulant
and my cat's food intake. I live in Quebec (predominantly french) and
the secretary understood that my cat still didn't want to eat on his
own. So my concerns were lost in translation.

As it turns out the vet agreed that most cat food's intake
recommendation is even too high for active outdoor cats. He felt any
appetite stimulant was unnecessary as he is eating enough.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that I also leave the cat dry
(Eukanuba Adult Formula) food during the day which he eats about a 1/4
cup of daily while I'm at work.

My previous cat ate dry food exclusively and didn't drink a whole lot
of water. As the current one is eating gravy based food twice daily
should I be worried if the entire day (10 hours) goes by without the
cat drinking any water or very little?

Thanks
Trevor

wrote in message
oups.com...
I swung by the vets after work today to discuss the appetite stimulant
and my cat's food intake. I live in Quebec (predominantly french) and
the secretary understood that my cat still didn't want to eat on his
own. So my concerns were lost in translation.

As it turns out the vet agreed that most cat food's intake
recommendation is even too high for active outdoor cats. He felt any
appetite stimulant was unnecessary as he is eating enough.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that I also leave the cat dry
(Eukanuba Adult Formula) food during the day which he eats about a 1/4
cup of daily while I'm at work.

My previous cat ate dry food exclusively and didn't drink a whole lot
of water. As the current one is eating gravy based food twice daily
should I be worried if the entire day (10 hours) goes by without the
cat drinking any water or very little?

Thanks
Trevor


Ah, all makes sense now. If he was just eating the wet food, I'd be worried
but he has dry available all day. It sounds like he's eating enough.

My vet agrees with Diane. The food labels recommend feeding too much food.

W

wrote in news:1135106085.276976.102190
@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

His water intake is also fairly low. I
assume as I am feeding him foods with a lot of moisture he just doesn't
require a lot of water.



When I adopted my cat from a local shelter several years ago, she too
developed a URI and after she recovered, she hardly seemed to drink. I
bought her a Petmate Drinkwell fountain, and sure enough, she loved it and
started drinking quite often.