Hang in there, you're doing good! Her ornery-ness is proof of your success.
I doubt if there's a "reason" she's a stray that reflects on her reaction to being syringe fed. That's the typical response of a Feline American who feels her dignity has been infringed upon. And keep in mind she's a TEENAGER.
Before any further feedings, she needs her claws clipped. I use a regular pair of human nail clippers and hold them so the blades are vertical. Gently extend the claw with your fingers and just take the thin pointy part off. Keep in mind you can always take more off later. A vet or vet tech can show you how to clip claws if you're uncertain... or even a groomer.
But, it sounds like you may be very nearly done with the feeding project if she's eaten a little on her own. May just take a little longer, but also.... put some food in the room that is NOT what she's been fighting you over. My dogs all love baby food... the cats tend to hate it because it is what gets squirted down their gullets when they are not feeling well. You might try a couple of different things, including some fish based stuff, that may be smelly enough to get through whatever congestion remains. Keep trying different things, she'll break through and be hungry pretty soon. Leaving a little dry food in her area all the time as well wouldn't be a bad idea. Hard to say what she may be more inclined to try, but I'm guessing in the next couple of days you'll find she starts eating.
Your best bet if you don't have a room you can put her in, would be a crate large enough for a small litter box, bed, and food. Cheapest place to get such a thing would probably be Wallyworld. Or you could ask around and see if you know anyone who'd loan you one for a few weeks until you get her sorted out medically and behaviorally. Though it would be a good thing to have for those times.... say when you've got workers coming and going... that you do need to confine her later on.
* This post was
edited 09/03/08 11:44am by Code2High *
susan
What I want to know is, when are they going to start selling Comfort Zone for HUMANS????? 'Cause some days...
Seems like she wants to eat but seems to be having trouble picking up food from the dish/floor/finger. When I take a bit of the wet canned food on my finger and put it towards the back of her mouth, she'll eat it but I hear a scraping - teeth on teeth sounding everytime her jaw moves - could this be an issue as to why she doesn't want to eat? What could that be?
On edit - thought it might be a dislocated jaw, however, when you look at her it looks fine. Also, I can move her bottom jaw up and down (or open it, close it) and hear nothing. But...she seems to have trouble picking up food from a dish or floor and it's like she doesn't know how to lick water or something. Is this possible? Or could she have a sore throat or something causing her to not like to lick right now?
Oy, this cat!
* This post was
edited 09/03/08 12:36pm by havedreamwilltravel *
Hmmmmm.....I've noticed cats have a hard time eating when they don't smell "well" as in when they get quite old and can't seem to find the food. So if she's still slightly clogged up, she may just be hungry enough to try to eat, but not able to be as accurate with grabbing as she'd normally be.
Whatever it is, I'd keep working with her for a day or so, and I think you'll find it will resolve itself. She's without doubt been feeding herself the first several months of her life (wouldn't have survived as a stray if she couldn't) and she may have some discomfort leftover from the cold or from being syringe fed, or she may still be a little stuffy, or whatever. But absent an injury, I doubt there's anything that's permanently changed.
But if she'll let you hand feed her cat food, that's a big improvement over cat wrestling with the syringe, yes?
Code2High wrote: Hmmmmm.....I've noticed cats have a hard time eating when they don't smell "well" as in when they get quite old and can't seem to find the food. So if she's still slightly clogged up, she may just be hungry enough to try to eat, but not able to be as accurate with grabbing as she'd normally be.
Whatever it is, I'd keep working with her for a day or so, and I think you'll find it will resolve itself. She's without doubt been feeding herself the first several months of her life (wouldn't have survived as a stray if she couldn't) and she may have some discomfort leftover from the cold or from being syringe fed, or she may still be a little stuffy, or whatever. But absent an injury, I doubt there's anything that's permanently changed.
But if she'll let you hand feed her cat food, that's a big improvement over cat wrestling with the syringe, yes?
okay...went to continue to feed her either syringe or hand and when she licks/chews I notice that her bottom jaw goes off kilter and then I hear the scraping at the same time. I'm now thinking it's a dislocated jaw - maybe from holding her head to syringe feed her? She definitely wants to eat. I opened that solid soft food pellet type of food and she was going crazy at the smell and kept trying to eat but couldn't pick up any of the pellets or she would barely get it and it would fall out. Hence the thinking of the jaw being off - you can't grip when teeth don't meet right and it hurts to open and drink or chew - that much I know - had 3 years of braces to correct teeth that shifted due to a dislocated jaw (and it hurt to talk, drink or eat!)
Called the animal care place - and they've basically said - sorry, your on your own (even though she was adopted less than a week ago. What ever happened to "if you adopt from us we'll make sure to help with any problems that arise for at least the first week or two?) go to your own vet for this. Terrible! Not only that, they were expensive to adopt from taboot!
Not so great on the adoption agency, for sure. They don't offer an insurance policy for the first month?
Anyway you have to do what you have to do... vet should be able to give you an idea of what the problem is for the price of an office visit. At least she's wanting to eat, and it sounds like she's able to eat with a little help. Which isn't great, but surely it beats cat wrestling several times a day.
You realize that a couple years from now, this will just be her big story that you'll tell when people ask about your gorgeous kitty.
The other place I adopted my last cat made sure to not charge you for vet visits until the cat was good and healthy and problems that arose after adoption (within the first week) were taken care of. This other place - let's just say I don't think i'll adopt from them again.
My vet is pretty reasonable regarding office visits so the cost of gas and time to go out to the shelter would probably negate the no charge anyway and would run about the same as the office visit (it's at least a 30+ minute drive and my daughter's school is right down the street from my vet so went there, then picked her up around the corner). Anyway...
Vet checked her jaw over, moved it, checked the joints. gave her some food while we were there so he heard the noise several times. Turns out it looks like she's grinding her teeth and it should stop on it's own.
That's good. Minus the cost, i'm glad I took her in as i'd be sitting here wondering if I was doing more damage waiting.
Haa haa....gave me a laugh with the "face assembled the right way".
For some reason she won't drink water out of her bowl. I bought the silver bowls because she drank water out of one of the silver mixing bowls I had - but now she won't drink. I've got different colors of bowls of water to see if it's that she can't see the water or she's just not "there" yet. So...still syringing water but the good news is - she ate by herself. It's the little chunks of food that look like hard dry food but their soft. I still had to force feed her a couple and then she ate about 10 pcs. or so on her own. I was happy with that - she's little and probably has a little tummy.
So...hopefully we've turned a corner.
I bought a repellant spray to use in the corner where she keeps trying to use as a litter box (thankfully only once - caught her the other times and the one time I TOLD hubby to WATCH HER and grab her but she said "she's fine, she's just sitting there" (I was doing dishes at the time). Then when she got up and he said "she pee'd". Well duh! That's why I told you to pick her up! LOL!
Anyway - hopefully things will get better and i'll post a pic in the next day or so.
The last 4 cats we adopted, we kept in a large kennel cage for the first several months. There is room and a second level for sleeping, scratching, eating, and litter box. The kittens took to it right away and we never had any problems with any of them.
One thing we did though, was adopt two kittens at a time. That worked really well because at the shelter, they were with other kittens. This helped when they got older as they still pal around together...chris3
ALL day today she has eaten by herself! Drank water too! Yippee! She's quite peculiar though as when she's hungry, she'll go over to her bowls and meow. Won't eat but will keep meowing. I go over, sit down next to them/her, give her one morsel on the floor and then she'll keep eating. Silly cat. To get her to eat the canned food, I had to shove the soft morsels into it to where they are sticking out - then once she gets a taste of it, she's quite happy. Also, seems scared of the cat food can which is why the morsels she likes are stuck inside to make her get into the can itself.
Also found out that she likes to watch the toilet when it's flushed. She stands up and watches it till it's done and then walks away. If you flush it again, she runs to watch it again. But she's afraid of play mice, paper balls, balls with bells in them and any other cat plaything. Hopefully that will get better as she settles into the house more.
Litterbox use is getting better. This morning I caught her in the corner but she was sniffing and then meowed - i'm thinking she didn't like the cat repellant I'd sprayed on the carpet in the area nor did she smell anything from the other time as i'd used an enzyme that removes pet odors. I carried her to her box and she went. Went in later to find she'd used it again apparently on her own (good sign). The cat smell enzyme remover seems to have worked as well as the cat repellant I sprayed in that corner as she's stayed away after that one time.
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