Feeding the Sick Cat

A short cat health thought/tip, no more. There are diets – “nutritional therapies” – for sick cats. They are meant to improve the chances or rate of recovery. Their effect is slow and certainly not immediate.

The cat caretaker should reflect on the appropriate time to introduce a new diet to their sick cat. This is because when a cat is feeling unwell and perhaps nauseous and also if the new food causes vomiting and/or diarrhoea the cat might develop “learned taste aversion” leading to the diet being rejected or poor long term acceptance.

Is it fair to say that some or perhaps all of these nutritional therapies or food for sick cats are strong on flavour and smell? If so, these foods are more likely to result in learned taste aversion.

A study or studies have concluded that taste aversion can last for up to 40 days. However, it can be permanent.

The way to avoid this is to ensure the cat is eating reasonably, initially, and then introduce the new diet.

A comment by Suzy’s Zoo on the Caring for a FIV cat page by Elisa states:

….We also highly recommend a product called Viyo Recuperation that is like a tasty gravy the kitties LOVE that can help ward off dehydration and stimulate them to eat. You can give by syringe, just put a bit in a little bowl or top it on wet or dry food! 3 bottles in a box for about $30. Just remember to refrigerate after opening. (Warning! The kitties may try to steal the whole bottle after just smelling it! Lol)

This lists the ingredients of this product:

I don’t know whether what I have written has any bearing on feeding this product to an unwell cat. It might.