Lily has been doing really well lately. Before her surgery to remove those pesky anal glands, we had been going to the vet every 4-6 weeks. Now she hasn't been seen since last fall!
But I am learning that Lily's needs as a senior kitty have changed a bit. She needs to avoid gobbling her dry food as she is prone to throw it right back up, and if she has a particularly bad episode then she could become dehydrated quickly.
A couple of days ago, she gobbled her dry food in both the morning AND the evening. Her dry morsels are fairly large (one would think they are TOO large to swallow whole...) and they come right back up, completely undamaged by the brief trip down the hopper. On this particular day, she had a rough go of it and threw up multiple times in the morning and the evening.
The next day, I observed that Lily had stopped drinking water. She normally drinks a good amount of water so it was quite noticeable that she wasn't spending any time at her water bowls. In addition, she refused water I offered her by hand. Over the past year, I've learned that kitties can easily become deyhdrated after vomiting and when that happens, they often don't want to drink water -- the very thing they need to do. I suspected that the previous day's events had caused her to become dehyrated and I worried we were on a slippery slope.
As I've done before, I gave her a few syringes of water by squirting it directly into her mouth. She's not a fan of that procedure, but at least it gets water into her quickly. Then throughout the day, I mixed water into a pate food that she's not prone to gobble, making it into a soup-like consistency. This is a tricky way of getting her to ingest more water without her realizing it.
If you suspect dehydration in your kitty, keep a watchful eye on the litterbox, too. You want to be sure kitty is urinating regularly. I've learned that dehydration can also quickly lead to constipation which (believe me!) you want kitty to avoid at all costs, so be sure you check for poop in the litterbox, too. (Constipation can also lead kitties to stop drinking water -- the very thing that would help them!)
This morning, Lily was thankfully back to drinking water on her own. I'd still like to see her drink more, so I may supplement her food with a bit more throughout the day just to be sure we're in the clear.
The bottom line is this: If you have a senior kitty in your life, keep a watchful eye on water consumption. It can be an important clue that something is not quite right and needs attention. Our senior kitties just need a little extra TLC from time to time!
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