My thin cat needs surgery. How much Hill's a/d to syringe feed daily?

I’m sorry to hear about Oliver. Prescription Recovery diets like Hill’s a/d are a good choice. Mix with water and syringe in. There are also other prescription options such as critical powders that are meant to be mixed with water and fed via syringe or feeding tube. Also talk to your vet about appetite stimulants as a possibility. Best wishes to you and Oliver.

I recommend feeding Hills a/d. It’s easily digestible, cats usually love it and it is very calorie dense so Watson will start to recover quickly even if he doesn’t eat that much. I would also have a dry kitten food available at all times and offer some tasty cat treats to stimulate his appetite. In addition to feeding many meals daily increasing his exercise will help build muscle and also stimulate his appetite and speed his recovery. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Watson.

I would be glad to help you! The food is 524 calories per cup. To get 330 calories a day, you should feed him just under 2/3 of a cup daily. Divide this 2/3 cup into two equal portions to feed him once in the morning and once in the evening. I hope this helps!

Hi there and thank you for using PetCoach to address your concern. I would increase the amount of food being fed per day. Science Diet Adult maintenance would be a good choice or something high in protein and calories. If you would like to feed a homemade diet to see if he eats better with home cooked food, I would recommend visiting www. balanceit.com If he continues to lose weight or does not gain any weight with the diet switch, I would recommend having a veterinarian examine him so that the most appropriate diagnostic and treatment recommendations can be made. I would definitely consider testing his thyroid to make sure he does not have hyperthyroidism, which can lead to weight loss or difficulty gaining weight. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

I would recommend that you start them on a balanced kitten food instead of the a/d. a/d tastes good and is high in fat, but it is not an appropriate diet for long-term use in healthy pets. The amount to feed would depend on the diet you choose - there will always be feeding guidelines on the pet food packaging. You can choose either wet kitten food or dry food, and it may help to mix some of the kitten milk replacer in with either food to make a mush. At such a young age, I would leave plenty of food out and let them free feed, making sure it stays as fresh as possible. If you choose a kitten food and need help determining how much to feed them, take a picture and post a new question!

Oh my goodness! Poor guy! He does need nutrition. What was your vet's recommendation for feeding him? Its hard to assess the risk of infection without knowing what the area looks like more specifically. Definitely offer him water. Is he on antibiotics? If he is on antibiotics, offer him a liquid diet; you can soak cat food in water, mash it up with a fork and let him lap it up. Sometimes a temporary feeding tube is needed to help patient's recover from significant oral injury. Regarding the IV, My understanding from the information you gave is that he was on IV fluids during the surgery, but he went home after surgery. The IV fluids will help him maintain hydration for the time that he's getting them, but not much beyond that, so he does need to be offered water and if he's unable to drink it you need to take him to a vet and either discuss subcutaneous fluids (fluids you can give under the skin at home) https://icatcare.org/advice/cat-care/how-give-subcutaneous-fluids-your-cat or possibly a feeding tube, as subcutaneous fluids don't provide nutrition (calories, fat, carbohydrates), only hydration and electrolytes. IV fluids also do not provide nutrition. Thank you for asking PetCoach!

Great job trying to help bear get to his ideal weight! Here is the link to the feeding guide for the adult perfect weight formula from Hills science diet website : https://www.hillspet.com/cat-food/sd-adult-perfect-weight-liver-and-chicken-entree-cat-food-canned I would start maybe by feeding 3 cans per day. 1 in the morning , 1 in afternoon, and 1 in evening. Or 1.5 cans twice daily. Then weigh him in 3-4 weeks and adjust the amount you are feeding from there. (If he s not starting to loose weight you may need to decrease to 2.5 cans for example) This is provided you are exclusively feeding him the canned food (ie no dry food also available). Good luck!! Bear will benefit from your efforts for sure.