My guess is he has a tooth that’s hurting him – my I noticed maybe a week ago that my cat didn’t seem to want to eat very much, and when he did try to eat he’d take a few bites and then kind of wince like he was in pain and then run away. I switched to giving him wet food instead of dry food. He ate that for a while but now he won’t eat that either. He acts like he wants food when I’m opening a can, but when I put it in a dish in front of him he approaches it cautiously, and then backs away from it, like he’s afraid of it. I think now he associates food with pain. Well he did gobble up a can of food Thursday evening; I think he was just really hungry by then, now he’s back to not wanting to eat anything. He has a vet appointment for next Wednesday; that was the earliest appointment they had. He acts perfectly normal otherwise, he’s being his usual sweet, affectionate self, he was playing with his favorite toy earlier, etc. But I’m worried about getting at least some nutrients into him between now and then. I bought some of this last night but he doesn’t seem to want that either. I’m thinking maybe I’ll try giving him a bowl of chicken broth or something like that; maybe he’ll take something that’s completely liquid. Does anyone have any other recommendations?
What other clues do you need before going to the vet? Your cat has a bad tooth and is in pain.
Yes, I made an appointment with the vet. Next Wednesday was the soonest they had. Are you saying I should take him somewhere sooner?
You’ve got an appointment for the vet, so you done good.
Keep making soft food available, and you can try chicken broth or the water from a can of tuna. You can warm up the canned food a little (not too hot) which will make it smell tastier. You can also try getting some nice deli turkey for him and see if that’s more enticing.
If he’s playing with his toy and being cuddly, he’s probably eating more than you think. If he gets listless and stops going to the bathroom, call your vet back and see if they’ll take him sooner.
Either another vet or an emergency vet. I can tell you my vet would never let a cat go that long. Room would be made that day to do at least a quick evaluation and pain relief if needed. And this is a busy office.
Surprised your vet is taking that long. Mine have always been able to fit in emergencies. Either you didn’t make it sound urgent or the person answering the phone doesn’t get the big picture. I’d consider finding another vet. There are several well-rated veterinarian clinics in or near Folsom.
Seems it’s bad-cat-experiences day at the SDMB.
IF he is eating something, that’s one thing. Maybe monitor and keep your appointment( but try to bump it up ). But if he is eating essentially nothing, you might have to start worrying about hepatic lipidosis, which can be quite serious and have a quick onset in cats. In that case the emergency vet as advised above might be the way to go. Just be prepared for a small fortune in vet bills :(.
I’m also surprised the vet is making you wait that long. An infected tooth, if that’s what it is, is likely to get worse over time. If he’s quit eating altogether, I’d call them back – actually I’d do it anyway. If you told them a week ago that he wasn’t eating and seemed to be in pain and they still didn’t give you an appointment until next Wednesday, I’d be looking for a different vet in general, not just between now and then; presuming that there’s another one in the area.
Is he dehydrated? Pinch up the skin between his shoulder blades, let go and watch whether it goes right back down. If it does, then he must at least have been drinking something. If it stands up or goes down slowly, he’s dehydrated, and he needs fluids long before Wednesday. If you can’t get him to drink and he’s dehydrated, don’t wait that long.
If he’s playful, that’s a very encouraging sign.
I second the tuna liquid, and yes, meat broths (with no onion or garlic in them.) If you smear the nutritional paste inside his mouth, he’ll more or less have to swallow it; but, if his mouth is very sore, doing that might hurt him. You could try smearing it on a paw and he may lick it off; but be prepared for it to get smeared on everything else in the area, also.
ETA: will he let you look in his mouth? He might have something stuck in there.
Unless you’re in the Arctic Circle there should be an emergency vet in your area. Go. Now. If you’re cat is in serious pain then 4 days is an eternity to suffer.
Update: We went to the emergency vet. He has gingivitis. We got pain medication, antibiotics (the vet didn’t see an obvious infected tooth, but just in case), and an appetite stimulant to hold him over until the Wednesday appointment.
The pain medication just needs to be applied to his gums. I thought that sounded easy, but getting him to let me open his mouth proved difficult. I did manage to squirt it in his mouth at least…
I don’t think so. He did get a drink of water while I was trying to administer the pain medication.
A little bit of both, probably. After she offered the Wednesday appointment I tried to explain the situation and that I thought it was more urgent, but she just said “sorry, that’s the soonest we have” and I didn’t really press the issue after that.
I’m glad to hear that you went to a vet. Cats actually can starve themselves to death if eating bothers them too much.
I hope that dental care resolves the issue for your kitty.
Thanks for updating, WildaBeast. Hope the meds help; it does sound likely that they will.
Make sure you mention this to your vet – that receptionist needs more training! (Or replacing.)
It should be easy to bring this up when discussing the emergency vet visit, and what was done.
P.S. If you were in such pain that you couldn’t eat, would you let your dentist fob you off with an appointment many days away? No, and you shouldn’t let your Vet office do that, either.
Sadly cats will suffer in silence and even if you figure it out they are the worst patients. Hope things go well.
He’s currently gobbling up a bowl of wet food. 
Either the pain killer and appetite stimulant combo is working, or he’s just gotten so hungry he’s eating regardless of the pain.
I don’t really like having to be the mean guy who holds him down and shoves a syringe full of medicine in his mouth, even though I know he needs it. He went and hid from me under the bed after his second dose of pain killers this morning. 
I know. I feel really bad about not noticing anything was wrong until it got so bad he wouldn’t eat, but he was acting perfectly normal until then.
Yay for eating cat!
Very likely it’s the meds working. And IME eventually they come back out from under the bed and forgive you. One of mine does definitely have a tendency to disappear around Pill Time; but he likes his scritches otherwise.
I suppose I should give him the antibiotics now. I didn’t give him that one last night because it said to give it to him with food so I wanted to wait until he ate something, and now he has eaten something. But man that’s a daunting task. It was hard enough getting the very small dose of pain killers into his mouth. Getting the much larger dose of antibiotics into his mouth is going to be a challenge.
Is it liquid or a pill?
If a pill, try holding it with tweezers, to reduce the chances of teeth in your fingers; and have handy a syringe of water (the one you probably used for the liquid meds should work) to squirt into his mouth on top of the pill, both to make it easier to swallow and to make it harder for him to hide it in his mouth and spit it out later.
Good to hear the cat is eating and drinking. He’ll forgive the medicine once the connection is made. Now that he’s eating you use food rewards to reinforce the connection.
You can help the vet with observations by counting the frequency of what comes out the other end. Ask ahead, the vet may want a sample.