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Our cat has stopped having food after its 2 kittens passed away last week (the remaining one was adopted 2 weeks ago). It's been 4 days since it had anything to eat or drink, except water which is not much either, just a lick. We have tried all kinds of food and fresh milk, but it just stays sad and sleeps on the sofa all the time.

We got a veterinarian to take a look at it yesterday, and it had high fever for which he gave a injection and also antibiotics. It drank a little bit of water right after, but it hasn't started eating/drinking yet. However, after the injection it is comparatively active compared to the day before. It roams around the house once a while. It keeps going to the places where its kittens used to play and calls out for them.

I believe it has stopped having food due to grief; I don't know how long it can go on without food. We have tried giving it packaged cat food, home made cat food, milk, but it just steps back if we try to move the bowl near it. We even tried dipping a finger into the gravy and smear it on its lips, but it just backs away or runs away. Last night, we tried feeding it sugar water using a syringe, but after wrestling it we got it to gulp only 3 mL of it. Today morning, we found that it had vomited on its bed and it had grass in it.

Any suggestions on what I should do next? Veterinarian has told he will come today evening to check on it again. Has anyone faced something similar? Any pointers will be much appreciated.

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Update 05/30/2021:

Thanks for the response and suggestions, much appreciated. My cat has recovered a bit now, it is not eating like before but it is much better than last week, at least it is eating food 3 times a day but sparingly. The reason we couldn't get it to a pet clinic is because the part of the world where I live is under strict lockdown due to coronavirus cases surge. We can only go out for groceries between 6AM - 10AM and if we have to travel further away from home we have to get a travel pass and travel pass are given only for emergencies. The vet came the next day but the cat recognized him from afar and ran away and hid in the neighbours garage (we couldn't go get it due to social distancing rule, cant go to the neighbors house!). The vet had left the antibiotics injections with us since my dad is a retired vet. Later in the evening I was able to hold the cat still and my dad gave the injection. The next day it ate some chicken for the first time in 5 days which was a huge relief. It has started eating since then.

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    Going 4 days without food is already a very serious situation, you need to stay in close contract with the vet here. I'd suggest to always have drinkable food (some brands offer soup-style canned food) on hand, also helps the fluid intake situation. Lactose free cream added to water might get it to drink more. Either way, keep a very close eye on the cat and constantly keep in touch with the vet, this is an emergency situation.
    – bgse
    May 24, 2021 at 13:11
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    I am choosing to leave this question open as it does state that the asker is in contact with a vet, and the question includes some detail. The question is also simply asking to identify the problem, rather than to solve it. May 24, 2021 at 14:37
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    Just in case you didn't mention it: you must tell the vet that the cat didn't eat. This is very serious and can cause permanent liver damage. If the cat still didn't eat today, the vet should give her an IV with nutrients or force feed her.
    – Elmy
    May 24, 2021 at 19:28

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If your cat has not eaten anything for so long, it is a serious concern. If a cat does not eat for any longer than 24 hours, it is at risk of developing feline hepatic lipidosis, also known as fatty liver syndrome; this is potentially fatal disease that is capable of causing death within just 3 days since the cat has stopped eating.

I do not think asking some site on the Internet is going to give you any constructive or reliable diagnosis in this case; however, it will probably be trivial for people working in the clinic after doing blood parameter tests to measure any pathological change in activity of cat's liver enzymes, etc. People on the Internet cannot see any of such details relevant to your cat.

Getting people who had experienced similar problems to share their insight has the potential of you getting focused on some advice that by mere coincidence would sound good on paper, but could turn out to be completely irrelevant and distract you from the actual problem and delay the proper treatment.

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