Returning from a hiking trip I was confronted with a cat who for the second time in six months refused to eat. Her caregivers during our absence said she had eaten very little except after a brief episode outdoors, when she ate voraciously. Jasmine is an indoor Himalayan cat, who however, has a passion for hanging out underneath our house whenever she can escape. A visit to the veterinarian showed that she weighed only four pounds twelve ounces, down two pounds from April. She was also severely dehydrated. Dr. Shaw could feel no obstruction or tumor.

Since previous tests showed no diagnosable illness, he recommended re-hydrating her subcutaneously with nutrients, electrolytes, and vitamin B. We would then start a regimen of hand-feeding her baby food or homemade liquid diet. I generally use a turkey baster to inject the food directly into her mouth.

At first the results were discouraging, since she would vomit up everything I gave her. However, I persevered, and after several days she was able to hold down the liquid food. She was not drinking any water, and since the Labor Day weekend was approaching I took her one more time for the re-hydration, which I believe saved her life. The injection is performed by a veterinary technician, and is painless. After the second such treatment she began to recover rather dramatically. Perhaps this coincided with my starting to cook chicken breasts, blending them into a broth, and force-feeding her with the resulting liquid. After a few days I was able to begin giving her some solid food, including Felidae canned cat food, canned salmon for people, and liver pate from the delicatessen. It's amazing I didn't try Beluga Caviar, since this cat has expensive taste. She relishes home-cooked chicken breast in broth the most, and devours it with gusto now.

I'm happy to report that Jasmine has gained nearly a pound in the last week due to this feeding regimen and also a dramatic increase in attention. Not knowing how to describe her refusal to eat I called it Feline Anorexia, not knowing such a disorder was documented. Researching it on the Internet, I learned that it most often fatal if not treated appropriately. It is, however, difficult to diagnose and requires veterinary intervention. In this case, previous blood tests had ruled out a variety of other illnesses.

Note* Three years later Jasmine is alive and well. She is now being treated for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) which is discussed in the accompanying article.