She's not eating and I don't know what to do

[Swearwolf]

My little old lady cat hasn't eaten since yesterday. I don't know whether to try to take her to an out of hours vet today or wait until the morning. She is awake and coming to me for strokes but hasn't come out of the spare bedroom.

I was told they need to see the vet if not eaten at all for 24 hours.
Sometimes our elderly female cat would eat a little chicken or jelly food held on a fork (being a princess), and we could progress from there, and didn't quite get to the 24 hour cutoff.

She has just had a little milk. I know cats shouldn't have it but she is a fiend for dairy usually and you can't leave any around. I'll try leaving a little meat for her.

Will she take treats? Just something to tide her over until tomorrow?

If she's drinking then she should be okay until tomorrow.

The "danger period" for cats is about 3-4 days though many can go longer if they have fluids. For mine I tend to wait 24-48 hours unless they have other symptoms and generally it resolves itself.

Thank you, she seems to have perked up a little bit. I'll call the vet in the morning.

Thank you, she seems to have perked up a little bit. I'll call the vet in the morning.

My vet’s advice when mine wouldn’t eat, tempt them with a runny ish scrambled egg. Hope this works. It did with my cat.

Mine have all gone through phases of not eating - the only one I ever took to the vet was the kitten - mainly due to his age/size more than anything else.

I would carry on trying to tempt her with smelly food - warmed up tuna or scrambled egg can work for ours, or even tuna water in with her normal water to get some fluid in her.

Hopefully she's okay :)

That's a good idea, I don't know if she has ever had an egg. I will give that a go.