I Don't Even Know How To Respond...

Got this email today from someone I know from a different, non-pet forum. Besides the obvious answer of VET and the cringing I did while reading it and hearing this poor dog and cat are stuck outside in very high heat, I don't even know where to start or how to respond. From what I can gather, I think they just got a new dog a few months ago and had himn neutured. Dog isn't eating very much and now cat isn't either and cat is losing weight. How would you respond?? :eek:

I was talking to my cousin and she was telling me that she is a little worried about her cat and dog. She told me that foxy...her dog hasn't been eating her dry food. She said it's been going on for the past like 2 months and isn't sure if it has to do with the heat since she lives where the weather gets to the 100 degrees easier than here. But she notices that she still eats her can food. I told her how often does she give her can food and she told me every other day. Is that still a lot?.

Now her cat. With him, she is a lot worried because he is actually loosing wait. She noticed this problem when they got foxy and neutered him. He will not eat any of his dry food. All he wants is the can food and will take up to two days to even touch his dry food. Pretty much eating it only when he is starving. Since she sometimes doesn't have time to go to the store and buy can food, she gives him dry food and he just wont eat it. At first i thought once again its because she gives him too much meat/can food and he is used to it but she then told me, it's not until she opens the door and the cat goes in the house will he eat the dry food. That was weird to me. She said as soon as he goes in, she puts the dry food down and he will eat it. She started noticing that he would meow a lot wanting to come in, even jumping on the window to come in. Trying to open the door jumping on the door knob. So she began to think he was depressed. So she looked it up and from what she read, cats can get depressed by change and well, foxy coming into the family and getting neutered is a big change. Not only that, what used to be his back yard well is now shared with foxy and he is pretty much left without his area...you know. So she said he has lost a lot of weight and i know this cat, he is/was a fat cat lol...so i could only imagine how thin he got. Her husband also thinks since ashes (that's the cats name lol) got neutered he doesn't have much reason to be outside anymore since he can't go looking for other cats and wants more attention and wants to be inside.

So she isn't sure what could be wrong with him and i never had that problem with any of my cats. Any idea?.

Hmm, or maybe it was the cat that just got recently neutured? I can't quite tell from her message.

So she isn't sure what could be wrong with him and i never had that problem with any of my cats. Any idea?.

Same answer that you have .... they should take the cat to a vet. And if the cat wants in , why can't they keep him as an inside cat only ? Same for the dog ... :sad:

Hmm, or maybe it was the cat that just got recently neutured? I can't quite tell from her message.

Either way , I never known of a cat or a dog that had loss of appetite because of being neutered or spayed. Maybe in the first 24 hours but that"s about it :shrug:

I know. :wall: I think her cousin may be from Mexico as I know most of her family lives there, but not sure. I don't know if pets are still treated culturally different there or not. I know when we were there years ago, we got stares for having our dog with us on leash. It was very uncommon to have a dog on leash and even more uncommon to have one be included in family activities. Other than possibly stress, heat, and bring your poor pets indoors and make sure they have proper shade and separate eating areas and VET, I don't know what else to say or suggest. :sad:

Seems pretty obvious to me. First off - vet for the cat losing the weight. But before that - they need to be out of the heat. I didn't read one thing about water. A cat eating only dry food is bad enough. Add that to no water or not enough water available and you are looking at double trouble. The pets need to be in the house when it is that hot outside, or all the time preferably. Why can't the dog and cat have canned food all the time? :shrug:
If these people aren't willing to have the pets indoors then it may be time to look at rehoming. Just my :2cents:.

Are they in Mexico ? If they can't fed the cat wet food , maybe add water to the kibble ? But I know once the kibble is wet , there's only a few hours until it goes bad ...

I think they might be in Mexico, but not sure. I just replied back with more questions and said all the obvious things (while biting back the sarcasm!), so we'll see what she says. Frenchy good suggestion to try wetting the kibble if they're not open to wet food all the time or at least until they're back to eating normal again. I just hope they take them to a vet! So sad.