Vets think in amounts, frequencies, and trends, so an observation list written in those terms is worth more than a general worry. Prepare the list across several ordinary days before the appointment, recording the same entries in the same way each day, so the pattern reads clearly. The seven entries are: food offered and eaten at each meal, water refilled and drunk, litter visits with clump count and size, stool consistency and colour, any straining or accidents, vomiting, and energy and hiding changes.
Set Up the List Before You Observe
Rule a notebook page or open a note with seven headed lines, one per entry, and keep it beside the litter tray or the food cupboard where the observations actually happen. Gather the simple tools the list needs: her usual measuring cup or scoop for food, a marker line on the water bowl or a note of each refill, and a phone for dates, times, and photographs of anything unusual in the tray. Decide who records what if several people feed her, since shared cats produce fragmented notes unless one person owns the list. Start several days before the appointment rather than the night before, because a single day can mislead in either direction.
Record Appetite and Thirst in Amounts
For appetite, write the food offered at each meal in your usual measure, then what remains when you clear the bowl, noting refusals, slow eating, walking away mid-meal, or new enthusiasm. Record treats and anything scavenged separately, since a cat refusing meals while accepting treats tells a different story from a cat refusing everything. For thirst, note each water refill, whether the bowl level drops faster or slower than usual, and any new behaviour such as drinking from taps, the bath, or plant saucers. Exact volumes are less valuable than honest comparisons with her normal, stated plainly: about half her usual, roughly double, unchanged. Add the times of day, because night drinking or dawn tray visits can matter.
Record Litter Habits Like a Census
Count litter visits where you can, and describe output in concrete terms: number and rough size of urine clumps, stool consistency from firm to loose, stool colour, and any straining, crying, or long digging before or after. Note accidents outside the tray with their location, since a cat who urinates beside a tray but defecates inside it is reporting something specific. Record vomiting with its timing relative to meals and a plain description of what came up, including hair, food, foam, or liquid. Finish each day with the energy line: play, greeting behaviour, sleeping places, and any hiding, because a cat who eats normally yet withdraws has still changed. Photograph anything you would struggle to describe, and date every photograph.
A Worked Example and the Handover
A finished entry reads like this: Tuesday, day 3 — food offered and eaten at each meal: a measured pouch at 7 am eaten in full, and a second pouch at 6 pm with about a quarter left; water refilled and drunk: bowl refilled at 8 am and down by roughly a third by bedtime, about her usual amount; litter visits with clump count and size: three visits, giving two urine clumps, one walnut-sized and one smaller; stool consistency and colour: one firm, mid-brown stool; any straining or accidents: no straining, no long digging, and nothing outside the tray; vomiting: none today; energy and hiding changes: she greeted everyone at the door and played for ten minutes, then spent the afternoon under the bed instead of on her usual sofa cushion. At the appointment, open with the headline change in one sentence, such as eating half her usual for four days, then hand over the full list. Vets can scan a week of entries in a minute and aim questions and examination precisely, which saves time and sometimes saves a return visit. Keep the list running after the appointment if the vet asks for monitoring, using identical entries so the trend stays readable. Stored by date in Pet Passport, the run also serves her next appointment, giving any clinician her normal pattern through KinsLe at a glance.