my cats licking coal!

Question
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Followup To
Question -
Hi
i am writing on behalf of my family, we are getting increasingly more worried about our 15 and a half year old tom cat Barney who has recently taken to licking coal! He has been doing it for almost 2 weeks now. Is it anything to  be worried about his diet hasnt changed recently he eats tuna and whiskas seniors dry food although he is drinking alot more water. Many thanks for your help in advance.
kate buttimer( you can contact us on my dads email address)
Answer -
I have to admit this is a first for me -- I have heard of cats eating or licking some bizarre things but this takes the cake. I think your are very right to worry and I think he should see a vet. It's not an emergency but the sooner the better. How on earth is he getting at coal in the first place? You need to keep him away from it somehow and find out what is going on.

The following link should give you some helpful information: http://www.vmth.ucdavis.edu/home/beh/feline_behavior/pica.html

If you do follow up with your vet, I would be interested in hearing what the cause of this might be. Good information for me to have if someone else ever contacts me with a similar problem.

hope this helps a little

iris

Hi again Iris,
  Took our cat to the vet earlier this week, and he said that he remembered his cat licking coal too - he said that, in small quantities, it would do no harm but that he didn't know what the attraction was !!  The last time Barney saw the vet, he hadn't been starved for 12 hours so the couldn't do a blood test.  So this time, we starved him (great fun !!) and they performed the test.  For his age (15+), they said that he was in great shape (liver, kidneys, etc. are all fine) - the only anomoly was that he was slightly dehydrated (I reckon that as he doesn't go out as much these days, he's in a slightly warmer environment and therefore loses more water than before)   Hope this feedback will be of some help.  Regards, Doug

Answer
I'm glad to hear it's nothing serious. I do have a suggestion, though. If Barney is tending to be dehydrated, consider buying him one of those electric drinking fountains made specially for cats. They're not that expensive and something about the fact that the water is moving and run through a filter makes it a lot more appealing to the cats and they drink more water.
I got one for my guys because my oldest is 10 1/2 and he loves it.

Good luck with Barney. At least now you know what he wants in his stockimg for CHristmas this year :-)