My cat has a very bad rotten mouth with an abscess. We noticed about 5 days ago when she stopped eating, and so we took her to the vet twice. She got a shot of antibiotics and painkillers that we give her twice a day, and both visits she also got an injection of fluids since she won't drink either.

The vet who will remove her bad teeth says that we must get her to eat to be healthy enough for the tooth extraction which is booked for 7 days away.

She is now at 5 days without food and I am very concerned. She wants to eat and has tried numerous times to eat soft food, but every time she will hiss and run away as if it causes her a lot of pain, even with the painkillers.

I am wondering how much longer she can go without food before we need to take drastic action. I have heard that force feeding an animal is bad for them, is that true? To get a feeding tube might be more than I can afford but I don't know what to do. How much longer should we wait to see if she eats? What can we do if she can't eat?

Edit- wanted to share the results in case anyone else has a similar problem. After she continued to not eat we got her into the vet the very next day as an emergency. She had a calcified lump that was preventing her from closing her mouth fully, so that explained why she couldn't eat. She was in a bit of pain after the removal, but by the next day she was eating just fine. So it seems if a cat isn't eating because of a bad tooth/abscess in their mouth, get it removed as soon as possible. If it is really bad there is no point waiting for antibiotics. She is doing so much better especially since she was otherwise healthy.