When Bette would not eat on her own earlier in the week, I was trying to syringe feed her.
When you have a cat that cannot eat on its own, won’t eat enough because the cat is sick, has a disease, there are a variety of foods, medicines to try, and feeding methods.
One of the best foods to feed a cat is Hill’s AD. It blends very well with very little water-a couple drops-therefore allowing a lot of calories and nutrients to get into the cat. Take a fork to blend in the can and then you should be able to easily syringe it up. This is of course a little easier to do when you’ve taken some of it out of the can and placed into bowl like I did in the photo. Use a 3ml plastic syringe which is enough for each try. We feed 9ml or more as tolerated at a time.
We also tried various liquid cat foods or "soups" by Friskees, and Fancy Feast "Broths" to add to AD and to syringe feed to add flavor, nutrients, and to encourage her appetite, and liquids that we hoped would be easier for her to swallow (since she could not easily swallow.) You can also use "cat milk" typically for kittens-add some to AD, or syringe feed 3ml for hydration.
Other meat based items that you can use: jars of baby food-chicken, beef, sweet potatoes (great source of potassium and fiber for gastric issues). Tuna juice. And you can make up your own broth. You do not want to buy commercial broth because it has too much salt and onions both of which you want to avoid. But you can make your own and add a little bit of sugar as long as the cat is not diabetic, and a little bit of salt as long as the cat isn’t HCM. 
I was going to use these broths for Bette. I boiled chicken with chicken livers because I thought she might need some iron. Chicken livers are a great source of iron, but it’s impossible to syringe. And since she wasn’t at that point eating on her own, I didn’t think she would eat it. But assuming that some of the iron rich liver leaked iron into the broth, I boiled them together. I did add to both the beef and the chicken broth a little bit of salt because she does not have heart disease. And I added just a little bit of sugar because she’s not diabetic. And since she wasn’t eating, and since sodium and glucose are necessary electrolytes, I wanted to make sure that she got something of those into her. Yes, it’s just a guess as to how much to put in. And it’s a guess as to how much she actually would have needed. I used 1/16 of a teaspoon if that in both of sugar and salt. 
How much should you feed your cat by syringe? I would say to start with 9 mL every 2 to 3 hours. Yes it depends on how much you can you get in at a time so if your cat rejects being hand fed after one or two syringes, decrease the amount of time in between each feeding and then try to increase the number of syringes you can actually get into your cat. We wrap a small hand towel or a paper towel around the neck of a cat. The cat is usually sitting, but Bette was mostly laying down, sitting up. You wrap one free arm around the cat and hold its head while using the syringe and your fingers in the other hand, to pry the cats mouth and gently feed the cat. You’ll want to go very, very slowly. Especially if the cat is very sick and weak. You don’t want to get food or liquid into the lungs. That will lead to pneumonia-not to frighten you, but that’s not going to happen if you go slowly. And yes, it’s frightening if your cat rejects it because you’re thinking your cats going to waste away. (I was very worried about Betty. I was worried about her even Thursday night when she was in the ER and I asked them how will they feed her. I just had it in my head that she had not been eating well for the last few days even as she presented with so many other things that were life-threatening, and not eating wasn’t one of them.) Your cat won’t waste away as long as it is getting enough food and enough nutrients every day and as long as you can keep it hydrated and as long as you can keep a staple weight. If your cat is 12 pounds and it’s been sick and you’re struggling to feed it and it gets down to 11 pounds after a month it’s OK. Sure, you want to discuss with your vet the overall body condition because it’s not just about how much it weighs, but is it healthy. 
I probably forgot to mention something as to how to feed. It is a trial and error. Food gets everywhere. Have baby wipes handy. Don’t yell at the cat. Don’t yell at your spouse. Don’t yell at yourself.
There are meds that can help your cat eat on its own if the cat is capable and healthy enough to respond to the medication. There is Cerenia a good anti-nausea medication. There is onedansetron which is a good anti-vomiting medication. There is Cyproheptadine an allergy medication which stimulates appetite. And there is mirtazapine, which is a pill and Mirataz ear gel, appetite stimulatants. I think those are the top meds that doctors give to prevent issues or help stimulate appetite, so that the cat can eat more on its own.
I do suggest that you keep a notebook. Start with cats weight and write it down, and write down when you feed it and how much you feed and how much water you give. The best way to monitor how much a cat is eating is to measure it always. Measure how much wet food you put into a bowl-cup, tablespoon, teaspoon. Measure it accurately. Because cats are funny. You will feed a cat an ounce of cat food and you will swear that it ate most of it. But because it pushes it off the plate or around the plate, when you collect all of it and you measure it, you might find that 1 ounce is not mostly gone, but is mostly still on the plate. If you know how much you fed the cat and you know how much the cat ate, then you can measure the amount of calories that the cat is taking in. 
A cat should have on average 260-280 calories per day. A 5oz can has a range of 120-180; 3oz can 70-125. Dry food varies but a cup is usually 250-300 calories. But you might give less than a quarter cup at a time and the cat might eat less than a quarter of that at a time of 25 calories. So, always measure before and after and keep a note of amounts.
Good luck.
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