Cat water fountains

My friend bought a water fountain on vet’s advice to help with dehydration. Cat wouldn’t go near it.

My neighbour has a motion sensor fountain but her cat prefers to drink from the bowl I leave outside for my cat who drinks copiously after every meal. He is 21 and has kidney problems so needs to drink a lot. I have 4 bowls in various locations, which I change at least once a day, but he won't touch the one near his food. I did try a fountain years ago, but none of my cats would use it, and it wasn't cheap.

My son has a stainless steel water fountain for his cat. Apparently they are more hygienic than plastic or ceramic ones as they don’t harbour bacteria.

When I was looking after the cat I must admit the constant trickling noise of the water got on my nerves!😅

I’ve been told that water fountains are hard to clean and not hygienic. I don’t know how true this is.
My cat loves playing with water she has a small paddling pool in the bath which I put a few plastic cat toys in, she enjoys fishing them out she licks her paws as well as drinking the water which I change twice a day. She also has a small bowl of water in the bottom of the shower, her favourite place to drink. We remove the bowl when we shower. There’s another bowl next to her dry food in the kitchen which she rarely drinks.
She loves a dripping tap, she puts her paws in the drips then licks her paws, she’ll wait for you to turn a tap on, she drinks a lot of water throughout the day.

My Dds cat developed kidney problems and has to have a special food. Although there was water available in bowls he was not drinking enough.

She bought a cheap fountain and the change is really noticeable he drinks frequently and the only downside is the sound of tinkling water.

It’s like this one:
catit.co.uk/products/catit-flower-fountain

It’s an instinct to protect them from contaminated water I think. I had a cat who wouldn’t drink from a bowl, and the only solution I found was to leave a tap dripping for him to jump up and drink from that. I developed a routine with him, the tap in the downstairs toilet was left dripping for an hour after he’d eaten, because I was worried about him eating cat biscuits without drinking. This was before water fountains were around, but you could try it before buying one to see if your cat will drink flowing water.

MaizieD, having bowls of water about obviously didn't help our cat (Maisie) or she wouldn't have been come dehydrated. And we will try anything to help her

MaizieD

Some cats will only drink water that is flowing. They can be a bit particular that way.

What is the difference between a cat water fountain and having a bowl of water available for the cat at all times?

Sorry to derail so early but it sounds so absurd.