Question for Cat Owners

flyingfoxes · February 2015

So my cat that I thought would have to be put to sleep 2 weeks ago, she's actually back at home. The vet has no idea what happened to her, it was like an infection took over her body and brain - she was blind from high blood pressure and very unsteady on her feet and had to spend a week at the vet hospital. She is able to see again, and they sent her home on Thursday - well, now she won't eat. I have to give her 2 large syringes of antibiotics twice a day, and it's nasty pink stuff that she gags on. I actually went and bought a few cans of the soft food she was perfectly willing to eat at the vet's, but she just looks away from it here at home. Yesterday I started mixing the antibiotics in with the wet food, and she seems to tolerate that pretty well, but she's not getting nearly enough food in her currently (pretty much ate nothing from Thursday to yesterday until I started giving her the food via syringe yesterday).

I managed to get 5 of the syringes of mixture into her this morning with no bad reactions - Friday night when I gave her her meds, it completely stressed her out, to the point of her stumbling and falling over with her mouth wide open panting, glassy-eyed (vet said that was severe stress and to not give her the meds if she always reacts that way - which I physically can't - I cried when she did that). Does anybody have any other ideas as to types of food I can try to tempt her with? I tried leaving a couple small pieces of tuna - no go. I've left a small portion of this wet food - it's a dried-out lump by morning. I figure I just need to jump-start her appetite to get her interested in eating on her own again, but it's hard! I'll keep doing the meds/food mixture by syringe until her follow-up in 2 weeks, but it sure would be nice if she would take an interest in food sooner than that. The syringe is very small, so it takes a lot of filling it to get even just a couple of tablespoons of food into her.

rubyotter217 · February 2015

I would ask your vet for a 6 or 12 mL oral syringe. Your can mix some wet food (like hills a/d which is a prescription food from the vet that's high in nutrients and calories) with water to make it a bit thinner and suck it up into the syringe. That way she gets food, but also some extra hydration. The antibiotics could be upsetting her stomach a bit and that might be affected her appetite.

flyingfoxes · February 2015

Ah good - the food I got for her is the hills a/d - she mentioned it was an appetite stimulant so I'm still hopeful! She does seem to be drinking water on her own but I've been wondering if that's what's going to go next.

esstee33 · February 2015

You could try some scrambled eggs, small pieces of cheese, deli meat, or meat-based baby foods that don't have onion or garlic powder in them.

What canned food is it? A fancy kind? If so, you might have better luck with any of the Friskies stuff, especially the kinds in gravy.

jenna8984 · February 2015

Awww poor kitty!! I don't really have much advice but my cat loves tuna juice (not the actual meat), milk, and anything dairy like ice cream/ sour cream. Maybe yours would like some of that? Sorry, I really hop she gets better!

flyingfoxes · February 2015

esstee33 said:

You could try some scrambled eggs, small pieces of cheese, deli meat, or meat-based baby foods that don't have onion or garlic powder in them.

What canned food is it? A fancy kind? If so, you might have better luck with any of the Friskies stuff, especially the kinds in gravy.

@esstee33 - we've tried a generic wet food (like Best Choice or something, FI picked it up), and also the fancy kind she was perfectly happy eating at the vet's. I have a feeling the antibiotics they gave her at the vet's office were probably injected so maybe this medicine is upsetting her tummy like @rubyotter217 mentioned. She's not fighting the syringe as much now that there's food mixed in with the meds, but it could be just that she's weaker from no food than she initially was on Thursday.

I wish we knew what happened to her - the vet suggested anything from a kidney infection gone wrong, to a brain tumor, to meningitis, to encephalitis, to eating something poisonous - it's completely bizarre, and our other 2 cats are perfectly fine.

My coworker also suggested baby food meat like turkey - I'm happy to try different foods to find the one that works!

dolewhipper · February 2015

Poor kitty!

I echo PP's suggestion of getting a larger syringe and thinning it out and giving it to her like that. What kind of "flavor" is it? Perhaps if you're used to giving her chicken based foods, tuna or other kinds are just a turn off. My one kitty loves boiled chicken breast and anything milk based, the other turns her nose to chicken and only likes tuna. Picky cats.

esstee33 · February 2015

Poor baby. I don't doubt the antibiotics could be making her feel sick. My ex had a cat who randomly had a stroke one day, and it was the most bizarre and scary thing. At first we had no idea what was wrong with her, but she couldn't walk straight or jump on the couch -- it was like she was incredibly drunk. It's so scary how all of a sudden they can go from totally fine to very not fine.

sal2015 · February 2015

I agree with @estee33 - the meat-based baby foods (making sure they don't have onion or garlic or anything in them) is worth a try. My cat needs to take meds twice a day and that's the only way I can get her to take them. She prefers the chicken and will not eat turkey. I haven't tried the ham and beef (baby food, canned cat food) makes her vomit. When we first started doing this, she would occasionally not eat the baby food, even though she always does now. What I would do is put her meds in a very, very small amount of the baby food and then smear it on her front legs if she refused to eat it. It sounds weird, but it doesn't stress her out to just quickly smear it on. She then grooms her legs and gets the medicine and baby food that way. I imagine this could be a more stressful process depending on the cat, so I don't know about trying that with your's.

As for canned cat food brand, I go with Fancy Feast. The vet recommended that for picky eaters and my cat usually eats it. She prefers the Gravy Lovers. She turned her nose up at several other brands, so this is what I've found that works best for her.

Good luck finding a solution for your cat! It can be tough and takes patience!

madamerwin · February 2015

esstee33 said: You could try some scrambled eggs, small pieces of cheese, deli meat, or meat-based baby foods that don't have onion or garlic powder in them.
What canned food is it? A fancy kind? If so, you might have better luck with any of the Friskies stuff, especially the kinds in gravy. This is what I was going to suggest too. One of our cats is especially picky (he will not even eat treats other than freeze-dried shrimp or chicken). He will beg for everything, but then just sniff it. But he LOVES lunch meat and cheese and would probably eat them all day if I let him.

I'm sorry you're going through this - I know it's scary when you don't know what's going on. Our other kitty has seizures once every couple of months, and the vet doesn't know why... It's no fun not to know what to do to help. Good luck, and I hope your cat gets better soon!

simcal18 · February 2015

I'm so sorry your kitty's not feeling well--I know how stressful it is when they won't eat. When I've had this issue with my cats, sometimes I've found that bonito flakes (available at most pet stores) sprinkled onto their food will help stimulate their appetite. It's basically a really smelly dried tuna flake though, so if your cat was not a big tuna fan before I don't know if it will do the trick. I would also sometimes mix tuna juice with plain mushy rice, and I also second the Fancy Feast and plain baby food suggestions. As a last resort, if you're desperate to get calories into your kitty, there is a high-calorie paste supplement called Nutrical that you can give kitty with an oral syringe. It's expensive but if she's really not eating it might be worth it to get her through until she's feeling well enough to eat on her own.

melbenso · February 2015

If she's really dehydrated, the vet can give her IV saline. We had to do that for one of my guys when he was really sick once.

When he was, he also loved canned pumpkin (high in fiber, so if diarrhea is a concern, I'd skip it) and canned chicken.

You could also ask about switching to a different antibiotic. My kitten had to have them after being spayed a few weeks ago because she got to her incision and it got infected. They gave us antibiotics that were banana flavored for little kids. She loved them. Seriously, the cat would run up all excited when I got them out of the fridge and wait patiently while I filled the syringe and squirted it in her mouth. If she's having a bad reaction to the meds (sick to stomach), I'd talk to the vet about switching them.

hellosweetie1015 · February 2015

You could also try getting a calorie supplement for cats. I had a dog once that got antifreeze somehow and the vet gave us a tube of something like that that helped him build his strength back up. It's definitely worth a looksee.

princessleia22 · February 2015

sal2015 said:

I agree with @estee33 - the meat-based baby foods (making sure they don't have onion or garlic or anything in them) is worth a try. My cat needs to take meds twice a day and that's the only way I can get her to take them. She prefers the chicken and will not eat turkey. I haven't tried the ham and beef (baby food, canned cat food) makes her vomit. When we first started doing this, she would occasionally not eat the baby food, even though she always does now. What I would do is put her meds in a very, very small amount of the baby food and then smear it on her front legs if she refused to eat it. It sounds weird, but it doesn't stress her out to just quickly smear it on. She then grooms her legs and gets the medicine and baby food that way. I imagine this could be a more stressful process depending on the cat, so I don't know about trying that with your's.

As for canned cat food brand, I go with Fancy Feast. The vet recommended that for picky eaters and my cat usually eats it. She prefers the Gravy Lovers. She turned her nose up at several other brands, so this is what I've found that works best for her.

Good luck finding a solution for your cat! It can be tough and takes patience!

A couple years ago my cat got very sick for a few months. He broke a tooth, it got infected and wouldn't heal. We went through about 4 months of antibiotics and trying to treat him, before discovering he had tumors in his mouth that weren't showing up on scans. Feeding him was a challenge, especially since the infection was in his mouth. He did okay with grilled chicken breast. We would grind it up in the blender into almost like pureed chicken. We also gave him unsalted chicken broth sometimes. But, we did find the most success with meat based baby food. So, I would suggest getting various flavors and testing them out to see what he will eat.

You may also want to see if there are different flavors of medications you can get for him. Our vet worked with a pharmacy that could add various flavorings. For my cat, he hated the turkey flavor meds, but tolerated the chicken flavoring. Or if it gets really bad, make your vet can show you how to do injections and have you give him injections at home, if he really can't tolerate the oral meds.

moosette113 · February 2015

sal2015 said:

I agree with @estee33 - the meat-based baby foods (making sure they don't have onion or garlic or anything in them) is worth a try. My cat needs to take meds twice a day and that's the only way I can get her to take them. She prefers the chicken and will not eat turkey. I haven't tried the ham and beef (baby food, canned cat food) makes her vomit. When we first started doing this, she would occasionally not eat the baby food, even though she always does now. What I would do is put her meds in a very, very small amount of the baby food and then smear it on her front legs if she refused to eat it. It sounds weird, but it doesn't stress her out to just quickly smear it on. She then grooms her legs and gets the medicine and baby food that way. I imagine this could be a more stressful process depending on the cat, so I don't know about trying that with your's.

As for canned cat food brand, I go with Fancy Feast. The vet recommended that for picky eaters and my cat usually eats it. She prefers the Gravy Lovers. She turned her nose up at several other brands, so this is what I've found that works best for her.

Good luck finding a solution for your cat! It can be tough and takes patience!

We did something similar with the food smearing with my mom's one cat after he came home from the vet diagnosed with a heart defect (after the vet had originally thought he had eaten something poisonous). He was so weak and stressed that he refused to eat, so we ended up putting some Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers on his nose. He was too weak to clean his legs, but he wasn't willing to let his nose stay dirty. We gradually got him to eat more of the gravy over the coarse of a week, though it took until the second week for him to start eating the actual meat chunks. It probably took 2 weeks to get him back on dry food and back to normal eating habits. Hopefully after a few days of the antibiotics your kitty will feel a little better and food will start to interest her again.

@tfmrserwin, did your vet happen to look at your kitty's heart? My cat presented with what looked like seizures spaced a few weeks apart, and it turned out she was having blood pressure issues due to an elongated mitral valve. Now she's on atenolol and doing much better.

morewineplease · February 2015

It might sound weird but when one of my cats was sick and not eating I tried many things…

The typical cats food did not help, (tuna, turkey, and other meat) so I tried melon, raw steak (tiny bits), cheese, and since we had a lizard live crickets. She loved the melon and crickets (but they were too fast for her when she got really sick).

madamerwin · February 2015

moosette113 said:

sal2015 said:

I agree with @estee33 - the meat-based baby foods (making sure they don't have onion or garlic or anything in them) is worth a try. My cat needs to take meds twice a day and that's the only way I can get her to take them. She prefers the chicken and will not eat turkey. I haven't tried the ham and beef (baby food, canned cat food) makes her vomit. When we first started doing this, she would occasionally not eat the baby food, even though she always does now. What I would do is put her meds in a very, very small amount of the baby food and then smear it on her front legs if she refused to eat it. It sounds weird, but it doesn't stress her out to just quickly smear it on. She then grooms her legs and gets the medicine and baby food that way. I imagine this could be a more stressful process depending on the cat, so I don't know about trying that with your's.

As for canned cat food brand, I go with Fancy Feast. The vet recommended that for picky eaters and my cat usually eats it. She prefers the Gravy Lovers. She turned her nose up at several other brands, so this is what I've found that works best for her.

Good luck finding a solution for your cat! It can be tough and takes patience!

@tfmrserwin, did your vet happen to look at your kitty's heart? My cat presented with what looked like seizures spaced a few weeks apart, and it turned out she was having blood pressure issues due to an elongated mitral valve. Now she's on atenolol and doing much better.

We did not have any heart tests done - the vet didn't mention the possibility of a heart problem. He did blood tests and an x-ray (or MRI or something) to rule out tumors, infections, etc., but that was it.

The vet said that it was "idiopathic epilepsy," which is just fancy talk to unexplained seizures. He said if they started happening closer together we could do more tests, but since it only happens every couple of months, he was surprisingly unconcerned about it (the closest together they have been is 8 weeks, the farthest apart was almost 9 months - we thought she was past it when she had one the day after Christmas this last year, after 9 months seizure-free).

Thanks for the advice, though! If they start becoming more frequent I will definitely ask the vet to run more tests.

flyingfoxes · February 2015

The vet did try IV fluids when she was hospitalized, but it made her blood pressure skyrocket and her heart race (over 200 bpm) so they had to discontinue IVs and then they just did subcutaneous fluids. When I picked her up, they said she was getting enough water on her own and was well-hydrated but that IVs are a no-go for her. I'm very fortunate to have a country vet who has REALLY reasonable prices - that weeklong stay was only $450, but that's not something that can be maintained indefinitely so I'm very happy to try to find what works for her!

onwednesdayswewearpink · February 2015

Have you tried Fancy Feast "Broths" ? Its a gravy/ soup with meat chunks in a pouch in the cat food section. Even if your cat just licks the gravy, at least they will be getting calories. Stress is really hard on some cats, just stay strong! I wish you all the best!

flyingfoxes · February 2015

I'm definitely gonna pick up some Fancy Feast w/ gravy tonight, along with some baby food varieties. Thank you for all the suggestions!

Dreamergirl8812 · February 2015

1) Ask your vet if they carry Convenia. It's an injectable antibiotic that lasts for 2 weeks. It's expensive, but one poke and you don't have to worry about squirting Amoxi down her throat twice a day. Amoxi should also be given with food. So she doesn't eat, you give her the meds, which upsets her stomach because it's empty. Which makes her not want to eat again. So you give the Amoxi again. Repeat.

2) Ask your vet about Mirtazapine or Prednisone. Mirtazapine is an appetite stimulant and Pred will fight inflammation in the body and make kitty think she is really hungry and thirsty all the time.

3) You can also look into inserting a feeding tube temporarily. If necessary, you can also bring her in for an injection of valium. Valium is really funny in kitties. You give them an IV injection of it while they have a big bowl of food in front of them and they'll down the food in like a minute. Obviously not a long term solution, but it can save them if they refuse to eat.

FiancB · February 2015

Try making some broth. When you make it yourself it has quite a bit of protein in it, it's easy for kitty to tolerate, and easy for you to shoot through a syringe.

themuffinman16 · February 2015

Do you think it could be an infection from a tooth cavity? That would make her want to drink, and if the infection is really bad, it could have spread to her brain, and make it really painful to eat even wet cat food.

themuffinman16 · February 2015

Hugs to you, I hope your kitty gets well soon.

flyingfoxes · February 2015

themuffinman16 said:

Do you think it could be an infection from a tooth cavity? That would make her want to drink, and if the infection is really bad, it could have spread to her brain, and make it really painful to eat even wet cat food.

The vet did say that her mouth was infected, but that we can't do anything about it until we get her back to well. I'm hoping to get her more stable for the checkup on March 7 so we can talk about getting her teeth taken care of as well.

QueerFemme · February 2015

Many of these options are good, but honestly, whatever you do, just make a slurry with it, and shoot it in her mouth with a syringe. (A slurry is basically, very liquefied food). Yes, she'll hate it, and you'll have to do it a few times a day (more is better). When my cat was sick and not eating, I just did three or so syringes in the morning, (I got up hella early, and did it about 4am-5am, and again a few minutes before I left the house, and the second I came home, and again before bed. Get as much food in her as you can.

Also, talk to your vet about doing subcutaneous fluids at home. A lot of times, it's the dehydration that makes them feel shitty and keeps them from eating. If you can stomach it, you can do SubQ fluids at home (the vet can give you the needles and the bag, and you can do a little bit of fluid every night, sometimes twice a day). It's pretty easy. You just put the needle in the scruff of their neck, and hold them and pet them for about 5-10 minutes, and they'll end up with a little hunchback ball of fluid on their neck, that will distribute into their bodies in about an hour. (ETA: SubQ fluids are much less stressful at home than they are at the vet. Because you can sit with them and pet them and talk to them. My cat who FREAKED at the vet, was totally calm and sat on the blankie next to me at home when I was holding a needle in her neck).

Hydration is actually much more important than food. So, try to get that stabalized with fluids, and shoot the food in a few times a day, and see if she starts feeling better.

flyingfoxes · February 2015

Good news for tonight - I've given her a couple of syringes of food, and she's taking it much better than just with meds alone. She's been in the water, I put fresh out and it's all dirty tonight, which is her hallmark - putting her feet in there. Also, the most promising thing is she used her front paws to wipe her face and lick them off - she hasn't been grooming at all. I'm just doing a syringe at a time, then giving her a break. I'll probably zip her up in the dog kennel tonight with fresh water and be able to tell if she's gotten into it by morning.

db1984 · February 2015

Be careful with giving any milk or dairy based foods, a huge percentage of cats are lactose intolerant.

My vet gives turkey baby food to all of her patients while they're getting shots or having blood drawn. Both of my cats were so fixated on the food that they were oblivious to what was being done to them.

I had another cat a few years ago who needed oral antibiotics a couple times per day. What I did was swaddle her in a big towel and held her in the crook of my arm like a baby to give the dose to her. She was very calm and accepting of it this way (she always loved to be held like that anyway, but the swaddling seemed to comfort her even more).

allispain · February 2015

Aww poor thing. One of my own cats had a horrible kidney infection three years ago that resulted in multiple trips to the vet until we could finally figure out what was wrong with him. It took a long time to get his appetite back to normal because his stomach had probably shrank from lack of eating while he was sick, the meds he was on put him off his food, etc.

We actually now make him homemade food because the store-bought stuff had too many things in it that shut his kidneys down - and the prescription kidney-friendly stuff costs a small fortune. I'm be happy to share the recipe we use if that's a road you're looking to explore at some point.

I would suggest giving your kitty something bland - cooked rice or potatoes with a little bit of cooked chicken. The chicken scent would hopefully lure kitty in, and then the rice/potatoes would be bland enough to not upset his stomach too much.

Good luck!!

flyingfoxes · February 2015

I tried getting her a packet of the broth sensations from Fancy Feast and left it in a dish overnight - no go. I tossed that and used the rest of the broth from the pack to mix in with the medicine this morning, so I could then just give her food mixed with a little water so it wouldn't have that mediciney flavor and maybe she'd be more interested. No go - she wasn't happy, but she took the couple syringes of food and the meds/broth mixture with not too much fight. I think I'll stick with mixing the meds with the a/d food and offering her up small dishes of food overnight (I let her roam free except for overnights - for those she goes back in the kennel so the other pets can't get to her food). I also bought some of the gravy type fancy feast so maybe I'll offer that type to her tonight.

PrettyGirlLost · February 2015

Vibes that your kitty gets better!

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