Tommy not back to normal yet and still not eating.

dejablues:

Ah, there's the hard part. We have to make choices for our pets, and
hope that they're the correct ones. It's your decision not to give up
easily, not his. Keeping treatment going to justify the money already
spent may just prolong the inevitable, and I hope you know your cat
well enough to know when he's done.

The inevitable is that he will die, and much younger than normal because
of his weak heart. I don't know why he isn't eating, I don't know that he
has given up, he can't tell me that. What I do know is that animals fight
to live as a rule. And I know that he has been a loyal companion to me and
I am being loyal in return; sometimes you need someone there to urge you
on when the going gets tough.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to get him to eat broth or even milk
although he drinks water just fine. So I give him a marble sized plop of
soft food with each pill he takes (4/day total) + I gave him 3 more marble
sized blobs of food for good measure. He is definitely stronger and feels
better today than he did yesterday and has been purring up a storm. He
still just sits and looks at his food bowl and meows at me like he is
expecting something but I don't know what, he won't touch anything I've
tried.

"Mac Cool" wrote in message
...
dejablues:

Ah, there's the hard part. We have to make choices for our pets, and
hope that they're the correct ones. It's your decision not to give up
easily, not his. Keeping treatment going to justify the money already
spent may just prolong the inevitable, and I hope you know your cat
well enough to know when he's done.

The inevitable is that he will die, and much younger than normal because
of his weak heart. I don't know why he isn't eating, I don't know that he
has given up, he can't tell me that. What I do know is that animals fight
to live as a rule.

From my experience, that is not true, especially with cats. They pretty much
know when they are not going to get better and when to slink off and die.


And I know that he has been a loyal companion to me and
I am being loyal in return; sometimes you need someone there to urge you
on when the going gets tough.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to get him to eat broth or even milk
although he drinks water just fine. So I give him a marble sized plop of
soft food with each pill he takes (4/day total) + I gave him 3 more marble
sized blobs of food for good measure. He is definitely stronger and feels
better today than he did yesterday and has been purring up a storm. He
still just sits and looks at his food bowl and meows at me like he is
expecting something but I don't know what, he won't touch anything I've
tried.

Not eating at all is a sign of something very wrong. Try giving him baby
food jarred meats .If he won't eat those, then he won't eat anything, and a
cat that doesn't eat can't live.

I'm sorry, and don't mean to be harsh, but I've been there with more than a
few of my cats.
:-(

dejablues:

From my experience, that is not true, especially with cats. They
pretty much know when they are not going to get better and when to
slink off and die.

No, they fight to live as a rule. That doesn't mean they never go off
to die but as a rule, they want to live. Only humans give up easily.

Not eating at all is a sign of something very wrong.

Like what? I don't eat when I'm sick, sometimes for days. It isn't as if
he hasn't been under intense medical care for the last week. He's had
blood work, urinalysis, x-rays, ultrasounds and god knows what else.

Try giving him baby food jarred meats .If he won't eat those, then he
won't eat anything

He wouldn't eat them if he were healthy. I've never been able to get him
to eat anything other than dry catfood, not even milk or tuna; he won't
even touch them.

I'm sorry, and don't mean to be harsh, but I've been there with more
than a few of my cats.

He's only out of the hospital for two days, it's a little early to throw
in the towel. It would be easier to give up, easier on me by far to stop
worring but that isn't my way. Force feeding him may be futile but then we
have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I have to give him pills
anyway and giving him soft food is the same process, open his mouth, drop
in some food and hold his chin up so he can't spit the food out. He's not
exactly suffering and each day he has looked stronger. Neither one of us
are quitting just yet.

Mac Cool wrote:
He's only out of the hospital for two days, it's a little early to throw
in the towel. It would be easier to give up, easier on me by far to stop
worring but that isn't my way. Force feeding him may be futile but then we
have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I have to give him pills

Cats can get hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) from not eating at all
for a couple of days, especially overweight ones but it could happen to any
sized cat. How about Temptations treats? Most cats go crazy over those.
The marble sized soft food though is better than nothing at all. Just try
and increase it a bit each time.


Riannon

--
Message posted via CatKB.com
http://www.catkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx...ealth/200805/1

Riannon via CatKB.com:

Cats can get hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) from not eating
at all for a couple of days, especially overweight ones but it could
happen to any sized cat. How about Temptations treats? Most cats go
crazy over those. The marble sized soft food though is better than
nothing at all. Just try and increase it a bit each time.

His stomach couldn't handle them right now, he's been 9 days without solid
food. I'm force feeding him concoctions of Nutri-cal & soft cat food. I
realized today that he is no longer drinking water from a bowl but he can
drink dripping water from the faucet just fine. I suspect he is still in
pain when he leans forward, something I'll have to bring up at his follow
up.

On May 26, 11:35*pm, Mac Cool wrote:
Riannon via CatKB.com:

Cats can get hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) from not eating
at all for a couple of days, especially overweight ones but it could
happen to any sized cat. *How about Temptations treats? *Most cats go
crazy over those. The marble sized soft food though is better than
nothing at all. *Just try and increase it a bit each time. *

His stomach couldn't handle them right now, he's been 9 days without solid
food. I'm force feeding him concoctions of Nutri-cal & soft cat food. I
realized today that he is no longer drinking water from a bowl but he can
drink dripping water from the faucet just fine. I suspect he is still in
pain when he leans forward, something I'll have to bring up at his follow
up.

I'm so sorry you are going through this. Keep trying to get Tommy to
eat, anything at all right now is what's important to get food into
him. I know you said he doesn't like wet food, but have you tried
canned Fancy Feast? A previous vet once told me it's like "Mc Donalds
for cat," and they would recommend it for cats who weren't eating well
(as a short-term diet). As odd as this sounds, have you tried offering
food off of your finger? When my one cat was very ill once, he
wouldn't eat from a bowl, but would eat small globs from my finger.
Time consuming, yes, but at least he was eating.

Best of luck to you and Tommy. I hope he pulls through.

On May 26, 11:35*pm, Mac Cool wrote:
Riannon via CatKB.com:

Cats can get hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) from not eating
at all for a couple of days, especially overweight ones but it could
happen to any sized cat. *How about Temptations treats? *Most cats go
crazy over those. The marble sized soft food though is better than
nothing at all. *Just try and increase it a bit each time. *

His stomach couldn't handle them right now, he's been 9 days without solid
food. I'm force feeding him concoctions of Nutri-cal & soft cat food. I
realized today that he is no longer drinking water from a bowl but he can
drink dripping water from the faucet just fine. I suspect he is still in
pain when he leans forward, something I'll have to bring up at his follow
up.

I'm so sorry you are going through this. Keep trying to get Tommy to
eat, anything at all right now is what's important to get food into
him. I know you said he doesn't like wet food, but have you tried
canned Fancy Feast? A previous vet once told me it's like "Mc Donalds
for cat," and they would recommend it for cats who weren't eating well
(as a short-term diet). As odd as this sounds, have you tried offering
food off of your finger? When my one cat was very ill once, he
wouldn't eat from a bowl, but would eat small globs from my finger.
Time consuming, yes, but at least he was eating.

Best of luck to you and Tommy. I hope he pulls through.

On Wed, 28 May 2008 19:12:28 -0400, "cindys"
wrote:


"Mac Cool" wrote in message
...
If you remember from my thread about Tommy who has a bad heart and just
got out of the hospital...

Well he isn't the same cat. I mean when I look into his eyes, it's like
there is only a shadow of his former self looking back. Hopefully it's
temporary but my wife thinks he suffered brain damage, she even asked the
vet at the hospital who chuckled at the question and basically said, no.
But he is different. This is the first time one of my cats has gone
through such a tramatic experience, is it normal to be so different? Tommy
was full neurosis before now it's like he's checked out. Maybe it is the
medicine. He follows us around and mews like a baby kitten almost but
mostly he likes to stay in the bathroom, right now he is lying in the
bathtub which he has only done once before when he started getting sick.

Also, he is not eating. The vet gave us Mirtazapine, one tablet every
three days to increase appetite. It has been one day and he still won't
eat. He is drinking and using the litter box but he just sits and looks at
his food bowl but doesn't try to eat. He hasn't eaten anything in a week
except a little softfood that I pack his pills in. Should I start force
feeding him soft food if he doesn't snap out of it by tomorrow?
----------
When a cat isn't eating like that, he may be in pain. When Bullwinkle
stopped eating for a bit, my vet gave me a small dose of narcotic to inject
(subcutaneous, not intramuscular, so it was easy). Her approach is that if
the cat starts eating again after having the narcotic, that indicates the
reason he wasn't eating before is because he was having pain. In the case of
Bullwinkle, the narcotic did not help, so I knew the reason for his lack of
appetite wasn't pain. He did start eating again slowly shortly thereafter
and eventually his normal appetite returned. The reason our vet goes with
the injectable narcotic right off the bat and does not fool around with
aspirin or other small pain pills is that she wants to go for the big guns
right off and not waste time. The narcotic was intended to be diagnostic and
temporary. If it had worked and he started eating again, she would have
introduced non-narcotic pain treatment once he had stabilized back into his
routine.
Best regards,
---Cindy S.


I wish my doctor would take that approach with me.