Need help with anorexic cat

My 13 year old cat hates food. Over the last 9 months, he's lost 25% of his
bodyweight. I've taken him to the vet, but she can't find anything really
wrong with him. I'm convinced its behavioral. He's become so finnicky,
he'd rather starve than eat. I've tried a multitude of different foods, but
to no avail. I know he's hungry, because he bothers me for food often
(including several times during the night). But when I feed him he often
walks away and has a drink of water instead. The food he seems to favor
most (and I use the term loosely; by "favor" I mean he takes a few licks and
then walks away) is broiled chicken breast mixed with tuna, but I can't keep
giving him this because its not a balanced diet.

Is there anything else I can do to try to get him to eat? Any sure fire
foods that cats love? I hate to put him on the prednisolone that the vet
gave me to spark up his appetite, but I'm running out of options.

What has the vet done to diagnose this? Blood work? Checked his teeth and
gums?

W

"0to60" wrote in message
. ..
My 13 year old cat hates food. Over the last 9 months, he's lost 25% of
his bodyweight. I've taken him to the vet, but she can't find anything
really wrong with him. I'm convinced its behavioral. He's become so
finnicky, he'd rather starve than eat. I've tried a multitude of
different foods, but to no avail. I know he's hungry, because he bothers
me for food often (including several times during the night). But when I
feed him he often walks away and has a drink of water instead. The food
he seems to favor most (and I use the term loosely; by "favor" I mean he
takes a few licks and then walks away) is broiled chicken breast mixed
with tuna, but I can't keep giving him this because its not a balanced
diet.

Is there anything else I can do to try to get him to eat? Any sure fire
foods that cats love? I hate to put him on the prednisolone that the vet
gave me to spark up his appetite, but I'm running out of options.

He had a blood test that showed a slightly abnormal creatnine level.
However, this is a condition he has had ever since I first got him 13 years
ago. She looked at his teeth and gums and said he could use a cleaning, but
nothing dire. Xrays of his chest has shown that he has some calcifications
near where windpipe branches off to his lungs (instead of going to the
stomach). He also had an ultrasound to further determine what these
calcifications could be, but it was inconclusive. It could be a tumor, or
maybe not. A biopsy would need to be done in order to find out.

But I don't think he's "sick". Granted, he has some slow days here and
there, but for the most part he's the same cat he's always been. Loud,
assertive, likes to play, etc... He comes to me hollering for food, but
when I put the food down he often walks away uninterested. He does eat, but
just as often he walks away. This happens several times during the night
too. He'll wake me up to feed him, and at least half the time I'll put food
down for him and he'll walk away. I know he's hungry. If I could find food
he likes I think he'd eat. Trouble is, everytime I find something he likes,
he only likes it for two days and then he's back to disinterest.



"Wendy" wrote in message
. ..
What has the vet done to diagnose this? Blood work? Checked his teeth and
gums?

W

"0to60" wrote in message
. ..
My 13 year old cat hates food. Over the last 9 months, he's lost 25% of
his bodyweight. I've taken him to the vet, but she can't find anything
really wrong with him. I'm convinced its behavioral. He's become so
finnicky, he'd rather starve than eat. I've tried a multitude of
different foods, but to no avail. I know he's hungry, because he bothers
me for food often (including several times during the night). But when I
feed him he often walks away and has a drink of water instead. The food
he seems to favor most (and I use the term loosely; by "favor" I mean he
takes a few licks and then walks away) is broiled chicken breast mixed
with tuna, but I can't keep giving him this because its not a balanced
diet.

Is there anything else I can do to try to get him to eat? Any sure fire
foods that cats love? I hate to put him on the prednisolone that the vet
gave me to spark up his appetite, but I'm running out of options.

"0to60" wrote in message
down for him and he'll walk away. I know he's hungry. If I could find
food
he likes I think he'd eat. Trouble is, everytime I find something he
likes,
he only likes it for two days and then he's back to disinterest.

Maybe it's how the food is presented to him. I have a cat that goes nuts
when I'm eating shrimp. Yet when I put a shrimp down for her to eat, she
licks it a bit and then leaves it. After much trial and error, I found that
she'd only willing to eat the shrimp if I cut it up into little bits.
Spoiled cat or what?

If you usually give your cat cold food, try warming it up a bit or do the
reverse of what it is. If it's in chunky form, cut it or mash it up a bit.
You get the idea.

I've tried cold, warm, chunks, mush, slight elevation. I've tried feeding
him in different rooms, upstairs, downstairs, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom.
What's been working lately is feeding him at the top of the stairs with me
sitting down a few steps at eye level with him, quietly encouraging him with
praise and occasional petting. This is a real pain in the ass at midnight,
3am and then 6am (30 min before I'm supposed to wake up), especially when
half the time he sniffs the food a few times and walks away, only to wake me
up again for another round 2 hours later.

I'd say he's spoiled rotten and I'm only making it worse, but a year ago
this cat ate two cold canned food meals a day and plenty of dry food that
sits out for days, and he loved it. He would have eaten all the canned
science diet I would have fed him if he could. At some point though, he
just got finnicky and now its a huge problem. I'm very temped to just put
the food down and walk away, and if he wants to turn his nose up at it then
so be it. But, that's not gonna work with him. He has NO interest in food
anymore and if I don't figure out ways to get him to eat, next month he'll
be 8 pounds, and a month later he'll be 7, etc... until he's gone.




"Upscale" wrote in message
...

"0to60" wrote in message
down for him and he'll walk away. I know he's hungry. If I could find
food
he likes I think he'd eat. Trouble is, everytime I find something he
likes,
he only likes it for two days and then he's back to disinterest.

Maybe it's how the food is presented to him. I have a cat that goes nuts
when I'm eating shrimp. Yet when I put a shrimp down for her to eat, she
licks it a bit and then leaves it. After much trial and error, I found
that
she'd only willing to eat the shrimp if I cut it up into little bits.
Spoiled cat or what?

If you usually give your cat cold food, try warming it up a bit or do the
reverse of what it is. If it's in chunky form, cut it or mash it up a bit.
You get the idea.

0to60 wrote:
My 13 year old cat hates food. Over the last 9 months, he's lost 25% of his
bodyweight. I've taken him to the vet, but she can't find anything really
wrong with him. I'm convinced its behavioral. He's become so finnicky,
he'd rather starve than eat. I've tried a multitude of different foods, but
to no avail. I know he's hungry, because he bothers me for food often
(including several times during the night). But when I feed him he often
walks away and has a drink of water instead. The food he seems to favor
most (and I use the term loosely; by "favor" I mean he takes a few licks and
then walks away) is broiled chicken breast mixed with tuna, but I can't keep
giving him this because its not a balanced diet.

Is there anything else I can do to try to get him to eat? Any sure fire
foods that cats love? I hate to put him on the prednisolone that the vet
gave me to spark up his appetite, but I'm running out of options.

I know this sounds too obvious, but did the vet take a look inside his
mouth/throat/teeth? I just mention that because of the way he sounds
like initially he *wants* to eat, then declines the food after a taste.
Also wanted to tell you about a product I read about in Catnip (Tufts
Vet School publication). I can't give a testimony because I haven't
tried it; so please ask your vet about it. It's called "apPETizer", it
is finely ground fish flakes, no additives, preservative, byproducts.
It is supposed to enhance the appetite by making the food smell better,
I would imagine. Their website is www.appetizer4pets.com.
Again, I don't know anything about this product, but it wouldn't cost
much to give it a try. Just be sure it's okay for your cat to ingest
fish flakes.
Good luck, hope your kitty responds to something soon.

Sherry

Oto, something is medically wrong with your cat. Cats don't become
finicky enough to lose 25% of their body weight. They don't starve
themselves to death when food is available -- they will even eat out of
garbage bins to survive. Another clue is your cat's age, senior kitties
can have medical issues that younger cats do not.

Cat illnesses can be a mystery and you have to keep trying to find the
problem. It may help to get another vet's opinion.

Cats can develop food aversions. If they feel sick after they eat, they
blame the food. We had a cat that had pancreatitus (diagnosed with an
ultrasound.) He had an upset stomach a lot of the time. We would start a
new food only to have him reject it after a day or so.

Your cat could have developed food allergies and need a limited
ingredient food. Also, there are tooth infections that don't look as bad
from the outside. How is the cat's nose? If it is stuffed up at all,
cats won't eat if they can't smell their food. There are lots of things
that could be going on with your cat, you're going to have to keep
trying to find the answer if you want to save him.

In the meantime, one food that has worked for us while we're in that
situation is ProPlan canned food with sardines. That will many times
tempt a sick cat. Another one is Hills A/D from the vet. It is a densely
packed very palatable food for cats not eating much.

Hope you can find what's wrong fairly soon.

Rhonda

0to60 wrote:
My 13 year old cat hates food. Over the last 9 months, he's lost 25% of
his bodyweight. I've taken him to the vet, but she can't find anything
really wrong with him. I'm convinced its behavioral. He's become so
finnicky, he'd rather starve than eat. I've tried a multitude of
different foods, but to no avail. I know he's hungry, because he
bothers me for food often (including several times during the night).
But when I feed him he often walks away and has a drink of water
instead. The food he seems to favor most (and I use the term loosely;
by "favor" I mean he takes a few licks and then walks away) is broiled
chicken breast mixed with tuna, but I can't keep giving him this because
its not a balanced diet.

Is there anything else I can do to try to get him to eat? Any sure fire
foods that cats love? I hate to put him on the prednisolone that the
vet gave me to spark up his appetite, but I'm running out of options.

I agree that cats don't become finicky enough to lose 25% of their
wieght. How about hair balls? Had it happen to one of my cats - he
lost 5 pounds over a period of a few months - turned out to be FULL of
hair balls. Try Temptations for hair balls.

0to60 wrote:
My 13 year old cat hates food. Over the last 9 months, he's lost 25% of his
bodyweight. I've taken him to the vet, but she can't find anything really
wrong with him. I'm convinced its behavioral. He's become so finnicky,
he'd rather starve than eat. I've tried a multitude of different foods, but
to no avail. I know he's hungry, because he bothers me for food often
(including several times during the night). But when I feed him he often
walks away and has a drink of water instead. The food he seems to favor
most (and I use the term loosely; by "favor" I mean he takes a few licks and
then walks away) is broiled chicken breast mixed with tuna, but I can't keep
giving him this because its not a balanced diet.

Is there anything else I can do to try to get him to eat? Any sure fire
foods that cats love? I hate to put him on the prednisolone that the vet
gave me to spark up his appetite, but I'm running out of options.

On Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:25:05 -0600, "0to60"
wrote:

I've tried cold, warm, chunks, mush, slight elevation. I've tried feeding
him in different rooms, upstairs, downstairs, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom.
What's been working lately is feeding him at the top of the stairs with me
sitting down a few steps at eye level with him, quietly encouraging him with
praise and occasional petting. This is a real pain in the ass at midnight,
3am and then 6am (30 min before I'm supposed to wake up), especially when
half the time he sniffs the food a few times and walks away, only to wake me
up again for another round 2 hours later.

I'd say he's spoiled rotten and I'm only making it worse, but a year ago
this cat ate two cold canned food meals a day and plenty of dry food that
sits out for days, and he loved it. He would have eaten all the canned
science diet I would have fed him if he could. At some point though, he
just got finnicky and now its a huge problem. I'm very temped to just put
the food down and walk away, and if he wants to turn his nose up at it then
so be it. But, that's not gonna work with him. He has NO interest in food
anymore and if I don't figure out ways to get him to eat, next month he'll
be 8 pounds, and a month later he'll be 7, etc... until he's gone.




I used to laugh at people whose cats wouldn't eat the food. Mine
always ate whatever I gave them. Now I have two boys who are very
picky so karma strikes again. Anyway, they both really like the
ProPlan Salmon and Rice (wet and dry). Try that.

Oto,

I agree with Rhonda--I think there is something wrong with your kitty. The
continued weight loss is not normal. I have a very finicky eight year old
cat that sometimes will eat with great gusto and other times will just pick
at her food but her weight stays pretty much the same. She doesn't like
canned food, hates most dry kibble and it's hard to know when she's truly
sick just based on food consumption. At times, I've had to try all sorts of
variation of types of food, temperature, feeding by hand (when I'm really
desperate!), location etc. Through all the ups and downs of her finickiness
her weight has varied some but not that much. When it has, there's been a
medical reason for it. She lost a fair amount of weight last spring, wasn't
eating much and although we never did figure out what was going on (blood
tests showed only a slightly decreased white blood cell count and increased
globulins--ultrasound normal) my vet was suggesting exploratory surgery if
it didn't resolve on its own.

Is your kitty going to have a biopsy to check out the calcifications? I
would strongly suggest doing this--a tumor could definitely affect his
appetite.

You might want to try Nutri-Cal to increase his calorie intake. It's a
paste that you give cats who aren't getting enough calories on their own.
You can get it on-line from a variety of places.

Good luck, I know how frustrating it is when you can't get your cat to eat!

Bonnie

"0to60" wrote in message
. ..
My 13 year old cat hates food. Over the last 9 months, he's lost 25% of
his bodyweight. I've taken him to the vet, but she can't find anything
really wrong with him. I'm convinced its behavioral. He's become so
finnicky, he'd rather starve than eat. I've tried a multitude of
different foods, but to no avail. I know he's hungry, because he bothers
me for food often (including several times during the night). But when I
feed him he often walks away and has a drink of water instead. The food
he seems to favor most (and I use the term loosely; by "favor" I mean he
takes a few licks and then walks away) is broiled chicken breast mixed
with tuna, but I can't keep giving him this because its not a balanced
diet.

Is there anything else I can do to try to get him to eat? Any sure fire
foods that cats love? I hate to put him on the prednisolone that the vet
gave me to spark up his appetite, but I'm running out of options.