Tube Feeding - Potential Problem, Urgent, Please Help

I just got the impression today that he wasn't feeling so sore around his mouth - I went for a nap/cuddle Radar earlier, and although the cuddling was a success it was a nap failure because Radar kept giving me little kitty kisses all over my face (they are a bit wet, he's been a drooly purrer since kittenhood!) and rubbing his head against my cheek - hard to sleep with that level of healthy normal cuteness going on

I do hope he keeps eating!
Come on Radar, makes us happy

Antonio65 said:

I do hope he keeps eating!
Come on Radar, makes us happy

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Thanks

He is still really thin, poor little love. He has gained some, but I do think it will take a while for him to get back up to a good weight - all his bones are prominent, if I saw a cat that looked the way he looks right now I'd phone a rescue charity. He was always a small skinny cat anyway, so it didn't take much appetite loss to make him look skeletal - seriously the fasting period before his initial surgery plus not eating when he came home (he was on IV support at the hospital of course), the poor love just melted away in front of me in a very short space of time. Thankfully never been any sign of hepatic lipidosis throughout any of this (maybe cos he didn't have much fat to metabolise in the first place, and we were not shy about taking him to the vet at any point), just a case of supporting his nutrition until he gets back to normal.

We're getting there, but it's not going to be an overnight thing getting him so he doesn't look like the starved end of the weight chart.

Yes, some things need time to be fixed, I know how it feels like.
Just keep trace of his weight constantly.
Some Vit B (can't remember if your'e already giving him it) could be of great help.

If he carries on consistently eating every day as he is now and gains some more according to my cheap scales without appetite stimulants or top up tube feeds, I will take him to the vet early next week for an official weigh in on their more accurate pet scale and to take advice about whether and/or when removal of the tube is appropriate.

If his appetite drops off again it will be a blow, but I can carry on tube feeding.

There's no need to weigh Radar on a very accurate scale. It's enough to use always the same scale. It could give you the wrong weight, and the error will be the same in all measurements, but you will be able to see the difference.
Of course you can weigh him on your scale right before going to your vet and see if the two scales give the same reading

Antonio65 said:

There's no need to weigh Radar on a very accurate scale. It's enough to use always the same scale. It could give you the wrong weight, and the error will be the same in all measurements, but you will be able to see the difference.
Of course you can weigh him on your scale right before going to your vet and see if the two scales give the same reading

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This is a good point, weight gain is relative - you could set the scale to read 0 the first day you put him on and then if it read 0.1 the next day you'd know he gained some

epona said:

This is a good point, weight gain is relative - you could set the scale to read 0 the first day you put him on and then if it read 0.1 the next day you'd know he gained some

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Correct!
There's no precise scale in the real world.
Furthermore, if you use always YOUR scale, you can be sure that nobody else has messed with it.

Antonio65 said:

Correct!
There's no precise scale in the real world.
Furthermore, if you use always YOUR scale, you can be sure that nobody else has messed with it.

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I'm waiting for delivery of an inexpensive baby scale from amazon with a large flat top, but right now I'm weighing him on a 5kg kitchen scale - the one with the biggest area weighing platform I could find - and popping Radar into a smallish cardboard box that is the right size to be stable on the weighing platform. He is quite enjoying this, you know how cats are with boxes

You might want to see the picture in this thread of mine
Leo, The Tiny Kitten With The Heart Of Lion

Antonio65 said:

You might want to see the picture in this thread of mine
Leo, The Tiny Kitten With The Heart Of Lion

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Aww that's an adorable photo!

I used to have pet birds - what they do with birds who are a bit too panicked to sit on the scale on a perch fitting is they pop them into a paper bag and scrunch the top so they can't get out and weigh them in a bowl rather than on a perch - birds do not seem to mind this, they tend to be quite calm.

This is proof that he will be fine once the pain is over. I really believe he has crossed the line from healing to being healed; not totally done. He just needs to believe that himself! And so do you.

It's just up and down, he usually eats best before/around dawn, so I have been getting up in the small hours to put a new wet food offering down. This morning he was unenthusiastic, he did eat around half, then sat mournfully looking at his half-eaten portion of food. This is the same food he tucked into yesterday morning. So I did what any cat-custodian with a cat recovering from post-surgical anorexia does, I went and got him a different brand of food - he was in that bowl like a shark in a school of fish.

The most important thing is that he's eating, no matter what.
I do hope that this loop circle (if this is a correct term in English) will break and that he starts eating anything you serve him.

Antonio65 said:

The most important thing is that he's eating, no matter what.
I do hope that this loop circle (if this is a correct term in English) will break and that he starts eating anything you serve him.

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That honestly is I think the problem at this point - he has never just eaten anything I served him, he's always been really fussy and liked something one day then turned his nose up at it the next. He's never eaten paté style food, certain flavours and brands he doesn't like.

At least for wet food.

He has always preferred dry food, which has always aggravated me because I think even the best quality dry is not as good as being on a wet diet - right now, I would be happy if he ate some dry, but he's gone right off it. Has barely touched a nugget of dry since his surgery in early Feb. Sometimes he runs towards the bowl if I offer some dry, then he just pushes it around the bowl with his nose.

So it's probably my fault for not having the complete knowledge of your language.
I intrerpreted the sentence
"I went and got him a different brand of food - he was in that bowl like a shark in a school of fish"
as
"I gave him a new brand of food - He ate like a wolf all that was in his bowl"
Sorry.

I think it means the same thing, he ate well once I offered him some different wet food. Just the first one I offered he decided he didn't want, despite eating it yesterday morning

It's just a struggle to try to guess what he would like to eat each day, I wish he could tell me "I fancy this for dinner" I really do.

That would be nice! Having a cat who lets us know what their wishes for the day are. At least we could fully please them

Antonio65 said:

That would be nice! Having a cat who lets us know what their wishes for the day are. At least we could fully please them

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Would probably be more like having a kid screaming for McDonalds every day when you want them to eat something healthy tbh But in a situation where a cat isn't eating, I'd rather give him the kitty version of McD and have him eat.

He's being difficult about eating again so far today, after a few good days

The stitches in his mouth are about the point where they are starting to dissolve, so I wonder whether that is causing any issues. It could just be that he is being really fussy about what I am offering.

He still won't touch any dry food, which always used to be his favourite, that is puzzling.

Maybe this is an odd question, and perhaps I should have asked it before - the vet shaved his whiskers off due to where the surgery was, and they haven't grown back yet (this was necessary to allow clear access to the incision site) - could that be affecting his ability to "find" the bits of food in his bowl? Although I say bowl, it's actually fairly flat, more of a small plate that we have always used to give him food.

Today he acts hungry, and comes running when I say "dindins!" then just shuffles it around his bowl a bit, licking the gravy off but not eating.