13-year-old cat not eating enough

[GracieAllen]

Our 13-year-old tabby isn’t eating enough.

I’m putting this here rather than in the “cat nutrition” because that forum seems VERY heavily into the raw and home cooked foods, and the zeal was a bit intimidating… I’m hoping to find advice here for foods that are already prepared and more available at a normal source (local pet food store, Chewy, other).

She was diagnosed with megacolon many years ago and has been getting Cisapride for years. Never been a problem. She has always been a normal, healthy cat. At most, her weight may have been 10 pounds but generally around 8.

In the last year or so her appetite has dropped off and our vet recommended Mirtazapine to help her appetite. It’s the 7mg per ml strength, and the recommended dose was .37 ml, which is 2.6 mg. So about in the middle between the 1.88 and 3.75 mg doses they recommend for cats. She gets a dose every other day.

We’ve NEVER been able to give her that much. She foams like crazy and within a minute she vomits. Through trial and error, in consultation with our vet, we finally determined that .15 ml appears to be the dose she’ll tolerate, with minimal side effects – better appetite, minimal craziness, only VERY occasional vomiting.

She always has fresh water and regularly drinks.

She’s a nibbler, not a gobbler, so we feed her several times a day, leaving food available all the time. The vet says she needs about 1 oz per pound per day, and by our measurements we’re getting between 5 and 6 ounces into her daily – which isn’t enough to keep her weight up.

We’ve tried different dry and canned foods to find things she’ll eat enthusiastically. Everything from the grocery store brands (a BUNCH of them) to the vet recommended Hill’s i/d pate’ and stew, which is pretty much what she’s been on her whole life except when we were experimenting with store-brands to see if she would eat more.

The vet also recommended adding a small dose of probiotic powder to her food, which we’ve been doing for the last year.

At her most recent checkup last month, she’d lost about a half pound. The only problem the vet found was that she needs her teeth cleaned (next week), but other than that her geriatric blood panel was fine.

Sorry for the long journey to get to the question… I’m looking for recommendations for normal, canned wet and/or dry food that’s healthy, tasty enough that she’ll eat it, and reasonably available. And/or foods to definitely avoid because of dangerous ingredients. I know there are millions of cats that do fine on Friskies or Fancy Feast or their equivalent, but our vet suggested staying with something like the Hill’s so we’ve done that… Thoughts on good, canned wet food that she’s likely to eat more of…

 

[Krienze]

I think Vets are -always- going to suggest Hills, to be honest with you. I don't know much about the brand, but it's expensive and vets sell it, so I think that's why they try and push it at people. I'm glad my vet doesn't. The only time he ever makes me give my cat some is when it's specific food for medical reasons, but even then he never pushes that I buy it regularly.

Here is the thing, while Fancy Feast and Friskies might not be super high quality food, if your cat will EAT it then your cat is at the very least eating. Right? I'm not a fan of Friskies at all, but I keep a case of Fancy Feast around because my 15 year old loves the stuff and sometimes when she's like "meh, eff your food" I'll crack a can of that open and suddenly she's willing to eat. So I'd say try Fancy Feast if nothing else works and see if she'll eat that.

You can also look at different types of treats and broths. When I feed my 15 year old, I always top it with a Tiki Cat or Fancy Feast broth and she usually gobbles her food down.

With wet food, you can also heat it up to make it smell REALLY good to your cat. Don't heat it up so that it's hot-hot, just warm and smelly.

That said, my cats are picky eaters. I found that they LOVE Tiki Cat, but will typically only eat the poultry, tuna or salmon ones. They aren't fans of the sardine chunks (Isabel is though so hey! That's a plus for me) so you can try Tiki, but I hear some cats don't like it? I don't know -- mine are picky and like it, so you might have luck too?

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. I personally think 10 oz of food a day is really a bit too much for a 10 lb cat. The general rule of thumb I have used before is 20-25 calories per pound of body weight. So, on that basis, a 10 pound cat should be able to maintain their weight on 200-250 calories per day. An older cat probably runs closer to the 20 calories per pound of body weight, as they are likely a bit sedentary by that age.

Even with Hill's I/D canned food, which is 167 calories per 5.5 oz can, she would be getting around 334 calories if you could manage to get close to 2 cans in her a day.

I would compare the I/D ingredients with other canned foods - such as FF. Just using FF pates (which are really the healthiest of the FF line, IMO), that would be over 3 cans per day. And, FF generally runs just under 100 calories per can. You can do the math and see she would be eating over 300 calories per day based on 10 oz. Two cans of FF would be about right for her size, or so it seems to me.

You could even try to mix the I/D with something like FF to see if she would be more inclined to eat it that way. Feeby (16+ yo) has been on Hill's C/D for a long time, but I had to start adding FF pate to it to get her to eat it. And, now, I feed her C/D in the AM when she is most hungry, then FF pate by itself later in the day to get her to be more interested in eating as the day goes by. I also recently have started giving her Sheba Purfect Portions, for added eating enticement. The pates are 1.32 oz per serving and run around 35-40 calories each.

 

[GracieAllen]

I don't know what "FF" is.

she had Mirtazapine yesterday and ate pretty well. This morning (we're now measuring what we give her and what she eats) she ate less than 1/2 ounce at breakfast. I've read (nor sure if in here or elsewhere) that wet food can sit out for 9 hours, but that seems like a really bad idea, so we limit food sitting out to about 4 hours max.

In addition to FF(?), can y'all recommend other alternative to Hill's for canned (wet) food that would be worth trying to see if she'll eat it more eagerly? We're putting out a lot of food and throwing away a lot of food that isn't getting eaten...

What about dry food? Good idea? Bad idea? Again, she's a nibbler so we've tried different dry foods, but she mostly ignores them.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I don't know what "FF" is.

Sorry, I thought it was mentioned before - Fancy Feast (hence the FF).

I've read (nor sure if in here or elsewhere) that wet food can sit out for 9 hours, but that seems like a really bad idea, so we limit food sitting out to about 4 hours max.

I have been resistant to leaving canned food out for too long as well. But, I have done 8 hours and it doesn't seem to have been a problem. The only thing I have noticed is that it starts to dry out (not to mention Feeby loves 'sucking' off the liquid as much as she can), so I add some water.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

There are probably thousands of canned cat foods outs there, so it's really hard to make specific recommendations. Plus every cat is so different when it comes to eating. One of mine will only eat chicken, the other hates chicken! One of mine likes pate, the other one hates it. You see my point here. So what I would do is focus right now on calories. Just look at the cans the see how many calories are in them. Obviously you want something with a high calorie count. And they do vary vastly! some of those 3oz cans can have as little as 30 calories, and some as many as 100, so it's worth looking at. Usually the pates will have a higher calorie count. If she will eat it, you can mix in a raw egg yolk into her food a few times a week and that is about 80 calories, plus great nutrition for her. Some cats love it, some don't. Also, I use 100% real meat, freeze dried as treats. Something like Life Essentials, Purebites, WholeLife. Often I also crush them and sprinkle them on top of my guys' food. Those are additional calories

Additionally, you might try adding in some digestive enzymes. I've heard that helps them get every little bit of the nutrients out of their food. A friend one gave their cat too much of them and her cat gained too much weight, so I'm guessing they do work. Just google pet digestive enzymes and you can find them easily.

One last thing, my old 5 pound female (no longer with us ) used to get mirtazapine and also threw up the pill form. We found when we gave it to her as injections vs pills, she was able to handle it with absolutely NO issues at all, plus she never even knew she was getting the injection because it was a very short needle and went right into her scruff.

 

[GracieAllen]

Thanks for the replies. We've used Fancy Feast in the past. I don't recall what problem we had, but for some reason we went back to the Hill's... Hadn't thought about mixing them.
Yes, I know there are many different foods. I was thinking the grocery store brands were all bad (from what I've seen in some feline forums), and was looking for ideas on the pet store (Chuck & Don's, PetSmart, Chewy) type foods I've never heard of...

Our cat seems to like chicken, doesn't seem to like tuna much (strange cat).

It sounds like I should look at calories rather than brand, so if the grocery stuff stuff (FF, and others) is safe and good to feed with, I'll try doing that...

 

[GracieAllen]

I couldn't figure out how to edit the previous entry...

I forgot about the Mirtazapine - pills.... We started with those. NO... Would not take the pill. Got a piller. Didn't work. The cat is an absolute MASTER at not swallowing the pill. I don't know how many times we said "That time we got it" and find the little pill sitting in her cat bed 10 minutes later. Tried treats. Worked ONCE. After that she wouldn't touch that treat. Switched treats. Worked ONCE. We finally switched to the liquid 'cause nobody here is good with needles. The liquid works. We started with the tuna - THAT was exciting. Two adult humans trying to get a cat to take .1ml of tuna flavored liquid... Needless to say, it was NOT successful. Switched to chicken flavor - she's not a fan, but it's not like trying to wrestle a puma into submission.

We haven't talked to the vet, but I'm sure he would be fine if we continued giving the very small doses and did them daily rather than every other day - but we wouldn't change anything like that without a conversation.

In any case, we'll take a look at some of the common brands and see where we can get the most calories...

 

[MissClouseau]

I think there might be more than one problem going on. One might be dental issues. Most cats have gingivitis anyway and it doesn't get better as they get older. My own cat has it as well and she only likes to eat pate texture wet food, and not-very-hard dry food. Currently she's on Acana Wild Prairie dry food, Gourmet Gold pate, Miamor pate. She also loves Pro Plan canned Delicate. I suggest high calorie wet food, and high calorie dry food. You can add a bit extra water to the pate kind of wet food and make it even softer and increase hydration too. Mine eats maximum half a can at one sitting. She eats 2 cans a day in four meals. Dry food in between which is always available.

You can also give a little boiled chicken or turkey breast as a treat. I suggest leaving it to the last thing of the day though because my Hima for example doesn't eat her wet food normal amount if she gets meat earlier.

 

[GracieAllen]

Thanks...
Yes, Brownie has had her teeth cleaned regularly and a couple pulled during the course of her life. At her checkup last month, the vet recommended a cleaning, so she'll have that done in a couple weeks.
She also prefers the wet food, mostly the stew, though she'll also eat pate' - at this point Hill's. And she's VERY fond of rotisserie chicken and Culver's vanilla frozen custard (which we don't let her have, except for maybe a teaspoon full once a year or so)...
We've used chicken or turkey gravy with her food since she likes gravy and bisque. So, we usually add some to whatever we're giving her - she particularly likes the Senior Chicken/Tuna Bisque.
We have a bag of the Fromm's Chicken dry food we can put out, though like the wet, she nibbles at it then doesn't eat as much of the wet food.
And, of course, yesterday she made a liar out of me, eating EVERYTHING we put down! I didn't look at the numbers but I know she had at least 6 ounces of food... Emptied every bowl we set out...
But, that was an exception - if she'd do that every day...
When we go to the store I'll look at the canned foods to see who has lots of calories and go from there. I know we can get FF, and Purina Pro Plan, and there are several other common brands. It would be easy enough to mix those with the Hill's...
If nothing else, asking in here has been good since we now know we aren't doing anything dreadful if we mix "regular store" food with the Hill's...

 

[GracieAllen]

Now that we know we're not horrid people for mixing "grocery store" brand food with her Hill's, we've been combining things. Seems to be working and she's eating more. Still not up to the vet's 1 oz per pound, but better than she was.

Today we picked up a can of Blue Wilderness Chicken and tried that. So far, she's eaten everything we put down and we had to give her additional food. If this is actual appetite and not being induced by the Mirtazapine, we may have to use more of the Blue Wilderness. We'll see tomorrow and over the next week or so.

 

[Furballsmom]

I'm so keeping my fingers crossed for you and her!!

 

[GracieAllen]

It's ONLY one day, so it's purely anecdotal and unreliable long term, but yesterday she at 6 ounces of food. The WHOLE 5.5 oz can of Blue Wilderness and a small bit of additional FF Creamy Delights we mixed in last night. The Blue Wilderness says a 6 - 8 pound cat should get 3/4 of a can, so she at at least as much as they recommended and a bit more...
It looks like I'll be making a run to the local store for some more of the Blue Wilderness - it looks like they have 3 flavors, turkey (she had yesterday), chicken and chicken&tuna.
If we know she'll eat this we can mix it with the Hill's, the FF, whatever.
She APPARENTLY completely finished her "overnight feeding" by 4 a.m. Immaculately clean bowl. I'm guessing this because at 4:06 a.m. there was a brown cat standing in the middle of the bed, having climbed OVER me, demanding to be fed some more. I explained that I was NOT feeding her at 4 a.m. 'cause if I do it ONCE, she'll figure it should happen every morning. Grudgingly, she laid down, draped over my arm of course, so I had to be aware she was there, and took a nap. 'Til 5 a.m. when she AGAIN proclaimed that starvation was IMMINENT and she simply couldn't go on... I refused again.
Another nap. Finally, on attempt number 3, at 6:10 when she stood ON me and demanded that SOMEONE provide sustenance before she dried up and blew away, I got up and gave her a mixture of Hill's and FF. She looked at it, took a grudging bite, looked at me with disgust, and stomped off. So, I"m off to get her spoiled highness some more Blue Wilderness...

If they weren't so loving, goofy, complex and interesting, we'd never allow these little tyrants into our lives!

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Wow! This is great! Oh, and BTW, that 1 oz per pound advice you got. I've NEVER had a cat eat that much. That seems like a huge amount of food. I've got a 15 pounder and he doesn't eat nearly that much food. If he did, he's weigh twice what he does in no time. And my 9 pound guy seriously only eats 1 1/2 cans (3 oz cans) per day. And THAT's a fight just getting that much in him, and he's a very active cat! (just never been food driven.)