Extremely picky with food asmathic cat

nightflower

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Jun 8, 2021
Messages
18
Purraise
14
So one my cat that I have talked about here a few times who has bronchitis is very extremely picky with his food.
Most of the vets that I took him to has diagnose him with bronchitis and his lungs is very cloudy.

Anyway he has always not been much of an eater since I got him and few weeks ago he almost completely
stopped eating his kibbles. He acts normal, runs around and play with other cats, except for when days his bronchitis
is bad (congested and runny nose). So until now he only mostly wants wet food. Even with treats he is picky.
So far the out of all the variety treats that I bought he only wants those ciao churu stick. I've notice that he has lost
some weight now. Previously he weigh around 3.3kg to 3.5kg ( I think that is about 7 ~ 7.7 pounds). I don't have a
weigh machine for cats but I am quite sure he is a bit too thin now, to the point even my mum has noticed it. He is a
one year old male cat. I've always been the type that leave out the kibbles and let them graze but even when I do that
he still refuse to eat his kibbles. He can go on for a full day with just 1 or 2 plastic spoon worth of kibbles. I even tried
buying variety type/brand of kibbles but still no luck. On days when he has a lot of phlegm his eating is worse.

I am just trying out my luck to see if anyone have any advice or tips they can give out? Other than the financial
difficulties since wet/canned food is expensive I am also worried about his weight and trying to get him to gain some weight.
Also is it alright if I give him the ciao daily? Right now I give him 4 tubes a day since sometimes I use it to mix it together with
his kibbles. I don't know if this mean anything but occasionaly on some days he will do air chewing. I do notice that
sometimes on those days his phlegm is a lot I guess since when I give him his medicine my fingers end up becoming slimy.
Even when he eat the ciao churu he tends to chew his mouth.

Anyway, sorry for the lengthy messages and thank you.
 

lisahe

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Messages
6,145
Purraise
4,965
Location
Maine
We have an asthmatic cat, nightflower nightflower , and know that's not always easy so the first thing I want to ask is if your vet has prescribed medicine for your cat's symptoms. I hope so! Just to be clear, has the vet diagnosed your cat with bronchitis or asthma? Or both? Or not sure? (Depending on forms, the treatment may be the same; that's what our vet said when she diagnosed Ireland. Ireland, however, did not have a phlegm-producing illness at the time she was diagnosed.)

As for food, well, you're right that a spoon or two of kibbles a day isn't nearly enough, both in terms of calories or nutrients. With a cat who's not feeling good, it's especially important to feed them what they will eat... so I'd start with that. I'm not clear if the Ciao Churu tubes are considered a complete meal for cats, with all the nutrients they need, but it looks like they might not be. Is there some sort of canned food that's complete that he'll eat? I know wet foods are more expensive than dry foods but underfeeding can cause serious health issues that would be expensive to treat!

There are also medicines that the vet can give to improve a cat's appetite. It's probably worth asking about that.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3

nightflower

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Jun 8, 2021
Messages
18
Purraise
14
One vet said his condition is bronchitis like. Another that I went to diagnose him with moderate bronchitis. Does Ireland have phlegm now lisahe lisahe ? The vet that diagnosed him with moderate bronchitis said the goal is just to stabilise him but so far it has not really happen yet.

He is constantly on medication. The antibiotics changes sometimes but there are always one or two type of antibiotics he is taking with anti inflammatory and flu medicine. He can't seems to be without medication. It will make his nose get congested. I do give him one those supplements with lysine but his appetite is still the same.

He does eat some type of canned food but it seems he only wants canned food on his "good" appetite day. Two can of wet food per day with some of those Ciao churu. I'm actually using those to mix it with his kibbles which makes him more likely to eat.
 

lisahe

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Messages
6,145
Purraise
4,965
Location
Maine
No, our cat doesn't have phlegm now, though her head does apparently get a little congested. She gets two medicines: an antihistamine and a (steroid, preventive) inhaler. I think the only time she's really had phlegm was back when we first brought her home from the shelter, when she got a respiratory tract infection.

How long has your cat been sick with this bronchitis? It sounds like he's taken a lot of medicines.

Back to your original question about foods, though: given that you mentioned congestion, I'd suggest trying him on the smelliest food you can find. Friskies pates, which are pretty smelly, kept our cats eating when they had their respiratory infections. I'm not sure where you live but something like Friskies or Fancy Feast pates, if you can buy them, might entice him.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #5

nightflower

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Jun 8, 2021
Messages
18
Purraise
14
lisahe lisahe I got him in at the end of February this year and he started having this problem around May or June. By June I have already taken him to the vet and started on medication. Yeah, he has been on medication since then. From what I see there is some improvement but it is very slow and sometimes he does have setbacks.

Right now in the morning I feed him kibble, when he doesn't eat on his own. During the day he eat some small kibble with the snack (ciao), boiled or raw chicken. At night I give him some Fancy Feast royale wet food and he have some small to medium amount of kibble (own eating). I don't know if that is enough for him though.
 

lisahe

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Messages
6,145
Purraise
4,965
Location
Maine
A lot of things about this situation make me uneasy. For one thing, this is a long time for a cat to be taking antibiotics and other drugs for a respiratory infection or bronchitis that sounds like it's still so active. And it's a long time for a one-year-old cat to not be eating much: at that age, a cat should be hungry, active, and eating a lot. His size itself isn't so unusual (our cats are full-grown and weigh roughly the same, maybe a little more) but I don't like the sound of him losing weight at such a young age.

Does he eat the Fancy Feast Royale food?

It sounds like you've already brought him to multiple vets, is that right? Are they cat specialists? What other tests (if any?) have they run? It sounds to me like his respiratory problems (or maybe something else?) will need to be resolved before he'll eat more consistently. Cats can and do have recurrences of upper respiratory infections (we had a cat who had brief episodes of symptoms for her whole life but they were never serious symptoms) and I've heard of using lysine but it just feels like there might be something else happening.
 

FeebysOwner

TCS Member
Staff Member
Forum Helper
Joined
Jun 13, 2018
Messages
22,322
Purraise
32,979
Location
Central FL (Born in OH)
Hi. Just saw this thread and wanted to throw out the idea that it could be allergy related - there are cases of allergy induced bronchitis. Most times, they are environmental in nature.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #9

nightflower

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Jun 8, 2021
Messages
18
Purraise
14
lisahe lisahe I myself isn't fond with the idea of him taking all the medication for a long period of time. I'm concerned about his liver. Surprisingly he seems better now and is off his meds for almost two weeks.

Sometimes I'm wondering if his refusal to eat kibbles is just pickyness or is his sickness making him not having appetite.
He does eat the Fancy Feast wet food but even then there are days when he doesn't it eat much.

I took him to 3 vets. One was a 24 hours animal hospital. They did full blood test and organ blood test, x ray and if I'm not mistaken a scan. Plus leukemia and fiv. Blood tests was good and other tests came back negative. He had two episodes of vomiting for a few days plus refusal to eat at all. Vomit was yellow and brown, light red/pinkish. Didn't get to find out the cause.

Vet mentioned the allergy but he do not go out, I stopped using any perfume and recommended regularly vacuum the house. Though I do live in a tropical season country.
 
Top