Help! My Cat is a Fur Covered Skeleton!

[mzjazz2u]

Originally Posted by april31

I have put older cats on kitten food for them to put on wieght but with so many problems that this cat has had not sure i would try with out a vet approval.

It's always best to check with a vet. Kitten food is higher in protein and if a cat is having kidney problems, high protein will speed up the disease process. From what I understand. So it's always best to check first just to be sure. And cats with kidney problems do lose weight and tend to look scrawny

 

[kirkstribble]

That must have been utterly horrible, loosing two pets plus your mother within such a close time period - and all to cancer to boot.

My condolences on your loss. I'm hoping it's not cancer - just IBD. But I guess I'll only know if she starts to gain some weight. I figure if it's IBD and she gains a bit of weight from the raw meat diet, well, then it must be IBD. Right? And if she doesn't, well, .... then I guess it's cancer. And thanks for the info. I didn't realize some animals with cancer would have a good appetite.

I bought a 3 pound bag of a prepared raw food for her yesterday. I think its called Nature's Variety. The flavor: chicken and turkey. I gave her and her mother (who is dealing with a liver infection at the moment and needs to gain weight) some and they ate it. Both seemed to like it well enough. Jafar has stopped eating the canned Natural Balance, so I figure something in it might be bothering her intestines: perhaps more allergies? So now she can get her vitamins from the prepared food.

So far she did not puke it out or have the runs. Hopefully she won't and it'll agree with her!

Yes, I tried dry shampoo on her. I had a partly used bottle of Vitasheen powder upstairs that I used in the past a few times on my other cat. It didn't work very well on Jafar. It cleaned the clean areas of her coat or those that were only very slightly oily. But the areas that really needed the cleaning - the dry shampoo was useless there. It just stuck and sort of gummed it all up. I think that's how she got the matts (just realized that now...).

I have a bottle of oatmeal shampoo for cats. Perhaps I'll try that on her next time. But maybe the oily skin is making the fur fall out, not the shampoo? But then, it was solidly attached or so it seemed... ??

I noticed today she has dandruff flakes. But her fur looks more healthy. It looks a bit shiny. I'm not sure if that's because I washed her yesterday or are some nutrients getting into her system? On a brighter note, I finally got all of the matts off her!

She also had some sticky gooey stuff by her eyes, in the corners (near the nose). I removed it with a bit of wet toilet tissue. Why do cats get that stuff by the eyes, anyway? About 2 weeks ago when I had one of my boy cats in for his shots the doctor looked at his eyes and mentioned that they were "draining good". So, what's the deal with that sticky eye goo?

I must say Jafar is looking better, especially with freshly shampooed fur and mattless. Let's hope the trend continues!

I don't think there's another near by vet, not one that I know of. I'd have to look in the phone book. And what of the rabies shot? I read somewhere (on these forums I think) that the new vet will need proof of her Rabies shot. Her shot expired in October. The doctor said she didn't need any shots because he thought she'd be dead within a month (he thought chicken was a huge tumor). So she never got the shots...

Oh, she's drinking water again. I saw her drink several times today. And last night I fed her lots of water using a little plastic thingy .. siringe? Not sure the proper word... eyedropper? I just squirted it in her mouth and she drank it; kept refilling and giving more. I guess she got the idea and started drinking again on her own!