I don't think I can care for my 10 year old girl anymore

[louisstools]

Mine make it known. They annoy me, follow me, meow at me, keep walking by their food bowl, lick an empty bowl

OK Missy used to do that before her brother's cancer. I'll just assume she'll make her hunger known. Hopefully that's a reasonable assumption...it has to be I would think.

I apologize if I seem totally ignorant about taking care of my cat. All I can say is everything changed at her brother's passing...sleep spots, toy preference, vocal amount, litter frequency, eating amounts, times, food preferences. Only constant is she's still afraid of the vacuum cleaner.

 

[maggie101]

My cat Maggie does not. Everyone else does. She eats when she's hungry. When done she does not clean her her bowl. Only eats what is needed so leaves a few bites. Wish I was like that!

 

[maggie101]

OK Missy used to do that before her brother's cancer. I'll just assume she'll make her hunger known. Hopefully that's a reasonable assumption...it has to be I would think.

I apologize if I seem totally ignorant about taking care of my cat. All I can say is everything changed at her brother's passing...sleep spots, toy preference, vocal amount, litter frequency, eating amounts, times, food preferences. Only constant is she's still afraid of the vacuum cleaner.

No need to apologize. We were all ignorant at one time. More questions you ask,the more you will learn. Clearly you care very much for your cat. You and her are very lucky to have each other.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Possible stupid question for the group - if a cat doesn’t like it's food and is refusing to eat but is otherwise hungry it'll still beg for food right? Or maybe pee or poop outside the litter box...something to get attention. Or basically a hungry cat will make it known they're hungry, right? They won't suffer in silence right?

Everything you post says there is a potential health issue. No, if a cat is not eating, then they are likely not hungry - and, so the question goes, why are they not hungry? Most older established cats do NOT pee or poop outside the litter box as a food protest. Why are they not hungry? There is something wrong. That is why.

I think Missy is starting to experience some of the effects of getting old - period.

 

[louisstools]

Everything you post says there is a potential health issue. No, if a cat is not eating, then they are likely not hungry - and, so the question goes, why are they not hungry? Most older established cats do NOT pee or poop outside the litter box as a food protest. Why are they not hungry? There is something wrong. That is why.

I think Missy is starting to experience some of the effects of getting old - period.

Hmm, I thought a cat would starve themselves if they didn't like their food? That would imply they are hungry but not eating, right? Am I bonkers here?

I think you're right about Missy and she's just getting older and I'm just now noticing it.

 

[Furballsmom]

I thought a cat would starve themselves if they didn't like their food?

Some do some won't.

This may have information for you;
What Some Call "Finicky Eating" Could Be a Cat Behavioral Issue - Catster

 

[louisstools]

Some do some won't.

This may have information for you;
What Some Call "Finicky Eating" Could Be a Cat Behavioral Issue - Catster

Amazing article, thanks.

 

[louisstools]

I found the blood work they did back in January when I took her in for not eating well. Everything was normal except her K, potassium, was slightly in the low range. (Again that was weeks after a big dental with many teeth extracted and her brother's passing)

I did some googling and hypokalemia comes up but that doesn't seem to fit. Plus the vet wasn't overly concerned about the K level.

Should I push for another blood test? Or just cat is older and not as hungry.. I could give it a week of not pushing her to eat and just letting her be her and then reevaluate.

 

[Furballsmom]

I could give it a week of not pushing her to eat and just letting her be her and then reevaluate.

You could. If you aren't ( I'm sorry, without looking back at your posts I don't recall if you said you are), specifically weigh her at the start of this and the end so you truly know what's happening

 

[maggie101]

Things can change back in febuary. Since you are worried about her,take her back to redo blood work and xray and possibly ultrasound. I forgot about it too. All her symptons are the same when Maggie was sick and possibly still is

 

[louisstools]

You could. If you aren't ( I'm sorry, without looking back at your posts I don't recall if you said you are), specifically weigh her at the start of this and the end so you truly know what's happening

yep! weighed her yesterday good call out!!

 

[louisstools]

Things can change back in febuary. Since you are worried about her,take her back to redo blood work and xray and possibly ultrasound. I forgot about it too. All her symptons are the same when Maggie was sick and possibly still is

aww, Do you know what is wrong with Maggie?

 

[maggie101]

Her radiograph showed possible pancreatitis or ibd. Xray if I remember right confirmed that she has struitive crystals. Also had ultrasound. Months later Diarrhea with mucus but I think she's better. I took her back because she was not feeling well. It is possible your cat is sometimes in pain from inflammation and doesn't happen all the time

 

[louisstools]

Her radiograph showed possible pancreatitis or ibd. Xray if I remember right confirmed that she has struitive crystals. Also had ultrasound. Months later Diarrhea with mucus but I think she's better. I took her back because she was not feeling well. It is possible your cat is sometimes in pain from inflammation and doesn't happen all the time

I hope Maggie recovers for you.

Yeah I'm going to see how Missy eats this week and maybe check in with the vet early next week on what she recommends. Let her have some time eating what she feels like without me pushing her and see how her weight changes. She's been very playful past few days. Though she's conked out on the couch after dinner and a play.....

 

[louisstools]

Bit of a mid-week update for those following along...

I did adjust the dinner time to be later, it's now back to the original pre-brother-cancer time. She's been showing signs of hunger at that time whereas the earlier time she wasn't...even though we got to that earlier time b/c of her begging for food. Cat's gonna cat.

I've just been letting her eat what she wants and that's been about half the amount of wet food she was eating a month or two months ago and double the kibble, so roughly the same calories. Mon-Wed she was eating about 1.5oz of wet and 1.3oz kibble in total a day (~185 kcal). Output has been the same.

Since she's been eating less wet food, never the full amount offered, and has never gone back to it for seconds after she "eats and walks away with food remaining", today I just didn't give it to her at breakfast. She didn't seem to miss it and frankly it's not a lot of calories she is missing so I'm not really worried (yet). Again the vet is totally ok for her to just eat the prescription kibble diet and if it was up to me I'd prefer that b/c it's just easier and less stressful.

I may or may not give her wet food at dinner, depends on if she's missing it or not. I have noticed that she eats a lot better/more in the AM at breakfast than at the evening.. For breakfast in about two hours she'll eat 0.6oz kibble in a grazing fashion but in the evening it takes her usually four hours to eat that much kibble.

Seems to be doing ok and I'll maybe do another update or two if there's a reason. The only thing that's mildly concerning is the sheer amount of calories she is consuming compared to what the net says and what the vet said but considering she was MAINTAINING or GAINING weight on ~180kcal I'm not going to worry about it.

 

[louisstools]

I thought I'd do an update on this mega thread since it's been awhile.

Right around my last post, I just stopped offering my girl wet food. I was curious if she would miss it and as far as I can tell she hasn't. Just pretty much a cold turkey diet switch and she's been fine with it. Go figure right? I also stopped giving her the lactulose (vet's recommendation) and the catlax laxatone.

She's been averaging around 1.6 to 1.8oz of kibble a day which is around 172-195kcal a day. She's lost a bit of weight, from 12.42lb to 12.16, but has remained steady over the past ~10 days as her eating continues to improve. Pre-cancer craziness her weight ranged from 11 to 11.8lbs so she's a bit on the heavy side.

UTI wise she is back go going potty on a schedule. Constipation-wise she is back to being her old regular self. Since her brother died her outputs haven't been this reliable which is a big relief. Behavior wise she's back to her old self as far as I can tell. If I'm moving around and she's hungry she'll meow at me to go stand next to her while she eats. I would say we're about 80% back to how life was before the cancer craziness which has taken a lot of the stress off of me.

Now my focus is turned to her affection eating or me being near her or involved while she eats.

Pre-cancer she was free graze and I didn't really pay attention to how much she ate other than some days she ate a bit more and some days less. It's been so long, 9 months now, it's hard to remember how much she ate b/c I really didn't pay attention...but I'd say her current situation is about the same as before. She's having 10-15 feeding trips a day. Usually around breakfast she'll do 3-4 in the first 90 minutes and same thing around dinner with a few trips here and there spread out. Most of the trips she eats 0.1oz but sometimes its more and for all of them I stand next to her and pet her and shake the bowl.

I would like to get away from that if I can. Any recommendations on how to do this? Since December I've basically sat with her for every meal. She will eat on her own as I've seen evidence of her eating while I sleep or when I'm away from the house. Just the other day she went to her bowl on her own after one of her breakfast attempts. Before the cancer craziness she seemed to like it when I stood near her while she ate and she's always loved the bowl shake to get the kibble back in the middle

My only concern is her not eating enough calories but that's probably not much of a problem.

As always I appreciate what you have to say.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I guess I would have to ask why are you standing by her every time? Is it because she meows for you to do so, or because you are now in the habit of doing so? Is it because you think she needs to have to food shaken back into the middle of the bowl (I know this one, I have a cat that does that with her food)?

What would happen if you had multiple smaller bowls lined up together that would enable her to move from bowl to bowl? What would happen if you petted her for a second and then left? Kind of a whole lot of different experiments you could try to see what may or may not make a difference.

 

[louisstools]

I guess I would have to ask why are you standing by her every time? Is it because she meows for you to do so, or because you are now in the habit of doing so? Is it because you think she needs to have to food shaken back into the middle of the bowl (I know this one, I have a cat that does that with her food)?

What would happen if you had multiple smaller bowls lined up together that would enable her to move from bowl to bowl? What would happen if you petted her for a second and then left? Kind of a whole lot of different experiments you could try to see what may or may not make a difference.

Great questions. I suppose I'm there standing next to her out of habit that formed when trying to do one of the many diet transitions. But she will meow at me to go stand next to her too...she'll wake up on the couch during tv time and meow at me to go with her. She's always enjoyed the bowl shaker but frankly she eats so little each trip it's probably not worth it for me to be there just to shake it.

Good thinking about experiments. I had started not petting her while I stand next to her and no difference in her eating, so success.

Hmm, maybe I'll start with getting her eating and then walking a few feet away...still in the room but not next to her. Then just keep adding a bit of distance and not be in the room.

Is this the sort of change that can be rough on a cat?

 

[FeebysOwner]

Is this the sort of change that can be rough on a cat?

She has already had it somewhat rough and is coming back from you have said. Just take each 'experiment' slow and play it by ear. It won't happen in an instant, but she has already shown progress, albeit slower than you would like.

Is there any chance to give her another little bowl of food nearby where you watch TV? Just to see what happens? It's all about the 'experiments'.

 

[louisstools]

She has already had it somewhat rough and is coming back from you have said. Just take each 'experiment' slow and play it by ear. It won't happen in an instant, but she has already shown progress, albeit slower than you would like.

Is there any chance to give her another little bowl of food nearby where you watch TV? Just to see what happens? It's all about the 'experiments'.

It's haven't tried that but I did try moving her food bowl the other day for some reason and she didn't have it. She seemingly wants her kibble in the original spot. But whenever she was getting wet foods she wanted the bowl all over. Go figure.

You're certainly right about going as slow as she needs. It's been a hell of a year for the both of us. In sleeping better and less stressed since she went back on kibble.