Morton only eats when I'm sleeping?

Ladyrosee

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Hey! Me with my Morton questions again.. quick recap here for those who don't know. Morton is two years old and has an autoimmune disease called ITP. He is being treated with traditional chinese medicine and holding low but steady numbers and behavior has been great since getting off the immunosuppressive drugs that made him so sick! The problem is he has always been picky and hard to get to eat.. he is chonky right now at 10.3 lbs.. probably needs to lose a pound but it's okay. He only eats when I'm asleep! He will wake me up purring and being adorable usually around 1am and another time before 9am and he will eat about 1/8 cup of high calorie food plus a little. He gets a tiki broth pouch or fancy feast broth pouch, two inaba churus, and a plate of freeze dried meats but he usually won't eat actual cat food unless I'm asleep and he wakes me up to put his bowl down. I'm always concerned but he is gaining and not losing. It just seems like so little food to me.. is this okay? I worry all the time! The vet thinks it's weird but he is weird to everyone.

Since he got back from the icu after his 2 week stay in august where he was diabetic and in dka and on deaths door when he recovered he only wanted to eat upstairs at night by my bed.. and wont eat his cat food anywhere else! I don't mind it at all him waking me up to be adorable a few times a night but its just so weird. As I submit this he hasnt touched his food bowl in 19 hours
 

rubysmama

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Oh, poor Morton, being so young, with so many health issues. :(

I have heard of cats that won't eat unless their human is with them, but not the opposite like Morton. So is is waking you to feed him? Do you have to watch him eat? Or do you have to go back to bed before he eats?
 
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Ladyrosee

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Oh, poor Morton, being so young, with so many health issues. :(

I have heard of cats that won't eat unless their human is with them, but not the opposite like Morton. So is is waking you to feed him? Do you have to watch him eat? Or do you have to go back to bed before he eats?
Yeah he usually wakes me up once or twice so I can put his bowl down and he will eat if I pet him. He is on zeniquin right now for a uti I had no idea he had one he wasnt dribbling urine or anything but he had a fever and was pretty sick :( hes on zeniquin and I think that's making his appetite worse.. I give him ondansetron and cypro on and off I just gave him some just now because its 6am and he still doesnt want food
 

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Cats are weird little critters with their habits. I had a cat that wouldn't eat if there was food down if he was upstairs and didn't hear/see the can opening. You could show him the full bowl, didn't make a difference. You had to simulate putting food in the bowl. My point being, there doesn't have to be a real reason for this habit. Maybe it just is. (If I was to speculate, maybe at some point when you fed in the past, you tended to continue to bustle around the kitchen, and he started waiting for you to get well and good out of the way.)
 
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Ladyrosee

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Cats are weird little critters with their habits. I had a cat that wouldn't eat if there was food down if he was upstairs and didn't hear/see the can opening. You could show him the full bowl, didn't make a difference. You had to simulate putting food in the bowl. My point being, there doesn't have to be a real reason for this habit. Maybe it just is. (If I was to speculate, maybe at some point when you fed in the past, you tended to continue to bustle around the kitchen, and he started waiting for you to get well and good out of the way.)
He ate a big meal just now. 30 mins after an anti nausea.. it's so hard to tell if it was a coincidence or not but man this cat is going to give me grey hair very soon or a heart attack lol. Morton used to be like that last year actually.. he wanted to see me pour the food in. And he would only eat it if it were on the side of his bowl and not spread out in it. But the last 4 months it usually has to be right by my bed. He will stand up and start to walk away and I'll pet him and he will crouch back down and eat.
 
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Ladyrosee

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I'm sure the medication, and not feeling well, is affecting his appetite. And maybe having you near him when he eats is a comfort.

Here's a couple more TCS articles that might be helpful:

How To Get Your Cat To Start Eating Again – Cat Articles
18 Awesome Cat Feeding Tips By Thecatsite Staff Members | TheCatSite
That's a good link thank you. Interesting stuff on there. He ate at 630am a big bowl and another small bowl a half hr later. It's been 12 hours. He had a fancy feast broth 20 calories and a 6 calorie churu. He seems to be acting just fine but it just seems too weird. I have a fat cat who eats 4 small meals a day and he lets me know the minute I'm late
 
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Ladyrosee

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So Morton got blood work on Tuesday this week and vet said all looks great even no issues with his ITP his platelets are normal this check :D so maybe it is the zeniquin. He LOVES the young again zero food but I think it initially upset his tummy so I stopped giving it to him but maybe he needs to get used to it. He had a tablespoon and that's almost 40 calories! D:
 

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Good news about the blood work results. Here's hoping he starts to feel better, and eat better soon. He's a real cutie pie, btw. :bicolorcat:
 

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Go more by his weight then what he actually eats. He is eating enough for him if his weight is the same. My cats have leukemia, so I know how terrifying these illnesses are. When their white blood cell count is too low, they get lethargic too and can get very sick with respiratory issues. They are strictly indoors now to reduce the exposure to viruses etc. I keep those lickable treats in the pouch around, in the stew variety. Yammy lived on those for two weeks the last time he was sick, it was the ONLY thing he would eat. He was eating only a small pouch a day, and sometimes less, and he has done this twice now. He lost a horrible amount of weight but has since gained it all back and then some. I don't worry about them being a little chunky now, I know they may need the extra in the future. I give their meds in them every day too, they have never refused them in that treat. Every month or so, just as all creatures do, the bone marrow produces new platelets, white/red blood cells, etc. The trick is to keep them fed and comfortable until they do during a crisis!
 
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Ladyrosee

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How are you-all doing?
Just saw this. Illnesses aside he has really been fine. He was good since january actually after his uti up until march 28 so just a few days ago he stopped eating and had a bit of diarrhea. he is up and about currently at 5am I can't sleep since hes been sick but he has his meows back this morning and is wandering around rubbing on things talking to me like he would any normal day. Added in a new herb his vet wanted. Also gave him lots of bone broth syringed... he actually loves the syringe just not with cold fluids. I warm the bone broth and he takes the syringe like a bottle. It's so pathetic but so cute. Hes just a baby at 2 years old always will be. I'm really hoping he can get over this little bump the vets think is chronic pancreatitis. so hes on a new herb and also beef organs in a pill form I give him human grade half a capsule a day. 2 probiotics. And now bone broth daily. I swear the bone broth perks him up. He has lost half a lb or more since January though we moved into our new home march 1 and its about 3x the size of our old town home so he is still getting used to that. I think the move made him lose some weight. 10lbs is perfect
 
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Ladyrosee

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Go more by his weight then what he actually eats. He is eating enough for him if his weight is the same. My cats have leukemia, so I know how terrifying these illnesses are. When their white blood cell count is too low, they get lethargic too and can get very sick with respiratory issues. They are strictly indoors now to reduce the exposure to viruses etc. I keep those lickable treats in the pouch around, in the stew variety. Yammy lived on those for two weeks the last time he was sick, it was the ONLY thing he would eat. He was eating only a small pouch a day, and sometimes less, and he has done this twice now. He lost a horrible amount of weight but has since gained it all back and then some. I don't worry about them being a little chunky now, I know they may need the extra in the future. I give their meds in them every day too, they have never refused them in that treat. Every month or so, just as all creatures do, the bone marrow produces new platelets, white/red blood cells, etc. The trick is to keep them fed and comfortable until they do during a crisis!
So sorry for your babies.. do the vets ever prescribe mirtazipine or cyproheptadine for appetite? Cypro works for Morton it seems. Morton loves those inaba churu and tiki broths but only the fish kind. I'd love for him to be chunky. Hes 2 but he has the body of a senior just bony and no muscle tone really
 

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Hi! Thank you so much for the update!

For his body condition, can you get him to exercise a bit more? Even just following you a few feet at first, then farther around the house with his food dish in your hand, or if you have stairs placing his food on one step up, then after a bit two steps up...
 
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Ladyrosee

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Hi! Thank you so much for the update!

For his body condition, can you get him to exercise a bit more? Even just following you a few feet at first, then farther around the house with his food dish in your hand, or if you have stairs placing his food on one step up, then after a bit two steps up...
Well he does walk around. We have a huge house and he is up and down the stairs several times a day. We also have several cat trees he likes to sit on in the window. But ever since he was a baby he would rather climb than jump. We have a 35 feet tall really thick cat scratch post and there is a little platform on top and he literally climbs up it like a spider with no running jump or anything. But he can jump.. he hops high in the air sometimes to play and will jump on my bed and couch but he wants on counters but cant seem to do it. Even a toilet seat lid he climbs me to get to it
 
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Ladyrosee

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See now hes being Morton again. We got a new roof yesterday so he was freaking the hell out all morning and afternoon and barely ate. Didnt eat over night last night. roofers finished a couple hours ago and Morton came into my room just now and meowed so I thought he was hungry and he smelled it and heard a noise and walked away and hasnt been back to his bowl. He cant live on appetite stimulants but it seems like he has to. also since he got sick recently he spits his favorite food out and has refused to eat that kind for two days now. I give him two different types but one is richer and he gets stomach problems but he eats around the food he grew up on and if he gets a piece in his mouth he spits it out. Hes driving me insane
 
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Ladyrosee

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See now he had yellow diarrhea this morning. I've noticed young again cat food makes his poop yellow a lot but its all he wants to snack on but I think its making his diarrhea worse so that's probaby why he hasn't eaten much
 
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Ladyrosee

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How are things today?
He had a normal colored poop at like 2am and it looked okay other than being a bit runny near the end so I gave him more rx Clay. He ate a bowl of his normal food at 7am though! His TCM vet said nausea can linger and to treat him for it for a few more days
 
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