Older Cat Having Issues...

[pinkdaisy226]

It’s been a while since I’ve posted in here... I started posting when I first got my kitten Baylee 14 years ago. She’s still with me but we’re having issues and I was hoping for advice - I have a vet appointment tomorrow but was hoping to get an idea of what to tell them to look for?

Long story short, for a while she’s been throwing up clear bile in the mornings. Took her to the vet in August, got told all her tests results looked great (they seemed surprised cuz of her age... they expected liver or kidney issues) and suggested I try a different food. So I did. And it helped for a few weeks.

Last week she started throwing again, but this time she was throwing up her dry food. And then she stopped eating the dry food. I tried to give her some of the old food, she ate it like she was starving... then threw it up too. And now she’s refusing that too.

The only thing she’ll eat is the cheap Fancy Feast wet food and only tuna flavor. I tried chicken, she turns her nose at it. She’s happily eating it (runs to get it when I open a can) and uses the litter box fine, cuddles, plays... but obviously this isn’t a good solution. Like I said, I have a vet appointment for her tomorrow but since her tests results a month ago came back fine, I’m wondering what could even be going on or what they’ll want to test for... unfortunately money is tight so tons of tests won’t be an option. Sigh. Thoughts?

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
You could use your post to help outline things and give a timeline. I don't know, sometimes I hesitate to say anything specific because I don't want to influence their thinking.

Her eating fancy feast tuna isn't a horrible thing. Have you tried Purina Muse or Purina One True Instinct? Almo Complete?
You could also try more frequent small meals.
Hang in there!!

 

[daftcat75]

How do her teeth and gums look? If she'll let you peek. Does her breath smell strongly? If she won't let you peek. She may be getting too old for kibble. Either to chew it or digest it. Senior cats' digestive enzymes don't work as well. If kibble makes her vomit, stop feeding her kibble. If the FF doesn't make her vomit or give her diarrhea, let her have that. You can stage in better food once she gets a clean bill of health. But it's more important to stop the vomiting first before it becomes a chronic cycle that fuels itself. If you can control the vomiting through diet and there's no diarrhea, then you can probably just do blood tests for tomorrow and skip the very expensive imaging tests (X-rays and ultrasound.)

Also definitely a +1 here for smaller more frequent meals. If your senior cat's digestion is slowing down, then she may not be able to do two big meals a day anymore. You could try three or four depending on your schedule. My IBD kitty takes five. Two breakfasts, two dinners, and a lunch. All about 4 hours in between. Though she'll tell me if she wants more or less time between.

 

[AtJack23]

My senior kitty sounds a lot like yours. Vomiting and not eating the food he’s had for the last 11 years. It was so strange. He was healthy otherwise. Turned out to be inflammatory bowel disease. He was put on prednisolone and I switched his food to all wet, no dry Instinct brand. The last thing that helped eating was getting teeth extracted. Turned out he had feline tooth resorption. If I were you I would look into the possibility of IBD and tooth issues. I don’t think there’s a (nonexpensive) test for IBD. Jacks diagnosis was based purely on his symptoms which had been going on for months. Tooth surgery is much more expensive but it was worth every penny bc he’s eating soooo much better now. (Disclaimer, I’m not a vet)

 

[daftcat75]

IBD is a terrible condition to diagnose. It's basically a diagnosis of exclusion. When you've spent thousands of dollars on all the tests that don't rule in other conditions*, what you might be left with is IBD. Or small cell lymphoma. Or undiagnosed pancreatitis because that's a whole other blood test two of the three vets my Krista saw never ordered or suggested. Grr!

Which is why I suggest you don't even let it get that far. If you have her stable on FF, stop right there. Have the vet take her blood and urine and check out her teeth.

*and even if the diagnositic tests rule in other conditions, they still don't rule out IBD. Or small cell lymphoma. Small cell lymphoma is the progression of IBD if the inflammation isn't brought under control. The only way to tell the difference is a biopsy by endoscope or exploratory surgery.