Senior cat needs help :(

[furmonster mom]

Considering how long cats can live, I have a hard time calling a 10 year old cat "senior", even though that is considered the standard in the veterinary field.  We have three 13 year old cats, and they don't act like "seniors" at all, lol.  To my mind, 15 years is a better marker for a senior cat.

The only real caution I can think of for switching a senior cat to raw is if they have kidney issues.  And even then, the diet can be modified to lower the phosphorus level. 

Our oldest cat was 12 when we switched everyone to a raw diet, and we ended up modifying her diet for CKD just last year when she turned 17.   She'll be 18 in March, and she's still going strong despite the arthritis and lack of teeth (due to FORLs over the years). 

 

[AbbysMom]

Like others, I am also wondering if she allergic to something in the food and it might be worth it to try a few limited ingredient foods on her.

 

[queenof3]

Hello all. Thank you so much for your input, I really appreciated the time you guys took to offer advice. My two 11 month old kittens love the instinct raw chicken bites-I get them from Petco, but baby doesn't. I don't think she's open to raw food, but I've thought about it a lot. Everyone that I've talked to swears by it. One person told me that his cat was near death- he had exhausted all resources in trying to get her help (she vomited a lot). The vets could not figure out the problem and his wife was getting frustrated with all the money that was going towards the vet bills. The next option for them was to put her to sleep. He switched her to raw food as a last-ditch effort and that solved the problem!

My vet told me she doesn't recommend raw food but I don't think it should be a problem if you get it from a reputable place? What do you guys think? I'm thinking of switching the little ones since they like raw food.

I've put baby on Purine EN food, it's for cats with a sensitive digestive tract. She's been on it for the last three weeks. At first, she kept up with the vomiting but about a week later, the vomiting stopped. She's been good so far and she seems to like it, which makes me happy. I'm hoping she gains some of the weight back and I think in time she will.

I agree about the 'senior' cat definition. Baby is going to be 11 y/o in June. I rescued her from a pedestrian trash can as a kitten just a few days old. No one thought she would make it but she's still here Not only that, she has never had any health issues. The most we had to deal with was a UTI some years ago, and diarrhea and vomiting last year, which was my fault because I was wiping her with wipes I bought from Petco. The package said they were safe and that I could wipe her from head to tail, so I did and she ended up at the vets. other than that, she has excellent health.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Just quickly, if Baby is doing well on the new food, I wouldn't change it.  Especially if you already know she isn't keen on raw, and you certainly don't want her to lose any more weight during the transition, OR risk starting up the vomiting again. 

Yes, raw is safe if you get it from a reputable manufacturer.  At least MOST of the time.  There have been recalls for raw food just like there have been for kibble and canned food, but they are rare.  And if you're talking about making your own, just be sure you know it's nutritionally complete by doing your homework. 

 

[queenof3]

@mrsgreenjeens, thank you for the advice. No, I'm going to continue baby on the EN food.

It's so scary, the whole recall stuff when food is contaminated, kibbles/canned. Is there a way to avoid that at all? I feel bad for all the animals that have to suffer because of bad food

I feed the kittens tiki, and recently I opened a can and found some black specks all throughout the chicken. I opened two more cans and it was the same. It could be something that's part of the food but I've never seen them before, and I don't want to take a chance and feed them this food. I contacted tiki and they said they will look into it, and in the meantime they want me to donate the remainder of the food to a local shelter. I'm not going to do that because I don't know if the food is safe or not. Why should I risk the lives of other animals? I'm going to hold on to it until they let me know what's going on.

 

[seaturtle]

I feed mine a specialty (a bit pricey, but not really, about 30 - 40 cents a day) food I get shipped in.  I really think it's worth a try. It is high-quality protein, no preservatives, additives. Mycats got sick and vomited a lot on all the commercial foods. This food, no problems at all, and you can free feed it, it will also help regulate their weight (no, I don't work for them!).

It's called Young Again cat food, and there is a site on the web. You can also call them and they're most helpful and stand by their product. Truly worth a try, given my excellent experience with this food.

 

[queenof3]

Hi, all. I wanted to update this thread because I know there are many other cats out there who vomit and their lovely parents are trying to find ways to help.

Good news: Baby is no longer a vomiter!!
Bad news: She eats dry food.

After trying so many different foods which did not help Baby with the vomiting issue, I gave in to her. I know that she loves dry food and although she'll eat the wet food when hungry, she prefers to eat dry food. She had lost a lot of weight and I could feel her spine when I'd pet her. I was scared of losing her, and i just wanted her to be happy for whatever time we are meant to be together.

I went to my local Petco and they happened to have instinct dry food with raw boost. I think it's a decent food and my two youngest cats, Iggy and Inky, eat the instinct wet food and the raw food. I checked the ingredients of the dry food, and somewhere the label said it had limited ingredients so I bought a bag. I came home and omg Baby was ready to tear down the bag. I let her have some and it was like love at first sight! She absolutely LOVES this food.

I have switched her to the Instinct Ultimate Protein. This bag does not have the raw boost, and it says there is absolutely no rendered meats, chicken meal, or by-product meal. It's also grain and gluten free. Baby seems to be doing excellent on this food.

She has re-gained all the weight she had lost. I'm not happy that she's a fatty again but she's a big cat and I think this is the weight she's meant to be. She's about 14 pounds and her weight is not increasing. My mom feeds her a set amount of food each day. The vomiting has completely stopped. There is no more vomiting. So there. Problem solved.

I wish everyone good luck in finding the answers they're looking for. This is a heart-breaking ordeal to go through and it can get very frustrating. All of Baby's blood work and other tests were always normal and the vet didn't know what to do next. She told me to try different foods and pick out a food through trial and error. Since Baby didn't have any health issues, I thought that was a good place to start and it worked!

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

So glad you've found something that works for Baby

Hooray for no puke piles

 

[queenof3]

Lol hahahahahhaa

It's a relief! She has not vomited in a long time, thankfully!!