17-year old cat refusing normal foods

[SleeplessMommy]

Our neutered male cat is (almost) 17 years old. For most of his life he has been very easy care, we had a dish of dry cat food for him in the basement, and refilled it every few days. About once a year, he got a can of cat food. In his younger days he was indoor/outdoor, for the past 5 years he has been just indoors, except for occasional supervised eating of grass on the front lawn.

His weight was stable at 14.5# for most of his adult life. (He is a BIG cat!) These days he has some arthritis and over the summer he lost weight drastically - when we took him to the vet about a month ago, he was down to 10.5# and felt underweight to the vet.

The blood test results were normal except for very slight anemia - ruling out diabetes, kidney failure and thyroid problems. The vet left open the possibility of cancer or a blood infection. (temperature was normal, teeth are good, no masses felt, etc.) Her only suggestion, really, was to slowly switch to kitten food, to allow him to get more calories in what he eats. (We would not pursue treatment for cancer, our goal right now is to keep him comfortable and not make him undergo stressful car rides/vet visits.)

I have moved his food upstairs where we can monitor closely. He is very interested in food, just not in his former diet. I got him kitten food - he ate the first serving with enthusiasm, but the next day would only pick at it. We are now giving him "cat milk" twice a day (he loves it) and a small sized can of cat food (he eats this happily) once a day. The weight loss has stabilized, he may even have put on a tiny bit of weight.

My questions:
Any way to make him more comfortable? Anything else we should have him tested for? Any ideas on what he might eat other than canned cat food? (as vegetarians, we would prefer not to open a cat food can more than once a day. And storing half of a large can in the fridge is not an option. ) Any tricks to make the dry cat food more palatable?

[maggiemae]

I think it may just be too hard to eat dry food for an older cat sometimes. Maybe it hurts his mouth? I don't have much advice other than that. My cat is 14 and we switched to wet food too.

[Nicole915]

First off, I'd recommend you call and update your vet. She'll want to chart it just for progression.

Second, there are a couple different ways to make the food more appealing. Many people have good luck warming up the food. As cats age, they can lose some of their sense of smell, which is closely tied to appetite. If you can make the food more stinky, it may increase the amount eaten. You can also try novel dishes and places to feed. Weird, but it sometimes works. Foods such as canned pumpkin, canned tuna and shredded chicken can also be a hit with the senior cat crowd.

Last, there are some decent appetite stimulants out there, if that is a route you're willing to take. Its hard to determine if that is always in the cat's best interest, and you'll be the best judge of that.

It sounds like you have a decent data base to go from as far as testing goes. You can go with a blood culture, if the vet was concerned about infection. Sometimes we'll discover cancer mets via an xray. I think the best question is to ask yourself if figuring out whats going on is purely academic or if you'll treat the cause depending on how invasive. This is a discussion that is probably best to have with your vet, as she'll be more well informed about him as a patient than anyone online could be.

Kudos to you for getting your cat great care, and for tending to him well enough that he's 17 and only just now developing issues. I wish all my patients were as lucky!

(I'm not your vet, and this isn't medical advice)

[MissMommyNiceNice]

C, instead of yucky cans of half eaten food in the fridge, you should try the packet style. We give them to our cats on occaision, and as they get older, I'm sure they'll be switching over full time. The bags are a single serving, and you can even mix them with some dry food. We usually get the generic kind at Giant (champion) and they're 25 cents or less a pouch.

Or, another suggestion, and maybe cheaper, is to get a big jar of grosso gravy (sorry to anyone that loves jarred gravy) and pour that over the dry food? It would be easily sealed in your fridge. Full of lots of good greasy fat, too.

[SleeplessMommy]

Thank you for all the suggestions! It would be nice if the problem is as simple as decreased sense of smell. I got the sealed food packets today I will nuke things if I have to.

And one other thing I forgot (but did mention to the vet!) is he has a little bit of a snoring sound in his breathing. I think it may be hard for him to smell/eat due to partial nasal blockage. The vet listened to the problem, but did not have any suggested fix for it.

It may be time for me to get a digital scale at home, so I can weigh him (car rides are not appreciated!)

[Noelle C.]

We lost our ol' boy this pasy July, just shy of turning 24. In the last couple years, he spent more time wanting dry food, or dry with canned gravy, as well as canned food. He thinned out a bit, but you know, same thing tends to happen with older humans too. He mostly ate Friskies (and the idiots who claim we shortened his life by feeding him this stuff can shut up, seriously, he was almost 24, and if that is a shortened life...).

About all you can do is to montor what he eats and make adjustments as necessary, daily if need be. Yoda too more work than the rest of our menagerie combined (we wouldn't even visit family 350 miles away without taking him with us - friends can care for the rest of our zoo when we're gone, but he needed more care), but he was worth it. The extra work for him and the love was all worth it.

Just take your cues from your baby. Don't expect to find one diet he'll gladly eat daily. You'll be lucky if you find one, but don't count on it. Once you're used to the fluctuations and alterations, it becomes part of your routine and easy to handle.